7 replies to this topic

[Francis S.]

I'm wanting to produce some maps in PDF format (why is the spell-checker flagging "PDF"?) with links (external) and hiearchical bookmarks (internal). These maps would be periodically updated and have layers with text and vector art (and links and bookmarks) added to them. Illustrator (as near as I can see) doesn't support links and bookmarks. I have heard that InDesign is a great tool for creating and managing PDF files. What I want to avoid is fooling around in Acrobat adding link and bookmarks after the fact.

I read that InDesign can import Illustrator files with layers; so the initial workflow could be ArcGIS>Illustrator>InDesign>PDF. But what about the updates and adds? InDesign looks to have all the right tools to draw maps - is anyone doing this?

Thanks,
Francis

[rudy]

I'm wanting to produce some maps in PDF format (why is the spell-checker flagging "PDF"?) with links (external) and hiearchical bookmarks (internal). These maps would be periodically updated and have layers with text and vector art (and links and bookmarks) added to them. Illustrator (as near as I can see) doesn't support links and bookmarks. I have heard that InDesign is a great tool for creating and managing PDF files. What I want to avoid is fooling around in Acrobat adding link and bookmarks after the fact.

I read that InDesign can import Illustrator files with layers; so the initial workflow could be ArcGIS>Illustrator>InDesign>PDF. But what about the updates and adds? InDesign looks to have all the right tools to draw maps - is anyone doing this?

Thanks,
Francis

We use InDesign all the time to do the layouts of our maps. We create a layout in InDesign, then place Illustrator files in the layout. When the maps are updated in Illustrator they are automatically updated in InDesign. Provided the extents of the Illustrator files doesn't change, it works great. It can be a bit slow if you are dealing with multiple large Illustrator files.

With regards to links and bookmarks, are you referring to hyperlinks that a user would click on and jump to some other Internet page? I haven't got experience with that working in InDesign so I'm not sure if that would be exported to a pdf.

[Francis S.]

That's sounds better than I expected, having the file automatically update. Added layers too? What versions of InDesign and Illutrator are you using, and are you on Mac or PC?

The links would go to websites on the internet, and the bookmarks would refer to other parts of the map with specific layers at a specific zoom. It would be great if these were settable in InDesign rather than Acrobat because it would be tedious to recreate the links and bookmarks in Acrobat with each update!

Francis

[rudy]

That's sounds better than I expected, having the file automatically update. Added layers too? What versions of InDesign and Illutrator are you using, and are you on Mac or PC?

The links would go to websites on the internet, and the bookmarks would refer to other parts of the map with specific layers at a specific zoom. It would be great if these were settable in InDesign rather than Acrobat because it would be tedious to recreate the links and bookmarks in Acrobat with each update!

Francis

Well, not quite automatic - it does require a little user intervention (clicking "OK" to update a link when you re-open a file, for instance - but no manually reloading each map file). You can set the linked in Illustrator file to display on specific layers or to display what the Illustrator file is already displaying (i.e. what layers were visible when you last saved the file). I find it easier to do the latter, particularly if you have a lot of layers.

We are using CS3 for both InDesign and Illustrator.

And this, from the InDesign help file: "You can create hyperlinks so that when you export to Adobe PDF, a viewer can click a link to jump to other locations in the same PDF document, to other PDF documents, or to websites." So you might be in luck.

[David Medeiros]

If your looking to include links in the map file that allow the user to click and navigate to other map pages (like clicking on the edge of a map to naivagate to the next map in the series etc.), Adobe Acrobat Pro does that for you. Acrobat will also allow you to place bookmarks and links to web pages or other supporting documents like photos and word files.

[natcase]

We use the same workflow here. We do not have links embedded in the Illustrator portions.

You can select within InDesign which layers in the AI file to display, but these settings reset to "current visible layers" if the layer structure changes between versions or if you relink to a differently-named file.

The only other caveat I'd add is that if the extent of the artwork changes in the Illustrator file, you can see a shift in the InDesign file. I think its particularly in files saved as EPS, but sometimes I think it happens other times, particularly if you are re-linking to a file (I often have trouble with it resizing to fit the same image space in InDesign, going for example from 100% to 123%, "just because it feels like it.") I think there's a setting to avoid this problem, but I haven't found it. It might be a good ides to include an oversized no-fill box around the area being mapped in Illustrator, and lock the layer it's on, and then make certain no new art falls outside this line.

[Francis S.]

Thanks for all the information! Looks like I'll head over to a graphic artist friend's office to check out InDesign in person.

Francis

[rudy]

We use the same workflow here. We do not have links embedded in the Illustrator portions.

You can select within InDesign which layers in the AI file to display, but these settings reset to "current visible layers" if the layer structure changes between versions or if you relink to a differently-named file.

The only other caveat I'd add is that if the extent of the artwork changes in the Illustrator file, you can see a shift in the InDesign file. I think its particularly in files saved as EPS, but sometimes I think it happens other times, particularly if you are re-linking to a file (I often have trouble with it resizing to fit the same image space in InDesign, going for example from 100% to 123%, "just because it feels like it.") I think there's a setting to avoid this problem, but I haven't found it. It might be a good ides to include an oversized no-fill box around the area being mapped in Illustrator, and lock the layer it's on, and then make certain no new art falls outside this line.

I concur with natcase on this issue. We've run into it too many times - resizing the map causes the map to shift in InDesign.