Despite being a commonly accepted document standard, PDFs are known for their awkwardness and outdated appearance. They are frequently treated as raw pre-print files, have poor design, take forever to scroll down, and make you strain your eyes to read those little characters on your little smartphone screen.
There is, however, a technique to transform your PDF file into a solid and engaging online experience that will turn users into devoted lovers of your material. How? By incorporating interactive multimedia elements into the PDF.
What exactly is an interactive PDF?
An animated PDF is a PDF file that includes multimedia content such as links, audio and video files, photos, GIFs, clickable icons, and fill-up forms. In other words, an interactive PDF blends all the format’s advantages with digital online interactions, such as commonality and safety.
Assume you’re putting out a catalog. Adding video content, photo galleries, or even shoppable products that customers can purchase directly from the collection pages would make it more dynamic.
Depending on the sort of information you create, there are different ways to make it dynamic.
Six types of multimedia to edit your PDFs
To display multimedia PDF files, the reader does not need to download any extra plug-ins or have internet connectivity. To see the multimedia material, all that is necessary is a reasonably recent version of the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, like Version 9.
There are several types of multimedia you can download into a PDF.
· Video
Short video snippets are great for advertising a product or service in PDF brochures. Video also may be used in internal training manuals to illustrate how a technical component or process works.
· Audio files
Podcasts, personal notes, or music clips may all be included as audio content in your papers. In addition, because audio files are far smaller than video files, audio can provide many longer segments.
· Interactive flash
Integrating a flash module may allow people to interact with your content. For example, some of our clients had their PowerPoint presentations turned into interactive Flash versions, which they then included in their PDF publications.
Thanks to this innovation, customers would see and manipulate the slides in the file. In addition, other companies have incorporated an interactive photo gallery in their PDF papers, allowing buyers to select which images of their items to view.
· 3D elements
The most amazing use is interactive 3D, which helps your reader to engage in real-time with an integrated 3D model or environment. It’s also helpful in showcasing new items or allowing consumers to explore a virtual world.
· Lead forms
A lead capture form is typically put on a webpage that restricts access to downloading material, such as your PDF. While it is a simple and dependable method of encouraging visitors to join up, any friction on the path to the content may put some people on track. This will not only make the information more engaging, but it will also provide certain benefits.
You can offer users a sample of your material by including a lead generation from a few web pages into the PDF. You may also share the PDF via social media and email without fear of it being downloaded and distributed over the web, skipping your sign-up form.
· GIFs
GIFs are only for fun and slack channel reactions. These are quick and easy to bring your PDF to life and give it a more polished look.
In addition to the multimedia choices mentioned above, many additional sophisticated features may be added to your ordinary PDF documents. For example, ‘smart’ forms may be designed to automatically process user input before transferring it to your server.
In simple terms, you may send them a PDF sales brochure with an integrated purchase form and a complete product pricing list. Then, after consumers choose the things they desire, the smart form generates a sales invoice and sends it to your organization to be processed further.
How to edit your PDF to make it interactive?
The easiest way to create interactive PDFs using multimedia is to use Adobe tools. To begin, open your PDF (or generate a new one) with a program such as Adobe Acrobat. Then consider the following alternatives for adding interactive components to any page:
Add the following buttons: Add/Edit Web or Document Link > Edit PDF > Link Button for the Menu
- Add buttons: Edit PDF > Link > Add/Edit Web or Document Link > Menu Button
- Add links: Edit PDF > Link > Add/Edit Web or Document Link
- Add video: Tools > Rich Media > Add Video > Insert Video
- Add checkboxes: Tools > Prepare Form > Checkbox
- Add other form fields like signatures: Tools > Prepare Form
- When you’re ready, preview the final version by choosing Tools > Print Production > Output Preview.
Test each component to ensure it functions as expected. Before proceeding, take a few seconds to make any last-minute modifications. If your interactive files appear too big, Lumin PDF can help compress them quickly without losing quality.
How to compress PDFs with Lumin?
Compress large files into a tidy PDF for easy transfer. You should follow the below described
methods to compress PDFs.
- Reduce your file size. Compress your PDF to make it smaller before sending it.
- Compress and get going. Our tool is easy to use. Simply create a free Lumin Tools account, choose Compressor, and submit your files. You should be OK.
- Just compress rather than zip. While the traditional right-click and zip method is still extensively used, it can potentially harm your data, especially when passed from person to person. So instead, utilize Lumin to compress and secure your data.
The PDF converting tool allows you to interact with PDF files like your own notebook, painting, drawing, leave comments for the team, or change the PDF file in any way you like. Begin a free trial to see for yourself the benefits of Lumin.
Further Reading
