Chapter 7. Creating an Interactive digital Media Publication

In your final project, you’ll learn to create an engaging and interactive digital media publication that you can publish in EPUB and other digital media formats (Figure 7.1). You’ll add animations that move along motion paths on your pages, create an interactive slideshow of images, learn to embed audio and video into your documents, and even add an interactive Google Map. To conclude, you’ll investigate exporting and publishing your publication to a number of interactive formats, such as a fixed-layout eBook and an online document.

ACA Objective 2.1

ACA Objective 2.4

ACA Objective 4.1

Print

Web

Digital Publishing

As soon as you start to design for digital media, you will work in either Web or Digital Publishing intent. What main settings will differ in your document when compared to Print intent?

The default color mode for the document is RGB. Swatch colors will default to RGB colors as does the transparency blend space.

Units of measurement change to pixels.

As you select either Web or Digital Publishing intent, the Page Size menu in the New Document dialog box provides you with numerous screen and device presets (Figure 7.2).

ACA Objective 5.2

For quick access to all the interactive panels that work with interactive PDF, choose Window > Workspace > Interactive For PDF.

ACA Objective 5.2

Reflowable EPUBs are well suited for text-heavy publications, such as fiction and nonfiction novels. Reflowable means that the text and images flow to the width of the e-reader screen, a bit like web pages do when you make the browser window wider or narrower. When you increase the font size in the e-reader, the text automatically reflows as well. The layout from InDesign is not maintained and the text and images from your InDesign project appear in a linear format.

Fixed-layout EPUBs retain the layout you create in InDesign, and they support animations, media files (audio and video), embedded HTML, and a number of button actions, such as play (for videos) and navigation (for slideshows). Fixed-layout EPUBs work well for illustrated publications that rely on an engaging graphic design, such as comic books, children’s books, cookbooks, or photography books.

Hyperlinks, cross-references, tables of contents, and indexes all become clickable links in fixed-layout and reflowable EPUBs.

ACA Objective 5.2

The Publish Online feature is also available in a number of Export dialog boxes, such as when exporting to print, interactive PDF, or EPUB.

Publish Online supports many of InDesign’s interactive features found in the Digital Publishing workspace, such as animations, audio, video, slideshows with navigation buttons, interactive tables of contents, hyperlinks, cross-references, indexes, and more.

ACA Objective 5.2

Designs and layouts created for DPS 2015 can be submitted as reflowable HTML or as fixed-layout InDesign files, called articles in DPS 2015. Many of the

InDesign interactive features found in the Digital Publishing workspace (Window > Workspace) are supported in DPS 2015. Unsupported features are animations created with the Animation panel, page transitions, indexes, cross-references, and bookmarks. For a complete overview of supported interactivity features, refer to the online Digital Publishing Solution Help pages on the Adobe website.

ACA Objective 4.6

To apply a motion preset (Figure 7.3):

1. Choose View > Screen Mode > Normal to see the motion paths added to the page element.

2. Choose Window > Interactive > Animation to show the Animation panel.

3. Select a page element to animate.

4. Select a motion preset from the Preset menu.

5. Enter a descriptive Name for the animation, such as Circle 1. Once you have created multiple animations on a page and want to start controlling the timing for the animations, it will help if the animations are named appropriately.

6. Enter a value in the Duration field to control the length of time it will take for the animation to complete.

7. Enter the number of times the animation plays in the Play field. To play the animation continuously, select Loop.

8. From the Speed menu, select a speed option to control whether the animation runs at a constant speed, accelerates, or slows down.

From Preset: The selected motion preset settings are used.

None: The animation runs at a constant speed for the length of the animation.

Ease In: The animation accelerates slowly at the beginning.

Ease Out: The animation slows down towards the end.

Ease In And Out: The animation starts slowly and finishes by slowing down.

The motion preset with all of its default settings applies to the object. Repeat the process for each animation on the page, and preview the results with the EPUB Interactivity Preview, covered next.

Click the Preview Spread button at the bottom of the Animation panel.

Choose Window > Interactive > EPUB Interactivity Preview.

The EPUB Interactivity Preview panel appears, and the animation on the active page automatically plays.

The EPUB Interactivity Preview lets you preview a complete interactive InDesign document, test animations, test button controls, play movies, navigate slideshows, and more. You can drag the corners or sides of the EPUB Interactivity Preview panel to make the panel larger if needed.

To preview all of the pages in a document, click the Set Preview Document Mode button at the bottom of the EPUB Interactivity Preview panel, then click the Play Preview icon. Click the Go To Next Page and Go To Previous Page buttons to navigate to the different pages.

