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Ipad - Is it possible to actually View A PDF PORTFOLIO?

fredy
Registered: Jul 13 2010
Posts: 4

Hi,
In the midst of attempting to do a presentation via Ipad.
No doubt the question has been asked before, but Is it possible to actually View an Acrobat PDF Portfolio on an Ipad, and if so, is there a best way to accomplish this task?
For example, am wondering if uploading to a cloud account such as "Drop Box" would be recommended, or downloading to say, IBooks would work?

Thanks in advance! :)

UVSAR
Expert
Registered: Oct 29 2008
Posts: 1357
Basic PDFs, yes. Portfolios no. The navigators that form the animated front-end of a portfolio require a PDF reader that can use Flash Player as a plugin, or Adobe Reader 9, and for well-publicized reasons they're not available on i-devices.
jaycechilo
Registered: Aug 25 2010
Posts: 3
Actually, you can view pdf portfolios using the "GoodReader" app (available for about $1.00).

Use iTunes file transfer to move a copy of your pdf portfolio into GoodReader. Next, select "Manage Files" option from the menu. Select the "new file" button. Tap on the file name for your pdf portfolio that appears in the "my documents" list on the left hand side.

You will notice that more buttons become active in the "manage files" window on the right hand side. Select the "pdf portfolio" button. Just keep following the instructions.

A new file will appear in the "my documents" list. It contains the separate pdf files embedded in the original pdf portfolio. Open the file folder and select the pdf you want to view. You can navigate through that file as you would an iBook.

Hope this helps.
UVSAR
Expert
Registered: Oct 29 2008
Posts: 1357
...which isn't "viewing a portfolio" at all, it's extracting the individual documents (and as we can put many things in a portfolio that are not PDFs, it's only going to work in a few cases).
jaycechilo
Registered: Aug 25 2010
Posts: 3
Perhaps I misread the intent of the original post - "View a PDF portfolio" but I assumed "PDF" was referring to PDF.

I have had success viewing both PDF and non-PDF documents (Photos etc.) embedded in portfolios on my iPad using the method I described but I'll certainly acknowledge that my requirements have not been exhaustive.

Best regards
gkaiseril
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4307
A portfolio or collection is a special variation of t he data stored within the PDF wrapper and is not part of the PDF ISO standard. Because of this many 3rd party PDF readers may not be able to process them. Further the iPad controls what scripting and multimedia plug-ins will run on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod, so a simple portfolio might work, but anything with JavaScript will fail.

George Kaiser

chemoore
Registered: Dec 31 2010
Posts: 1
Thanks to jaycechilo and others -- this was just the question I needed answered!