Digital Workshop

I do NOT want to show PDF files on the thumb drive I am creating, so I was going to put them into "Additional Resources" which compresses them into the EXE file. It doesn't look like OPUS will recognize PDF files from Additional Resources, only JPG, AVI, WAV type files. Is this correct? Is there a way to add PDFs to the EXE so they are NOT displayed, yet OPUS will recognize them?

Hi Fred,

My understanding of the the additional resources is not that it's for adding resources to the executable but that it makes it easy to manage filename / paths when using resources in a script.

Opus will automatically embed certain types of files to the executable regardless of whether they are in additional resources - but PDFs is not one of them.

You may have some luck with an application that can pack the PDFs and Opus executable into a new executable. I don't use or recommend it, but there are some posts here on a program called enigma protector.

I'd have to wonder why the need to do this though? If it's for security, it's going to be more of a nuisance that effective if it could be done.

Mack

Mack --

Thanks for your response! Yes, my client doesn't want people to see/access the PDF files without using an opening screen Password. Looks like that is NOT going to happen. Additional Resources will compact the PDF files into the EXE file, but OPUS doesn't seem to want to open the PDF files when I click a Button to Launch them. It works with WAV files, for example.

Fred, here is a workaround you can try.

Rename the file as .xyz extension or other creative new filetype. e.g., instructions04.pdf becomes instructions04pdf.xyz

I ran a brief test in Opus v7 and both DocView and Browser objects will display that file --- at least in Preview, I did not test Publishing. Also I set the file in docview properties by browsing to folder and bypassing the preset filetypes. You may want to do something more 'clever' that can set the path or filename via a list read into a variable, or maybe simply a concatenation using the path/filename and the extension string.

BTW, if you go this route (having to rename all the files), look into IrfanView image viewer (free). It has a clever batch processor for renaming files (even if they are not .jpg .png etc -- tested and it works here too). Renaming options allow something like the following:
$Npdf.xyz (current name string plus add "pdf" plus add ".xyz") for the above example.


Cheers

@Lar, CMD's rename will do that

@Fred - Can the PDFs be on-line HTML versions?

Mack

Thanks for the ideas. I have solved the problem.

SOLUTION:
First, I went into Additional Resources for the Publication and selected ADD. I then went to the browser after "Add Single File." It shows acceptable file extensions. PDF is not one, but you can select "All Files" which will show everything, including PDFs. I selected the PDF file I wanted, then where it says "Script Alias" I ticked "Alias" and created a short unique name (for safety I used "_" an underscore if there was more than a single word). For speed, I did a COPY of what I typed for the Alias.

After clicking OK, I went to the Button Object I created for each Page. With a Left Mouse Click for a Trigger, my Action is "Launch." In the "Launch this file" field, I typed "AcroRd32.exe" which will launch the Adobe Acrobat Reader program.

In the next field, "with option/parameter..." I PASTED the Alias I previously created.

I repeated this process for each Page/PDF file I wanted to embed.

Finally, I Published a single EXE file in a new sub-folder. When I inspected that sub-folder, all I can see is the EXE file. When I double-click the EXE file, it opens to the Password screen I created. When you enter the correct Password, you go to a Table of Contents which lists all the Pages I created, each one has a thumbnail of the first page of its associated PDF file, plus a Button Object which when clicked, takes you to the PDF file via the Adobe Acrobat Reader. This reader is preferred because most people have it, plus you can scroll, magnify, and print the PDF document from it.

My only concern is for newer Windows computer which may not have AcroRd32.exe. I am not sure it that will be a problem, but this solution does work. There are NO PDF files visible/accessible from the sub-folder, which gives my client the security they wanted, plus the flexibility of the Adobe Reader.

Thanks for the ideas. I have solved the problem.

SOLUTION:
First, I went into Additional Resources for the Publication and selected ADD. I then went to the browser after "Add Single File." It shows acceptable file extensions. PDF is not one, but you can select "All Files" which will show everything, including PDFs. I selected the PDF file I wanted, then where it says "Script Alias" I ticked "Alias" and created a short unique name (for safety I used "_" an underscore if there was more than a single word). For speed, I did a COPY of what I typed for the Alias.

After clicking OK, I went to the Button Object I created for each Page. With a Left Mouse Click for a Trigger, my Action is "Launch." In the "Launch this file" field, I typed "AcroRd32.exe" which will launch the Adobe Acrobat Reader program.

In the next field, "with option/parameter..." I PASTED the Alias I previously created.

I repeated this process for each Page/PDF file I wanted to embed.

Finally, I Published a single EXE file in a new sub-folder. When I inspected that sub-folder, all I can see is the EXE file. When I double-click the EXE file, it opens to the Password screen I created. When you enter the correct Password, you go to a Table of Contents which lists all the Pages I created, each one has a thumbnail of the first page of its associated PDF file, plus a Button Object which when clicked, takes you to the PDF file via the Adobe Acrobat Reader. This reader is preferred because most people have it, plus you can scroll, magnify, and print the PDF document from it.

My only concern is for newer Windows computer which may not have AcroRd32.exe. I am not sure it that will be a problem, but this solution does work. There are NO PDF files visible/accessible from the sub-folder, which gives my client the security they wanted, plus the flexibility of the Adobe Reader.

You could build in some contingency actions.

On my Firefox browser I have an Acrobat Reader Plugin. If I Rt-Clk on a .PDF (in Windows Explorer) and use "Open with...", the pdf file is displayed in a new FF Tab. So you could set up some User Preferences on an Opus Master Page --- perhaps show/hide different buttons for the alternative methods --- view in different PDF capable browsers. (or of course, use Opus' Browser/DocView objects which opens in a new Chapter/Opus_Window.)