PDF Reader for Adobe Presenter

[drholly]

I've been looking for some time and can't find a thread for this. If I missed it, I am sorry. I create learning tools using Flash - I understand that will not work on the iPad. However, I can convert Adobe Presenter or Articulate files to PDF. These include synchronized slides and video and or audio. These run perfectly with Adobe Reader on my iMac, my PC, and my various Mac and PC laptops. However, I have not found a PDF reader for the iPad that will play these PDF files. I will not name names - but some of the obvious candidates do not work. Does ANYONE have any ideas? My clients are moving to iPads and want to re-purpose the work that they have already invested thousands of dollars in if at all possible without starting over. Help? Thank you!

 

[deckyon]

Can you push the files out as Powerpoint?

 

[drholly]

No - that is not practical. The audio / video is synchronized with the slides - they are not part of the slides. Adobe Presenter, Articulate and iPresent Presario are three products that create these files. The result is not a powerpoint presentation and it is not a video - it is typically an SWF file but they can create a PDF file - that has a menu allowing the user to skip from slide to slide and keeping the video or audio in synch. I understand what you are suggesting - but that is a video / audio file within PowerPoint - this is not that. Thank you,
David

 

[deckyon]

I dont know of anything then. SWF is Adobe Shockwave. Sounds like the "PDF" files still link back out to a flash player.

 

[drholly]

Actually, it was renamed as "small web format" as it is no longer associated only with Shock Wave. These files are generated by Flash (which creates swf files) as well as Shcockwave. The PDF files do not link back to a Flash Player and can be played entirely in the most recent Acrobat reader on PC and Mac formats (according to Adobe and my experience.) However, it may be a case of them being packaged in a way that is not compatible with the typical readers made for iPad. I was just hoping someone had stumbled across a solution. I am not looking forward to the alternative (literally hundreds of hours of work trying to recreate the exprience manually...)
D

 

[deckyon]

Turn them into a video file or are they interactive?

 

[twerppoet]

Could you provide a sample file to play with?

That way people could try it in their various apps and let you know. After all, there are a large number of apps out there besides the usual suspects.

 

[drholly]

I have turned them into videos and that "works". But, the premise of the class is the ability to move back & forward, and anywhere by clicking on the menu - i.e. they are meant to have that degree of interaction. The video is NOT end of world, but less than elegant and misses one of the key advantages of the program. I am more than happy to provide examples - help me understand how to get them to you. Or do I need to put them online somewhere (I can do that too.) Just let me know how best to provide them for your use. Again, thank you!
David

 

[twerppoet]

Online with a link would be fine.

 

[drholly]

Hey Guys, I am very sorry. Before I posted it for you to take a look at, I did some deeper digging into the pdf - it does not link OUT to a flash player, but Flash was embedded - so, I guess the problem is obvious - I am still stymied by Flash. Darn it. I appreciate your willingness to help.

 

[twerppoet]

The only other thing I can think of then is Adobe's packager for iOS.

It not a cheap solutions and you'd have to either get an enterprise license to distribute apps on your own server, and register your customers on it, or send them out to the world at large.

I don't know enough to know if this is something that would work with your current presentations, but it might be worth looking into.

 

[drholly]

As long as you thought about this - maybe you know of an alternative... I am more than happy to go another direction if I can make it work on an iPad (even better on the iPad AND Android...) I have video and or audio that I need to synch to PPT (or Keynote) slides. I want to have the entire presentation to be interactive in the sense that the student can use a menu of some sort to move between slides (and the synched audio or video) at will. I am happy to create the files on PC or Mac, but really need the result to be usable on PC, Mac and iPad.... Any thoughts? Thank you...
David

 

[twerppoet]

Way above my paygrade.

Still, I was having trouble sleeping so I did some casual searching. My basic premis was that if Flash is really being replaced by HTML5, then maybe some newer tools are becoming available. There are, but none of the ones I could find are ready for your level of needs. However I did find a couple of interesting hybrid services that might be worth your time to look into, at least to contact their suppor and ask a few questions.

It seems that SlideRocket has developped a slide playing app for the iPad. Combined with their Flash site for computers this is three out of four of your targets, and with Andriod's Flash support a maybe on that one. I couldn't tell if the supported all the features you wanted, but it looked promising. http://www.sliderocket.com/blog/2010/11/introducing-html5-player-for-ipad-and-iphone/

The second was just interesting. None of the sample showes played on my iPad except one demo,but the whole concept was less linear. Take a look and see what you think. http://prezi.com/index/

Actually your description of what you wanted reminded me the most of the interactive chikdren's books comming out on the iPad. Not that I see how that obsevation is going to help you.

Again, good luck in your search. The iPad is cool, but tablet devices are still an immature market. There are a lot of software holes that need to be filled and standards left to support.

Sent from my iPad using iPF

 

[drholly]

twerpoet - I really appreciate your thoughts and ideas. I will take a look at the links you sent. I have investigate Adobe's Packager - but it's way beyond my scope (and budget.) I had the thought about children's books as well - will do some more digging there. You are right about the status of tablets at this time - the potential & promise is great and their day will come (I think) I just hope to be there a bit ahead of time... Thanks again! David

 

[twerppoet]

Update: Never mind. As I look into it further enhanced ePub is probably not far enough along to do what you want.

But here are some interesting samples you can download and show in iBooks. Note, the Flash one loads but does not display the flash video in iBooks. http://www.ebookarchitects.com/resources.php

I noticed an article today that said Adobe InDesign would output PDF to enhanced ePub. Might be worth a looking to see if that includes your presentation pdf files. Apple's iBooks is supposed to support enhance ePubs, and you can probably find an app to read them on almost any platform.

It would probably still take considerable rewriting of your presentations to make it work as well in a book format, even one that supports audio and video, but you'd be on a standard from that point on. One not tied entirely to Adobe's apron strings, though they may provide the best tools for you currently.

This was an interesting article.
MediaShift . A Self-Publisher's Primer to Enhanced E-Books and Book Apps | PBS