PDF Asset Xtra

 

Compatibilities: Required Xtras: PDF Xtra

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Join the best of both worlds: combine Director's superior multimedia capabilities to Acrobat's exceptional screen/page layout control and cost-effective production. The Integration New Media's PDF Asset Xtra adds new members of type PDF to your Director movie. Simply drag the new members to your stage, link them to the right PDF files, and you get a powerful complement to Director's Field and Text members.

Finally what we have all been waiting for; An Xtra that allows us to use PDF files inside Director. Now there is a truly cross platform solution for integrating the ease of Acrobat files with the power of Director (and best of all, it is Shockwave safe!) Take those projects to new levels and save hours of production time with this great new addition to the Director Xtras family. Start with a simple download and try out the sample move. The files load quickly and are easy to control, and the standard Acrobat control bars can be turned on and off as well. A number of the more advanced features like get page number/number of pages is only supported by the full version of Acrobat, and there are also features like extracting text from the current page that are only available in Windows. Overall, though, most of the standard functions like open, close, and print are universal, and Acrobat's standard user interface can be included as well. You will still have to handle the startup splash screen the first time you load a PDF (however you can suppress it with 3rd part Xtras), but Integration New Media has done an excellent job of harvesting all the functionality they could from each OS and version of Acrobat/Acrobat Reader. By using the full version of Acrobat (special pricing available through Integration New Media) you can open your projects up to some other great possibilities. With it you have the ability to control everything from the page number to the zoom and even search the document for keyword text. Add in INM's powerful V12 Database Xtra and you have a fully searchable database of all the PDF documents in your project. How's that for raw power? So is this a good value? For the most part, YES! If you author PC only and only in Projectors, then using the free ActiveX element will net you the same functionality, but on the Mac, cross platform, and via Shockwave, the PDF Xtra is the best, solid way to get Acrobat files easily into your projects that I have seen to date. For those high profile (and higher budget) projects you consider licensing the full version of Acrobat for even more flash and flare! The ease of cross platform scripting and the excellent way that commands are handled between versions of Acrobat and OS is far easier to use than the former methods of external control through lingo and Xtras. As easy as you would add an image to your cast, you can drop in PDF files.   The normal street price for the Xtra is a low $299 and for a limited time an introductory price of $199 is available. The free demo version is available for download and allows a full test of functionality. Give it a try and I am sure you will agree that this Xtra is a must have for any serious developer!