Final installment of
interactivity with
Adobe Acrobat
In last issue’s “
How’d
They Do That?”
(V11N5), we explored
sound and radio buttons.
Now we’ll show
you how to add video
to a PDF. We’ll also
show you how to play
two types of media at
the same time: sound
and video.
1. Open up your
PDF. DG art director
Sam Berkes first
created an InDesign
page and exported
it as a PDF. Choose
Tools>Advanced
Editing>Movie tool.
Draw a box in the
empty space of the
PDF document. The
Add Movie window
will appear. Click
Choose and select the
video you want. (We
used 23269366.mov,
available free at www.dynamicgraphics.com/downloads.) Enter
properties shown in
step 1 and click OK.
2. Position and size
the movie to fit the
correct space on the
PDF document.
3. Double-click
the movie box created
in step 2 to
open the Multimedia
Properties window.
In the Appearance
tab, choose Invisible
Rectangle from the
Border Type menu.
In the Settings tab,
with Rendition from
23269366.mov
selected, click Edit
Rendition.
4. The Rendition
Settings window will
appear. Click on the
Playback Settings button
at top. Enter the
settings in step 4 and
click OK. Click Close.
5. Choose Tools>
Advanced Editing>
Sound tool. Click
and drag a small box
anywhere on the PDF
page. This will not be
visible so the size and
shape are not an issue.
The Add Sound window
will appear. Click
the Choose button
and select your music
file (4721.mp3, free
at www.dynamicgraphics.com/downloads). Click OK.
Double-click on the
newly created box,
and in the Appearance
tab of the Multimedia
Properties window,
change Type to
Invisible Rectangle.
Click Close.
6. Choose Tools>
Advanced Editing>
Button Tool. Click
and drag a rectangular
box over the
Play section. The
Button Properties
window will appear.
In the Appearance
tab, select No Border
and No Fill. In the
Actions tab, set
Trigger to Mouse Up
and select Play Media
(Acrobat 6 and Later
Compatible) for Select
Action. Click Add
and the Play Media
window will open.
Choose Play as the
Operation to Perform.
Choose Annotation
from 23269366.mov
and click OK. In the
Button Properties window
again, click Add
once more and with
Play still chosen as
Operation to Perform,
choose Annotation
from 4721.mp3 and
click OK. Click Close.
7. Repeat step 6 for
the Pause and Stop
buttons as well.
Choose the correct
Operation to Perform
for each button
(for example, Pause
or Stop from the
Operation to Perform
drop-down menu for
this exercise). Click OK
and then click Close.
8. Finally, you can
select the Hand tool
to test your newly
created interactive
buttons. Clicking Play
should start both the
music and video at
the same time.
