*** From the Archives ***
This article is from December 28, 2008, and is no longer current.
Putting SWFs into InDesign documents
I can’t tell you what a long and sad story this is. But bear with me.
Billions of years ago, (around the time of Acrobat 5) I wrote a book with two friends all about the interactive features in Acrobat PDF files.
One of the coolest things we demonstrated was how you could add SWF movies from Flash into the PDF files.
This was known as the Rennaissance period for interactive PDF documents.
Sometime later the Dark Ages descended onto the world of interactive PDF.
Something bad happened that caused a version of QuickTime to no longer properly handle running SWF files in PDF documents. (What was not widely known at the time was that on the Mac, all movies, sounds, and SWF files were handled by the QuickTime application.)
Unfortunately both Apple and Adobe began to play a game of “tag, you’re it” blaming each other for the problem. Adobe would do something to fix how SWFs would play and then Apple would do something else to destroy it. Over the years, most of us simply gave up trying to add SWFs to PDF documents.
Then, this year, with the release of CS4, it looked like a new dawn was shining down on SWF files. After all, Acrobat 9 was importing SWF files without any problems.
So it was with great astonishment that I found that while it was totally possible to add an SWF to an ID file for export as a PDF, that same PDF would not play the SWF. On the Macintosh the command to play the SWF would hang at the “Buffering” stage.
But SWFs added directly to the PDF play perfectly. What was going on?
Turns out the answer is simple, but deceptive.
When you add an SWF to a PDF in Acrobat 9 (PDF 1.7) you add the animation as a new annotation type, “Rich Media”, which can
utilize Acrobat’s built-in Flash Player to play SWF content. This is good!
But InDesign CS4 only exports to PDF 1.3 – 1.6. This means that in the PDF’s that InDesign produces, the SWF is contained within the annotation type “Screen”. And like the SWFs placed in previous versions, Acrobat 8/9 uses QuickTime to play SWFs on this type of annotation. And on the Mac, that means there is a problem playing those SWFs within the PDF. (This is also the reason why you can’t choose a poster frame from the SWF in InDesign.)
So, what’s the answer?
Simple, if you want an SWF to play within a PDF file, add it in the PDF, not the InDesign file. Not only will it play correctly, but you’ll have the added feature of choosing the poster frame for the SWF. This is also helpful for Windows users who might be fooled into adding SWF movies in their InDesign files. They won’t have any problem playing the movie in the PDF, but their Mac friends will.
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Sandee,
There’s clearly a drop down that states PDF 1.7 and exporting from ID to PDF yields a PDF identified by Acrobat as PDF 1.7.
Could this have anything to do with the fact that Acrobat 9 also uses the 1.7 specification?
First, I must admit that the part of my post about the “Rich Media” versus “Screen” annotation, actually came from an Adobe engineer. So I can’t guarantee what I was writing.
But I suspect that Bob is right. The Acrobat 1.7 format that Acrobat 9 creates is a more enhanced version of 1.7 than what InDesign creates.
Sorry for the confusion.
Sandee…
You are correct that InDesign CS4 does not export the SWFs as “Rich Media” annotations and instead uses the older “Screen” annotations.
HOWEVER, as of Acrobat/Reader 8.1 we use your installed Flash Player to handle Flash media and NOT QuickTime.
As to your “buffering issue” – what version of Flash Player do you have installed on the Mac?
@Leonard: I (and many others) have had the buffering issue that Sandee talks about. I believe I’m using Flash 10.0r12. This is not a new issue; I see that it was reported as far back as March on the adobe forums.
From every conversation I’ve read, it continues to be a game of “apple’s fault/adobe’s fault.” I know you’re the Master PDF man, but given the evidence find it difficult to believe that Adobe truly severed Acrobat 8.1 from QT for SWF.
Thanks for keeping somebody’s feet to the fire about interactive pdfs, Sandee, even if it must often feel as if it’s only YOUR feet getting burned (you and the apparently tiny crowd that seems to actually care about this?). True or not, I feel I have your example to thank, in part, for the much improved situation we’re now in, so thanks, again!
Now, why do you, or anybody, think I’m getting the same “hang at the ?Buffering? stage” problem when I try to convert a web page with Flash content into a pdf using Acrobat Pro 9, Mac version? Ted Padova tells us in his book that this should work; is this another “Well, not on a Mac?” issue?
Comments VERY welcome?
