> I want to make a simple "splash" screen with a button. if you
> press that
> button a PDF file needs to be opened (in the acrobat reader).
> does anyone
> know how to do this ? (without the PDF xtra). and also, is
> there a way to
> check if the reader is present ?
Tim,
I assume then that you do not want to "embed" the PDF in your movie.
There are 3 pieces to this puzzle:
1 - finding path to the PDF on your CD
2 - finding the path to the Acrobat reader on a given user's machine
3 - opening the Reader with the PDF
if you ABSOLUTELY know 1 & 2, you can simply use the built-in Director
functionality to do what you desire:
open xxx with yyy
Unfortunately, you will often know only item 2 with moderate
certainty. The reason for this is that the user may or may not have
installed the Acrobat reader and they could install it anywhere. To
find this information you will need to look in the system Registry.
Additionally, they may put your CD into a drive that may or may not be
one that you can guess the path to.
All in all it's a conundrum that is made simpler by using an Xtra to
determine these seeming unknowables. There are several Xtras available
to help you with this. MasterApp is one such Xtra. The MasterApp Xtra
contains a function specifically designed for that purpose named
mappLocateExecutable()
It returns the path to the executable registered to handle the
document at the file path specified. MasterApp gives you broad control
over other applications from your Director presentation. The most
common application for MasterApp is building connectivity between your
Director piece and various Web browsers and Web pages. However,
MasterApp is much more powerful than this basic use, including dozens
of methods for launching, monitoring and controlling external
applications.
You can find out more information, download an evaluation version or
purchase the Xtra here:
http://www.updatestage.com/xtras/xtrahome.html
I hope that this information is useful.
Cheers,
Al Hospers
Marketing Associate
UpdateStage
alhospers<at>updatestage<dot>com
http://www.updatestage.com
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