Hello everyone welcome back I am your host Elias sarantopoulos.
Interactive hotspots are common interface elements in digital magazines, EPUBs and other digital mediums.
They provide contextual help in a non-invasive way which leads readers deeper into your content
and so in this Adobe InDesign CC tutorial we will create such an experience for your next EPUB.
So inside Adobe InDesign CC and with the EPUB Creative Interactive Hotspots file open, files
that I'm sharing with you at the bottom of the video description.
What we have here is actually a painting from the Louvre Museum describing a story that
took place in 1814 as the defense of Paris and that's a great example to create hotspots
to provide contextual help in a non-invasive way and lead readers deeper into your content.
So the first step is to set up our InDesign document by converting objects into buttons
for the interactive hotspots and as you can see under the layers panel here and under
the Contents layer I have three triggers because I have three hotspots and I would like to
point out that each of these triggers have an empty frame around it so users have more
real estate around the hotspot button to tap on.
So I'm going to target the first trigger here and we're going to convert this into a button
and I'm going to do this inside the Buttons and Forms panel so go ahead and click on the
convert button here, it's going to give us this generic name which I'm going to rename
this to something more relevant let's say, Trigger 1 and it's always a good idea to actually
name your buttons because you just never know how complex things might get later on.
OK, so we've got the first trigger now we're on with a second Trigger, again I'm going
to rename this is a Trigger 2 and for the third one that would be Trigger 3.
We will do the same thing for the hotspots, we're going to convert each of these hotspots
into a button so go ahead and do that this time we're going to rename this to Hotspot 1,
I am just going to copy this...this is going to be the second hotspot and lastly
we have the third hotspot like so.
OK, so basically everything has been converted into a button and now we're ready to move
on to the next part and work on the interactivity for the EPUB.
So in order to create the interactive hotspots inside our EPUB there are a couple of ways
you can approach this.
One is with the creation of series of two Multi-State objects or with the use of Show/Hide
buttons and Forms and that's the way I will follow this time around so we learn a new technique.
So the first thing we need to do is we need to give the trigger buttons in action so when
the trigger buttons are tapped the information gets revealed.
So I'm going to target the first Trigger button here and inside the Buttons and Forms panel
I'm going to create a new action, so click to create the new action and the Action will
be Show/Hide buttons and Forms action and under the Visibility, trigger one will not
be visible but Hotspot 1 will be visible.
OK, Let's do the same thing for the trigger 2, add a new Action, Show/Hide buttons and
Forms Action and the Trigger 2 will not be visible but the Hotspot 2 will be visible.
Let's do the same thing for the trigger 3 button, add new action, Show/Hide buttons
and Forms Action and under the Visibility, trigger 3 will not be visible but hotspot 3 will be visible.
OK, all right now the hotspots also need to have an action so when the user taps or clicks
they formation disappears so we're going to target the Hotspot 1 here we're going to give
it an action and that would be the Show/Hide buttons and Forms Action and under the Visibility
the Hotspot 1 will not be Visible until it is triggered so Hidden Until Triggered must
be checked on but the Trigger 1 will be visible.
OK, let's do something similar to the Hotspot 2, add a new action that will be Show/Hide
buttons and Forms and under the Visibility Hotspot 2 or not be visible Until Triggered
OK but the Trigger 2 will be visible.
And lastly we have this Hotspot 3, add a new action Show/Hide buttons and Forms and under
the Visibility the Hotspot 3 will not be visible until it's triggered, OK so Hidden Until Triggered
but the Trigger 3 will be visible.
OK, so let's go ahead and test our work so click on the EPUB Interactivity Preview panel
here and let's see with the Set Preview Spread Mode go ahead and click on the Play Preview
button, here's our preview so you can click or tap on the Hotspot, here's the first one
here's, the second one, here's the third one you can also click to collapse them and so on.
So as you can see this is a great way to create Interactive Hotspots for your EPUB and engage
readers deeper into your content.
Now inside the iPad I have already exported the InDesign document as an EPUB so let's go ahead and test that.
So we have the three hotspots, so tap on the first one let's say, the information gets
revealed and when you tap back the information disappears that works for the rest of the
hotspots like so.
Thank you for spending time with me, let me know if you have any questions below the comments
section, don't forget to subscribe to my channel and share the knowledge.
Elias Sarantopoulos.