Hyperlinks that launch a program/document

[JRS]

I am helping someone create a project in Lectora Professional Publishing Suite. They have a page with hyperlinks on it that when clicked it will launch a program/document. Yet when the project is published and the link is clicked the program/document opens in the same window as the project. Is there any way to create the hyperlink and when clicked make the program/document open in a different window? If so please help.

Thank you!

[benpitman]

Yes. Use Launch if you are going to publish to Single file executable. Otherwise, Go To Web Page and put the entire name of the document in the Web Address including the file extension like .pdf.

[merceg]

To add to what Ben said, don't forget after doing what he says to check the "Open in new window" option so that it doesn't replace your original window's information and you should be good to go.

[benpitman]

Good catch merceg. I did forget that. Really apperciate the follow-up.

[jdh]

The previous is good if you are accessing a web site. If you want to launch a document "locally" (PDF is best):

1. Create a separate chapter for links/popups (don't inherit anything).
2. Create a blank page in the new chapter and name accordingly.
3. Apply a "Launch a program/document" action to that page. Select Use Attached File, then the Add File button, and locate the document.
4. Set the hyperlink to access this page to open in a new window.

[benpitman]

That is a COOL solution. Takes just a tiny bit more BUT it works for both .exe and html. Thanks.

[maryword]

I have been working on a course which needs to be as similar as possible across browsers. I have not tried the solution using the blank pages, but plan to play with that.

Using the New window option as described above works fine for IE, which interprets the _blank directive as new window. Most recent browsers such as Firefox and Chrome assume tab based browsing, and open the target in a new tab with _blank. To overcome this, checking the bottom 4 checkboxes in the new window properties forces the target to open in a new window because, as a rule, the window the course is in contains one or more of those elements. If you have the default size selected, the user can resize the popup if needed; or you can customize the size of the new window to fit your popup document content.

I have found this to work in IE, Chrome, and Firefox to produce a predictable and similar document popup.

Mary