Dynamic Media book practices what it preaches

by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com

As a man of many communication hats, skills and roles, Bob Connolly of PDFPictures.com is ideally suited to tackle the hot topic of convergence. He's an author, publisher, photographer, videographer, musician, TV and movie producer, educator and more, frequently performing several roles simultaneously.

Figure 1: Bob Connolly.

Connolly practices much of what he teaches and preaches in his book "Dynamic Media: Music, Video, Animation, and the Web in Adobe PDF," published by Peachpit Press. It's the premier resource on the reasons, tools and processes for creating interactive PDF documents of all kinds — including books, cartoons, digital music, brochures, catalogs, advertisements and more.

Figure 2: Connolly's horizontal-format book also includes an interactive CD filled with rich-media case-study examples.

The printed-book version is designed horizontally, primarily so the corresponding PDF edition adapts to the traditional computer monitor for easy on-screen viewing and navigation. The accompanying Win/Mac CD includes the full text of the physical book, with multiple methods for reading and browsing the varied types of content—including PDF case studies, videos, audio, Flash animation and virtual-reality images—that support the topic-specific chapters, as follows:

• Chapter 1: Introducing Dynamic Media
• Chapter 2: Defining Rich Media Terms
• Chapter 3: Adobe's Trials and Tribulations Toward Rich-Media PDF
• Chapter 4: Why Use PDF for Rich-Media Publishing?
• Chapter 5: Preparing Audio and Video for Rich-Media PDF Integration
• Chapter 6: From Print to Interactive PDF
• Chapter 7: Adding Interactivity and Rich Media to PDF Documents
• Chapter 8: Why PDF? The Proof Is in the Printing
• Chapter 9: Design Issues: Converting Printed Documents to Interactive PDF
• Chapter 10: Audio eBooks in Education
• Chapter 11: Adding Rich-Media Audio Ambiance to Your PDF
• Chapter 12: Digital Music Booklets
• Chapter 13: Rich-Media Slide Shows
• Chapter 14: Interactive Virtual Reality 3D Rich-Media PDF
• Chapter 15: Virtual Reality Panoramic Photography
• Chapter 16: PDF Photography Portfolios
• Chapter 17: QuickTime for Multipurpose Multimedia Playback
• Chapter 19: Flash Story eBooks
• Chapter 20: Digital Magazines and Rich Media
• Chapter 21: Server-Side PDF Custom Publications

"The book teaches you all of the rich-media types you could put into PDF, the history and then explains how to build it on the fly and how to develop a business model for it," says Connolly, who heads up the Toronto-based production company that specializes in convergence technologies.

It's not intended to be a step-by-step guide, he says, but does include Connolly's advice on how to get started — learning the lingo, gathering the necessary tools, setting up and implementing the rich-media PDF workflow and so on. Reading the book in the traditional manner isn't the best — or the intended — way to get the most out of the resource. Throughout the PDF version of the book are links to launch pop-up screens that feature multiple types of interactive content, including QuickTime movies, audio interviews and virtual-reality photographs. "It's an electronic book about how to make an electronic book," he says.

Figure 3: Chapter 20 explains how to utilize rich-media content in an online magazine designed to be read on a computer monitor.

Connolly says the project has been almost five years in the making — two years since he initially signed the deal to produce it — and is based primarily on case studies from PDF-based projects he has worked on for a variety of large and small clients—from car companies like Volvo and GM to travel organizations in Canada and Aruba—during the past four years. New releases of Acrobat and other key programs in that timeframe required updating of various sections along the way. In fact, only with the recent release of Acrobat 8.1 and Adobe Reader 8.1 has the CD version of the book been fully functional. Until then, Macintosh users have not been able to view some of the Flash-based content, including samples of interactive games embedded in a PDF file.

Figure 4: A Flash-based bowling game included in the book is cited as an example of rich-media content that could be used to draw a user into a digital advertisement.

Since the book was released by Peachpit Press, Connolly has been busy on the promotional circuit, speaking at industry conferences and meeting with companies and industry representatives interested in exploring his concepts—and in hiring his company's services. Several music publishers have been intrigued about his idea for creating digital records, embedding rich-media content into PDFs to create personalized music albums. pdfPictures has set up a demo website to showcase the potential to prospective clients. The embedded record prototype allows a user to create an album by choosing from a variety of lyrics, audio and music video clips, background information and a related product catalog—from which products can be immediately ordered online. Future developments, Connolly says, could include the option to purchase a "sponsored record" where sponsor information gets stamped into a free or low-cost product. His company recently established a partnership with a record company in Toronto, and is in the process of creating a Digital Album for one of its performing artists. Songs will be attached to the PDF, Connolly says; the commercial release is slated for August.

Figure 5: The Aruba Tourism website offers a selection of interactive-PDF-based brochures produced by pdfPictures.

His company has been done similar interactive publications for the Aruba Tourism Authority. The series of rich-media eBrochures provide a wealth of information about the area's geography, resorts and lifestyle and provide direct links to make reservations. The full versions include linked or embedded video clips that offer overviews of many Aruba resorts. There's also an option to create a custom travel brochure containing select types of information and content (the higher-end versions are not included in the on-the-fly, personalized brochure).

Figure 6: The Aruba eBrochures include not only still photos of the vacation-destination resorts, but also linked or embedded video clips that provide narrated tours.

Peachpit Press has published an illustrated sample chapter — titled "Adobe's Trials and Tribulations Toward Rich-Media PDF" — from the book that explains some limitations of PDF that rich-media publishers should understand.

And Connolly has provided another sample chapter — "Digital Magazines and Rich Media" [ZIP: 46 MB]   — that includes all embedded media for that chapter in a single file. The book's support blog reminds users to update to the latest (8.1) version of Acrobat and Reader. You can also view a 15-minute video about the book (also available at Google Video) featuring a guided tour to the book.

When you finish consuming Connolly's interactive-PDF preachings in this proof-of-concept book, you'll be eager to practice creating and publishing your own rich-media content!