Add audio to a PDF

To add audio to a PDF, draw an area in the Viewnamic editor and upload an audio file into it – a voice-over, an interview, music or the sound of a video. Readers see a small round speaker button on the page and start the audio with one click.

Step by step

1. Open your PDF in the editor (see Editor basics).
2. Click Add area, drag a small rectangle where the button should sit and click Save. The button appears in the middle of the area.
3. Drop the audio file onto the area. Or click the area, open the Audio tab and click Upload file – or choose an audio file you uploaded before.
4. Wait until the right column marks the area Completed. In the editor, a click on the button plays a preview.
5. Click the pencil icon next to the area, choose the Audio settings (below) and click Save.
6. Publish with Save or Replace.

Audio settings

• Keep playing on other pages – the audio goes on when readers turn the page. It then appears as a small audio badge in the bottom right corner of the viewer, with pause and a time line, until its page is back or the audio ends. Without this setting, the audio pauses when its page leaves the screen.
• Loop – the audio starts again when it ends.

What readers see

• A round, light grey button with a muted speaker. A click starts the audio, and the speaker then shows the volume. Another click pauses it.
• While it plays, pointing at the button widens it into a small bar with a time line for jumping within the audio, and a volume slider rises above it. iPhones and iPads have no slider – readers use the device’s volume buttons.
• Only one audio plays at a time: starting another one stops the first.
• With the keyboard, readers reach the area with Tab and start it with Enter; on the time line, the arrow keys jump 5 seconds.
• Audio never starts by itself.

Formats

You can upload MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, OGG, Opus, FLAC and AIFF files – or a video file, whose sound is used. Viewnamic converts the file in your browser into a compact M4A file in the sound quality of your plan; only that file is uploaded. Each converted file may be up to 500 MB – enough for several hours of sound.

To build up a library first, go to Workspace → Your dynamic content → Audio and use the upload button (Upload audio file). The same conversion runs there.

Transcript and accessibility

In the Workspace’s Audio panel, the accessibility icon (Edit accessibility information) next to an audio file opens a form for an Accessible audio title, a Short description, a Transcript and an Accessible content alternative URL. A transcript is recommended: people who cannot hear the audio read it instead. Readers find it under Accessibility information in the viewer and in the Reading Mode; an alternative link appears as a small badge on the speaker button.

Good to know

• With Keep playing on other pages, the audio also goes on in Grid view and in the Reading Mode – readers can listen while they read the text.
• If your plan includes statistics, you see in how many visits each audio file was played (see Publication statistics).

Audio counts like a video: each area with an audio file counts toward your plan’s total of interactive content, and the sound quality follows your plan’s video quality. See Pricing.