Exporting an Indesign Document to HTML via Flash
This article will show you how to export an indesign document to flash and open as an html web page with interactive buttons.
Indesign Web page
First you create a web page in Indesign CS4 or later. Make sure that you split each web page onto different pages within indesign.
converting indesign text box to an interactive button
Then simply right click on a piece of text and go to “interactive/convert to button”. You will be prompted with a dialog box.
rollover button
Name it “My work (in this case)”, make “Event”, “on click”, add an action, “go to page (SWF only)”. Then put the page number in you want this button to link to in your Indesign doc. For each button you can create a rollover option, by changing the text colour for rollover by double-clicking on the state appearance below.
next page
Once you have gone through all buttons within your Indesign document you are now ready to export to html, via flash.
export to swf
export to swf 2
Go to file menu/export, then in dialog box “save type as – swf”. Make sure you name your swf file as “index”, also save locally to your C: drive.
The next dialog box you get, make sure ticks on on the following boxes: Scale:100%, Pages: All, Generate html, Text: Indesign text to flash, Include Buttons, Include Hyperlinks, Include Page transitions, Image compression: Auto, JPEG Quality: Maximum, Curve Quality: Maximum.
Thats it, when you ready simply drag your index.html file over into a web browser (preferably Safari or Firefox) and check it out. Of course the finish file may have compatibility problems with certain browsers and you may have to tweek in Flash, but I’m sure you’ll agree its very useful if you are used to indesign and you dont have time for any programming or scripting.
Mark Jope is a Graphic Designer at London based printer PrintHouse Corporation.
If there is a query in regarding design and print please contact me here.
