[pdftex] Looping presentations inside another document

[Alexander Grahn]

Brad,

On Tue, Oct 30, 2007 at 04:48:58PM -0500, Brad Burkman wrote:
>I usually use plain TeX rather than LaTex, ...
I see.

>... because I find the TeXBook so much more pleasant to read.
Really!? For me it is the absolute last resort in case I cannot find the
information elsewhere.

>While I used pdfLaTeX to create the
>animated file, I used pdfTeX for everything else.  
I cannot imagine how to write a typographically correct document without
predefined document styles and accompanying helper packages as LaTeX offers
them. How, for example, do you generate a bibliography? Writing
documents with TeX appears to me as writing programs without compiler
by putting the bits of machine code manually.

>\hbox{\pdfximage width 9cm {1-5-8-0.pdf}}
Just creates a PDF XObject of 1-5-8-0.pdf. XObjects
is some kind of readily typeset entity containing graphics and
text that can be replayed as often and wherever you want.

>Perhaps I should treat it as an annotation rather than an image?
This is what animate.sty does. All XObjects (one for each frame,
basically) are referenced within a container XObject using the PDF /Do
operator. Each such reference is surrounded by marks that associate it
with an OCG (optional content group). The container XObject is made
the appearance of a widget annotation while JavaScript actions are
associated with the events that may occur in relation to the annotation
(mouse down/up, page open/close etc.); OCG specific JavaScript methods
therein hide or unveil the individual frames in a dynamic fashion.

>would you suggest the syntax?
Look into animate.sty. If you want to produce a generic TeX package,
you will have to re-implement all the other LaTeX packages animate.sty
relies on.

Cheers,
Alexander