There is another technique you can use when working with interactive documents: Any design element can be converted to a button, and the action for the button set to navigate to a web address. Before you convert the object to a button, copy the web address.

To create a hyperlink button (Figure 7.5):

1. Using the Selection tool, select the object or group to serve as the button.

2. Choose Object > Interactive > Convert To Button. Or, in the Buttons And Forms panel, select Button from the Type menu.

3. Enter a Name for the button.

4. Leave the Event set to On Release Or Tap.

5. Select Go To URL from the Action menu (+).

6. Enter or paste the web address in the URL field.

ACA Objective 4.6

You can use the Timing panel (Window > Interactive) to change the order in which animations play, set multiple animations to play at the same time, and add a delay to an animation.

One reason for delaying an animation could be that you want to ensure that the full page is loaded and visible before any animations start playing. In that case, set a delay timing on the first animation in the Timing panel.

To change the timing for animations (Figure 7.6):

1. Choose Window > Interactive > Timing to show the Timing panel.

2. To change the order in which animations play, drag an animation up or down in the Timing panel and release when you see a thicker line at the insertion point.

3. Enter a Delay amount for a selected animation to prevent that animation from playing immediately.

You can also group animations so that they play at the same time.

To play several animations at the same time (Figure 7.7):

1. In the Timing panel, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the animations you want to group together.

2. Click the Play Together button at the bottom of the Timing panel.

ACA Objective 4.6

The motion path is an arrow that indicates the direction of the animation.

The dots along the path indicate the speed of the animation. Where dots are closer together, the speed is faster.

To see where an animation starts or finishes, click the Show Animation Proxy button at the bottom of the Animation panel (Figure 7.9). A gray preview shows you the start or end position.

You can use the Direct Selection tool to select the anchor points on a motion path and reposition them. To edit a motion path (Figure 7.10):

1. Choose View > Screen Mode > Normal.

2. Using the Direct Selection tool (), click the motion path.

3. Drag the anchor point at the end of the motion path to a new position.

With the motion paths edited, preview the result in the EPUB Interactivity Preview panel, and make further adjustments as desired.

ACA Objective 4.6

To add an animation to a custom motion path (Figure 7.11):

1. Shift-click the object to animate and the path you have drawn.

2. With both objects selected, click the Convert To Motion Path button at the bottom of the Animation panel.

To change any properties for an animation (Figure 7.12):

1. Select an animated page element.

2. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of Properties in the Animation panel to reveal the additional options. Select the preferred animation options:

Animate: With this setting, you control whether the animation properties you apply change the size, rotation angle, and position of the object that is being animated. To Current Appearance applies the animation properties so that the current appearance of the object is the end result. From Current Appearance applies the properties to the current appearance, and results in a different object appearance at the end of the animation.

Rotate: Objects can rotate as part of an animation. Use the reference point markers to control around which point of an object you want to rotate or scale an object.

Scale: You can change the size of an object during the animation. Values lower than 100% will reduce the size and values higher than 100% will make the object grow.

Opacity: You can gradually make an object appear (Fade In) or disappear (Fade Out).

Visibility: You can hide animated objects on the page until they are animated, and hide them again after animation.

ACA Objective 4.6

So far, the animations have started automatically on page load. Let’s look at a simple technique you can use to work with a button that starts the animation. Before you start, make sure you:

Have the animation applied to an object.

Added a design element on the page that will become the button.

To control an animation with a button (Figure 7.13):

1. Select the animated object on the page.

2. From the Event(s) menu in the Animation panel, deselect On Page Load so no events are active.

3. Click the Create Button Trigger icon in the Animation panel. The appearance of the pointer becomes a target.

4. Click the button design element on the page. The Buttons And Forms panel opens and you’ll see that InDesign has done all the hard work for you!

The design element is converted to a button, and an action is applied that will play the animation you selected in step 1. How cool is that? You can still enter a Name and Description for the button to complete the process.

ACA Objective 4.6

1. Choose File > Place and navigate to the location of the video file.

2. The pointer turns into a loaded video icon ().

3. Using the Pages panel or other navigation options, display the page where you want to add the video.

4. Drag to create a new frame. The video will automatically resize to fit in the frame.

5. Choose Object > Fitting > Fit Frame To Content to reduce the size of the media frame so that it is the same size as the video.

Additionally, clicking the Place A Video Or Audio File button at the bottom of the Media panel provides an alternate method for adding video or audio to your design (Figure 7.15).

