When to "Use" or "Not to Use" the Preview Panel

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about working with InDesign to create apps for the iPad and other tablets using Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite tools within InDesign. They range from simple to very complex  but one of the most common questions pertain to previewing articles and folios.
The number one issue with previewing is that items that look perfect in InDesign’s Preview Panel do not work on the iPad. I’ve also seen this brought up by users working on interactive PDFs and EPUBs.
Unfortunately, the Preview Panel, has a name that is a bit misleading. That panel is designed for previewing SWF export and would have been more appropriately named the SWF Preview Panel.
So what should you use to preview your work? For PDF there’s really no substitute to exporting to interactive PDF and opening it in Adobe Reader or Acrobat Pro version 9 or later. For DPS output, Adobe has provided the Adobe Content Viewer as part of the DPS folio building tools. The viewer is installed with the tools and can be accessed by pressing the preview link on the bottom of the Folio Builder Panel or the Overlay Creator Panel. There is also a Preview Folio command in the file menu.




Last but not least is EPUB. Based on HTML and CSS, it’s nearly impossible to get any kind of accurate preview in InDesign. For this, Adobe provides Adobe Digital Editions. The first release was rather buggy but I’ve had success using the beta of the next release. For those interested in checking it out you can download it here.
I hope that clears things up a bit and will point you in the right direction to avoid any unpleasant surprises when it’s time to send your work to a client. With any luck at all the engineers are working on a shiny new Preview Panel that can more accurately live up to its name.

By: Bob Levine - http://indesignsecrets.com

Posted in: InDesign