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Force Office documents to open in office, not the browser.

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simonWMC2

simonWMC2

Programmer
Aug 5, 2004
161
GB
(Sorry, i posted this in the wrong forum, so copied it here now - I am a numpty!)

Hi guys...

I have buit a web page that needs to link to a number of word, excel, powerpoint and access files. I want the links to open the files in the full applications rather than the web browser (ie6).

I have tried


Code: 
<script language="JavaScript">
  function startWord(strFile)
  {
    var myApp = new ActiveXObject("Word.Application");
    if (myApp != null)
    {
      myApp.Visible = true;
      myApp.Documents.Open(strFile);
    }
  }
</script>
But can't get it to work.
I am using DW8 and Office 2003.
Any ideas ?

Thanks

Simon
 
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If I need a user to open a file I just create a link -
Code: 
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<a href="Array.docx">array</a>

</body>
</html>

Do you need to use javascript?
 
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Thanks. Trouble is if you do that, it opens it in the browser. I want it to open actually in word.

Thanks

Simon
 
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Yes thank you.
Trouble is I need to do it from the web page. I can't mess with the client machines :(

Thank you very much for your help though! :)
 
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Can you be more specific? "I can't get it to work" doesn't offer a good starting point

Cheers,
Dian
 
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I put the code above into the head of a simple HTML page with several links to MS Office files. I want the files to open in the Office application (ie Word or Excel, ect).

With normal href links they open in internet explorer window, not in thew application itself. Although I do understand it can be changed by the client.

After searching and tweaking, i came up with the javascript above, but the link does nothing.
The actual link is : javascript:startWord(
Not sure how much more detailed I can be ?

Thanks
 
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Where are the documents? is an URL pointing to a host called "myfile.doc" (like "yahoo.com").

I guess you'll need to used name>/myfile.doc if you have your documents available on a webserver or file://<file path> if they are in your PC

Cheers,
Dian
 
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What happens if you put the same URL directly in the browser?
When you run your javascript, isn't there any messages or javascript errors?

Cheers,
Dian
 
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The browser appears to do nothing. Either from the link or if you paste into the address bar.

It does show an error

Says it has an expected ] at character 15 of line 1.
line one (on my page) is :

Code: 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">[/URL]

I have tried putting a ] in (even though that makes no sense), but i still get the same error....
 
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Humm, if the document doesn't show when put in the URL, maybe it's not avaliable. Is it on a web server or in a shared folder?

The error doesn't need to be exactly in line one. Can you post your entire source?

Cheers,
Dian
 
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Hi...

The doc is def there, cos if you ignore the javascript it opens the doc in explorer...

Here is first half of source. The rest is just a big table...

Code: 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">[/URL]
<html xmlns="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">[/URL]
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Word - Beginners</title>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
.style3 {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12; }
.style4 {font-size: 12}
-->
</style>
<script language="JavaScript">
  function startWord(strFile)
  {
    var myApp = new ActiveXObject("Word.Application");
    if (myApp != null)
    {
      myApp.Visible = true;
      myApp.Documents.Open(strFile);
    }
  }
</script>
</head>

<body>
<div align="center">
  <table width="700" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="3">
    <tr>
      <td colspan="5" bordercolor="#000000"><div align="center"><img src="Images/logo-t2s.jpg" alt="Time2Study Logo" width="200" height="90" /></div></td>
    </tr>
    
    <tr>
      <td colspan="5"><div align="center"><span class="style3">Microsoft Word 2003 Beginners Supporting Documents</span></div></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td bordercolor="#999999"><a href="javascript:startWord([URL unfurl="true"]http://myserver/myfolder/myfolder2/4461%20Microsoft%20Word%202003%20Beginners/alignment.doc)">Alignment</a></td>[/URL]
      <td bordercolor="#999999"><div align="left"><a href="4461 Microsoft Word 2003 Beginners/DragDropMore2.doc" target="_blank" class="style3">DragDropMore2</a></div></td>
 
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You could try

Code: 
<a href="javascript:startWord('[URL unfurl="true"]http://myserver/myfolder/myfolder2/4461%20Microsoft%20Word%202003%20Beginners/alignment.doc')">[/URL]

With single quotes on the document name

Cheers,
Dian
 
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Got excited for a moment....but no, :(
Thanks for trying though...
 
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Actually the error has changed...

Now an error on
Code: 
var myApp = new ActiveXObject("Word.Application");

It says : Automation server can't create object
 
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I think that the error your'e getting is activex security setting related...

I tested this script...

<CODE>

<script language="JavaScript">
function openWordDoc()
{
var w=new ActiveXObject('Word.Application');
var obj;
if (w != null)
{
w.Visible = true;
obj=w.Documents.Open("C:\\docs\\test.doc");
}
}
</script>

</CODE>

and in IE8 I receive a pop-up warning about active x but can then click ok and the script continues and successfully opens word and then the document.

-- Jason
"It's Just Ones and Zeros
 
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Thanks guys...

It is definatly a security setting on explorer. I am not allowed active x. However, I am now going to try in .asp......

Thanks to everyone for their help!
 
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I've come across this before, once any Content is shipped to the browser, whether that be HTML or a DOC then it is up to the local machine settings which application, IE/Office/Notepad etc is used to open the content.

The ActiveX error is a common one and you will need to change the security settings, see for more information on doing this.

Greg Griffiths
Livelink Certified Developer & ECM Global Star Champion 2005 & 2006
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've come across this before, once any Content is shipped to the browser, whether that be HTML or a DOC then it is up to the local machine settings which application, IE/Office/Notepad etc is used to open the content.

The ActiveX error is a common one and you will need to change the security settings, see for more information on doing this.

Greg Griffiths
Livelink Certified Developer & ECM Global Star Champion 2005 & 2006
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
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