I seem to remember being able to open PDF files (as I do Word files) by using the Special Conditions "Execute external program filename.pdf." It works for Word files but not pdf files. I've also tried opening them using the Vitalize plug in, again with no success. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Steve
Well if there isn't a program associated with pdfs on the host machine then they won't open.
File associations are in the registry, but it isn't good practice for a program to modify it.
If you want to open a pdf in a specific program just pass the pdf file to that program through the command line.
You could even bundle a small pdf reader with your program that way you insure that the host machine has the necessary tools to use your program.
As I suspected, I can open PDF files at school running Win XP with no problem using either the execute external program or the Vitalize extension. So, it has something to do with Win 7 64 bit. This happens on both of my computers at home and both have the Adobe Acrobat reader installed and both open pdf files when they are double clicked. Word files open using both the above methods with no problem on my home machines also. I"ve checked and the file associations are set to .pdf. So why won't the pdf s open from inside MMF 2 Dev?
It's as I already said.
Execute the PDF reader directly and pass the pdf file name to it using the command line.
It should work in both windows XP and Windows 7 with this method as long as the pdf reader is in the same location.
I suggest using the %ProgramFiles% environmental variable to navigate to it accurately.
You could try Sumatra PDF - http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/...df-reader.html
Nice, small PDF reader for Windows. You might be able to include it with your app, maybe contact the author and ask. There is an installer version, and a zip with an exe you can just run.
Thanks to Xhadoe and UrbanMonk for their thoughtful suggestions which I might find a use for at a later date. Turns out that the problem was solved by updating the Adobe Reader to version 11. I guess that the Adobe Reader is not updated automatically like so many others.
I then added some notes in my application about updating the Adobe Reader and included a link to their download site for anyone using the software.
Steve
Please note that this makes your software constrained to Adobe's links never changing, and/or being reliable.
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