- Types of Interactive Elements
- Defining Hyperlinks
- Creating Cross-References
- Working with Bookmarks
- Adding Sounds
- Movies and Animations
- Creating Buttons
- Sample Buttons
- Creating PDF Forms
- Sample Forms
- Animating InDesign Objects
- Timing
- Multi-State Objects
- Working with the SWF Preview Controls
- Setting Page Transitions
Movies and Animations
One of the more exciting multimedia features is the ability to add movies to your electronic documents.
To add a video to a document:
- Choose File > Place and then choose the movie file you want to import. The cursor changes into the Video Clip cursor .
The loaded cursor for video clips.
- Click or drag to place the video on the document. This adds a video object to the document. Video objects are identified by the Video Clip icon .
The Video Clip icon inside a frame.
Once you have the video on the page, you use the Media panel to modify and set the options for how the video plays.
To open the Media panel:
Choose Window > Interactive > Media. The Media panel appears .
The Media panel controls for a selected video.
To set the video options in the Media panel:
- Select Play on Page Load to have the video automatically play when the page is visible.
- Select Loop (SWF export only) to have the video repeat until manually stopped. This option will not apply if the file is exported as a PDF.
Like sound files you can set poster options for movies. However, since they are movies, they have more options than sounds.
To set the movie poster options:
- Use the Poster menu to choose an image that will be used to show where the movie is in the document :
- None leaves the frame empty.
- Standard uses the standard video file icon.
- From Current Frame uses the frame currently displayed in the Media Panel.
- Choose Image lets you import a custom image to use as the movie poster.
The standard movie poster image.
- Use the Controller menu to apply a controller that can be used to control the playback of the movie as well as play it in full screen and show captions .
Use the Controller menu to choose which controller features you want for a movie.
TheSkinOverAll controller contains all the controller features for placed movies.
- Select Show Controller on Rollover to have the controller appear and disappear when the mouse moves inside and outside the area of the video.
The Media panel also lets you play a movie from start to finish or move to specific portions of the movie .
Use the Media panel video controls to control the playback of a movie file.
To play a movie using the Media panel:
- Click the Play button to play the movie within the preview area of the Media panel .
- As the movie plays, the Play button is replaced by a Pause button. Click the Pause button to stop the playback.
- Click the Sound button to mute the sound during the playback .
If a movie file is going to be used in a PDF document, there are some additional controls you can set.
To set the options for a video in a PDF document:
- Click the Export Interactive PDF icon on the Media panel or choose PDF Options from the Media panel menu. This opens the PDF Options dialog box .
The Export Interactive PDF icon in the Media panel.
The additional PDF Options dialog box for videos to be played in PDF files.
- In the Description field, enter the text that will be used as a tool tip for the video clip. This lets sight-impaired users hear a description of what the video contains.
- Click Play Video in Floating Window to have the video display in a separate window above the PDF file.
- If you have the video play in a floating window, you can set a size for the display. Use the Size list to choose a size for the video.