Help linking to an External link

[dynamicRob]

Hi all,

I am a Flash developer for a company in Leeds, UK and am new to captivate. I am wondering how to use a button or image/text to link to an external file. e.g. to open a .pdf?

Does anyone know how i can go about doing this many thanks Rob

[Captiv8r]

Hi dynamicRob and welcome to our community

Basically the actions would be:

1. Insert either a Button or Click Box
2. In the area where you choose the action, click the drop-down and choose "Open URL or File"
3. Enter the URL or File Name of the resource

There are a couple of things to note with this.

1. Often, the desire is for the URL or File to open and have the Captivate stay put and not progress to the next slide. To accomplis this, click the Arrow to the right of where you type the URL or File Name and choose New. This will cause the File or URL to appear in a new window. Now click the button again and ensure you DE-select the "Continue playing project" option.

2. If you are linking to Word or .PDF documents, there is a slight chance you will find the link actually fails for some reason. Yet, if you simply place focus in the address bar of your browser and press Enter to refresh, the document loads right up. Go figure. If that begins happening, let us know and there is a possible workaround for you.

Cheers... Rick

[hules98]

Rick, I am having the problem in #2 of "couple of things to note" in your reply...can you share the workaround you mention? This is so strange, as it happens most--but not all--of the time, and only with the Word documents; my PDFs and web links open with no problem. The documents are housed on a public website. I am using Captivate 3 if that helps.

Thanks much!

[dynamicRob]

cheers rick soz for late reply was out of office yesterday afternoon