Digital Workshop

This is VERY basic, and it shouldn’t be a problem – but I have to complete a project urgently and I need someone to point me in the right direction. I’m sure the solution is simple - but so, apparently, am I.

Working with Opus 2.81 (with which I started this project about a year ago!) I plan to publish a CD which contains about 800 rtf text files, each read automatically and appearing on separate pages. Each page has a button allowing the user to print individual text files. So far so good.

I don’t want the program to be installed on the user’s hard drive, but run from the CD.

The text files are contained in a folder called “Docs”. I’ve copied this folder to the CD, along with the application and autorun files.

As far as the button action is concerned, I’ve checked “In publication directory when published”, and against “Print Text File” I’ve changed the path to Docs\000.rtf. And this, I guess, is the source of the problem – because, after publication, the rtf file can’t be found.

Any suggestions please?

Hi,

Thank you for your enquiry.

I initially thought that using the <SYSTEM_PUBLICATION_DIR> (which tells the publication to find the resource in the directory from which it is running) would resolve this problem, but it appears that the field does not accept this variable.

However, it does appear that you can specify the local directory using the old DOS full-stop, backslash trick. Try using the following path in the Print Text File action:

.\Docs\000.rtf

Now click Apply and OK to confirm the changes. If you need to preview the publication, ensure that the Docs folder containing the 000.rtf file is in the same directory as your current .imp file. Now preview and test the Print Text File action. The RTF file should now print without problems.

When you publish your project to a standalone executable, you will need to ensure that the Docs folder is copied to the root of the publication CD. The executable should now be able to find and print the RTF files without problems.

Kind regards,

Thanks, Robin. I'll give it a whirl and let you know how I get on.

I'm afraid I can't get this to work, Robin, so I guess I must not be following your instructions properly. I thought I'd copied the Doc folder to the root of the publication CD, but I'm still left with a "File not found" message when I click the print button.

Please define "root of the publication CD" in case I'm not interpreting this correctly.

Thanks.

The root of the CD is the top-level of files on the disc, i.e; the files you see when you open Windows Explorer and click on the drive containing the CD. The root of the CD should contain your publication executable, the autorun.inf file and the ILMOle.dll and richtx32.ocx files which Opus created during publishing (these are required to handle .rtf data at runtime).

You will need to ensure that the Docs folder containing all of the .rtf files for which you have set up print actions) is burned to this same location on the CD. When you look at the disc in Windows Explorer, you should now see the publication executable, autorun.inf file, the required .dll and .ocx files and the Docs folder. The publication should now be able to print the target .rtf file without problems.

If you still encounter problems, please try the following:

- Minimise all open windows to display the Desktop
- Right-click on an empty area of the Desktop and select New > Folder
- Name the folder Published Files and hit Enter to confirm
- Double-click on the Published Files folder to open it
- Right-click on an empty area in the folder and select New > Folder
- Name the new folder Docs and press Enter to return
- Now locate an .rtf file on your system and copy it into the Docs folder you just created
- Rename the file you have just copied over to document.rtf
- Now launch Opus and create a blank new publication
- Add a button to the first page and assign a Print action
- Select the Print Text File option
- Type the following into the file path:

.\Docs\document.rtf

- If you wish, enable the Show print dialog and Show cancel printing dialog
- Click Apply and OK to confirm the changes
- Click Publication > Publish
- Select the option to Create a standalone executable and click Next
- Click Browse and select the Published Files folder you created earlier, then click OK and Next to continue
- If you wish, click Settings and make sure that the Create autorun.inf option is enabled and the Cover Dialog option disabled
- Click OK and Next to publish the executable
- Once published, click Test and click the button you created on the page
- The document.rtf file should now be printed
- Now simply burn the entire contents of the [b]Published Files[b] folder (but not the folder itself) to a recordable CD and test on another system. The file should still print without problems.

I hope this helps. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries.

Kind regards,

Robin, I HAVE hesitated to contact you because there must be something I'm doing wrong - although I've followed your instructions to the letter. I'm not sure where I go from here. I'm attaching the simple test imp file I made so that you can see what I've done...

Once again, thanks for your help.

I've discovered the source of the problem - which, essentially, is NOT following your advice, Robin. Both the "In Temp directory" and "In Publication directory" boxes were checked (by default?) and, after unchecking these, the files print perfectly.