Embed SWF in PDF
From Garden Gnome Software
Embedding a SWF in a PDF
Contents |
Resources required
- Pano2VR or Object2VR to create SWF files
- Word processing software to make the document
- Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro
The workflow
- Create a SWF file with either Pano or Object2VR
- Create a document
- Convert to PDF
- Add SWF files to PDF
Step 1
First, create your SWF file using either Pano2VR or Object2VR.
At the moment, the fullscreen button is not supported with Acrobat 9, however there are ways of doing this which we will look at when embedding the SWF file. Also, try and keep skin graphics to a minimum. As the document is resized they can pixelate; using text as buttons is a good way around this.
Step 2
Next, create your document using a word processor or publication software. It is a good idea to place still images where the SWF files will go. This serves two purposes. If the user has an older version of Acrobat or not using Adobe Acrobat Reader, they will see the image instead of empty space. Also, it will help place the SWF in the document later.
Once you have completed your document, select Print and use Adobe PDF as the print driver to convert to PDF.
Step 3
Open the document with Acrobat 9 and click on the Multimedia button in the toolbar.
Select the Flash tool and your mouse pointer will become a crosshair; drag this over the picture you placed in the document when you created it.
As you let go of the mouse, an insert box will appear. Click Browse and locate your SWF file. You may also enter a URL if the SWF is on a server, but you have to point it at the SWF file and not an HTML page.
Click on Show Advanced Options, this will expand the menu to include Launch settings, Flash and Resources.
With the Launch Setting tab selected you need to look at how you want the SWF file to open. In Activation Settings you can select Enable when:
- The content is clicked
- The page containing the content is opened
- The page containing the content is visible
Also, you need to decide how the SWF is closed.
You have the options of:
- Disable content is selected from the context menu
- The page containing the content is closed
- The page containing the content is not visible
For the example below, I have chosen::
- Enable when the page containing the content is opened
- Disable when the page containing the content is not visible
The next option is Playback style:
- Play content on the page
- Play content in a floating window
If you choose the latter you may also set the window size. I selected, Play content on the page.
You can also set a border and transparency.
The Poster Image options let you place a start image which can be different from the SWF; use this with the content is clicked option to display the file.
Choosing the Flash tab gives you the options to pass the context menu of the SWF to the viewer. If you choose not to pass the context menu data, the default lets you go to fullscreen. However, if this is done with an embedded SWF file, the skin graphics will become distorted. To avoid this use text boxes as buttons, similar to the Robot in the demonstration document.