Digital Workshop

Slightly away from the topic,

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/file_types_manager.html

This is a freeware application that will display & edit filetypes under Vista rather than hacking the registry

Mack

Mac,

I've been using this script, and clients are happy so far, until today:

The client's got an XP laptop, with Office 2000 running. He says that the powerpoint launches as expected, but when the first screen of it comes up, there's no text on the powerpoint.

His colleague is running Office 2003, and it works fine.

I've made him run the powerpoint from c:/temp in Explorer (bypassing the multimedia altogether) and he says it runs correctly.

He's bringing his laptop over in a couple of hours "for me to see".

As it's only him using the presentation, and he's on XP, I could go back to the original "launch this file" command.

But I wondered if there might be another reason I've missed (so I don't look stupid!!!)

Linda

Hi Linda,

Further to the email I've had quick think and look at this and it doesn't seem to make sense what the person is telling you:

The pathway for Office 2000 would not be picked up by this script and PPTVIEW.EXE wouldn't exist so the file should fail to launch at all using this script.


If the file is launching then I would assume that he has one of the PP viewers installed which might be a different problem altogether.

Mack

I had a look at his laptop - he actually had Office 2003.

One of our test machines has this too, and it worked fine on our test pc, but not on his laptop.

So, problem: on his laptop with Office 2003, using your script, the powerpoint launches, but with no text.

So I produced a "launch file" version just for him. It worked perfectly.

My problem is therefore solved, but it does mean that I've still not got a "solves all" answer... !

Ah well, he paid his balance, anyhow!!!

Morning Linda,

Very odd. The script is designed to simply launch the PPS - why it should affect the running of the file doesn't make sense.

At a guess, without seeing the system / file, I'd say that the script is forcing the file to load via a specific PP viewer and the 'default' launch action for that type launches using something else - but it is a guess

I'd start by re-installing the viewer to ensure that file types are correctly registered. Alternatively, if you use a professional installer, you can configure file types during the installation of publication - making it seamless to the user.

I'm attaching an updated example that checks the OS before proceeding. It will only use the script method if Vista is found otherwise it will launch using the standard Opus action.

Regards,

Mack

Could someone help me amend this so that the file golf.pps is found in the root of the System Publication directory, rather than c:/temp?

{
if (FileExists("C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office11\\PPTVIEW.EXE"))
{
LaunchFile("C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office11\\PPTVIEW.EXE","c:\\temp\\golf.pps")
} else if (FileExists("C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office12\\PPTVIEW.EXE"))
{
LaunchFile("C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office12\\PPTVIEW.EXE","c:\\temp\\golf.pps")
} else
{
Debug.trace('Viewer Not Found')
}


}

Many thanks, Linda

Hi Linda

Simply replace the path with SYSTEM_PUBLICATION_DIR

LaunchFile("C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office11\\PPTVIEW.EXE",SYSTEM_PUBLICATION_DIR+"golf.pps")

Mack