Pages

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Acrobat Clippings

This is my idea for what I call Acrobat Clippings.

Currently all acrobat documents must be viewed in a separate window via the acrobat browser plug-in. Why. Every other type of browser plug-in can display the specified content inline with other HTML content on the page. Why must all Acrobat content be kept segregated? I understand thatmost Acrobat documents are just that, entire documents. However, if the Acrobat browser plug-in could display documents in-line (on the same page and in the same window as other HTML content) then a wider array of applications opens up for the Acrobat format.

I propose that Adobe develop a means by which the Acrobat browser plug-in can dislpay content in-line with other HTML content.In addition, I propose that they develop a means by which users can select segments of a page in an Acrobat document and quickly save just that selected area of the page as a separate Acrobat "Clipping."

Then, people can include just the parts of an Acrobat document, that cannot easily be displayed as HTML, directly in-line with their HTML content. Yes, I know it is possible to save a selected part of an Acrobat document as a graphic file by using the snapshot tool and pasting that into a graphics program. However, this greatly degrades the quality of the image and throws away all the additional features offered in Acrobat such as linking or forms. Using this technology, web designers and others wishing to document complicated information could place diagrams on their web pages with all the functionality of the Acrobat format. Imagine diagrams with links, without all the complicated area mapping required in HTML.


The contents of this post is Copyright © 2009 by Grant Sheridan Robertson.
However, I give anyone permission to use this idea in their product, especially Adobe.

No comments:

Post a Comment