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I have a cca. 120 pages book prepared in InDesign CC (2017), which was printed some time ago and now the customer wants it published on their website. The layout is quite complicated (it's more like an album with many pics), so finally we selected the Flash format, using the Export... menu's SWF converter. (https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/interactive-web-documents-flash.html#create_interactive_swf_flash_files_for_the_web) It works pretty well, by creating an HTML plus a single SWF file which contains everything.

Is it possible to display the generated Flash application by either using:

  • parameters when initializing, or
  • JavaScript when it's already loaded,

to open the book on a specific page, not on the 1st one? (We'd like to make some links pointing to certain chapters directly, but still, let the reader page back if he wants to.)

I'm googling for some time and also tried to reverse-engineer the generated app, but no luck so far.

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  • 2
    Are you aware that Flash support is being dropped (or has been dropped) from major internet browsers (Firefox, Chrome), that it has never been supported on iOS (all these iPads...) and that Adobe itself will end the support of Flash in 2020?
    – xenoid
    Commented Aug 10, 2017 at 22:08
  • Yes, I know, it wasn't my decision I got the task to solve it. :)
    – Mkoch
    Commented Aug 11, 2017 at 7:54
  • 2
    Just wondering how you are going to test or demo it :)
    – xenoid
    Commented Aug 11, 2017 at 8:37
  • Further to the comment by @xenoid - might be better to publish as a PDF if you want everyone to be able to see it. Support for flash is non-existent on mobile devices. Perhaps you need to explain that to the decision maker, because it was a bad decision.
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented Aug 15, 2017 at 18:11

1 Answer 1

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You can create buttons inside the InDesign document that point to pages, but you can't load the document to a certain page.

If there's no interactivity in the InDesign doc, you could export to a FLA and open it in Flash Pro/Animate, then add ExternalInterface JavaScript communication to load a certain page. However, you'd have to rebuild the page transitions yourself (no small feat).

Alternatively, you use an InDesign to HTML5 tool.

There's a free script: https://indesignsecrets.com/exporting-from-indesign-to-html5-amazing-free-script.php

Plus I make a commercial one called in5.

Both would support linking to a specific page.

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