I made an application in Flash. I need to make it user friendly so as soon as someone opens the CD, they just have one thing to click to open the file.
For me, double clicking opens the swf file in a new Flash player window. Trouble is, this doesn't happen in all computers and some can't install Flash player if they are using university machines.
The most reliable way is drag/drop into a browser, but it requires a bit of digging for the file in a folder full of icon and text files. I need this to be easy even for 60 year old men with no IT experience.

so, the 6 million pound question is.... how can I set a file to open using the default browser when the CD auto runs or someone clicks on a shortcut to a swf file?

Thanks

Right.

Make a new notepad file called AUTORUN.INF. Then copypaste this, replacing the bits with what you want.

[autorun]
ICON=ICON.ico
OPEN=PROGRAM.swf

Then put this in the root of the CDR, and it should load.

I'd agree, however, you may like to write an HTML page to display the file instead? So you're sure it'll open in something that can run it?

Also, IIRC, you can make Flash exe files from the export panel...?

Thank you both I think that will do me nicely.

Wonder what the exe file defaults to being played in... time to test.

I wouldn't use exe for several reasons, not least because they're not cross-platform.

Make a nice HTML page and set that in the autorun. I think that should work on most platforms, assuming they have a default browser with Flash installed.

Don't quote me on this, but I thought you can't use a HTML file in an autorun - something to do with the Windows built-in security risk (I think the same applies to PowerPoint files too, for the same reasons). I've not tried this recently, but it always used to be blocked on Windows 98 - I assume things are the same on XP/Vista?

Surely if the only thing to click is an html file, it should just open in the browser?

Well, got it to (sort of) work with an autorun. The uni computers seems to be agreeable with exe files. JJW009, can you elaborate a bit more on why exe files aren't recommended?

One thing I tried was Menubox which throws up a menu that gives options to install flash or open application.

Will probably also have a html page in the root of the CD. Or at least a shortcut to the html file buried deeper inside the folders.

Must appreciate the input guys

*.exe is a windows executable extenstion. They (exe files) will only run on Windows computers, whereas flash itself has viewers/runners for many platforms.

Edd

It worked when I created one a while ago, on Windows XP. I think, it was a long time ago, but I'm sure it did.

I might get around to finishing what I was doing with it soon,

Windows only hmmmm... what about shortcuts made in windows? will those work with OSX and linux?

Gonna have to try that autorun+html file thing

True, but is the autorun feature cross-platform? If it's not then we can say something like here's an exe file for Windows people, otherwise you'll have to delve into the CD anyway, here's an HTML version...?

Something like that. Here's a user friend program + a hefty instruction manual some assembly required.

I'm thinking that people using linux will hopefully have the know-how to deal with html/swf files if organised nicely on the CD. My supervisor uses macs, which I am unfamilar with. How do they cope with autorun and shortcuts?

What we do with our company's CD-ROM, created in Flash, is to save two projectors - one for Windows (which is an .exe file) and one for Mac OS X (which is an .app file). Flash can export both these types of file. To make it obvious which is for each platform, we called them "FOR_PC.exe" and "For Mac OS X.app".

Once you've got the .exe file and .app file in a folder just set an auto-run file called "AUTORUN.INF to launch the .exe file on Windows - then burn the folder to a CD-R. When PCs insert the disc, it should auto-start the Flash projector - Mac users will have to open the disc and double-click the .app file* but that's not such a big deal for us. And it's still pretty tidy, with only two files on the CD.

As I understand it, if you save the presentation as a self-contained projector (.exe for PCs or .app for Mac), then you don't need to install anything - it should just run.

Hope that helps.

*There always used to be an option in earlier versions of Toast where you could set a file to auto-run on Macs, but can't find it in Toast 7 or 8 so maybe there isn't a way to do that now?

On OS X, autorun won't work and Windows shortcuts won't work either...