Week Six

OBJECTIVES

Create the rest of the pages required for the interactive eBook Be Fire Safe using Adobe InDesign.

PROJECT 

The project I have been tasked to do is for New Zealand Fire Service. They wish to have two books (Be Fire Safe activity book and Wise Up, the choice is yours) which are published made into interactive eBooks which can be used with an Android device which will allow greater accessibility to children within the school environment.

TASKS

Create five pages using Adobe InDesign

Insert text boxes

Insert text

Insert graphics

Insert page number

Insert colour

Insert shapes

DAILY LOG

Monday

Had to restart all over again as the graphics and text were slightly blurry. To do this I made each page a PDF file, made sure it was 100%, took a snapshot and added it into a Word document (no margins) then saved each page as a PDF file. On checking each page was alot clearer and easier to read. I followed the following process:

• Select Adobe InDesign
• Select File
• Select New
• Select required amount of pages and select book
• Change margins and gutter to 0
• Set page to 45% ( having the pages like this enabled me to use the rectangular frame tool to fit a frame onto the whole page, (the rectangular tool has to cover the whole page (white space)
• Select File
• Select Place
• Select page one
• Select Open
• Click on image in centre of page (do this process for each of the 16 pages)
• SAVE
• • Within Export to Interactive PDF window
  • Select Pages as All Pages
  • Select View after exporting
  • Select Forms and Media to Include All
  • Select JPEG Quality as Maximum
  • Select OK

The images are compressed as a JPEG (Lossy) and you can save the quality as either medium, high or maximum. I saved mine as maximum.

Tuesday

Meeting with client (Mark Fowler, New Zealand Fire Service) today at 10am at EIT.

We discussed where I was up to, what software I was using (we also discussed the fact that we had both looked for free software on-line which could make interactive eBooks) and how it was going so far. Mark had a look at the book and was happy with the progress to date. However, he did ask if I could add a sound button on page 10 so that the poem could be read and a drag and drop facility on page 12 instead of drawing a line from one object to another. These I will have to look into and play with the software to see if this can be done. Mark also talked about what the Fire Service use at the moment, they use the Citrix System which provides servers, applications (Intranet) and networking. They use SMS - Station Management System and Training Management System and because there are servers all over the place nothing 'talks' to anything. At the moment the security system they use is Knox which is from Samsung. Next year there is going to be a large IT roll out for the whole of the fire service, each fire truck will use Samsung tablets.

I managed to insert all the text boxes, naming them for pages that required them and saved the document on my drive and laptop (so I have a copy in case something happens to the drive - or laptop).

Wednesday

As several of the things I am trying to do I can't and I am getting frustrated and annoyed I have been watching videos on YouTube and reading the books (from the library). 

Thursday

Saw the hand specialist today about my left index finger as I broke in February and I do not have full movement yet which is annoying as it is hard to type. The specialist sent me to see the physio who was in the same building to make an appointment. As he was there he quickly saw me, giving me some exercises and he strapped my fingers together. I didn't get home until late so that was a day not working on the eBook.

Friday

Today I needed to discuss with client what he requires in regards to drag and drop, as he was away I sent an email. I sat and read part of Multimedia Literacy 3rd ed. by F. T. Hofstetter, this was in regards to my research project. I have also been reading Graphic Design Essentials: Skills, Software and Creative Solutions by J. W. Macanio for the same reason. Within this book is a chapter on InDesign so I made lots of notes today and typed some out for my assignment. 

PROBLEMS

Time out to see specialist. Work not 100% clear.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Don't break fingers. Get somebody to check work for clarity before you get too far into it.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

My learning experience this week was good in one way. I recreated several pages of the interactive eBook and I am feeling good about that. Not so good about it not being so clear in the first place.

STATUS OF PROJECT

The objectives for this week was to add the rest of the pages to complete the first interactive eBook. Although all the pages have been included not all of the functions that I wanted to do have been done so I am slightly behind.

REFLECTION ON ISSUES

What a hard lesson to swallow when friends saw the book and made comments that it was not 100% clear (graphics and text). I could see what they meant and the pages were only slightly off - say at 98% but that was not good enough. Spent a frustrating Sunday and Monday sorting out how to correct this and get back up to where I had previously been. On a good note the client's feedback was good. He asked for a couple of additional features which will be included within the eBook.