>I would like to throw my hat in the ring and repeat the question: Is
>there a way of launching other apps from within a Metacard
>standalone. This would be great for running demos that are built
>using Java or Director etc. from MC without having to rebuild them
>in MetaCard.
>
>I have gone the other way...using the Open command to run a Metacard
>standalone from Director.
>TIA,
>Blair
Have you tried using the "launch" command? This allows you to launch
an application, either on its own or with a document to be opened.
Of course you'd need to know where Word was installed on the client
machine, but this should be available as a registry entry (under
Windows) or through AppleScript (under MacOS).
Here is the code I use to open the default Web browser on Mac/Win and
display a given file (either as a local file, or a general URL):
on showWebPage webPage, isLocal
if webPage is not empty then
set cursor to watch
set lockCursor to true
-- find default browser:
if "Mac" is in platform() then
put empty into theBrowser
else
-- special case - get path of Win internet Browser from
registry (no Mac equiv.):
put word 1 to -2 of \
queryRegistry("hkey_local_machine\software\classes\http\shell\open\command\")
\
into theBrowser
end if
if isLocal then
if there is a file thePage then
put webPage into thePage
else
set lockCursor to false
answer "Can't find Web page '" & thePage & "'." with "Cancel"\
titled "Unable to Go to Web Page"
exit showWebPage
end if
else
put webPage into thePage
end if
if "Win" is in gPlatform then
-- use default Win Browser from registry:
kill process theBrowser -- close any currently running Win Browser
wait 15 ticks
set lockCursor to false
launch thePage with theBrowser
else
-- MacOS - get Finder to select Mac Browser:
if isLocal then
put "file://" & thePage into localPage
replace " " with "%20" in localPage
set lockCursor to false
send localPage to program "Finder" with "GURLGURL"
else
put "url:" & thePage into remotePage
replace " " with "%20" in remotePage
set lockCursor to false
send remotePage to program "Finder" with "GURLGURL"
end if
replace " " with "%20" in localPage
set lockCursor to false
send localPage to program "Finder" with "GURLGURL"
end if
end if
end showWebPage
Note that you have to be careful about opening multiple copies of an
application under Windows (Word in particular is a real pain in this
respect!). This is why my code above will abort any currently
running copy of the Windows browser before launching a fresh copy to
display the specified file. This is not really very friendly for the
user, but is the lesser of two evils!
With a bit of fishing around and experimenting, you should be able to
adapt the above to work with Word (you'll need to find the equivalent
registry entry for Windows and AppleScript code for the Mac).
Using the "launch" command, you can open any application with/without
a file, you just need to know how to locate the application.
Hope this helps.
Peter
--
--------------------------------------------------------
Peter Reid
Reid-IT Limited, Loughborough, Leics., UK
Tel: +44 (0)1509 268843 Fax: +44 (0)870 052 7576
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.reidit.co.uk
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