I am building an e-learning course with Powerpoint and Articulate Presenter where I want to have a button that will start an external program. How do I do this?
I can set up a button that will start the program from Powerpoint, but it does not work in the published Articulate project. I have tried hyperlinking directly to the program in C:\Program Files and to a shortcut in the Articulate publish folder, but nothing works. Hyperlinks to a text file work (the file opens in Notepad) but hyperlinks to an exe file do not.
I can link to a folder containing a shortcut to the application, but ths is a kludgy solution - two clicks instead of one, and the folder remains open when the application is closed.
You're not going to be able to link an end-user directly to an EXE located on their machine as that it is a security issue. Also, there's not a guarantee that the EXE will be located in the location that you point the URL to. Not everyone installs Program Files to the C:\ drive. Also, some people have a 64 bit machine and the default Program Files folder for 32 bit applications is also different.
Therefore, I would recommend telling the end-user to open the program manually instead of trying to do it automatically from the presentation.
I did some research on linking from a web page (which is the Articulate course) to an EXE file on a local machine and there's not any information available. The main reason is that it's a security issue to link directly from a web page to an EXE on a user's local machine.
i have added exe link located in client server on presenter slide. In published course this link not working in IE while its working on Mozilla & crome. I am testing it locally.
In IE new winow open for a second and closed. While in Mozilla ask for download the file.
Do you have any idea why this is not opened in IE?
5 Replies
I can link to a folder containing a shortcut to the application, but ths is a kludgy solution - two clicks instead of one, and the folder remains open when the application is closed.
Any better ideas?
Hi Francis,
You're not going to be able to link an end-user directly to an EXE located on their machine as that it is a security issue. Also, there's not a guarantee that the EXE will be located in the location that you point the URL to. Not everyone installs Program Files to the C:\ drive. Also, some people have a 64 bit machine and the default Program Files folder for 32 bit applications is also different.
Therefore, I would recommend telling the end-user to open the program manually instead of trying to do it automatically from the presentation.
I should have said - the course will be hosted for remote access on a Citrix server, which solves the issue of the local environment.
Hi Francis,
I did some research on linking from a web page (which is the Articulate course) to an EXE file on a local machine and there's not any information available. The main reason is that it's a security issue to link directly from a web page to an EXE on a user's local machine.
Hi Brian,
i have added exe link located in client server on presenter slide. In published course this link not working in IE while its working on Mozilla & crome. I am testing it locally.
In IE new winow open for a second and closed. While in Mozilla ask for download the file.
Do you have any idea why this is not opened in IE?
-Padmavati
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