Launching video players from PPT 2003

[CK]

For some years now, I have been producing Powerpoint presentations with
Office 2000 which contain slides with buttons which launch AVI videos played
with the Techsmith Camtasia player (CamPlay.exe). These include
presentations designed by others.

I produce most of these presentations on CD (with the Powerpoint 97 viewer
files, videos, and autostart file included). That combination has always
worked successfully.

I am under some pressure to include facilities to use the Powerpoint 2003
viewer instead, (as contributors are now beginning to use Office 2003, and
want to use "whizzy" animations in their presentations!) but I understand
that third party programmes (presumably including CamPlay.exe) cannot be
launched from within the Powerpoint 2003 viewer.

Is this true? If so, it's a bit of a blow to my operation - is there a work
around (other than retaining the old viewer and not being able to run the
later animations)?

Chris

 

[Echo S]

You can launch video players from the 2003 Viewer, but you'll get a "this
file could contain viruses" warning message. There's really no way around
that except a registry hack, which would need to be done on each show
computer. If you're distrubuting the presentations, it may not be a viable
workaround.

Chirag has created a little utility that will make the registry hack for
you -- instead of having to manually go in and change, like, 17 keys.
http://officeone.mvps.org/download/hyperlink_warning.html

 

[CK]

Thanks, Echo - I'm familiar with the security message and have had to live
with it. The problem I'm experiencing is Powerpoint 2003 viewer producing
a message similar to "Launching this programme is not supported by this
viewer" (or words to that effect).

This is evident on machines that don't have any kind of Office installation,
just the viewer.

The Powerpoint 97 viewer opened the applications OK, but not the Powerpoint
2003 viewer.

I've trawled around the various relevant Microsoft web pages, and it would
seem that the latest viewer doesn't support the launching of 3rd party
appliactions.

I could hardly believe it, which is why I'm looking for some confirmation
here.

Chris

You can launch video players from the 2003 Viewer, but you'll get a "this
file could contain viruses" warning message. There's really no way around
that except a registry hack, which would need to be done on each show
computer. If you're distrubuting the presentations, it may not be a viable
workaround.

Chirag has created a little utility that will make the registry hack for
you -- instead of having to manually go in and change, like, 17 keys.
http://officeone.mvps.org/download/hyperlink_warning.html

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

For some years now, I have been producing Powerpoint presentations with
Office 2000 which contain slides with buttons which launch AVI videos played
with the Techsmith Camtasia player (CamPlay.exe). These include
presentations designed by others.

I produce most of these presentations on CD (with the Powerpoint 97
viewer
files, videos, and autostart file included). That combination has always
worked successfully.

I am under some pressure to include facilities to use the Powerpoint 2003
viewer instead, (as contributors are now beginning to use Office 2003,
and
want to use "whizzy" animations in their presentations!) but I understand
that third party programmes (presumably including CamPlay.exe) cannot be
launched from within the Powerpoint 2003 viewer.

Is this true? If so, it's a bit of a blow to my operation - is there a work
around (other than retaining the old viewer and not being able to run the
later animations)?

Chris

 

[Sonia]

You are correct, Chris. The new Viewer won't let you use Action Settings > Run
Program.

The way that I've worked around it is to create a BAT file that uses launch.exe
(http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/autorun_launch.htm) to open
the "other program". We then link to the BAT file via Action Settings >
Hyperlink to > Other file. The Bat file is just two lines and varies depending
on the program needed to run. An example of a Bat file that runs the Word
Viewer to open a Word file looks like:

@ECHO OFF
launch.exe open word\wordview.exe "word\Distribution.doc"

Note: In the above instance my CD contains a folder called \word which contains
the program files needed to run the Word viewer and it contains the doc file(s).
I put launch.exe and the BAT file(s) in the root directory along with the
presentation and its files.

I have not tried this with the Camtasia player but it sounds like you've already
cracked that part and know the command line parameters, etc.
--

Sonia Coleman
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Team
Autorun Software, Templates and Tutorials
http://www.soniacoleman.com

Thanks, Echo - I'm familiar with the security message and have had to live
with it. The problem I'm experiencing is Powerpoint 2003 viewer producing a
message similar to "Launching this programme is not supported by this viewer"
(or words to that effect).

This is evident on machines that don't have any kind of Office installation,
just the viewer.

The Powerpoint 97 viewer opened the applications OK, but not the Powerpoint
2003 viewer.

I've trawled around the various relevant Microsoft web pages, and it would
seem that the latest viewer doesn't support the launching of 3rd party
appliactions.

I could hardly believe it, which is why I'm looking for some confirmation
here.

