Unable to link click box to Word document

[Guest]

I am using Captivate 2 to create a click box. On success the click box should open a Word document in a new window. I have saved the Word document in the same folder with my swf. After testing the click box, I get an error message IE was unable to link to the Web page you requested. The page might be temporarily unavailable.

What is weird that the Open URL or File on success works fine if I set the Word document to open in the current window. This option is not possible, because I do not want users leaving the course. Am I doing something wrong? Please advise.

[Precious_Galaxy157F]

Hi Felicia

Are you using java script for execultar this command?

[Guest]

Hi Fabio,

I am not adding any javascript, just using the selections from the Click Box properties dialog box. Here are the steps that I followed: Inserted a Click Box. In the Click Box dialog box I Clicked the ... button to browse for the .doc file. Clicked the down-arrow button and selected New. Next I removed the checkmark for Continue playing project. Clicked OK. Saved and Published the cp file and tested the Click Box. Please advise.

[KCWebPlaza-5meuTi]

They way I typically open documents from Captivate is to publish and stage the Capivate movie and the document to a web server. In the Captivate Click Box, I set it to open a URL, and type in (not browse) the fully qualified URL to the document, such as http://www.mywebserver/folder/filename.doc. Testing functionality on your local PC can have issues - typically because of security settings. Relative hyperlinks seem to have issues with many Adobe products - i.e. Adobe Connect (Breeze).

[Guest]

Thanks for your advice. I placed the doc file and my swf on my server and used the absolute path instead of teh relative path. I still get the same error message. However, if I let the document open in the current window, the document appears. Any other ideas? Again, thanks for your help.

[Captiv8r]

Hi Felicia14

You might have some success with a slightly different approach. My approach involves using MenuBuilder. Basically you perform the following steps.

From Captivate, click File > Create a MenuBuilder project...
Choose the "Blank Project" type and click OK.
Click Options > Project Options...
Change the Width to 320 and the Height to 200 (These are the minimum settings)
Click OK to dismiss the Project options.
Click Insert > Clickbox...
You should see a "New Clickbox" dialog. There should be an empty field labeled "Link".
Type only your document file name into the Link field.
Place a check mark in the "Save file with project" check box, and click OK to dismiss the dialog.
You may see a warning dialog where MenuBuilder is quibbling about the document not being present. Don't let this fool you. Just click NO to advise you don't wish to browse for the file.
At this point you should see a small object on your MenuBuilder. It should say "Clickbox" and be positioned in the middle of the project. Drag the sizing handles until it totally covers the area. It should totally cover the whole area.
Now click the Export toolbar button.
MenuBuilder will then prompt you to save the project. Go ahead and give it a name to appease it and click the Save button.
Select "Flash Movie" from the Export Options dialog and click Next >.
Type a file name, choose a location to store the movie, make sure the "View project after export" option is NOT selected, then click the Finish button.
Now you may close MenuBuilder. You are finished with it. We go back to Captivate.
In Captivate, open the slide with the link you wish to use to open the document. The goal here is to click Insert > Animation... and suck in the .SWF you created using MenuBuilder. Then position that over an image or something that will clue your user to click it.
Now publish your Captivate and test.

You may be wondering at this point why the convoluted approach. After all, Captivate appears to offer the ability to link to other files, no? The bottom line here is that MenuBuilder and Captivate are two different applications. Each handles opening files slightly differently. Because MenuBuilder doesn't seem to have much of an issue opening files, we use it to create a small Flash output file that has the sole purpose of launching the associated file. Because we are simply pointing at a file name, all you should have to do at this point is to ensure all the Captivate output files (as well as the doc file you are linking to) are in the same folder.

Give that a go and keep us posted on whether it seems to do what you are asking. Hopefully it will.

Cheers all... Rick

[ankerjeff]

I followed Captiv8r's instructions to make a link using MenuBuilder and everything works fine as long as I use the default setting of "Open link in a new window using browser defaults". When I change the "advanced settings" to "open link in the same window" then the link does not work.

My project is on CD and it opens an HTML page with links to 8 different Captivate .SWF files. (For example, my first link is <a href="introduction_skin.swf" target="_blank"><span class="linkbutton">Introduction</span></a>).

When a user clicks on one of the links a new browser window is opened and the captivate swf movie plays. At the end of the movie I have placed my MenuBuilder link to take users to the next movie. As stated above, it works as long as I use the default setting of "Open link in a new window using browser defaults". When I change the "advanced settings" to "open link in the same window" then the link does not work.

