PDF-Basics is a service provided by PDFzone.com | http://www.pdfzone.com/ __________________________________________________________________
on 6/20/03 8:55 AM, SDA at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Thanks for the response. I was thinking more of a cd presentation, with > autorun (which I know can be accomplished easily enough), however, I'm > more interested in how the presentation works in that environment when > compared to the likes of Director. The reason being is that I would like > to see a working example (not on cd of course), to see how it flows etc, > with appropriate controls (sans the acrobat toolbar). I need to convince > a client that it can be done, as they don't wish to go the expensive > Director authoring route as before. As someone who has created cross-platform autorun CDs using both Acrobat and Director (see http://www.performancegraphics.com/Pages/cdrom.html) I can assure you that there are definite performance differences between PDF pages and Director frames. PDF pages being vector-based and full-resolution, regenerate S-L-O-W-L-Y (and vector-dense pages regenerate in layers). By contrast Director pages can rip through quickly at frames per second because they are flat and at screen resolution. Transitions are much easier to control in Director. Typically I create CDs using Director for part and Acrobat for part. The Director element is usually a short autorun multimedia intro (comprised of sound, animation, and, perhaps, quicktime movies). It usually has a table of contents that includes a launch button to an Acrobat PDF menu page to access other PDFs. This section usually contains supporting documents that can be read online, printed, zoomed into, searched, and (with indexing) cross-document searched - capabilities lacking in Director files. I, too, have created an interactive portfolio CD-ROM with PDFs that span about a decade (and also include some Director projectors launched from the PDF home page). It is very easy to update with new projects and customize depending on who I am sending it to. As far as a comparison of PowerPoint and Acrobat for on-screen presentations, I consider PDFs to be an essential backup for any presentation you would ever make. The advantages of PDFs: 1) the format is more standardized than PowerPoint over time - hence better for distribution and archiving, 2) the format is cross-platform compatible, 3) the format can be distributed via web more consistently than PowerPoint files, 3) you can build in more interactivity into a PDF than PowerPoint including program launches, bookmarks, hyperlinks, forms, hidden fields, and javascripts. The strengths of PowerPiont over Acrobat: 1) it is an authoring program, 2) ease of creating handouts, and 3) motion transitions. For the record, I might use PowerPoint to author part of a presentation but I don't use PowerPoint to present presentations - I use Acrobat. But then again most of my presentations are about the wonders of Acrobat. -- C. Scott Miller (818) 508-5514 Performance Graphics http://www.performancegraphics.com/ Author of PDF Research Companion website Adobe Certified Expert for Acrobat 5 To change your subscription: http://www.pdfzone.com/discussions/lists-pdfbasics.html
