Tutorials

Add some Flash to your PDF files

Make your Adobe® PDF files come alive by adding Adobe Flash® movies to them. Adobe PDF is the perfect format for delivery of multimedia presentations. Whether you use PDF to deliver a presentation, or you distribute it across your entire organization, PDF is the complete solution for delivering interactive content, including movies and sounds.

Get started

In this tutorial, you’ll use Adobe Acrobat® 7 to work on a multimedia tour of the Freedom Trail, a national park that consists of a collection of historic locations in Boston, Massachusetts. The tour visits eight locations, and each location has its own separate page to which you will add a multimedia element: in this case, a movie file and a button. You will control the movie using buttons and page actions. You will also add navigational buttons for viewers to use to easily move through the document, as it will be presented in the full screen viewing mode, which hides the menus and palettes.

To follow along with this tutorial, download the FlashPDF_tutorial.zip file.

FlashPDF_tutorial.zip (ZIP: 9.94MB)

Alternatively, you can use similar files of your own. You’ll need a PDF document and a SWF file. You’ll also need the free Flash Player (available from www.adobe.com) to view the SWF file.

Add an interactive animation

If the Advanced Editing toolbar is not open, open it now by choosing View > Toolbars > Advanced Editing. You will use this toolbar to add movies, animations, and sounds to your PDF presentation.

1. Open the Freedom_Trail_start file that you downloaded. If necessary, navigate to page 1. Choose the Movie tool from the Advanced Editing toolbar. The Movie tool and the Sound tool share the same position on the Advanced Editing toolbar. If the Sound tool is visible, click the arrow to the right of the Sound tool and choose the Movie tool from the menu that appears. To see both tools at the same time, choose Expand This Button, which adds both tools to the Advanced Editing toolbar, so they are both visible at the same time.

2. Using the Movie tool, click and drag a rectangle that completely encloses the tan box on the upper left side of the first page. This box has been placed for you to use as a guide. After you release the mouse, the Add Movie window appears.
3. In the Add Movie window, select the Acrobat 6 and Later Compatible Media radio button. Click the Browse button (Windows) or Choose button (Mac OS) and choose the file named Opening_animation.swf file that you downloaded. Click the Select button. After selecting the file, choose the following options in the Add Movie Window:
   
   
   • Deselect Snap to content proportions.
   • Select Embed content in document.
   • Select Retrieve poster from movie.
4. Now click OK. The animated movie file appears in the box you created with the Movie tool.

Note: When selecting movies or animations on a Windows computer, it may be necessary to select “Most Common Formats” from the Files of Type pop-up menu. When browsing the files to input, this allows Acrobat to display most movie and sound formats.

5. If necessary, change the position of the movie file by clicking and holding the mouse on the center of the movie file, and then dragging it to the desired location. To adjust the dimensions of the movie file proportionally, Shift-click the handles in the corner of the movie file and drag toward the center of the movie to reduce the size, or away from the center to enlarge the size.

Tip: Always use the Shift key when resizing a movie or animation file to ensure that it remains proportional. Clicking and dragging without the Shift key may cause the movie or animation to become distorted.

6. Choose the Hand tool from the Basic toolbar and move the cursor over the animated map. The cursor changes to a pointing finger to indicate that the content interactive. Click on the center of the Flash animation. The animated map will play. This file also includes audio. If you cannot hear the audio, you may need to adjust the sound controls on your computer.

Note: When clicking on your movie file to play it, a window named Manage Trust for Multimedia Content may appear. If this window appears, select the second option Play the multimedia content and add this document to my list of trusted documents. This behavior is a feature of the Acrobat 7.0 Professional Trust Manager. See “Setting Trust Manager Preferences” in Acrobat 7.0 Help.

Tip: To stop an animated movie file, an action must be created that specifically tells Acrobat to stop the playback. Without an action stopping the playback, the file will continue to play, even after navigating to another page. It is advisable to always create an action that allows a user to stop a movie, animation, or sound file. This is described in “Add an action to stop the animation” later in this lesson.

Add a button

1. Choose the Button tool from the Advanced Editing toolbar. Move your cursor to the upper left corner of the box that is positioned below and to the left of the animated map. Click and drag from the upper left corner of the box to the lower right corner. The Button Properties window opens after you release the mouse.
2. In the Button Properties window, choose the General tab and enter the button name Start Introduction. The button name is used by Acrobat to identify this button. The name is not visible to users and does not appear on the button itself.

