Digital Workshop

I have Illuminatus Opus v2002b and want to launch a word and pdf file. Can I do this? How? Thank you very much!
dw

Simply launch the desired file using a Launch File Action. If you are distributing the end publication you will probably want to use the SYSTEM_PUBLICATION_DIR system variable to ensure it will work on any system. The help for the Launch File action describes how to use variables.

PDF files REQUIRE Abode's Acrobat to be viewable. If your viewer's computer doesn't have it -- you'll see nothing.

It USED to be, several releases back, that Adobe had an external Viewer which you could include in your project's Root Directory. That's no longer the case. OLD PDF files may still open with the OLD Viewer, but any new PDFs REQUIRE the Acrobat reader be INSTALLED on the viewing machine. That means a lot of additional work, and possible Licenseses to "update" viewers who don't have the latest Acrobat Reader.

Sorry for this "bad" news, but you should know before you make thousands of copies based on limited testing on computers WITH Acrobat installed.

I have a PDF, DOC, and PPT client who, each year sends new material to members in those formats. Each year, the process has become more difficult. They asked for a workaround this year -- and I'm recommending I COPY & PASTE all text into OPUS. I'll put the original files on the CD-ROM, but I'll display MY OWN version of the text. It will "bump up" the cost for all the labor instensive work (plus adding graphics), but I don't know of a "universal" workaround. Ideas?

You could try FoxIt PDF reader (Homepage here). This is a standalone PDF viewer that does not require installation. Note I haven't tried it, but it looks as though it should do what you want.

Fred,
Have you taken a look at Flashpaper? It was Macromedia's answer to PDF. It works similar to PDF, but requires only the Flash plug-in. Might be worth a look for what you/your client wants to do.

Hello Fred,
Just an idea - go along the pdf route, convert the doc files to pdf, convert the ppt's to pdf then use OPUS as a launch platform.
PDFfine print factory is exceptionally good at converting these types of files. Next viewing - I have downloaded the pdf viewer mentioned by Duncan and it works great, no installation needed, hence launch the file FoxitReader.exe and use the option/parameter field for the specific pdf file.
As I said, only an idea and I do bow to your knowledge having helped me in the past.
Regards
John

Duncan, Brian, John --

What brillant ideas! Thank you!

I've downloaded Foxit and will do my own testing. I'm looking for PDFfine Print Factory on the web to do the converting.

I have tried Flashpaper of macromedia and it is really fantastic !!
It creates files similar to pdfs, with a quality zoom option and it has the advantage that in the window has few icons. Pdf and word files have too icons in the top of the window and especially for little windows there is a little space. Flashpaper create files in .swf , users don't need to have readers (like acrobat) and it is very easy to integrate in Opus.
Excuse my English I hope you understand what I mean, I am Italian.
bye !
silvia

I used this method, but when I was trying to export it as a web page or other method, it will not launch the files. Is this the best way to do it if you want to export the project using multiple methods?

If you want to launch files from a web publication you will have to upload them to your webspace and refer to them via a Launch Web Page with a URL (e.g. http://www.mywebsite.com/...) , not a Launch File with path (C:\Bob\...)