
Zeus Productions
Application-Specific FUQ
Copyright © 1996-1997.
Zeus Productions. All Rights Reserved.
(This page evolving as of April 25, 1997)
Refer to our Needs Analysis FAQ to determine if
zLaunch, zOpen, zScript or some other tool is right for you.
Q: Which Zeus utilities work with Adobe Acrobat Reader and PDF files?
zLaunch for Mac and
Windows both allow you to quit your Projector and bring up Adobe Acrobat.
When you launch Acrobat you can specify a particular PDF file to be opened.
The user can view or print as many PDF files as they like from within Acrobat.
When they exit Acrobat, the Projector will be relaunched by zLaunch.
zOpen for Windows
allows you to locate Acrobat based on the association with the PDF file
extension. You can then open and print PDF files using Acrobat.
zScript for Macintosh
allows you control Acrobat via AppleScript.
Q: Can I keep Acrobat running in the background, while the Projector
is running, and pass Acrobat the names of PDF files for it to open?
zLaunch for Windows
is primarily designed to free up RAM by allowing you to quit Director. If
you have sufficient RAM to keep both your projector and Acrobat open, zOpen
for Windows is a better choice under Windows. zLaunch
for Macintosh, or zScript for Macintosh both
could do the job on the Macintosh.
Q: Which Zeus utilities work with Netscape Navigator or MIE?
zLaunch for Mac and
Windows both allow you to quit your Projector and bring up Netscape
Navigator or another browser. When you launch the browser you can specify
a particular HTML file to be opened. The user can link to as many local
HTML files or web URLs as they like from within the browser. When they exit
the browser, the Projector will be relaunched by zLaunch.
zOpen for Windows
allows you to locate the user's default browse based on the association
with the HTML file extension or the "htmlfile" file type. You
can then open an HTML using the user's default browser.
zScript for Macintosh
allows you control AppleScriptable browsers via AppleScript. You can issue
the "getURL
" and "openURL
"
AppleEvents, among others, to control the browser from Director.
Tips on Working with Netscape Navigator
- When testing with Netscape Navigator, be aware of Navigator caching
feature. Be sure to delete the cache files or manually reload the document
to ensure a valid test.
- When launching Netscape Navigator 3.0 by its Creator Code when using
zLaunch for Macintosh, the code is "
MOSS
"
(all capital letters).
- Under Windows 95, starting Navigator via the Lingo
open
command will start a second copy of Navigator if a copy of Navigator
was already runing. One solution is to use zLaunch
for Windows or zOpen for Windows, which can
be used to force the user to quit Navigator in order to return to Director,
thus helping to ensure that only one copy of Navigator is run at any given
time.
- Under Windows, Navigator accepts a URL instead of an HTML document
when it si first started. To change URLs or when using Navigator on the
Macintosh, you cannot pass Navigator a URL, but you can pass it a local
HTML file which contains a link to the URL of choice.
The following will work on a PC, but not a Mac.
open "c:\myBrowser http://www.macromedia.com"
On a Macintosh, the following will launch the browser, but open it at the
home page defined in the browser's preferences, instead of the specified
URL:
open "http://www.macromedia.com" with "myHardDrive:myBrowser"
Opening a local file on the Mac instead::
open "myHardDrive:webpage.html" with "myHardDrive:myBrowser"
You can add a 'Meta-refresh' to the local HTML page, which is a message
body equivalent of 'Refresh:' in the message header. This would make Netscape
(and probably some other good browsers) jump to the right place.
On the Macintosh, you can control Netscape, and other AppleScriptable browsers
using the "openURL
" AppleEvent.
- On the Macintosh, the Lingo "
open...with
" command
will only open a new document if Navigator is not already running. If Navigator
is already running, "open...with
" will bring it to
the front, but it won't "swap in" the new document. zLaunch
for Macintosh solves this problem and can be used to swap in the new
document even if Navigator is already running.
Q. How can I open a Macintosh application by its Creator Code without
specifying a document name?
You must specify a document name when launching an application by its Creator
Code with zLaunch for Macintosh. Create a dummy
file, if necessary.
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Copyright © 1996-1997. Zeus
Productions. All Rights Reserved.
(This page last revised April 25, 1997)