HTML Coding Question

[Chris F.]

Hey Guys, I'm making up a quick internal website for work. So far these guys want to have lots of links to various office files (Word .docs and Excel .xls). I can place links to them within the website, but when someone clicks the link a pop up window comes up asking, "Do you want to Open, Save, or Cancel?" .....well I'd like to default the choice to "OPEN" (we don't want people saving copies of a file on their local PC, making changes, and then coming back to us saying "I made the changes! Why can't you see them?!").

I know there is some code you can use to avoid the pop up box from being displayed and default to just opening a file....

Anyone know what the code is?

[broknlgs24]

do u want the file to be read only?
even if it opens automatically, won't they be able to save any changes from the File menu? and even if they can do that, they can't upload files to the server, can they?

[Juanted]

This may be what you're looking for...

Juan

[labatt]

Originally Posted by Chris F.

Hey Guys, I'm making up a quick internal website for work. So far these guys want to have lots of links to various office files (Word .docs and Excel .xls). I can place links to them within the website, but when someone clicks the link a pop up window comes up asking, "Do you want to Open, Save, or Cancel?" .....well I'd like to default the choice to "OPEN" (we don't want people saving copies of a file on their local PC, making changes, and then coming back to us saying "I made the changes! Why can't you see them?!").

I know there is some code you can use to avoid the pop up box from being displayed and default to just opening a file....

Anyone know what the code is?

It's a client side issue, not a server side. The only way to do it automatically is to convert it to text, or to go around and change clients. There may be some server side Java or ActiveX apps that allow you to display docs in a browser without using their native application, but I haven't looked into them.

[hayaku]

you can set the server to "serve" the page and not to transfer it... mime type setting in the server...

not an html/client side thing... server side config thing if you want to go that route

[Wagner]

As was said that is a client side operation. Your best bet in a perfect world is convert the files to Acrobat PDF and allow users to access them that way - OR - use the save as webpage feature in XLS and DOC to convert these items to webpages prior to linking. You could also pop an alert up and mark a business rule of "don't save off documents to work on".

This is a common issue in most workplaces. The vast corporate world moves to document management tools to handle this but for your purposes Acrobat or Web conversion would probably work fine.

[MiCkEy]

if you wish that file to be modified and saved back use webdav on the server. I agree it is a client side check by the browser and can be bypassed by the client.

[labatt]

Originally Posted by hayaku

you can set the server to "serve" the page and not to transfer it... mime type setting in the server...

not an html/client side thing... server side config thing if you want to go that route

Actually, you're right - that would work in many cases. Some browsers are set to override the MIME type settings tho. I think Mozilla is one.

[Chris F.]

Damn you guys are smart! I figured it was a client issue, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask I figured there might be some ActiveX or ASP stuff that might help with my problem (its a registry setting in Windoze to get rid of the pop up box) but I'll just tell 'em they'll have to live with it. This is a simple bread 'n butter website, nothing fancy and its not going to turn into anything big.

Thanks guys!

PS Labatt I am still interested in your compilation of the Beater vs. P-Car video!