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Creating A Portfolio Presentation In Adobe Acrobat

OverviewCreating a portfolio presentation in Adobe Acrobat is a five-step process.

1. Prepare your photos or artwork files in Photo-shop (or any editing software that can export or print to a pdf) by sizing them for the primary presentation type that you are planning to create, either viewing (projection or screen) or printing. Make any corrections or changes as necessary to your files.

2. Create a layout for your presentation using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Quark or your favorite layout software. Using a layout program makes creating your presentation easier and gives you access to all the formatting and font tools that are not available in Photoshop.

3. Export your files from Photoshop as separate pdf files or export your multi-page document from you layout program as a single multi-page pdf.

4. Ad links and navigation and set initial view in Adobe Acrobat.

5. Deliver your presentation as a CD, a Web file or as an email.

Preparing Files In PhotoshopCrop you files as you want them to appear in your doc-ument. Check them carefully for mistakes or changes that need to be corrected or made.

If you are using Photoshop to design your document, you can Save As the individual pages as tif files. Then select all your saved files at once and drag them into Acrobat. This will automatically produce a milti-page pdf document. Optimization of file sizes can then be done from inside of Acrobat.

Alternately, you may save individual Photoshop files as Photoshop pdf’s. Choose Save As (screen 1) and select Photoshop PDF as the file type.

If you choose this method, file optimization can be handled by Photoshop according to the parameters you set in the Save Adobe PDF dialog box. Use the settings on the screen at the right (screen 1) as a good starting point for efficient file optimization. If these settings do not produce the results you want, then select the Compression setting (screen 3) on the left hand of the Save Adobe PDF dialog box and adjust the Bicubic Downsampling values higher or lower

Select Save As file format in this box

�. Photoshop Save As PDF Dialog

2. PDF Presets

3. Compression Settings

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5. PDF Optimizer

6. Settings for Print

7. Settings for Viewing

depending on your desired results (higher pixels/inch equals higher quality and larger files while lower values equals lower quality and smaller files). Make sure that you leave Bicubic Downsampling selected. You may also affect file sizes and quality by setting the JPEG Image Quality to a lower or higher setting as well.

Exporting Files From InDesignIf you are using Adobe InDesign, you can export your document as a pdf by going to the File menu and selecting Export and then selecting Adobe PDF in the Format drop down box. This dialog box is essentially the same as the Photoshop Save As dialog. You select the Adobe PDF Preset and change Compression set-tings in the same way (screen 4).

If you are using another layout program, check that program’s help files to learn how to export as a pdf.

Optimizing Files In AcrobatIf you have exported your document from InDesign or another layout program, you will still need to optimize in Acrobat. In the menu select Advanced and PDF Optimizer (screen 5). The settings shown in the dialog box on the right are a good starting place for a presen-tation that is intended to be printed (screen 6). Settings for presentations that are intended for viewing, web or projection are also shown (screen 7).

Adding Links and NavigationLinks allow you to move from page to page in your document or even to a web page outside of your docu-ment by selecting an area that you define as a link. These links work similar to links on web pages. These areas are the ones that you defined in your layout and should include some type of forward and back buttons so that the viewer can move forward in your presenta-tion or return to the main menu.

There is more than one way to create a link, but this tutorial will demonstrate the use of the link tool. In order to easily view the Link Tool in Acrobat, you can dock its pallet. Select View, Toolbars, Advanced Edit-ing (screen 8) and dock the toolbar. Links may be cut, copied and pasted like any other object by selecting them with the Select Object tool (screen 9).

Select the Link tool and drag to define the area that you want to activate as a link.

4. InDesign Export

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In the Create Link dialog box, (screen 10) select Link Type as Invisible or Visible Rectangle. If the Link Type is visible, you can set the line type and color.

Next, select the Highlight Style to define how the link is displayed when you mouse over it.

Now select a Link Action (screen 10). This determines what happens next when a link is selected. If you select Go to a page view and Next you will see the Create Go To View dialog box.

You can simply navigate to the page that you want to link to and select Set Link in the Create Go To View dialog box to link to that entire page. Alternately, you can highlight just selected parts of a page and then select Set Link (screen 11) to link to just a selected portion of a page.

Creating and Using DestinationsThis type of link works well if you do not change the order of you pages in Acrobat. In order to insure that your links stay connected, you can link to a Destina-tion. Destinations are pages or selected areas that you name and link to rather than linking to a page number. It is also possible to define Destinations that link to other pdf documents.

Choose View, Navigation Tabs, Destinations (screen 12) and Acrobat will automatically scan for all your named destinations. If you have not yet defined any, then the list will be blank.

To define a Destination select Destinations, Options, New Destination from the options menu (screen 13). Type a unique name for the destination and press En-ter/Return.

In the document you want to create the link from (source file), select the Link Tool and specify a source (what you want to click on to go to the destination) for that link (use above procedure for creating a link).

In the Create Link dialog box, set the Link Appear-ance, select Custom Link, and click Next (screen 14).

Click the Actions tab in the Link Properties dialog box, and choose Go To A Page View from the Select Action menu, and then click Add (screen 15).

To set a destination in the source file, click Set Link (screen 16).

In the Link Properties dialog box, select edit (screen 17).

8. Advanced Editing Toolbar

9. Advanced Editing Toolbar

Link ToolSelect Object Tool

10. Create Links

Select This Link Action

Don’t Select This (yet)

11. Go To View Dialog Box

Set Link

Setting Links

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12. Destination Menu

14. Create Links

Select This Link ActionThen Select

Creating & Using Definitions

13. Destinations Dialog Box

Select

In the Go to a page in this document dialog box, se-lect Use Named Destination (screen 18) and Browse to the Destination in the list that you want to link to (screen 19).

Setting Display SettingsTo have your presentation display full screen without menus and toolbars, select File, Document Properties, Initial View and select Open in Full Screen mode (screen 20).

If you want to display transitions between the pages in your presentation, select Document, Set Page Transi-tions. You can choose a transition and a speed for the length of the transition in the Effect and Speed drop down boxes. If you want your pages to automatically flip, select Auto Flip and After to set the length of time that a page will be displayed (screen 20).

What Next?Be sure that you test the functionality of your pre-sentation and that you have created ways to navigate through it.

How you distribute your presentation will depend on its purpose, CD, web, email.. Just remember to opti-mize according to the presentation’s purpose.

If you need more information on topics in this tutorial, search the Adobe InDesign help files.

Enter a name for destinationenter/return

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15. Link Properties

Select 2

Select 3

Select 1

16. Go To View Dialog Box

Set Link 17. Link Properties Dialog Box

Select

18. Go To A Page Dialog Box

Select

19. Choose Destination Dialog Box

Choose destination from list

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20. Document Properties

Select

21. Set Transitions

Selection Options