Forum Discussion
Make Your PDF Pop in Rise 360
Feeling a little limited by using attachment blocks to share all your PDFs? Here are a couple of alternatives to freshen up your resources list! Both of these methods are perfect to use when you don’t have another easy hosting option to store your PDFs on the web.
First, create a new Rise 360 course to serve as a holding place for your PDF files. Upload your PDFs to a lesson in this course using attachment blocks. Hover over the the attachment block, and right click to copy the attachment URL. We’ll use this URL as a link to your PDF file in your actual course.
In your actual course, you can use the link to your PDF file in two ways:
- Insert a button block, and edit the button to point to your attachment URL that you just copied:
- Or, insert an embed block, and embed your PDF right into the lesson by pasting the URL:
Now you try! You can even embed your PDFs into other interactive blocks using this method. Let me know how it goes!
28 Replies
Hi there,
if you embed a pdf in your Rise course, Articulate automatically creates the URL, in which the pdf opens once you click it. One of our clients seem to run into an issue when uploading the scorm package to their LMS, as the link to the pdf files exceeds the maximum length which their LMS accepts..
Is there any way to influence the URL, which Articulate builds?
Many thanks in advance!
Simone& Aishwarya
Hi Simone & Aishwarya! To avoid getting extra long file names for PDF attachments, please make sure you're not using special characters like dashes, spaces, accented characters, or other symbols. I hope this helps!
If the embedded PDF is fillable by the learner, will it allow the learner to exit and return to the course lesson/pages and retain the information entered by the learner?
Hi Hetlena, the filled out PDF is saved locally on the learner's computer so the PDF on the course will not change, and will remain the un-filled version.
This a good workaround but there seems to be issues with continuity of the PDF showing reliably every time. Sometimes the embedded area is blank, but I can return to the homepage of the course then come back to the lesson to see the PDF, other times it just won't show up at all.
I get this behaviour too - with a simple URL (no iframe code). The embed feature for a PDF is unreliable and unusable. I see that PDFs have been discussed for years - I presume it hasn't always been the case?!
Looking at the request/response headers - the server is returning a 204 code when it fails to display, which means there is no content being returned (blank screen).
Hello Matt and Nick,
Sorry to hear that you're seeing a blank screen when trying to view your embedded PDF.
Typically, a blank screen could mean that the PDF failed to load from the platform where it is hosted. Would you mind sharing copies of your PDFs here? I'd like to test the same embed behavior by hosting your PDF files on an environment that simulates a file server. I'll delete it when I'm done testing!
I used the example from the post to upload it into a course on Rise 360, then linked to it from another course also on Rise 360. Everything is hosted via Articulate on the Rise 360 software.
Matt Rinker
Training & Development Manager
Yes. It does work sometimes to display the PDF but never 100% of the time. Attached shows the web address being used.
Try something like this... <iframe src="https://articulateusercontent.com/rise/courses/----------.pdf" height="1080px" width="1080px"></iframe>
That seems to be working more reliably. Why would that work better than the actual URL alone being inserted into the embed slide directly?
Matt Rinker
Training & Development Manager
I upload a file as an attachment, then use the embed feature to link it, then delete the original file attachment block, the embed feature still shows it. I thought I deleted my attachment.
Does this mean that everything I've ever uploaded, whether or not I ended up using it in a course, is still stored on Articulate servers somewhere?
Hello Tim,
You are correct. What you upload in a Rise attachment block is stored on our servers.
This prevents broken links in your courses when the original file is removed from its location. Your content remains private unless you choose to share it with others, so in your case you can remove the attachment block if you do not wish to share the content in your course.
You can rest easy knowing we use bank-grade encryption to store your content and transfer it between your computer and our servers. Please check out the article below for details on how we keep your data safe.
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have additional questions.
