Stephen, You wrote:
>Our Tech Support staff has made several animations in Adobe Captivate as >the main tool to teach our users certain functionalities. Captivate >generates output in .SWF + .HTML or .EXE (FlashPlayer wrapped with the >.SWF file) format) but not .AVI or other common formats. > >I will make a prodecural document in FM to give the user the work context >and convert it to PDF. I cannot add the animations to the FM file because >File > Import > Object does not accept those formats. And the hypertext >command that can launch an applicatio in FrameMaker does not work once PDFed. > >I know I can simply add buttons to the FM document and convert to PDF, and >then link the button areas to the .SWF, .HTML, or > EXE files. But each >time I redo the PDF I will lose the links made to the external files. Our >goal is to send our document out to specific users and have them test it - >there will be several iterations of this tool and many new PDF documents >generated. i will go lonk crazy! > >Do you have any suggestions? is there a better way to do this? In FrameMaker/Windows, you can establish a link to a file (carried over as a link in a PDF file), by using the "message openfile filename" hypertext marker (no quotes, filename replaced with the specific file to be launched by the PDF link). The linked file may of any file type that can be handled in the end-user system, and it is displayed using the associated application (after a standard security message is displayed). The press release for FrameMaker 8.0 indicates specific support for SWF -- we'll have to wait for the released product to see how this is implemented. In addition: with the Multimedia Assistant, FrameMaker-to-Acrobat TimeSavers add-on, multimedia files can be linked/embedded in PDFs, with additional controls over how the media is played (floating window or in document), controller shown/hidden, media title, web-based media and more. [ a sample pdf is available at http://www.microtype.com/showcase/MultimediaAsst/Guide.pdf -- with links/bookmarks displaying web-based media files in a floating window ] Shlomo Perets MicroType, http://www.microtype.com * ToolbarPlus Express for FrameMaker FrameMaker/Acrobat training & consulting * FrameMaker-to-Acrobat TimeSavers/Assistants FM-to-PDF Assistants: Navigation, Form, Presentation, Multimedia & 3D