To change the media settings for the video (Figure 7.16):

1. Using the Selection tool, click the media frame to select the video.

2. Choose Window > Interactive > Media to display the Media panel.

3. To preview the video, click the Play button below the video preview area.

4. To mute or unmute the audio, click the Audio button below the preview.

5. Select Play On Page Load to automatically start playing the video when you get to the page with the video on it. Select Loop to play the video continuously.

6. The Poster is the image that you see when the page is first loaded. You can select Choose Image from the Poster menu, and then select any image on your system as a poster image.

You can also capture a video frame from anywhere in the video and use that as the poster. To do this, move the play head in the Media panel to the spot in the video you want to capture, and then click the Click To Use Current Frame As Poster icon.

7. Select whether or not you want to add a controller to the video on the page. If you choose not to add a controller, and deselected Play On Page Load, you’ll need to add additional control buttons to the video page so that the reader is able to play and stop the video.

To add a play button for video (Figure 7.17):

1. Create and format objects to serve as the buttons.

2. Using the Selection tool, select the object or group that is the button design element on the page.

3. Select Video from the Action menu (+) in the Buttons And Forms panel. The selected object or group is automatically converted to a button.

4. From the Video menu, select the video on the page. If there is only one video on the page, the video is automatically selected.

5. From the Options menu, select Play to create a button that will start the video playback when clicked.

6. Enter a descriptive name for the button in the Name field.

To add a stop, pause, or resume button for the video, repeat steps 1 through 5; but for step 4, select Stop, Pause, or Resume from the Options menu, respectively.

ACA Objective 4.6

To place an audio file (Figure 7.18):

1. Choose File > Place and navigate to the location of the audio file. Select the file, and the pointer turns into a loaded audio icon ().

2. Click the page to place the audio file.

3. With the Selection tool, click the media frame to select it.

4. Choose Window > Interactive > Media to show the Media panel.

5. Select an option to specify when the audio starts to play. Play On Page Load automatically starts playing the audio file when the reader turns to the page with audio on it. Stop On Page Turn stops playing the audio when the reader moves to another page. Loop plays audio continuously.

6. Select a Poster option. None displays no poster image in the media frame that contains the audio. Standard displays a default audio icon you see in the media panel. Choose Image allows you to select a custom image as a poster image.

To convert video or sound files to a supported or recommended file format, such as H.264-encoded MP4 (video) or MP3 (audio), you can use the Adobe Media Encoder. The encoder is one of the applications you can install as part of Adobe Creative Cloud.

ACA Objective 4.6

Before you can create a multi-state object that becomes an image slideshow, you must first place a number of images on a page. Can you think of some ways in which you can create a stack of images that are all the same size on the page?

1. Create an empty placeholder frame on the page with the Rectangle Frame tool. Make it the exact size you want the slide to be.

2. Select the frame.

3. Choose Edit > Step And Repeat. This feature lets you quickly create a series of duplicate frames.

4. Enter the amount of additional frames to create in the Count field.

5. Enter amounts in the Vertical and Horizontal Offset fields, so that the frames you create are slightly offset. Click OK.

You can now place the images into the frames.

To align the images (Figure 7.20):

1. Using the Selection tool, select all the images. You can drag a marquee around them or Shift-click each.

2. Choose Window > Object & Layout > Align to show the Align panel.

3. In the Align panel, click the Align Top Edges icon.

4. Click the Align Left Edges icon.

The images are now placed in a perfect stack, and you are ready to turn this stack of images into a multistate object.

To create a multistate object (Figure 7.21):

1. With the Selection tool, drag a marquee around the images to select them.

2. Choose Window > Interactive > Object States.

3. Select New State from the Object States panel menu, or click the Convert Selection To Multi-State Object button at the bottom of the Object States panel.

4. Enter the Object Name for the slideshow.

The stack of images is combined into a single object. Within the Object States panel, you can click the individual states to see each image.

Adding an Object Name for a slideshow is helpful when you have different slide-shows on the same page, and want to add controller buttons to navigate through the slides. Also, if the digital media publication is designed for DPS 2015, the names of multi-state objects are used for analytical purposes. This gives the publisher an idea of the interactive objects that the readers interact with the most.

To edit the content of individual states, for example, to crop an image differently, do this after you have created the multistate object (Figure 7.22):

1. Select the multi-state object on the page.

2. In the Object States panel, click the state you want to edit. A small rectangle appears to the right of the state name to indicate that the state is selected.

3. With the Selection tool, click the Content Grabber to select the image and resize or reposition it as needed. The icon to the right of the state changes to indicate that an object in the state is selected (in this case, the frame’s content).

