Open Files in Correct Program

obrienkev

Hi all,

I have some html links on a PHP page that open powerpoint or word files.

How do I ensure that they open in the proper program? i.e. that the .ppt file opens in powerpoint and not in web browser?

Thanks,

Kevin.

wempy

You will have to pay a visit to every machine that connects to your site, and change the user preferences to ensure that it is opened in the 'correct' application.

now, if you have complete control over who will visit your site, then this should be quite easy

Should you be hosting windows only files then you will probably want to ensure that only windows users can access your site - making it load really slowly, and ensure that it crashes regularly should do that!!

obrienkev

sorry, didnt make myself clear - when the user clciks the link the .ppt file opens in IE6 rather than in Powerpoint.

Any way to get it to open in powerpoint? Thanks.

ClarkF1

As stated before it depends on the individual computer settings.........

I don't think it's something you can control using the website.

greenie2600

ClarkF1 is correct. It's up to the client to decide what to do with a particular file, and there's no way to control this from the web server. Unfortunately, most users don't know how to change their file associations.

IE will try to display certain Microsoft formats in the browser if it can. To get around this, just put a note on the page instructing users to right-click on the link, save the file to their desktop, and open it from there. Doing so will open the file in the associated program (which will hopefully be Powerpoint) instead of IE.

ClarkF1

If the user doesn't have Powerpoint installed, it might be useful to point them to the free Powerpoint Viewer:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=428d5727-43ab-4f24-90b7-a94784af71a4&displaylang=en

They'll still have to download it, but if they do, it might change the file associations on their computer for them.

If it's trying to open in IE and have Powerpoint installed, it could be the case that IE was upgraded after PP was installed and the file associations got reset.