- The Race to Rich-Media Domination
- Adobe Steps into the Interactive Arena
- Adobe's Mission: One Application for Print and Interactivity
- Adobe Redefines the Office Workflow
- Page-Based vs. Timeline Formats
- The Cost of Playback
- Adobe Introduces Reader 5.1
- Multimedia Moves to the Web Page
- Acrobat's Best Friend: Adobe InDesign
- InDesign Gets Interactive
- A Polarized New-Media Industry
- Rich-Media PDF and Disruptive Technologies
- Building a Team That Includes Everyone
- Reader 8 (PDF 1.7)
- Commenting and Forms
- Attached Files
- Viewing Interactive 3D Rich Media
- Adobe and Macromedia
InDesign Gets Interactive
InDesign CS was a remarkable achievement for Adobe. The desktop print publishers could now become involved with multimedia using the traditional tool sets they had grown up using. You could "place" QuickTime and Flash files just like you place Adobe Photoshop files, export the PDF, click the Play Video button, and—presto!—the video or Flash file played right there inside the PDF. It was really simple.
With the release of PDF 1.5 (Acrobat/Reader 6), the rich-media PDF had matured into a full-featured multimedia format with the potential to replace the HTML Web page. You could now use Real Media, QuickTime, Windows Media, and Flash files inside a PDF. In addition to linking to videos that would stream into the PDF, you could also embed the video right inside the document. This allowed you to download the PDF, turn off your Internet connection, and still be able to play the video because it was embedded inside the PDF!
Well, after the folks at Macromedia saw Flash running inside a PDF, out came new versions of SWF that would not work in PDF. Then Macromedia provided the print functionality that was lacking inside Flash with a version of Flash called FlashPaper. Adobe was not at all happy about the new print feature of Flash. Then, out came the lawsuits over tool menus!