Docs on a CD

[AmyG]

I tried a search but couldn't really tell if people had the same issue. I'm making a CD with autoplay to give to our clients when they complete a transaction with us. Pop in the CD and up comes the flash with a link to our website and (hopefully) buttons for all of their documents which we have included on the CD. These documents would be mostly .pdf or Word Docs but might also include some .exe files as well. I saw how to open an explorer window to the CD but is there any way to make a button that when clicked opens a word doc or pdf that is located on the CD?

[Gambini]

Hi, download a copy of Flash Studio PRO v2 and you can use a simple FSCommand to load any documents in a new window or even INSIDE your Projector.

Example code:

file = "myFile.doc";
fscommand("flashstudio.exec","file");

I hope this helps!

[AmyG]

Thanks for the quick response. I'm not sure what we're trying to accomplish is worth investing in yet another application and the associated learning curve. Is there no way to accomplish this in Flash MX?

[Northcode]

Hey Amy, there's a pretty long thread here that started out as a question about how to do this in a cross-platform situation (Mac/Win) and turned into a discussion of some FREE utilities I wrote for Windows that let you do this without shelling out any bucks. You have to do a bit more work, so you pay in sweat instead of coin

[jstarkey]

Originally posted by AmyG
Thanks for the quick response. I'm not sure what we're trying to accomplish is worth investing in yet another application and the associated learning curve. Is there no way to accomplish this in Flash MX?

Amy, I apologize for Gambini's spam. I sent a PM warning him before I banned him.

He's been banned now. If he spams any more of your threads, please feel free to contact me and I'll take care of it.

[XcVbSdRw]

AmyG,

I put together a couple of examples for ya. Grab em at the links below,

<I removed them from the server now - if anyone wants them I can email them to you>

The first example is a simple control panel that will launch 6 different items, 2 Word documents, 2 PDFs and 2 EXEs. Since Flash MX requires launchables to be in an fscommand folder you'll see that is where I'm storing my DOCs, PDFs and EXEs. Also, since Flash will only let you launch EXE or BAT files, you'll see that I had to create BAT files for my PDFs and DOCs.

When you try this example you'll probably notice the ugly little black DOS box that pops up whenever you launch a DOC or PDF. That is the BAT file doing its job (and messing up the cool look and feel of the panel!)

The second example is identical to the first except it uses the PROXY.EXE program (which is free from Northcode) in addition to the BAT files. The cool thing is you get the same functionality, launching a PDF or DOC, but without the ugly black window!

Using the PROXY.EXE is simple. Mainly you're just copying and renaming it for each DOC or PDF you wish to execute. Get the full instructions from this thread (or a link from inside it), http://www.flashkit.com/board/showth...hreadid=519274

You can use this technique to launch any file, not just DOCs and PDFs, however, remember that your end-user must have a program installed that will handle the DOC, PDF or whatever in order for this to work. If you think some of your audience will not have Acrobat already installed you should probably mention that they need it and provide a link to Adobe.com. Same for other filetypes.

Good Luck!

[AmyG]

Wow, thanks for all the good resources. I'll definitely check them out over the weekend. I knew there had to be away around paying $239.