Chris

You can launch video players from the 2003 Viewer, but you'll get a "this
file could contain viruses" warning message. There's really no way around
that except a registry hack, which would need to be done on each show
computer. If you're distrubuting the presentations, it may not be a viable
workaround.

Chirag has created a little utility that will make the registry hack for
you -- instead of having to manually go in and change, like, 17 keys.
http://officeone.mvps.org/download/hyperlink_warning.html

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

For some years now, I have been producing Powerpoint presentations with
Office 2000 which contain slides with buttons which launch AVI videos played
with the Techsmith Camtasia player (CamPlay.exe). These include
presentations designed by others.

I produce most of these presentations on CD (with the Powerpoint 97 viewer
files, videos, and autostart file included). That combination has always
worked successfully.

I am under some pressure to include facilities to use the Powerpoint 2003
viewer instead, (as contributors are now beginning to use Office 2003, and
want to use "whizzy" animations in their presentations!) but I understand
that third party programmes (presumably including CamPlay.exe) cannot be
launched from within the Powerpoint 2003 viewer.

Is this true? If so, it's a bit of a blow to my operation - is there a work
around (other than retaining the old viewer and not being able to run the
later animations)?

Chris

 

[CK]

Well, that's a bummer!

Thanks for the workaround, Sonia - I'll try that when I get back to work on
Monday.

Chris

You are correct, Chris. The new Viewer won't let you use Action Settings

Run Program.

The way that I've worked around it is to create a BAT file that uses
launch.exe
(http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/autorun_launch.htm) to
open the "other program". We then link to the BAT file via Action
Settings > Hyperlink to > Other file. The Bat file is just two lines and
varies depending on the program needed to run. An example of a Bat file
that runs the Word Viewer to open a Word file looks like:

@ECHO OFF
launch.exe open word\wordview.exe "word\Distribution.doc"

Note: In the above instance my CD contains a folder called \word which
contains the program files needed to run the Word viewer and it contains
the doc file(s). I put launch.exe and the BAT file(s) in the root
directory along with the presentation and its files.

I have not tried this with the Camtasia player but it sounds like you've
already cracked that part and know the command line parameters, etc.
--

Sonia Coleman
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Team
Autorun Software, Templates and Tutorials
http://www.soniacoleman.com

Thanks, Echo - I'm familiar with the security message and have had to
live with it. The problem I'm experiencing is Powerpoint 2003 viewer
producing a message similar to "Launching this programme is not supported
by this viewer" (or words to that effect).

This is evident on machines that don't have any kind of Office
installation, just the viewer.

The Powerpoint 97 viewer opened the applications OK, but not the
Powerpoint 2003 viewer.

I've trawled around the various relevant Microsoft web pages, and it
would seem that the latest viewer doesn't support the launching of 3rd
party appliactions.

I could hardly believe it, which is why I'm looking for some confirmation
here.

Chris

You can launch video players from the 2003 Viewer, but you'll get a
"this
file could contain viruses" warning message. There's really no way
around
that except a registry hack, which would need to be done on each show
computer. If you're distrubuting the presentations, it may not be a
viable
workaround.

Chirag has created a little utility that will make the registry hack for
you -- instead of having to manually go in and change, like, 17 keys.
http://officeone.mvps.org/download/hyperlink_warning.html

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

For some years now, I have been producing Powerpoint presentations with
Office 2000 which contain slides with buttons which launch AVI videos
played
with the Techsmith Camtasia player (CamPlay.exe). These include
presentations designed by others.

I produce most of these presentations on CD (with the Powerpoint 97
viewer
files, videos, and autostart file included). That combination has
always
worked successfully.

I am under some pressure to include facilities to use the Powerpoint
2003
viewer instead, (as contributors are now beginning to use Office 2003,
and
want to use "whizzy" animations in their presentations!) but I
understand
that third party programmes (presumably including CamPlay.exe) cannot
be
launched from within the Powerpoint 2003 viewer.

Is this true? If so, it's a bit of a blow to my operation - is there a
work
around (other than retaining the old viewer and not being able to run
the
later animations)?

Chris

 

[Echo S]

Thanks, Echo - I'm familiar with the security message and have had to live
with it. The problem I'm experiencing is Powerpoint 2003 viewer producing
a message similar to "Launching this programme is not supported by this
viewer" (or words to that effect).

I'm so sorry for the red herring -- I totally spaced that issue, Chris.
Follow Sonia's lead on how to get around it.

 

[CK]

No problem, Echo!
Sonia, tried your suggestions - the Launch.exe didn't work - got the same
error, but your batch file idea did, so I've resorted to that.

Thanks for the input.

Chris