auto run/video load/etc questions

You can't open an executable or packager from within a PDF (for obvious security reasons), but you can of course include the installers on a disc provided you've signed the redistribution license agreement with Adobe, and tell people to install them manually. Bear in mind that many corporate users won't have the rights to install anything, and are often using VERY old copies of Acrobat or Reader. We regularly find people stuck on v6!

Yes - either via JavaScript popup (app.alert) messages or by our end-page-bounce hack, where you put the message on the last page of the document and set that page as the initial view in the document preferences, then use javaScript to return everyone who *doesn't* need to see it back to page 1. This end-page-bounce makes sure people with JS disabled get to see the warning as well.

The JS object you want to check is [b]app.viewerVersion[/b] - I can email you a sample if you want. Also, open Acrobat's JS concole (ctrl-J or CMD-J) and paste in

app.alert(app.viewerVersion);

select the line and press ctrl-ENTER or CMD-ENTER to run it.

OSX does not permit autostart discs anymore, but older macOS systems did, provided Quicktime was installed. To target both Win and Mac platforms, it's sensible to burn to a hybrid image so each user gets to see only the files related to their operating system - programs like CD-Everywhere do that very easily.

Document icon, no - disc icon, yes. The preview thumbnail of a PDF is generated from the first page of the file (or the cover sheet of a portfolio), so can't be changed aside from changing the PDF itself.

Yes, but not with the default Acrobat MM9 video player - you'd need to write your own video player in Flash or Flex, and embed that instead using Acrobat's "Insert Flash" tool.

Man- you are good! I would love an example as relates to your reply (posted below):

Yes - either via JavaScript popup (app.alert) messages or by our end-page-bounce hack, where you put the message on the last page of the document and set that page as the initial view in the document preferences, then use javaScript to return everyone who *doesn't* need to see it back to page 1. This end-page-bounce makes sure people with JS disabled get to see the warning as well.

The JS object you want to check is app.viewerVersion - I can email you a sample if you want. Also, open Acrobat's JS concole (ctrl-J or CMD-J) and paste in

app.alert(app.viewerVersion);

select the line and press ctrl-ENTER or CMD-ENTER to run it.


Also- is there a link to more info on building a flash player?

Thank you so much!
Melanie

Hi,
David also mentioned Flex.
This Adobe resource may be of interest to you.
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/videotraining/]Flex in a Week[/url]

Be well...

The last-page-bounce method is the same as described in our blog for detecting non-JavaScript users, but with a different test function on the last page:

http://uvsar.blogspot.com/2010/01/friendly-messages-for-acrobatreader.php

Here's a demo PDF that uses the method to display a warning to anyone using pre-v9 software or who has JS disabled. Full instructions are on page 1 of the PDF:

http://www.uvsar.com/downloads/LPB-example.pdf


the test function in this example is simply:

[b]if (app.viewerVersion>8.99) this.pageNum=0;[/b]Note that if you meet the criteria you can't of course view the last page any more - but you can still get at the page action script by clicking it in the pages sidebar, as explained on page 1.


With ref to the video player, you may like to take a look at Joel's "Video Player Plus" - http://blogs.adobe.com/pdfdevjunkie/introducing_the_video_player_p.php - it doesn't have your buffering message but it shows what can be done, and how to use it.