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Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Hawkmoon on November 13, 2021, 11:34:03 AM

Title: Flash Player blocked
Post by: Hawkmoon on November 13, 2021, 11:34:03 AM
I have created some PDF portfolios, using Adobe Acrobat, to serve as repositories for groups of related documents. Apparently Adobe portfolios rely on Flash Player to function. When I try to open any of the portfolios now, I just get an error message that I need to install Flash Player. When I go to Adobe's web site, they inform me that they have blocked Flash Player, and that I should uninstall it for security reasons.

Is there a newer, safer way to create portfolios containing multiple PDFs -- something that doesn't rely on Flash Player?
Title: Re: Flash Player blocked
Post by: K Frame on November 13, 2021, 11:53:00 AM
"When I go to Adobe's web site, they inform me that they have blocked Flash Player, and that I should uninstall it for security reasons."

Are they offering any suggestions as to a work around? Seems to me that the might, given that their own product relied on flash for usability.
Title: Re: Flash Player blocked
Post by: cordex on November 13, 2021, 12:09:16 PM
I am guessing it is actually his browser blocking flash and suggesting he remove it.
Title: Re: Flash Player blocked
Post by: K Frame on November 13, 2021, 12:20:08 PM
No, it's definitely Adobe.

Any help here, Hawk?

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/using-portfolio-without-flash-player/m-p/11745105
Title: Re: Flash Player blocked
Post by: Hawkmoon on November 13, 2021, 02:49:33 PM
No, it's definitely Adobe.

Any help here, Hawk?

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/using-portfolio-without-flash-player/m-p/11745105

Possibly, thanks.

It gave me an idea. I'm one of those dinosaurs who mostly uses my desktop for icons to start programs, rather than use the start button and scroll through the list. An exception is that I have a lot of building codes that I refer to frequently, so I had put icons for a number of them on the desktop. But, since building codes get updated typically on a 3-year cycle, the number of icons proliferates ... and it became unwieldy. So I bundled groups of codes together into portfolios, and then I only needed an icon for each portfolio.

I will look into the paid converter suggested in that link, and I'll consider trying an older version of Flash (but I'm reluctant about that one). One of the posts in there, however, gave me the idea that I can just create a new document in Word that's an index of hot links to the PDFs in a group. Then I can convert that document to a PDF, preserving the hot links and bypassing the portfolio ... and Flash.

Thank you.
Title: Re: Flash Player blocked
Post by: JTHunter on November 13, 2021, 03:30:30 PM
Hawk - for the last year, my Win. 7 computer has been getting periodic banners to "update" Flash in the form of a pop-up.  I do NOT do anything with the window but click on the "X" to close it.  I do this because an article I read last year stated that "support" for Flash was to be discontinued and there was a rumor that Adobe waas planning on putting a "kill switch" in Flash.  That's why I haven't allowed it to update.  I am using Firefox on this computer and it has had several updates, currently at 94.0.1, and the couple of programs I use Flash for are only used off-line.
If you only use Flash off-line, an older version shouldn't be a problem.

Try this - http://www.oldversion.com/search?query=flash
Title: Re: Flash Player blocked
Post by: Hawkmoon on November 13, 2021, 04:17:55 PM
The problem is, the portfolios I want to access are off-line, but I do a lot on the Internet and I can't control what some sites might want to do through Flash. I understand why Adobe killed Flash -- they created a monster and lost control of its security -- but I wish they had provided us users with a solution for accessing our old portfolios. After all, I created the things using Acrobat -- it's their bleepin' program!

K Frame: I need to study that link you provided a bit more. The idea of creating my own portfolio-like page didn't work. I was able to create a page, import cover images of three code books that belong in one group, and add three hotlinks to the PDFs on my network storage device (W-D MyCloud). When I exported the document to PDF, the links appear to be active links, but when I click on them all I get is a pop-up asking if I trust the destination location. I tell it to go ahead, and nothing happens. When I click the same link again, I get the same pop-up. It's not remembering that I just told it to go ahead.

For now, I've adopted the rather inelegant but workable expedient of editing the desktop shortcut to just take me to the directory that the code PDFs are located in. Clicking the icon opens Windows File Explorer to that directory, and I can open the files from there.

It works, and that's what I may end up with. I was hoping to do something a bit nicer looking.
Title: Re: Flash Player blocked
Post by: Hawkmoon on November 13, 2021, 04:30:38 PM
Further confounding input:

The Adobe-created portfolio won't open in Reader -- but will open using Acrobat 9. I can also open the portfolio using a PDF reader/editor from another software company. It's only Adobe Reader that doesn't work -- but I'm reluctant to set another program as the default "app" for opening PDFs. I don't have Acrobat on all my machines -- I only bought a single license. I have been using Reader as my default program for opening PDFs to read. I may have to look for a replacement.
Title: Re: Flash Player blocked
Post by: JTHunter on November 16, 2021, 10:17:33 PM
Hawk - try CutePDF.  I've been using it instead of Reader for several years.

https://www.cutepdf.com/index.htm
Title: Re: Flash Player blocked
Post by: Hawkmoon on November 17, 2021, 11:12:34 AM
Hawk - try CutePDF.  I've been using it instead of Reader for several years.

https://www.cutepdf.com/index.htm


Thanks. I tried that some time ago -- didn't like it.
Title: Re: Flash Player blocked
Post by: AJ Dual on November 17, 2021, 11:38:31 AM
There's a bunch of HTML5 based PDF flipbook/portfolio makers online.

Most of them have a free mode if you don't mind a watermark. Would that work?
Title: Re: Flash Player blocked
Post by: TechMan on November 17, 2021, 02:00:50 PM
Further confounding input:

The Adobe-created portfolio won't open in Reader -- but will open using Acrobat 9. I can also open the portfolio using a PDF reader/editor from another software company. It's only Adobe Reader that doesn't work -- but I'm reluctant to set another program as the default "app" for opening PDFs. I don't have Acrobat on all my machines -- I only bought a single license. I have been using Reader as my default program for opening PDFs to read. I may have to look for a replacement.

Try right clicking on the file and then select Open With from the menu and you should then be presented with the programs that are registered with the OS to open that extension.
Title: Re: Flash Player blocked
Post by: Hawkmoon on November 17, 2021, 05:57:54 PM
There's a bunch of HTML5 based PDF flipbook/portfolio makers online.

Most of them have a free mode if you don't mind a watermark. Would that work?

I'll look into them out of curiosity, but the watermark is pretty much a deal-breaker for my actual needs.
Title: Re: Flash Player blocked
Post by: Hawkmoon on November 17, 2021, 05:59:43 PM
Try right clicking on the file and then select Open With from the menu and you should then be presented with the programs that are registered with the OS to open that extension.

Been there, done that. Opens with Acrobat 9, doesn't open with Reader XI. I think that's because Acrobat 9 has Flash (or Flash functionality) built in, whereas Reader relied on external Flash.