Creating Intelligent Graphics

You create intelligent graphics by adding objects with properties that associate data, like cost and part number, or that allow users to interact with the objects.

Adding Interactivity to Objects

Some examples of interactivity you can add to objects in Designer are

• Links in a PDF file to other objects in the file or to other PDF files
• Buttons that play or stop an animation in Flash Player
• Hot spots on image maps that link to Web pages

To add an interactive (or other) property to an object you use the Object Fields tab of the Object Properties dialog box. After naming the object, you enter its properties in the Field and Value columns.

URL Property

The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) property can be entered as a Field on the Object Properties dialog box for use in PDF, Flash, and image map files. The Value for a URL is a Web address. Examples:

http://graphics.mycompany.com/mypage.html

file://C:\graphics\mypage.html

Publishing Intelligent Graphics

After you create a drawing with intelligent objects you can use the Export command or a Publish to Web command to create files to distribute to users. If you export the drawing as a PDF file, users can view and interact with it in Acrobat Reader. When you use a Publish to Web command, Designer creates a graphic file as well as an HTML file that you can use immediately.