Exporting linked files into published .exec

[Jan_Mills]

I have a problem in exporting any linked files I have added as click boxes into the published .exec file.

In my project I have linked HELP pages where relevant and inserted the URL link into the click box. It all works great when I am on my network, but once off, the linked files are not there. When publishing the project, a popup box says that I need to "copy all referenced files and projects with their corresponding HTML files to the output folder". But I do not know how to do this.

HELP

Cheers

[Captiv8r]

Hi Jan Mills

It all works great when I am on my network, but once off, the linked files are not there.

Where will your end users ultimately run the Captivate from? Are you planning that they run from their local PC? I would think you would want it from the network. And if things work fine when running from the network, I'm not seeing what the issue is.

All that dialog is telling you is this:
You have created links to other content. This content may be a simple URL, Word Document, PDF, etc. Captivate is not going to do anything to ensure those files exist when you copy the Captivate files to wherever you will run them from. So be sure you take care to copy the linked content to the locations where the Captivate output will expect to find them. Otherwise, the links are going to fail!

Hopefully this was helpful... Rick

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by: Captiv8r
All that dialog is telling you is this:
You have created links to other content. This content may be a simple URL, Word Document, PDF, etc. Captivate is not going to do anything to ensure those files exist when you copy the Captivate files to wherever you will run them from. So be sure you take care to copy the linked content to the locations where the Captivate output will expect to find them. Otherwise, the links are going to fail!

Hopefully this was helpful... Rick

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Rick -
Let's revisit this question, please?

In my scenario, I created a button linking to a PDF reference file. I put the file in the same directory as the final Captivate published .exe file. The problem is that Captivate is holding onto the logical path to the file, which works great if everyone is on my network or computer.

No matter what you do, once you take those files off your computer/network and hand them to a customer, any links to local file contained on the delivery medium is broken.

For example, the .exe, reference PDF, and menu are burned to a CD and delivered to the customer. and the customer is running the .exe but when he attempts to open the PDF, nothing happens. Of course, I pop the CD in and it works great for me - because I can see the path to the published location, prior to burning the CD.

We notice that accomplishing the same action in the menu builder doesn't produce the same result: The user can open the file contained on the delivery medium just fine. That code seems to recognize the virtual path rather than the logical one.

I think this is a bug in the software. Captivate is designed to be able to publish standalone files. By definition, standalone means that the links to external files should not be dependent on the hard path.

[Captiv8r]

Hi ptrader and welcome to our community

You are describing absolute links. I'm guessing you browsed to the PDF and linked that way? Normally you want to simply type the file name of the PDF into the area where you establish the link. Once you do this, the link becomes relative and should find the .PDF with no issue.

However, you do bring up another point. Sometimes we see that PDF and Word content refuse to open from links. In these cases, I normally advise folks to create a MenuBuilder output that is essentially invisible. Make it as small as possible and create the links (same issues apply with relative VS absolute links here) then drop that published MenuBuilder .SWF output into a Captivate slide over text or button image the user will click to open the file.

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

quote:

---

Originally posted by: Captiv8r
Hi ptrader and welcome to our community

You are describing absolute links. I'm guessing you browsed to the PDF and linked that way? Normally you want to simply type the file name of the PDF into the area where you establish the link. Once you do this, the link becomes relative and should find the .PDF with no issue.

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Should being the operative word...the software doesn't recognize standard files and instead opens an internet browser and a search engine, trying to find the file. This sounds like a coding issue to me in the source code.

quote:

---

However, you do bring up another point. Sometimes we see that PDF and Word content refuse to open from links. In these cases, I normally advise folks to create a MenuBuilder output that is essentially invisible. Make it as small as possible and create the links (same issues apply with relative VS absolute links here) then drop that published MenuBuilder .SWF output into a Captivate slide over text or button image the user will click to open the file.

