Traditional printed posters is an effective way to communicate and promote upcoming events. But the communication doesn't have to stop after sending the poster project to the printer.
Follow along in this tutorial, and learn how to convert a poster meant for print into an interactive presentation that can be published online.
Some of the topics in this tutorial include:
Setting up an animated window that can be opened and closed with triggers.
Creating a QR that scans to a URL.
Adding hyperlinks to icons.
Click the link below to download the assets and InDesign document for this tutorial to follow along step by step.
We're going to begin by adding the button interactivity to open and close a sliding background and profiles of the featured speakers for this fictional event.
Before jumping into the interactivity, let's look at the Layers and go over how this document is structured.
A look at the Layers
In the Layer panel you will see five layers in total, from top to bottom: Triggers, Profiles, Close Button, Sliding Background and Poster.
Triggers: This will hold invisible buttons that will control the sliding background and grouped profiles.
Profiles: This layer contains the grouped profiles of the featured speakers, that will fade in and out animation controlled by the triggers.
Close Button: This is the close button layer that will hold four separate close buttons.
Sliding Background: This is a rectangle shape that will have animation applied to slide in and slide out, which will be controlled by the triggers.
Poster: This is all the other content in the poster.
Now that you have an understanding of the layers in the project, let's begin by adding the first animation to the sliding background.
Sliding Background Animation
Click on the rectangle shape once and in the Animation panel, apply a preset of Grow.
Set the Duration to 0.5 sec and the Speed to Ease in and Out.
In the Properties dropdown, choose To Current Appearance.
Set the Origin point of the Animation to the center-left point. This means the Grow preset action will begin from the center-left point.
Set the Scale Width to 0% and the Scale Height to 100%.
Here's a look at the Animation for the sliding background based on the settings explained above.
Here is how the sliding background animation will look like when tested in the EPub preview window.
Now that the sliding background is set up, you can move on to the next step to add the Fade In animation to the grouped profiles.
All of the grouped profiles will have the same animation so you can select all three together and apply the preset at the same time.
Profiles Animation
Select all four of the grouped profiles and in the Animation panel choose the Fade In preset.
Set the Duration to 0.5 sec and leave the Speed to From Preset.
Set the Animate dropdown to From Current Appearance.
All the other settings can remain on default.
Here is a look at the Animation for the grouped profiles based on the settings explained above.
Now that the animation has been set up, it's time to apply the button triggers to control them. In order for this to work seamlessly, we'll be adding invisible triggers over the profile images on the poster.
Bypassing this step and creating button actions on the profile images themselves will result in the interactive menu to not function properly.
For the time being, hide the Sliding Background and Profiles layers to access the main poster content.
Adding Open Triggers
With the Rectangle Frame Tool, draw a square shape that covers the first profile image, in this case Andrea Lowery. (Tip: in order to keep the trigger shape a perfect square, hold Shift on your keyboard to constrain the proportions).
In the Buttons and Forms panel, convert the object into a Button.
Name the Button Profile Trigger 1.
Click the plus icon to add an Action of Animation.
Set the Animation to Sliding Background and the Action to Play.
Click the plus icon to add another Action of Animation.
Set the Animation to Andrea Lowery Profile and the Action to Play.
Hold Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) and drag another copy of the trigger to the next profile image, in this case, Jeremy West.
Repeat the same steps to add the Animation actions, but assigning the Jeremy West Profile action.
Drag another copy of the trigger over the Andrew Dawes profile image and follow the same steps. Do the same for the final profile image, Jessica Farrow.
Here is how the trigger settings will look like for all four buttons using the steps explained above.
Now that the triggers have been set up to open the sliding background and the corresponding grouped profile, we'll add the close action to the close buttons.
In the Layers panel, show the Sliding Background, Profiles and Close Button layers again.
Adding Close Triggers
Click the X icon on the page and in the Buttons and Forms Panel, convert the object to a Button.
Rename the button to Close Button 1.
Click the plus icon to add an Action of Animation.
Set the Animation to Sliding Background and the Action to Reverse.
Click the plus icon to add another Action of Animation.
Set the Animation to Andrea Lowery and the Action to Reverse.
Click the Hidden Until Triggered option.
Go to Edit > Copy and then Edit > Paste in Place to add another copy of the button. In the Layers panel, drag the copied version below the first. To ensure you're working on the correct button, hide Close Button 1 in the Layers panel.
Click the plus icon to add an Action of Animation to Close Button 2.
Set the Animation to Sliding Background and the Action to Reverse.
Click the plus icon to add another Action of Animation.
Set the Animation to Jeremy West and the Action to Reverse.
Go to Edit > Copy and then Edit > Paste in Place to add another copy of the button.
Repeat the same steps for Close Buttons 3 and 4.
Here is how the close button settings will look like using the steps explained above.
