Comments on: Putting SWFs into InDesign documents

By: Farah

Farah — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:10:50 +0000

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.

By: Martin Ley

Martin Ley — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:04:21 +0000

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!

By: Rothrock

Rothrock — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:48:44 +0000

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!

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:15:23 +0000

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!

By: Ian Lawrence

Ian Lawrence — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:47:51 +0000

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).

By: avinash

avinash — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 06:57:48 +0000

while i copy and past the objects in text mode the objects is automatically applies as achor object pls help me to rectify it

By: Sandee "vectorbabe" Cohen

Sandee "vectorbabe" Cohen — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:21:07 +0000

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:

http://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.

By: David Coffin

David Coffin — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:48:05 +0000

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

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:47:39 +0000

@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.

By: Leonard Rosenthol

Leonard Rosenthol — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:28:53 +0000

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?