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Ok...convoluted workaround, but I'll give it a try. :smile:

Pam

[Jan_Mills]

Hi Rick

Our published project will not be used on our netwrok, but set up as a link on a website. The HELP pages that we wish to attach are firefox files that are inteneded to be used in conjunction with our real application. Can these NOT be attached to the demo using adobe captivate ...
a) when published as standalone .exec files, or
b) when published as flash files?

IF it is possible, could you please provide more information on how to create an output file that captivate can always find.

Cheers

[eholz1]

Hello Captiv8r and others,

I am using Captivate 3.0.

I too have an issue with linked files. I have to break my files into separate modules to prevent cp file sizes >200 mb!!! I have many slides with many objects, and audio. This bloats the files, and requires using the linking process. To accomplish the linking I choose "Open Other Project" in the publishing dialog window. I am currently publishing to swf files. I tried publishing to an exe file, this works, but will not open the linked file.
I get some sort of funny error. If I copy the files to a regular web server,
Lesson1.htm, and Lesson2.htm (along with the approriate swf files), everything is fine. But... the company I work for using an application called "LiveLink" which is an enterprise wide document tracking and storage application. Each file that gets loaded into the LiveLink area has some sort of id associated with it. The problem is that when I click the button for the next lesson, I get a LiveLink error, stating it cannot find the document in question. This makes sense, because each object in livelink requires an id, and the id must be used to get the next file (an htm).

Is there some way to export a linked project so it will run like a "stand alone" application? It does not look like exporting to an exe helps here.
Exporting to Flash (CS3) is a no-go (backgrounds resize, mouse is green, and animations are funny, etc).

I am open to any ideas this forum may have, as well as how to export, etc.

Thanks,

eholz1

[Guest]

Rick,
I'm not getting anywhere with your workaround. No matter how I do this, I can't get a relative link to work anymore. Not even in Menu Builder.

Just so you know...

[Captiv8r]

Hi Pam

MenuBuilder is sorta tricksy when it comes to creating these links. I never fully trust it. Here's what to look for.

Locate the file you are linking to. Then create the link. You may find that it prefixes the file path in there. One of the key elements is to ensure the check box labeled "Save file with project" is selected. So once you have done that and ensured no path information is present, leaving behind only the file name, THEN create the MenuBuilder output. It should work better this time around.

If you would like, drop me a line at Captiv8r (at) kc (dot) rr (dot) com and I'll be happy to take a look at your project to see if I can sort why this is happening.

Cheers... Rick

[Jan_Mills]

Hi

Thanks for all the comments, I have not been able to get the MenuBuilder workaround to work.

If I create a link that simply references 'teachers.html' which is a file located in the root directory along with the compliled .exe (the click box link path being 'teachers.html') I thought this would open the file, however, it trys to open http://teachers.html which of course is not a valid link.

Simarly if I create a link to the file (say teachers.doc) located within the root directory, I get an error C:\\ file cannot be found. (C:\\ is nowhere in the click box file reference??)

Ideally i'd like to have a root folder called 'demo' in that folder would be the projectdemo.exe and another folder 'help' which contains the .html help files. The help reference links within captivate would be /help/teachers.html. This structure means where ever the 'demo' folder is copied the files are always referenced correctly. (like on a website)

However this seems not possible. Is there a simple workaround?

Cheers

[Guest]

If it helps anyone with this problem, the only answer I have been able to make work consistently is the ability to open the file when it is on a MenuBuilder .exe output.

I could not get it to work on any version of a .swf (captivate or menubuilder).

Does any know how to submit a bug report to Adobe on this?

[Captiv8r]

Hi ptrader

If you would like to report this as a bug to Adobe, try clicking here and completing the form you should find there.

Cheers... Rick

[ML021469]

I'm having the same problem. It is not a network issue. The files are in the same folder as the .exe and there is no pathing in the link. What gives? Does the external linking just not work with the CD option?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there ML021469

You might find the thread at the link below to be helpful if you are deploying via CD.

Click here to view the thread

Cheers... Rick