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• • June 23, 2016 at 12:02 pm #86027
    Jim Burgoyne

    Member

    This is a very general question. Just wondering how I should proceed.

    I’m an Adobe CC member. Using mostly InDesign and Illustrator I have produced five cruising guides in PDF format, about 350 pages in total with about 600 maps and destinations. Here is a small sample: https://bit.ly/28JeJHV

    The guides work and display reasonably well on ipads and other tablets. We don’t get complaints from tablet users.

    My problem is that many people want to use them on phones, and other small devices. PDF is not the best format.

    This is what I think I would like to do…

    Rebuild them into documents that work somewhat like webpages, responsively and with a TOC menu that pops up over other content, rather than to the side. I imagine the menu would be similar to what you get from clicking on a hamburger icon on a phone.

    Each page would include a single destination (many of the pages in our PDF guides include two) and the length/size of each page would be flexible, and change as I add or subtract information from the destinations.

    For a menu, I have looked into multi-state objects, but each of the new guides would be close to 150 pages so I would want the menu with dropdowns to that many page links. I have my doubts I could build such a menu with multi-state objects, but I am not an expert.

    Not sure I can build what I want with InDesign or in the epub format.

    What would you do? Would you wait for Adobe XD (in my case, a little longer since I use Windows)?

    Any suggestions much appreciated.

  • June 23, 2016 at 3:56 pm #86034
    Ari Singer

    Member

    I don’t have the answer that you need, but I do have to comments to make.

    First, I’m not sure using multi-state objects is a good idea, due to support issues. You don’t know in what PDF reader your user will view the PDF, especially on mobile phones, and some PDF readers can strip out the all bells and whistles from the PDF rendering your ‘menu’ useless.

    Secondly, I don’t think Adobe XD is a solution to this. As far as I know, XD is nothing more than an app wireframing tool.

    It seems like what you need is a webpage optimized for mobile, or a mobile app (that might not get accepted in the Apple App Store because to the people at Apple this might not be considered an ‘app’).

  • June 27, 2016 at 8:34 am #86084
    Jim Burgoyne

    Member

    I was thinking that I would move away from PDF. Though it’s a good point since even if it was an EPUB I am sure there are differences between epub readers, especially between by iOS or Android.

    I did think that XD was a step beyond wireframing, a future inDesign for apps, though that was likely wishful thinking on my part.

    Have considered building a web app. Gotten completely lost in the fine print at the Apple stores trying to nail down what they consider a book and what they define as an app.

    Thanks for you input.

  • June 27, 2016 at 10:57 am #86088
    Ari Singer

    Member

    An EPUB might be the best solution. As with an EPUB you will probably get the most unified functionality (more than a PDF, for sure).

  • June 27, 2016 at 6:32 pm #86097
    Sam Sharpe

    Member

    Hi Jim,

    I’m not going to be much help because what you want to do is what I’ve expected Adobe to incorporate into the software since the launch of iOS in 2007/2008. Why it can’t be done in a PDF (Portable Document format) makes absolutely no sense at all. In my opinion PDF’s targetting screen based devices should be easily achievable from InDesign.

    The current technology is stagnated and has been for years.

    Epub is far from the ideal that PDF can and should be.

    I know this doesn’t help sorry.

    Best wishes,
    Sam

  • June 27, 2016 at 8:23 pm #86114
    Jim Burgoyne

    Member

    Hi Sam,

    No apologies necessary. Nice to hear that I might not be crazy.

    As long as the major ebook retailers refuse to accept PDF documents — which all leads back to Mr Jobs anger about Adobe’s short-sighted arrogance over software updates… which has nothing to do with the format’s worth — PDF lies in a morgue.

    • June 27, 2016 at 10:10 pm #86119
      Sam Sharpe

      Member

      Hi Jim,

      If you are targetting ebooks then most likely epub is a good solution as I’d guess it has a suitable DRM implementation for marketing to consumers, someone from the site would be able to advise on this better than myself. I’m no expert on that particular format as the field in which I work has different concerns.

      Delivering high quality design documentation in print and digital format to clients and business collaborators in a business to business market where DRM is not very important but NDA and confidential contractual obligations are (they’re somewhat two sides of the same coin however) is a major factor.

      Signed PDF’s achieved this for many years, interactive PDF’s should do too, or at least they used to. Adobe XD I understand much like you is only for use as a wireframing tool and not intended for actual production, perhaps an Adobe affiliate could enlighten users on if it will eventually be suitable for production and delivery? In addition I’m sure many users would also appreciate a roadmap with suitable assurance from Adobe that this could be a viable solution for businesses in line with internal organisation strategy.

      I hope PDF as a format is just in a medically induced coma rather than end of life, as without a suitable replacement economic productivity is suffering. Above all we could all be doing really great stuff that will sell Adobe more software in turn.

      cheers,
      Sam

  • June 28, 2016 at 12:28 pm #86135
    Jim Burgoyne

    Member

    Hi Sam,

    I think you are probably right about epub, though I don’t think I can build a suitable menu with multistate objects. I might be better off staying with what I have until an alternative appears. It may already be out there, but I’m not aware of it. Cheers.

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