Still, I’m SO happy to be able to get my swfs working in my pdfs at all; changes everything!
dpc
David,
Thanks for the kind words. It does sometimes feel like I’m the only one who cares about this, but then I read a post like yours and I have renewed energy.
I believe you are EXACTLY right. It does seem that converting a web page with Flash content has the same problem as the SWFs from InDesign into PDF.
I just tried converting my own home page:
https://www.vectorbabe.com
The page converts into a PDF without any problem. But, I did get a message asking if I wanted to play the Flash content.
If I say Yes, the content hangs at the Buffering stage. If I say no, the page loads as a PDF with the SWF in place.
So I actually have succeeded in converting the page to a PDF but the SWF has come in as a screen annotation, not the Rich Media annotation.
And the bug on the Mac for playing a screen annotation SWF takes effect.
Meanwhile, it is interesting that every time I go to write that the PDF hangs on the “Buffering” stage, my fingers want to swap the “ff” for “gg”. Must be my times in London sneaking in.
while i copy and past the objects in text mode the objects is automatically applies as achor object pls help me to rectify it
I care about this! I have a large project going through Using OSX), where I want to be able to add swfs in InDesign, not Acrobat Pro, to maintain a smooth workflow, and only one keep one increment of master documents, NOT two (INDD and PDF).
Plus PDF cannot be the all singing-all dancing multimedia solution it is touted to be, if files hang buffering on a significant platform(mine do two, running the latest OS and Flash. Now Adobe owns both flash and acrobat, surely there cannot be an excuse – since it is claimed that the flashplayer is internal to Acrobat…
I am deeply disappointed to have moved from CS3 to CS4, only to find the same bug rampant.
(And CS4 touts its interactivity credentials – don’t get me started on what happens to hyperlinks made in IND CS3, then opened in CS4: You have to remake them – apparently bookmarks both are and are not anchors).
Thanks for posting this. I had an impossible time trying to figure out why my swf would not play in my pdf. I have all the latest versions of Adobe/Flash etc. And as you said, CS4 is touting its interactive capabilities, so it is very odd that we’d be having this issue. I’ll insert it from Acrobat for now, but as Ian said, it would be nice to not have to have multiple versions floating around. Just wanted to say thanks for putting this info out there!
Thanks for this info. It seemed so much like it should be working and I couldn’t figure out why I was just getting buffering, buffering, buffering….
Now I know.
And yes. This should be fixed by Adobe!
I’ve just been trying to do this (SWF into InDesign/Acrobat). I’m using latest versions of InDesign CS4 (6.0.4)/Acrobat Pro Extended (9.3.1) for Mac (running on a 17″ MBP, OS X 10.6.3 with 8GB RAM), and created the SWF file using Captivate 4 on the PC (under Parallels/XP SP3 on my Mac).
If I import the SWF file into InDesign, it only plays the first frame when exported to PDF (but looks really nice) then exits. If I import the SWF file into the PDF instead, the whole file plays but the look and feel isn’t nearly so good.
Bummer!
Thank you for your help, and I have managed to place my swf movie into the pdf successfully, but now i need to convert it to a swf or ANY format that can be viewed/placed online.
Can you help me with this? it seems like there is no way to convert a pdf to a swf.
Hi guys, I’m trying to create an interactive menu using states and buttons and it works fine as swf file but when it comes to export as interactive PDF it doesn’t work that well… do you have any clues and/or tips?
I’m using InDesign CS6. Thanks a lot and greetings from Costa Rica.
Have you checked to make sure you’re using the correct actions for the buttons?
Some of the actions are labeled only for PDF, some only for SWF, and some can be used for both. Did you choose ones like Go to Page? That can only be used for SWF.
Just realized you mentioned “states.” Are you using Multi-state objects or the “states” in Buttons.
Multi-state objects only work in SWF files. Button states work in PDFs.
Also, if you’re using rollover events, they won’t work in tablets.
Is it possible to import or place an SWF-file into ID and keeping the vector elements (text and images) when exporting to PDF (print)
@Erik: I don’t think so! SWF is not a very good file format for maintaining vectors.
SWF does keep a form of vector information. And it does create small files. But it’s not a good format to then edit.
Regarding placing that SWF into ID and then exporting to PDF for print, I just tried it and it doesn’t work. I couldn’t see the SWF information in the PDF.
I don’t have Flash on my machine, but there might be a way to export as an Illustrator format from Flash.
Worked for me! Thanks very much!