Detect IE and Acrobat, make EXE

Hi All

I know that this post isn't dreamweaver specific but I was hoping that with
the overall expertise of the forum users someone would be able to offer some
guidance. I have a website that a client has asked me to convert to a CD
(static htm using CSS and iframes). I was hoping that someone would be able
to point me in the direction of a tutorial that would help me with this.

The aspects I need to add to the CD version of the site include:

1. Make the CD auto run as a .exe. I have been able to make the cd autorun
but need it to be executable if possible.
2. When the home page loads I need it to fill the screen so I would like the
IE address bar, scroll bars, etc to be removed. I have done this before in
dreamweaver but this needs to be done by selecting a link and I would like
this to happen on load.
3. I need to ensure that the users computer has IE 5+ installed immediately
after the exe or the default page loads. If it isn't I would ideally like
to be able to allow the user to install IE from the CD without having to
access the Internet. has anyone had to do this before. I imagine I will
need to get permission to include IE 6 on a cd rom, is this likely to be
free or costly?
4. I also need to ensure that the users computer has Adobe Acrobat Reader
installed immediately after the exe or the default page loads. If it isn't
I would ideally like to be able to allow the user to install Acrobat reader
software from the CD without having to access the Internet. Again, has
anyone had to do this before. Is permission required to distribute Acrobat
reader on a cd rom, is this likely to be free or costly?


Any tutorials, guidance or extensions that would help me to do this would be
great. I also don't mind investing in some new software so long as it is
easy to use because as always I have a very tight deadline.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers....UKdougs

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 12:28:10 +0100, "UKdougs" <colin (AT) whanet (DOT) co.uk>
wrote:

1. Make the CD auto run as a .exe. I have been able to make the cd autorun
but need it to be executable if possible.

This really needs to be done in C/C++, Delphi, VB, or some other
language that can compile an executable. Web pages don't work this way.


Gary

On 7/10/04 6:28 AM, in article ccojsf$9mk$1 (AT) forums (DOT) macromedia.com, "UKdougs"
<colin (AT) whanet (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

guidance. I have a website that a client has asked me to convert to a CD
(static htm using CSS and iframes). I was hoping that someone would be able
to point me in the direction of a tutorial that would help me with this.

1. Make the CD auto run as a .exe. I have been able to make the cd autorun
but need it to be executable if possible.
2. When the home page loads I need it to fill the screen so I would like the
IE address bar, scroll bars, etc to be removed. I have done this before in
3. I need to ensure that the users computer has IE 5+ installed immediately
after the exe or the default page loads. If it isn't I would ideally like
4. I also need to ensure that the users computer has Adobe Acrobat Reader
installed immediately after the exe or the default page loads. If it isn't

Cheers....UKdougs

Sounds like you want it to work like a kiosk. If so, I suspect that what you
really should be doing is converting the site to PowerPoint. There are
bunches of autoruns on the web for PowerPoint presentations.

If you have reason to keep it in html, you might try a redirect on the first
page (index.html), to a second full screen page (index2.html). I have not
had cause to try that before, but I don't see any reason why it shouldn't
work. If you try it, let us know if it works. Who knows? I might have use
for it myself, some day.

Right now, the only sites that I have put on CD are the ActionAmerica.org
site, which is the full html site and a couple of business presentation
sites, that I converted to PowerPoint (I actually spruced them up in
PowerPoint). On Action America, I did not try to resize the screen or
anything like that. It just autoruns on a PC or opens the custom root folder
on a Mac. And, that brings up another point.

Note that autoruns don't work on OS-X. For that, you need to make a custom
root folder, preferably, with a background image, to match the site, that
will open on CD insertion. The Mac won't see the autorun and will open the
custom root folder. The PC will do whatever autorun tells it to do. Voila!

On the ActionAmerica.org CD, the custom root folder has only one icon
("Start") and one folder ("Data"). The "Start" icon is a shortcut to the
"index.html" file, that resides in the "Data" folder. The "autorun.exe" file
does not show up in the custom root folder, of the Mac. Elegance!

With a Mac, you can do the whole thing, with ease. Of course, I don't know
of any way to create that custom root folder on a PC.

John Gaver
Action America
(forget everything to contact me direct)

Microsoft: (n) Job security for IT consultants.

On 7/10/04 6:28 AM, in article ccojsf$9mk$1 (AT) forums (DOT) macromedia.com, "UKdougs"
<colin (AT) whanet (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

3. I need to ensure that the users computer has IE 5+ installed immediately
after the exe or the default page loads. If it isn't I would ideally like
to be able to allow the user to install IE from the CD without having to
access the Internet. has anyone had to do this before. I imagine I will
need to get permission to include IE 6 on a cd rom, is this likely to be
free or costly?
4. I also need to ensure that the users computer has Adobe Acrobat Reader
installed immediately after the exe or the default page loads. If it isn't
I would ideally like to be able to allow the user to install Acrobat reader
software from the CD without having to access the Internet. Again, has
anyone had to do this before. Is permission required to distribute Acrobat
reader on a cd rom, is this likely to be free or costly?

Some things that I forgot to add to my last post.

First, asking some people to load IE(version anything) on their computer is
like asking them to take poison. I have every conceivable browser for both
PC and Mac, but I only use most of them for testing sites that I have
created. The only browsers that I use for general browsing, is Firefox on
the PC and Mac and Safari on the Mac. For security reasons, I will not open
any site that I don't have control over, using IE. If a business gave me a
CD that required IE (or any other special software), in order to view it,
the CD would end up in the garbage.