The open and close functions have been applied, but there a few more important steps that need to be taken in order to complete this interactive experience. First, we'll need to set up Show/Hide Buttons and Forms action to ensure that when a specific open button is triggered, not all the close buttons appear. This will cause major issues and will essentially make the interactive menu not fully functional.
We'll have to apply the Show/Hide Buttons and Forms action to both the Triggers and the Close Buttons.
Show/Hide Buttons and Forms Action
Go back to the main poster content and click on Profile Trigger 1.
Click the plus icon to add a third action of Show/Hide Buttons and Forms.
In the Visibility section, Show Close Button 1 and leave everything else ignored (x).
Click Profile Trigger 2 and add another action of Show/Hide Buttons and Forms.
In the Visibility section, Show Close Button 2 and leave everything else ignored.
Repeat this step for Triggers 2 and 3 and assigning a Show visibility to the corresponding close button, while ignoring the others.
In the Layers panel, show the Sliding Background, Profiles and Close Buttons.
Click on Close Button 1 and add another Action of Show/Hide Buttons and Forms.
In the Visibility section, Hide Close Button 1 and leave everything else ignored.
Click on Close Button 2 and add another Action of Show/Hide Buttons and Forms.
In the Visibility section, Hide Close Button 2 and leave everything else ignored.
Repeat this step for Triggers 2 and 3 and assigning a Hide visibility to the corresponding close button, while ignoring the others.
To recap everything to this point, we've set up open and close actions (Play and Reverse) to the Triggers and the Close Buttons, and added Show/Hide actions to the buttons so when they're opened and closed, they appear and disappear accordingly.
Here's a look at the Show/Hide Buttons and Forms settings based on the steps explained above.
Another important step is ensuring nothing appears on page load. Since we added button interactivity to control the animation, we will have to turn off the on page load option.
Here's how.
Click on the Sliding Background and in the Animations panel, under Events, deselect the On Page Load option.
Repeat the same for all the grouped profiles. An easy way of doing this simultaneously is through the Layers panel Select all the profiles and in the Animations panel, enter Events, deselect the On Page Load option.
Test out the interactivity through the EPub Preview and it should all be functional based on all the setting applied to this point. If set up properly, all the buttons and animations will work nicely. However, there just ONE last step to complete this interactive experience.
You probably notice that the animations are off and are not in sync. To address this, we'll use the Timing panel, which can be accessed by going to Window > Interactive > Timing.
Click on the first trigger button and in the Timing panel, you will see the Sliding Background and the first grouped profile animations.
Using the first trigger as the example, click the Sliding Background, hold Command (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) and click the Andrea Lowery Profile.
Click the Play Together icon located in the bottom right corner of the Timing panel.
Repeat the same steps for all the Triggers and Close Buttons to ensure the timing of the animations is seamless.
There is a lot to consume to create this type of interactive experience but if done properly, it can really elevate your digital publishing project.
Here is how the final interactive setup will look like based on the steps explained throughout the first part of this tutorial.
Let's move on to the next part of this lesson and learn how to create a custom QR code, directing viewers to a URL.
This QR code will be placed in the footer of the poster in the blank space to the very right. There's also a call to action with an arrow that says Scan to Register.
Create a QR Code
Go to Object > Generate QR Code.
In the Generate QR Code window, choose the type of QR code you would like to apply. For this example, let's choose Web Hyperlink.
Type a URL of your choice, using this style: https://wwww.sitename.com. For this example and to keep things simple, we'll go with https://wwww.google.com.
Click the Color tab to give the QR code a custom color from the Swatches panel. Choose the Purple color with RGB values 125 103 242.
Click OK.
With the QR code in the loaded cursor click and drag the size to fill the space in the bottom right.
With the QR code still selected, give the background a white color file to separate it from the footer color.
Here's a look at the QR code steps using the settings explained above.
To complete this interactive poster, let's go over how to add a button action to one of the social media icons to take viewers to a URL destination.
Once again, we'll be using the Buttons and Forms panel to implement this. Go back to the main poster content and let's target the YouTube icon in the upper right corner of the layout.
Adding a Go to URL Button
Click on the YouTube icon in the upper right corner and in the Buttons and Forms panel.
Convert the object to a Button.
Set an Action of Go to URL.
In the URL field, type in https://www.youtube.com.
Click Rollover in the Appearance section and apply the Purple color in the Swatches panel. This will add a nice rollover appearance to add another interactive touch.
Here are the settings for the Go to URL button based on the steps explained above.
Here is how the rollover appearance will appear using the settings as explained above.
Now that the interactive poster is complete, it's time to put it to the test. For this tutorial, we will use the Publish Online feature to quickly get it to the web and test out the functionality.
Publish Online
Go to File > Publish Online.
Rename the project and set the publish settings to All pages and Single pages.
Click Publish
Click View Document to launch the interactive poster in your default web browser.
Here is the published version looking at the interactivity online.
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