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Meeting Summary

Interactive PDF and Forms
Wed, Jun 10th, 2009 at 6:30 PM
RMIT University
Event Details

Welcome to the world of Interactive PDFs — where a PDF isn’t just a PDF anymore.

Despite the unforgiving Melbourne weather, over 120 enthusiastic attendees braved the elements to learn about Interactive PDFs and forms at RMIT University. Billy Atta, our resident Acrobat expert, took us through the process of creating interactive PDFs from InDesign through to Acrobat. Here are a couple of pointers from the evening:

Billy’s Tips
- Create navigational elements such as buttons and hyperlinks in InDesign
- Create the more advanced elements such as multimedia and forms in Acrobat
- For complicated forms that require complex calculations, design and create your form in Adobe LiveCycle (Sorry Mac users, LiveCycle is Windows-compatible only for now).
- Name your elements logically, sensibly and systematically — you will thank yourself later.

InDesign
- Remember to tick the ‘Interactive elements’ and ‘Hyperlinks’ checkboxes when exporting to PDF
- There’s a good chance that your interactive PDF is meant to be viewed onscreen only, if so, choose the ‘Smallest File Size’ preset.
- Buttons aren’t just triggers to launch actions, you can also use them to show-hide elements in your PDF.

Acrobat Forms
- To get started on Forms, bring up the Forms toolbar (Tools > Forms Toolbar)
- To do minor editing in Acrobat, bring up the Advanced editing toolbar (Tools > Advanced editing)
- Make last minute changes in seconds. With the TouchUp Object Tool selected, Ctrl+double-click on the object you need to edit and you can edit it in its native program. Give it a go!
- Page transition is available in Acrobat (Advanced > Document Processing > Page Transition)
- Acrobat forms support Javascript. So if you know Javascript, the world’s your oyster
- Customise your PDF’s form tab order
- Get your form to do simple calculations for you!

More goodies!
Neil Oliver’s Creative Mentor, http://creativementor.com.au/making-buttons-interactive
Acrobatusers.com, http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2008/10/forms_forms_forms
Adobe TV- Acrobat Tips and Tricks - Automating Form Field Creation, http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f15361v1020
Layers Magazine - Interactive Forms in Acrobat, http://www.layersmagazine.com/interactive-forms-in-acrobat.html
Mike McHugh’s Creative Sweet TV – Interactive InDesign PDF and SWF, http://www.creativesweettv.com/?p=65
Gabriel Powell – InDesign and Acrobat Forms Workflow, http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1612v1010

Billy’s email Javascript (as promised!)
Use this nifty Javascript to specify the return email addresses, the subject and body of the email.
- Create a submit button in Acrobat
- Right-click on button, Button properties > Actions
- Select ‘Mouse Up’ and ‘Run a Javascript’
- Cut and paste the follow (edit to suit your needs)
app.mailMsg({bUI: false, cTo: "name1@example.com; name2@example.com",
cSubject: "This is the subject",
cMsg: "This is the body of the mail."});
- Done!

Marcus' Javascripts (www.marcusvisic.com)
To Create a print button that only prints the current page:
(E.g., I recently created a PDF information booklet with a form on the last page, I did not want people to print the entire booklet, only the form on the last page.)
- Create a button and under Actions select Mouse Up as the trigger, and Run a Javascript as the Action and then click add. For the code enter:
this.print (false, this.pageNum, this.pageNum);

To enter today’s date automatically when you focus on a field (click inside a text field):
- Under actions choose On Focus as the trigger and Run a Javascript as the action. For the code enter:
var fld = this.getField("Insert Field Name"); fld.value = util.printd("dd/mm/yyyy",new Date());
Note: you must insert the name of the field between the brackets for it to work.

To automatically enter custom text when you focus on a field (click inside a text field):
Under actions choose On Focus as the trigger and Run a Javascript as the action. For the code enter:
var fld = this.getField("Insert-Field-Name"); fld.value = "Insert-Custom-Text";
Note: you must insert the name of the field between the brackets for it to work.

Create a button that goes to a specific page:
Create a button and then under actions choose Mouse Up as the trigger and Run a Javascript as the action. For the code enter:
this.pageNum = 0
Note: The document starts from 0, the code above will take you to page 1

Thank you

Big thank you to Adobe, RMIT University, Aquent, Copy Captain for your wonderful generosity.

Not forgetting our diligent volunteers: John, Peter, Therese, Purvi, Colin, Trili, Mark, Christine and Stimson.

Comments from attendees

"All of it was new and interesting."

"Great! Very informative!"

"Speaker was excellent! Could follow him easily."

"Billy is eager to communicate his knowledge with enthusiasm."

"Interactive PDFs are rarely covered, great job."

"It is very useful, thank you."

"It was interesting how Billy engages enthusiasm towards the benefits of Interactive PDFs, making the process user friendly for beginners."

Next Meeting

Colour Management
19 August 2009, Wednesday
6.30pm - 9.00pm @ RMIT University, Brunswick campus
For more information, visit http://indesignusergroup.com/chapters/melbourne/events/904/

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