RunRev vs. Acrobat

[InfoCentral]

I usually produce my training material in Adobe Acrobat. I am currently attempting to learn Revolution but in learning it I keep asking myself can't I do all this already in Acrobat? What is the advantage I will gain in learning Revolution over using Acrobat? Thanks...

[FourthWorld]

Revolution is a good choice for making applications. Acrobat is a good choice for making printable page layouts.

I'm not sure I see a comparison here. What am I not understanding?

[InfoCentral]

Revolution is a good choice for making applications. Acrobat is a good choice for making printable page layouts.

I'm not sure I see a comparison here. What am I not understanding?

If you thought that Acrobat was just for making print documents than you have been missing a lot!

While I do use the pdf file extension for document and image transfer almost exclusively, I create media rich training applications as well. Perhaps a few examples:

Acrobat Multimedia

Interactive Business Communications

Example Project (Pink Floyd)

When I first started learning Acrobat, Adobe was highlighting its multimedia and interactivity capabilities. I don't know what has changed but they are more in turn to the forms and document side of it now. The part I don't like about using Acrobat the most is that you don't have complete control over the users navigation. They can actually skip around the document which you may not want them to be able to do. I find this particularly troubling when creating educational material with an advancing interactive quiz. I don't want the user to advance until they are able to correctly answer the question on the current material. If they answer incorrectly then they are taken back to where the answer was given in the material.

[FourthWorld]

Interesting stuff, InfoCentral. Thanks.

With Rev you'll definitely have more control over navigation, with the tradeoff for the design freedom being that it's probably a bit more work than authoring in Acrobat. I haven't had even the Acrobat player installed for years so I have no idea what their authoring tools are like, but I'm guessing it's not scripting.

[InfoCentral]

Interesting stuff, InfoCentral. I haven't had even the Acrobat player installed for years so I have no idea what their authoring tools are like, but I'm guessing it's not scripting.

Acrobat is a funny program in that you don't have authoring tools and few editing tools. You build your complete document or layout in another program then import into Acrobat for adding interaction elements. Scripting has always been an option and I still use an older version before the Macromedia acquisition. At that time Adobe used Java Script but with the integration of Macromedia into Adobe and now the full Flash engine embedded in Acrobat Reader the scripting has changed to ActionScript 3. Not keeping up with the latest I assume that you would still be able to use Java Script as well. Most of the interaction is achieved without needing any script. You just make a hotspot and assign an action to it. Most actions have their own properties panel with options for selection. Click and your done.