Adobe Acrobat 9 made the Flash Player an integral part of both the Adobe Reader and the "full" version of Acrobat. This capability allows PDF documents to incorporate SWF (Small Web Format) and FLV (Flash Video) files making them highly interactive. The YouTube Widget for Acrobat also extends the type of media that can be used in a PDF by allowing YouTube video to be streamed in a PDF document.
Importing a Flash Video File
From the Tools > Multimedia menu the Multimedia toolbar provides access to a number of tools including the Flash tool.
Setting Flash Video Properties – 1
By clicking or dragging a rectangle on the PDF page the Insert Video dialog box appears.
Using the Browse button an FLV (Flash Video) file can be selected.
Clicking OK inserts the video on the page.
Setting Flash Video Properties – 2
Selecting the Hand tool and clicking on the video will play the video.
Importing a Flash Object
An SWF (Small Web Format) Flash file can also be placed using the same method as the FLV file using the Flash tool.
Setting Flash Object Properties
Flash Properties can provide a fine degree of control over the way the file displays or interacts.
When placing an SWF or FLV by clicking the Show Advanced Option check box additional options appear.
SWF Properties include:
1. Enable When: specifies how the video starts – on a user clicking the file or when the page opens
2. Playback Style – the file can be played in its position on the page or in as separate window
3. Border Width – allows the border to be set
4. The Resources tab allows resources to be added to a Flash file that references resources in addition to the main SWF such as XML or other SWF files.
Using the YouTube Widget for Acrobat – 1
The YouTube Widget for Acrobat can be downloaded and used to allow YouTube video to be streamed in a PDF.
Save the file to your hard disk.
Use the Flash tool to place it on the page where the video will play.
Using the YouTube Widget for Acrobat – 2
Once the widget has been added clicking on it will display a JavaScript Window.
From the YouTube website (on the page which contains the video you wish to play) select the Embed icon and a field will open displaying code which would normally be used to embed the video into web page.
Select this code and then copy and paste it into the Embed field in the YouTube Widget for Acrobat.
Click OK
Using the YouTube Widget for Acrobat – 3
Once this has been done select the Hand tool and click the video to activate it. If an internet connection is available the YouTube video will be streamed in the PDF.
Download a YouTube PDF sample
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 UK: Scotland License.
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