I have a flash decompiler and here is what the actionscript looks like in the menubuilder .SWFs:

****** This one work ************

on (release)
{
var szArg = "covered_services_part1_skin.swf";
var szWindow = "_blank";
if (_root.FlashPlayer == "1")
{
getURL("FSCommand:execfile", szArg);
}
else
{
getURL(szArg, szWindow);
} // end else if
}




****** This one does not work ************

on (release)
{
var szArg = "covered_services_part1_skin.swf";
var szWindow = "_self";
if (_root.FlashPlayer == "1")
{
getURL("FSCommand:execfile", szArg);
}
else
{
getURL(szArg, szWindow);
} // end else if
}

[Precious_Galaxy157F]

Great what the companions already helped! therefore that I like this community the people are always active!

I hug to all

[Precious_Galaxy157F]

Great what the companions already helped! therefore that I like this community the people are always active! :)

I hug to all

[Precious_Galaxy157F]

You excuse for the duplicated post, it gave mistake in the publication finished when two times are going. 😉

[jbradley88]

If you're running from CD, you should probably be publishing everything as Standalone .EXE files.

Running the web-native formats from a CD can be very problematic due to browser/Flash Player security restrictions on running web content locally.

[lulugoh]

I'm facing this problem since Captivate 2
but I just skip the link file part....
But now i doing my personal portfolio
which got huge link pdf and mpeg link file...
so I've tried Captiv8r method
but after publish into .exe
when i click the clickbox
i will appear ERROR sign and won't open the link pdf file

__________________________________________________
I've followed all the steps:
1. From Captivate, click File > Create a MenuBuilder project...
2. Choose the "Blank Project" type and click OK.
3. Click Options > Project Options...
4. Change the Width to 320 and the Height to 200 (These are the minimum settings)
5. Click OK to dismiss the Project options.
6. Click Insert > Clickbox...
7. You should see a "New Clickbox" dialog. There should be an empty field labeled "Link".
8. Type only your document file name into the Link field.
9. Place a check mark in the "Save file with project" check box, and click OK to dismiss the dialog.
10. You may see a warning dialog where MenuBuilder is quibbling about the document not being present. Don't let this fool you. Just click NO to advise you don't wish to browse for the file.
11. At this point you should see a small object on your MenuBuilder. It should say "Clickbox" and be positioned in the middle of the project.
12. Drag the sizing handles until it totally covers the area. It should totally cover the whole area.
13. Now click the Export toolbar button.
14. MenuBuilder will then prompt you to save the project. Go ahead and give it a name to appease it and click the Save button.
15. Select "Flash Movie" from the Export Options dialog and click Next >.
16. Type a file name, choose a location to store the movie, make sure the "View project after export" option is NOT selected, then click the Finish button.
17. Now you may close MenuBuilder. You are finished with it. We go back to Captivate.
18. In Captivate, open the slide with the link you wish to use to open the document. The goal here is to click Insert > Animation... and suck in the .SWF you created using MenuBuilder.
19.Then position that over an image or something that will clue your user to click it.
__________________________________________________

I've follow all the step
but in NO.8 & No.9
If I just type the file name (and no link)
I can't place a check mark in the "Save file with project" check box
and when I import the swf into Captivate
It will show a message:
"Adobe Captivate - Captivate link test.cp
The Adobe Flash file contains action script that reference "root". This might cause the adobe captivate project to work incorrectly or to stop working. do u want to continue to add this file?"
and After burning in to CD
I can't open the PDF link file!
and it will jump out a ERROR:F sign! (actually what is the "F" means? FXXK? haha~)

After several times try and error
I've slightly make some changes at NO.8 procedure:

8. Type only your document file name into the Link field.
(I've choose and place the file with whole link & file name,
which is: C:\Unzipped\Captivate testing\D herbal tea Leaflet(C).pdf
and then now I can check the "save file with project" checkbox)
after output to a swf and insert animation in captivate
although captivate also show the "Adobe Captivate - Captivate link test.cp
The Adobe Flash file contains action script that reference "root". This might cause the adobe captivate project to work incorrectly or to stop working. do u want to continue to add this file?" message
but now i can open the link file (in same folder with .exe publish file)
in any other computer!

I've checked the action script inside the link.swf which i've created, and get the result:
__________________________________________
// Action script...

on (release)
{
var szArg = "D herbal tea Leaflet(C).pdf";
var szWindow = "_blank";
if (_root.FlashPlayer == "1")
{
getURL("FSCommand:execfile", szArg);
}
else
{
getURL(szArg, szWindow);
} // end if
}
___________________________________________
it shows the file name only!
Now it's no problem!

PS: U cannot open the link file under preview mode
it won't open
but after publish into .exe
u can open the link file!

Sorry my english is very poor
anyone don't understand can download my testing project from here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/71506514/Captivate_testing.zip

Thanks Captiv8r again for helping us!

Lulu
Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur