"interactive" items in PDF

[fireball370]

Hello All:

So I've been tasked with this simple project at work. I've already made all the editable text boxes, etc., but the client also wants a section of the PDF to be a swappable JPG. Is this even possible? I don't think it is, but I thouhgt I'd ask here anyway. If in fact it's not, any ideas on how to proceed?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Blue Velvet]

What exactly do you mean by 'swappable'?

Swappable by whom, how often and what with?

Edit: And when you say section do you mean a page or a part of a page?

 

[heehee]

If it can do this, it can do alot of things. Acrobat 3D

 

[fireball370]

Good Evening:

I guess "swappable" was the wrong word. I have a (1) page PDF that contains a JPG. This JPG changes on a monthly basis, so they would like to be able to drag and drop a new JPG into this PDF. Unfortunately, they only have Acrobat reader and upgrading to the full version or other software is not an option at this point.

Thanks again for your help!

What exactly do you mean by 'swappable'?

Swappable by whom, how often and what with?

Edit: And when you say section do you mean a page or a part of a page?

 

[Mydriasis]

Are they using a Mac? You can print the original document out to PDF every month.

Do they have FileMaker, it would be a piece of cake to set up the 'swappable' picture in there and just export once a month.

 

[iGav]

Unfortunately, they only have Acrobat reader and upgrading to the full version or other software is not an option at this point.

Well that's a problem.

You'd be better of producing this document in Flash or Director and have the content (text, photo's, whatever) served dynamically off a server and then everything could be updated at will.

This way you'd remove the client side software requirement too, as it'd work independently of any software.

Adobe really would have been better introducing a Flash based interactive format, say IDF (Interactive Document Format ) instead of trying to modify an intrinsically print based format to accept interactive and dynamic content.

 

[mkrishnan]

It seems like not such a great application of Acrobat forms, but... I do have to say that it isn't a big logical leap.

In an iTunes file, you have ID3 tags, and you type in names and information, and you have an artwork field, and you drag in pictures. It isn't such a big leap for a user to think that as you type entries into form fields in a PDF, you could also drag a picture into a picture field. I'm not sure that exists, but it doesn't seem like a huge logical leap.

 

[iMeowbot]

Image fields can be added to PDF forms using LiveCycle Designer. The user clicks on the field, and a standard open dialog will let an image be chosen.

The bad news: That's a Windows-only program. The good news: Adobe Reader (but not Preview) on Mac can use these fields, once created.

Here is a sample PDF with an image field, hosted at Adobe. In addition to the Javascript-activated buttons that will place the included sample images, you can click on the image box as described above, and choose your own. (Set the open dialog menu to open any file type, not just what it thinks are images, to make sure that images not created by Adobe products can be added)

 

[fireball370]

Pdf

Hello All

Just a quick update - the client decided to go archaic and use word (eeek) with text fields, etc. Good times!

Thanks very much for your help, though.