4. To select the multi-state object again, click the icon to the right of the Object Name.

To change the order in which images appear (Figure 7.23):

1. Select the multi-state object on the page.

2. In the Object States panel, select a state and drag it to its new position.

3. Release the mouse button when you see a thick line appear at the insertion point.

The Overlays panel (Window > Overlays) is part of the Digital Publishing Solution tools that install in InDesign. It is used to apply playback settings for slideshows, hyperlinks, video, and audio and any other interactive elements supported by DPS 2015.

For example, DPS 2015 provides an auto-play setting for slideshows, which makes the images appear one after another when the page is loaded in the app. It also lets you add a cross-fade as a transition between the images, fading out one image and at the same time fading in the next one.

To apply overlay settings (Figure 7.24):

1. Select the interactive object, for example, a multi-state object on the page.

2. Choose Window > Overlays to show the Overlays panel.

3. In the Overlays panel, select the desired playback settings for the slideshow, such as Auto Play. Enter a Cross-Fade amount to control the blend speed between images in the slideshow. Cross-Fade shows a gradual blend between two images as they transition from one to the next.

For more information about DPS 2015 and working with interactive overlays, refer to the Digital Publishing Solution Help on the Adobe website.

ACA Objective 4.6

To work with button controls for slideshows:

Create a multi-state object.

Add button design elements to the page design. These can be images or graphics you created in Photoshop or Illustrator and placed on the page, or they can be shapes created in InDesign that are either a single object, such as a text frame with some text, or grouped objects.

To add a controller button to show the next slide in the slideshow (Figure 7.25):

1. Using the Selection tool, select the object or group to serve as the button.

2. Choose Object > Interactive > Convert To Button, or in the Buttons And Forms panel, select Button from the Type menu.

3. Enter a Name for the button.

4. Leave the Event set to On Release Or Tap.

5. From the Action menu (+), select Go To Next State.

6. From the Object menu, select the multi-state object. If there is only one multi-state object on the page, InDesign will automatically select this multi-state object.

7. Deselect Stop At Last State if you want the slideshow to loop back to the first state in the multi-state object when the Next Slide button is clicked or tapped.

8. Click the Preview Spread button at the bottom of the Buttons And Forms panel to test the button in the EPUB Interactivity Preview panel.

To add a controller button that navigates to the previous slide in the slideshow, repeat steps 1–6, but in step 5 select Go To Previous State from the Action menu (+) instead.

ACA Objective 4.6

The first step to take when embedding web-based content into a digital publication is to obtain the embed code. That sounds a little scary, but websites that allow their content to be embedded often provide a special share button that helps you locate the embed code.

Let’s look at Google Maps as an example (Figure 7.26):

1. Start by opening your default web browser.

2. Enter maps.google.com in the URL field at the top of the browser window, and press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS).

3. Enter the address or location you want to locate in the Search Google Maps field at the top left of the screen. In the example, the location is Pioneer Park in San Francisco.

4. Click the menu at the top left, and select Share Or Embed Map.

5. Click Embed Map. Select the preferred map size from the Size menu, for example, Medium.

6. Click the <iframe> code at the top of the screen and choose Edit > Copy to copy the text to the clipboard.

7. Back in InDesign, navigate to the page to place the map on.

8. Choose Object > Insert HTML.

9. In the Edit HTML dialog box, select the default text.

10. Choose Edit > Paste to insert the embed code.

11. Click OK.

It might take a few seconds for the embed code to render on the page. But, as the end result you’ll see the map on the InDesign page. When your digital media publication is published to Fixed Layout EPUB export, Publish Online, and DPS 2015, an interactive Google Map will appear on the page.

It’s time to export your project and test the new interactive features in the finished publication.

ACA Objective 5.1

To test your EPUB, you’ll need access to an e-reader.

If you work on Mac OS 10.9 or higher, you’ll be able to use the iBooks application for this. Adobe has also released an e-reader called Adobe Digital Editions. You can download it from the Adobe website, and it is available for Windows, Mac OS, and iOS (iPad). The latest version can display reflowable and fixed-layout EPUBs.

To export your publication as a fixed-layout EPUB (Figure 7.27):

1. Choose File > Export.

2. Select EPUB (Fixed Layout) from the Save As Type (Windows) or Format (Mac OS) menu.

3. Enter a Name for the eBook in the File Name (Windows) or Save As (Mac OS) field.

4. Click Save. The EPUB – Fixed Layout Export Options dialog box appears.

5. Click General in the scroll list at the left, and select the preferred settings.

Export Range: Select All Pages to export the complete document. You can also enter a page range.

