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Using PDFs in Stories - Why and Why Not
Using PDFs in Stories - Why and Why Not

How to use a PDF from Publisher, etc. in Educa - pluses and minuses

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Written by Educa
Updated over a month ago

It is possible to create a story in another program, such as Publisher, Word or Canva, then export it as a PDF and then add it to Educa as an "attachment." In the story it will open up in preview mode once published. Here's how it works:

  • Create story and add title as usual

  • Upload your PDF as an "attachment"

  • Add text, images or videos in the story boxes as per normal.

The story will show your text, images and videos first, and then will show the PDF open in preview mode. If it's more than one page, users can scroll down.

PDFs Are Not Easy to Read on a Phone

Here's the problem with this approach.

Most families will read your stories on a phone, either via an email link or on the Touch app. Either way, PDFs are not mobile responsive, they do not reformat to be easy to read on a phone. The PDF is a fixed format and so it just gets smaller as the device screen gets smaller. Most PDF's are very difficult to read on a phone.

Stories Built Using Educa's Editor Are Mobile Responsive

If you want your families to be able to read your stories on their phone, you should be using Educa's updated story editor.

The layout of stories created in our editor changes depending on the screen size. For phones this means images that might be 2 or 3 in a row on your desktop layout will go to one in a row, full screen width on a phone so they are still a reasonable size. Similarly, the text size adjusts.

Since one key value of a Learning Story is to get a family response, and many, if not most families first see your story on a phone, it is in everyone's best interest for your stories to be mobile responsive, readable on a phone.

Try our Story Editor

If you have intense formatting requirements, then yes, Publisher or another program might have value. But for most stories, our editor is more than enough. You can:

  • Add backgrounds

  • Use fancy fonts - for titles and text

  • Create any image layouts you like - and it's easy to move image around

  • Add borders - to images and to your printed story

Related Articles

Get creative - our story editor

Managing images - crop, color adjust, rotate, etc. - our image editor

Printing beautiful stories - borders, page size options, etc. - our print/PDF manager

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