Opening a PDF file out of a project

[Guest]

Hello there,

I am trying to open a PDF in Adobe Reader out of a Captivate Project. I decided to do this through a clickbox. This clickbox is set up to open an URL or a file. I decided, it has to open a PDF. When I click on that clickbox, it opens my PDF file. So far so good. But the PDF is opened by the Reader-Plugin, which is ebedded in the Internet Explorer. That was not my intention.
My Question is now, what do I have to do to let the PDF file open in the stand alone Adobe Reader?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions,

Markus

[Captiv8r]

Hi Markus and welcome to our community

As I understand it, the way PDF content is handled in web page links is really determined by each user and the settings they have configured in the PDF reader. I do believe that by default, the PDF reader is configured to simply use the browser for display.

I stand to be corrected here and would never claim to know all there is to know, but I don't believe that you may influence that. I really hope I'm wrong and someone chimes in to say so.

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

Hi Rick,

and thanks for your quick answer.

If I understand you correctly, the problem is, that by "Open URL or file" the "file" is always handled by a browser, right?

Is there no way to have a file opened as if it was opened by double-click in the Windows Explorer?

cheers...

Markus

[Captiv8r]

Hi Markus

This is an issue that has been seen quite a bit in the web world. If you were to Google the issue, you would also see it exists for Microsoft Word too. Again, it's not something one may configure easily. I do believe it stems from the File association in Windows.

Yes, you may configure your Acrobat Reader so links to PDFs from web pages open in the stand alone reader. But that's only changing behavior for you. Not for others. How the PDF displays for others is defined individually on their own PCs. My thoughts are that if we could influence this behavior, what would stop a hacker from influencing malicious behavior? And there, I believe, is the rub.

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

Hi Rick,

I think, you gave the answer, why it does not work as we would like to see it:

"...links to PDFs from web pages open in the stand alone reader..."

We do not open the PDFs from web pages, because we use "Standalone" as output format - so Captivate creates an EXE.
It seems to me, that Captivate always treats "Open file" commands as "Open file in browser" - regardless of output format.

Is this true?

best regards
Markus