Cover: Select Rasterize First Page to add a cover image based on the first page in your document. You can also select Choose Image, and use a custom image file as the cover image for your book.

Navigation TOC: Select None for short interactive publications. For longer digital media publications, select Multi Level (TOC Style), and select a table of contents style you created (Layout > Table Of Contents Styles) in the document. The File Name option is useful when you create an EPUB from a collection of InDesign documents you combined into a book. Bookmarks let you create a custom table of contents based on what is listed in the Bookmarks panel (Window > Interactive > Bookmarks). Creating a Navigation TOC adds an easily accessible table of contents to the user’s e-reader that allows access regardless of where the reader is in the book (without the need to turn back to a physical table of contents you might have added to the front matter of the publication).

Spread Control: The Spread Control menu lets you choose whether pages appear as single pages or page spreads in the e-reader. Select Based On Document Setup to use the setup from the document (facing pages appear as spreads, and single pages as pages). To publish single pages as spreads, select Convert Spread To Landscape Page, or Enable Synthetic Spreads. Select Disable Spreads to publish facing pages as single pages.

6. Click Conversion Settings in the scroll list at left.

The Conversion Settings control the file format of the exported images. As an EPUB is HTML based, images export in JPEG, PNG, or GIF format. The Format menu lets you select whether you want InDesign to automatically select the export format for the image, or you can force the images to be exported as JPEG, GIF or PNG images. For JPEG and GIF, you can select additional export settings.

7. The CSS and JavaScript options in the scroll list at left enable you to attach CSS or JavaScript files to the EPUB.

8. Click Metadata in the scroll list at left, and enter information in the metadata fields.

Metadata is used to provide additional information about the EPUB file you’re creating. The Identifier for a book you publish and distribute online would be an ISBN or other unique sequence of characters. ISBN is an International Standard Book Number.

9. Click Viewing Apps in the scroll list at left and select apps to use for previewing the EPUB once it’s exported. Click Add Application to add newly installed e-readers, such as Adobe Digital Editions, to the list of viewing apps.

10. Click OK to export and view the EPUB.

With the EPUB published, you can now go through all the pages in an e-reader and test the many interactive features you added to the project.

ACA Objective 5.1

To publish your interactive project online (Figure 7.29):

1. Choose File > Publish Online (Preview) or click the Publish Online button in the Control panel. The Publish Online Options dialog box opens.

2. Click General at left.

3. Select Publish New Document to create a new online publication. If you’ve previously published a project, you can select Update Existing Document to make a change to the online version.

4. Enter the Title for the project.

5. Enter a brief description of the project.

6. Select All from Pages. This publishes all pages of the InDesign project.

7. Select Pages from the Export As section.

8. Optional: Select Allow Viewers To Download The Document As A PDF (Print) to allow readers to download a PDF copy of the published online version of the document. Keep in mind that this is a static version of the publication, without any interactivity.

9. Click Advanced in the scroll list at left to access additional export options.

Select the Cover Thumbnail option.

Select the Image settings to use. Images can be exported in one of three web formats: JPEG, PNG, or GIF.

10. Click OK to start the file upload to the web.

When the document upload is completed, you can click View Document to view the project in your default web browser. You can also copy the web address (URL) so you can share it with others, as well as share the project through various social media networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.

The projects you published online can be managed and deleted as necessary.

To manage online publications:

Choose File > Web Dashboard. A web page opens in your default web browser, and you might be prompted to Sign In with your Adobe ID (email) and password.

Once logged in, you can access all of your online publications. Click the publication name to load the publication in the browser. To delete a publication, move the mouse over the publication name in the Publications list and click the Delete icon at right.

ACA Objective 5.1

To export a layout from InDesign for use in the Digital Publishing Solution:

1. Choose File > Export.

2. Enter the Name for the article in the File Name (Windows) or Save As (Mac OS) field.

3. From the Save As Type (Windows) or Format (Mac OS) menu, select DPS Article.

4. Navigate to a save location, and click Save.

An ARTICLE file is created, and if you have access to a Digital Publishing Solution account, you are able to upload the files to the required publication. Alternatively, you can submit these files to someone who does have access.

For more information about the Adobe Digital Publishing Solution, refer to the Adobe Publishing Solution Help on the Adobe website.

You are well on your way to becoming a seasoned graphic designer. Your creativity is what makes your designs stand out, and as the authors of the book and videos, we hope you’ll enjoy working on many more creative projects, and we wish you every success in your future endeavors.