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A
Anonymous
June 9, 2008
Question

Linking from .swfs back to menubuilder

  • June 9, 2008
  • 5 replies
  • 754 views
Hi,
New user here with an inherited project. Has anyone been able to build a link in an .swf back to the open menubuilder?

After searching this forum, i've managed to successfully!! (thanks, you-all!) resize and split one long software tutorial into four topics, and used the Menubuilder to link them. The one feature we'd like to keep from the single .swf format is the ability to return to a topic menu. (I saw one post that recommended using the Captivate Player, and tried that, but it doesn't seem to keep text entry fields).

Thanks much for any help!
Anna
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5 replies

A
Anonymous
June 10, 2008
Rick - you are a life-saver!

Thanks, thanks, and many more thanks for all your help!
A
Anonymous
June 9, 2008
Hi Rick,
Got it.
So, theoretically, I could create a click box in the topic pages that opens the url, or should it be the menubuilder .swf, and the click box would return the user to the open MB IE tab or window?
(The MB window is already open, so invoking the .exe is probably not the right way to go, right?)

Thanks again!
Anna
Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Legend
June 10, 2008
Hi again

Hmmm, if the MenuBuilder is already open, it would seem the more correct approach would be to simply close the Captivate it opened. As it seemingly is the trigger opening the child Captivate outputs, they should close without balking I believe.

So you may wish to investigate configuring the end action of the Captivate to "Close project". Make the last slide really super short and point your Click Box to the last slide. (This assumes you want an escape hatch for the user to easily return to the MenuBuilder from any slide).

Cheers... Rick
A
Anonymous
June 9, 2008
Hi Rick,
Thanks! Okay, back to the original question, after creating the menubuilder-IE association, do I then create a link in the topic .swfs to the, um, hm, file association? not sure what that would be...

Thank you for the help!
Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Legend
June 9, 2008
Hi again Anna

No, I suggested creating the file association because you said:
I tried building a menubuilder.swf first, but am not sure how to open it; double-clicking the .swf produces a message that Windows can't find the application to run the file.

This simply sets your PC up to act appropriately when you double-click a .SWF. This would facilitate your testing the MenuBuilder output by double-clicking the .SWF it produces and seeing it open in IE.

So for the linking back to MenuBuilder, you probably need to configure each Captivate .SWF so the end action is "Open URL or File". Then simply type the MenuBuilder .SWF file name into the box. This should prevent Captivate from potentially creating an absolute reference that would break once you moved things to a server or CD and ran it from other PCs.

Cheers... Rick
A
Anonymous
June 9, 2008
Hi Rick,
Thank you for the reply!
The test version is an .exe linked to two Captivate v2 flash projects (.swf, .htm and _skin.swf files, plus the standard.js). And it works - thanks to all your earlier posts on that subject.

I tried building a menubuilder.swf first, but am not sure how to open it; double-clicking the .swf produces a message that Windows can't find the application to run the file.

The final project will go on our website, and possibly on CDs.

Thanks again,
Anna
Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Legend
June 9, 2008
Hi again Anna

So if you are planning on deploying via web, I'd say that .SWF is a good choice for you. The only problem is, MenuBuilder doesn't create the companion HTML page like Captivate does. So when you try to view the raw .SWF, Windows tosses up its hands and says huh?

It should work fine once you deploy to a web server. If you want to configure your own PC to handle things when you try to view a .SWF file, you need to create a file association in Windows that coaxes Windows into opening Internet Explorer when you launch a .SWF. Then when you double-click one, IE will open and present the .SWF.

Post back if you need help creating that association.

Cheers... Rick
Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Legend
June 9, 2008
Welcome to our community, Anna

What is the output type for your MenuBuilder and Captivate? Are all of them in .EXE format or do you have a mix? For example, MenuBuilder .EXE combined with Captivate .SWF files or vice-versa?

How you might accomplish your goal could depend on what you are doing.

Cheers... Rick
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