It's really best to take the time to make the site viewable by, at the very
least, all of the major browsers (IE, NS, Safari, Mozilla, Firefox) and at
least one release back. Asking a prospective customer to load any software,
just to view your sales pitch, is not only in extremely poor taste, but is
also extremely poor marketing technique.

BTW, the PowerPoint slide presentations that I mentioned in my earlier post,
did include the entire site, in html, as a backup, just in case my client's
prospective customer did not have PowerPoint. It's not unreasonable to
expect the prospective customer to have a moderately up-to-date browser,
though, expecting a specific browser is going too far. Expecting him to have
PowerPoint would also be too much. That's why you include the html, too.

Next, both MicroSloth and Adobe require you to download their free software
from their site, so they have a record of your acceptance of the terms. The
best that you can do is to put a link to their download pages on the CD.

John Gaver
Action America
(forget everything to contact me direct)

Microsoft: (n) Job security for IT consultants.

On 10 Jul 2004 in macromedia.dreamweaver, John Gaver wrote:

BTW, the PowerPoint slide presentations that I mentioned in my
earlier post, did include the entire site, in html, as a backup,
just in case my client's prospective customer did not have
PowerPoint. It's not unreasonable to expect the prospective customer
to have a moderately up-to-date browser, though, expecting a
specific browser is going too far. Expecting him to have PowerPoint
would also be too much.

FWIW, Microsoft has a read-only PowerPoint viewer available:

http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/Ppview97.aspx

You'd have to read the license to see if it can be included on a CD you
produce. I also don't know if it requires an install or whether it can
be run as a standalone.

--
Joe Makowiec
http://makowiec.net/
Email: http://makowiec.net/email.php

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 16:49:23 +0000 (UTC), Joe Makowiec
<makowiec (AT) invalid (DOT) invalid> wrote:

FWIW, Microsoft has a read-only PowerPoint viewer available:

You really shouldn't even need that. You can export a PowerPoint
presentation including the viewer by using the PowerPoint Pack and Go
output option.


Gary

Thank you all for the responses. The main reason for doing this using HTML
over PowerPoint or anything else is because the client is requiring a lot of
interaction and most of the pages are in PDF format that I have included
using inline frames. I had initially got a colleague to try this in
director but there where issues with incorporating the PDFs.

You have provided me with a lot to consider, I was hoping for a quick
solution that would allow me to import the html and then package it but
apparently this isn't the case. As I say you have offered a lot for me to
consider and I think I will be reconsidering my approach. Any suggestions
appreciated. The main features of the CD is the incorporation of PDF's that
must open within a section of a page, disjointed roll overs and a couple of
small movies.

Thanks....UKdougs

"UKdougs" <colin (AT) whanet (DOT) co.uk> wrote

Hi All

I know that this post isn't dreamweaver specific but I was hoping that
with
the overall expertise of the forum users someone would be able to offer
some
guidance. I have a website that a client has asked me to convert to a CD
(static htm using CSS and iframes). I was hoping that someone would be
able
to point me in the direction of a tutorial that would help me with this.

The aspects I need to add to the CD version of the site include:

1. Make the CD auto run as a .exe. I have been able to make the cd
autorun
but need it to be executable if possible.
2. When the home page loads I need it to fill the screen so I would like
the
IE address bar, scroll bars, etc to be removed. I have done this before
in
dreamweaver but this needs to be done by selecting a link and I would like
this to happen on load.
3. I need to ensure that the users computer has IE 5+ installed
immediately
after the exe or the default page loads. If it isn't I would ideally like
to be able to allow the user to install IE from the CD without having to
access the Internet. has anyone had to do this before. I imagine I will
need to get permission to include IE 6 on a cd rom, is this likely to be
free or costly?
4. I also need to ensure that the users computer has Adobe Acrobat Reader
installed immediately after the exe or the default page loads. If it
isn't
I would ideally like to be able to allow the user to install Acrobat
reader
software from the CD without having to access the Internet. Again, has
anyone had to do this before. Is permission required to distribute
Acrobat
reader on a cd rom, is this likely to be free or costly?


Any tutorials, guidance or extensions that would help me to do this would
be
great. I also don't mind investing in some new software so long as it is
easy to use because as always I have a very tight deadline.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers....UKdougs

On 7/11/04 6:52 AM, in article ccr9ms$qa8$1 (AT) forums (DOT) macromedia.com, "UKdougs"
<colin (AT) whanet (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

Thank you all for the responses. The main reason for doing this using HTML
over PowerPoint or anything else is because the client is requiring a lot of
interaction and most of the pages are in PDF format that I have included
using inline frames. I had initially got a colleague to try this in
director but there where issues with incorporating the PDFs.

You have provided me with a lot to consider, I was hoping for a quick
solution that would allow me to import the html and then package it but
apparently this isn't the case. As I say you have offered a lot for me to
consider and I think I will be reconsidering my approach. Any suggestions
appreciated. The main features of the CD is the incorporation of PDF's that
must open within a section of a page, disjointed roll overs and a couple of
small movies.

Just a thought... I don't know how many PDF documents you are dealing with
or how many pages each one is, but have you considered doing the whole
project in Acrobat?

My thought is to combine all of the PDF's into one document, with the table
of contents visible on the left and links to other parts of the document and
external files, throughout the document. The movies would automatically open
in the appropriate software. Acrobat is an extremely powerful tool that is,
in most cases, seriously underutilized. It may not be what you need for this
project, but it just may be worth consideration.

BTW, if you should go with Acrobat, I suggest that you save it in version 5
compatible format (version 4 is a possibility, but probably not necessary),
since not everyone has the latest version.

John Gaver
Action America
(forget everything to contact me direct)

Microsoft: (n) Job security for IT consultants.