Opening document in new window

[Guest]

I've added a button to the online help toolbar in the Skin Editor and created a link to the manual in the Action Tab. I compiled the help and when I select the button, the document comes up in the topic pane window in the online help. I want the document to open in a new window with the appropriate application (Word for .doc, Adobe Reader for .PDF, etc.). I think this requires some javascript but not sure. How would I go about doing this?

Thanks in advance for your time.

Bill

[Captiv8r]

Hi Bill

You should probably pop over to my site and download yourself a copy of my Skinny on Skins file. I believe I've documented how to accomplish that inside.

You may download the file by Clicking this link

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

Rick,

I've tried your javascript code. However, I'm not sure what to put in place of the ' http://www.desiredsite.com' code. I have a document named user_manual.doc and have put it in the compiled WebHelp folder. I've pointed to is using the full path but it gives me an error saying cannot find the file. Where would I put the document and what path would I use to point to it?

Thanks.

Bill

[Captiv8r]

Hi Bill

Basically you would insert the document file name in place of the URL. If it's in a folder, you would prefix it with a folder name.

Does that help? Rick

[Guest]

Rick,

Thanks, that worked great. However, have you explored how to get the document to open in the application such as a .doc opening in Word or .PDF opening in Adobe Acrobat?

Thanks.

Bill

[Captiv8r]

Hi Bill

I believe that how these documents open are dependent upon the settings for each PC viewing the page. For .PDF content, each user has the ability to configure the settings for their PDF reader to choose between whether PDF files open in the browser or in the PDF reader. Additionally, browser add ins may have a role too. For example, I use FireFox as my primary browser. I have an add in for FireFox that allows me to choose what happens when I click a link that opens a PDF. The add in prompts me for my desired action.

I believe Word is similar, but I'm not sure where you would go to change the behavior of how it opens. But I do believe there is a setting on each Windows install that governs how Word documents are handled when opened from a link on a web page.

Actually, I just conducted a Google search and here is a link or two that you may find interesting.

Link regarding Word Documents
Link regarding PDF Documents

Hopefully this helps... Rick