Webinar Review: Revamp Your InDesign Assets with Visual Stories

There is no doubt that Issuu is where PDFs come to life. While the mainstay and foundation of success using Issuu are flipbooks, several features accentuate and deepen the connection between viewers and content. Here, we will be focusing on the Visual Stories feature written about previously.

For those interested, there was also another InDesign + Issuu webinar review that focused on how to transform InDesign PDFs into Issuu flipbook experiences here.

Marketing Expert and Style Extraordinaire Meghan Cole delves further into utilizing InDesign and Issuu together in her most recent webinar, but if you missed it, follow along below. 

Save time with Adobe Exchange’s Extension Issuu Stories

The short of it is that Adobe has teamed up with Issuu to give users freedom and tools to create stunning, active visuals by creating this extension free and accessible to all Adobe InDesign + Issuu users. Users can now go straight from InDesign to Visual Stories- no publication upload needed (though advised). For those familiar with Visual Stories, this extension is welcome news, and for those unfamiliar with the feature, look onward.

Create Visual Stories in Adobe InDesign

First, finalize and save the InDesign content. Next, rather than exporting to PDF, go to File>Issuu-Create a Story.

Using the interface that is triggered, select the style which best reflects the content and message. (More styles are coming in the future!)

Then, pick the foundational visual and text assets that will go into the Visual Story.

Once the style and assets have been chosen, click on “Create Story.” This will open up the browser and confirm that it is to be exported onto Issuu’s website. It will also ask for the Issuu.com login credentials of the account being used.

Once logged in, users can further customize the unique Visual Stories.

Whether it be choosing the specific InDesign assets to be used

Customizing said assets

Or adding further assets that were not in the original InDesign file.

Once satisfied with the content and quality of the Visual Story, click “Create Story” again, this time in the left-hand dashboard.

The overlay that comes up is where the Visual Story title and description can be edited as you wait.

When the creation is complete, the “Share” button should be activated at which point the Visual Story is ready.

Share Visual Stories to Everyone, Everywhere

Next, click the newly activated “Share” button.

There are a few options in sharing the newly created Visual Story:

1) A permanent AMP link that will never disappear (unlike other platforms’ stories) and will show up in SEO

2) One-click sharing to the most popular social media platforms

3) Downloading the .mp4 file created

The .mp4 download can be of all the assets chosen or individual pages of assets. This video file is useful for social media marketing where scheduling assets is key.

All of the Visual Stories users create can be accessed from the left-hand dashboard by clicking on “Visual Stories”. From there, further editing and sharing of any Visual Stories created are accessible.

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Go to Issuu’s webinar page to more future webinars!