3. Click on the Options tab in the Button Properties window and enter the Label name of Start Introduction. The label name appears on the face of the button and is the text that is visible to the viewer.
4. Click the Actions tab in the Button Properties window. For the Select Trigger option, keep the default selection of Mouse Up. This indicates that when the mouse is clicked and released, the action will occur. For the Select Action option, choose Play Media (Acrobat 6 and Later Compatible) and then click the Add button. The Play Media (Acrobat 6 and Later Compatible) window will open.
5. In the Play Media (Acrobat 6 and Later Compatible) window, leave the Operation to Perform option set to Play. In the Associated Annotation section of the window, choose Annotation from opening_animation.swf, which is listed under Page 1. Click OK in the Play Media (Acrobat 6 and Later Compatible) window and then click the Close button in the Button Properties window.

6. Choose the Hand tool and test your button by clicking the Start Introduction button.

Add an action to stop the animation

1. Choose the Button tool. Move your cursor to the upper left corner of the box that is positioned to the right of the Start Introduction button you created in the previous step. Click and drag from the upper left corner of the box to the lower right corner. The Button Properties window opens after you release the mouse. Choose the General tab and name the button Stop Introduction. For Tooltip, enter Click to stop movie. The tooltip appears when a user positions their cursor over the button.
2. Choose the Options tab in the Button Properties window. In the Label field type the words Stop Introduction.
3. Choose the Actions tab in the Button Properties window, and keep the Select Trigger option as Mouse Up. Choose Play Media (Acrobat 6 and Later Compatible) from the Select Action options and click Add. The Play Media (Acrobat 6 and Later Compatible) window opens. Even though you are selecting Play Media as the action, this action is also used any time you want to start, stop, pause, resume, or restart a movie, sound, or animation.
4. In the Play Media (Acrobat 6 and Later Compatible) window, choose Stop from the Operation to Perform list and in the Associated Annotation portion of the window, choose Annotation from opening_animation.swf, which is listed under Page 1. Click OK and then click the Close button in the Button Properties Window.
5. Choose the Hand tool and click the Start Introduction button. After the animation starts to play, click the Stop Introduction button to stop the animation. In this exercise you have used the Stop and Start actions. Acrobat 7.0 Professional also includes actions for pausing and resuming the play of sounds and movies.

Tip: If the Stop or Start Introduction buttons do not provide the desired results, you can edit their actions by choosing the Button tool and double-clicking either button and choosing the Actions tab, then selecting the action to be changed and clicking the Edit button. You may need to edit the action if the Stop Introduction button does not actually stop the media from playing. Because the default Play Media action is to play rather than stop a media element, you may accidentally set the Stop Introduction action to Play rather than Stop.

Add a Show/hide field

Form fields, such as buttons, can be set to appear only when they are needed. For example, you can have a form field that only appears if a certain checkbox or button is selected, or when the mouse is in a certain location. In this exercise, you will use two overlapping images that have been placed in the PDF as buttons. One of the two images appears when you click a button, and disappears when you click a second button.

1. Navigate to page two. Select the Zoom In tool. Click and drag a box around both the map, and the buttons below the map, so that both are visible in the document window.

The red circle on the map with the number 1 in its center will be made to appear and disappear based upon which button is selected. You will start by making the circle hidden by default, and then require the viewer to click the Show Location button for the circle to appear.

2. Choose the Button tool and move the cursor over the map, notice that it is labeled “boston common location.” Red handles around the corners appear when you move your cursor over this field, indicating that it will be selected if you click. Double-click on the boston common location button field to open the Button Properties window.
3. In the Button Properties window, choose the General tab and select Hidden from the Form Field pop-up menu. Click the Close button.

4. Select the Hand tool. The red circle showing the location of the Boston Common along the trail is now hidden from view.
5. From the Advanced Editing toolbar, choose the Select Object tool. Use this tool to edit all types of form fields, including buttons. Double-click the Show Location button. The Button Properties window appears.
6. In the Button Properties window, choose the Actions tab. For Select Action choose Show/Hide a field. Leave the Select Trigger set to Mouse Up and click the Add button.
7. In the Show/Hide Field window, choose the Show radio button on the right side of window. From the list of fields, choose boston common location and click OK to close Show/Hide Field window, then click Close to close the Button Properties window.
8. Choose the Hand tool and click on the Show Location button. The red circle appears on the trail map, showing the location of the Boston Common.
9. Choose the Select Object tool and double-click the Hide Location button, which is located immediately to the right of the Show Location button.
10. In the Button Properties window, choose the Actions tab. Leave the Select Trigger set to Mouse Up. For Select Action, click the menu and choose Show/Hide a field. Click the Add button. The Show/Hide Field window appears.
11. In the Show/Hide Field window, choose the Hide radio button on the right side of the window. Choose boston common location from the list of available form fields, and click OK. Click Close to close the Button Properties window.
12. Choose the Hand tool and alternate between selecting the Show Location and Hide Location button.

Tip: If the buttons do not work as expected, use the Select Object tool and right-click Windows) or Ctrl-click (Mac OS) the Show Location or Hide Location button and choose Properties. Confirm that the actions applied to the buttons under the Actions tab are correct.