Easily open ToolBook files with the right-click menu

[Peter Jackson]

Most of us don't think much about the "Send To" menu in Windows. Sometimes maybe you use it because a particular piece of software can be launched from there - something that the developer decided would be a good idea and that you didn't have a choice about when you installed the software.

But, the "Send To" menu can be quite a helpful tool if you set it up to suit your preferences. Whenever I get a new computer or install a new version of ToolBook, one of the first things that I do is get the right click menu set up just the way I like it .

About the Windows "Send To" Menu
The standard windows Send to sub menu can be selected when you right click on a file in either a "My computer" folder or in Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer:-). Try it - it is very simple. It looks like this:

The actual "Send to" sub menu is a simple Windows folder and can contain any number of files and/or folders. The SendTo folder can be found at:

C:\Documents and Settings\TheUserYouLogInAs\SendTo

If there are folders in the send to menu, then these folders become sub menus to the "Send to" menu - very cool :-)

While I have just said that the folder can contain files, what you really want is for the files to be Windows Shortcuts.
So what? I hear you saying:-)
Because then you can have more control over which program is launching a particular file. And... why would you need that?
As author's of multimedia applications we use many tools to "get the job done"; not just ToolBook. For example, we may have more than one graphics package, I sure do:-) And, depending on what it is that I want to do with a graphic, I might want to open a .jpg or .bmp in any one of four or five different programs including Photoshop, Debabblizer, or Corel Photopaint, to name a few. So, what the "Send To" menu allows you to do, is send your file to a specific shortcut so that it is opened in a specific program for whatever it is that you want to do to it.

Here is why I think that this is so important for ToolBook developers. For those of us developing for Native deployment we need to test our books in both Reader AND Runtime mode. NOTE: Runtime mode is not simply launching the book and run through it in reader mode. Runtime mode means that you are running the book using the ToolBook Runtime engine, just like your user will be doing.

Clearly the first level testing a project is launching it in ToolBook Instructor and running through the project. This allows us to find content and functionality problems and if we do find a problem to fix it immediately, save, exit, and re-launch to ensure that the issue is resolved. BTW, the reason to save and exit and re-launch is to assure that going to author level does not mask any other errors

A lot of people think that they have finished testing at this point... but they have not. The second level testing is to launch the book in Runtime mode - just like your end users will be doing. For those of us who would prefer to do all of this testing on one computer, since that machine has instructor we need to be very careful that we are testing the course using the Runtime engine and NOT the Instructor engine. This means that you have to provide specific instrctuions to open the file with ToolBook Runtime and NOT with ToolBooi Instructor. As with everything Windows...there are several ways to do it:

1. Launch the ToolBook Runtime engine and use the file menu to locate your book
2. Open the folder where the Runtime engine is, drag and drop your book onto it
3. Add the Runtime to your Send to, then right click your book and "send it to the ToolBook Runtime"

The ToolBook Runtime engine for TB8.9 (2004) is TB89RUN.exe and is located in:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\click2learn\TBSystem\TB89RUN.EXE

or:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\SumTotal\TBSystem\TB89RUN.EXE

Just right click on the .exe file and select copy. Then find the Send To folder C:\Documents and Settings\TheUserYouLogInAs\SendTo right click in that folder and select Create Shortcut. You should now see the shortcut pasted into the SendTo folder. Now, check the right click/send to menu and you should see the runtime engine executable in there.

I don't deploy Native ToolBook, so this doesn't really apply to me...does it???
OK, so you don't deploy Native and you are still asking "So what???":-) Here is an example of why you might use the Right Click Send To Menu.

We all know that ToolBook does not always do a good job at exporting our graphics when we have not used a Web Graphics Placeholder - right?
Right! You know what happens...your graphics colors look funcky, pixelated, blotchy. So, here is what I do...

When we export a book all of the graphics are stored in the media folder within the export folder. I use a package called ACDSee, which among many other great features allows me to view the contents of the media folder and very quickly identify the graphics that need attention. With my ToolBook file open I can find the graphic using the name (because I always name my graphics:-). I open the graphics folder (because I always have my images in a graphics folder:-), right click the graphic and send it to the appropriate graphics editor. After updating the graphic I can then simply do a replace resource.

Still not sure of how to add stuff to the "Send to" menu?

Try this little exercise: First find the application that you want to add. For this practice session, let's use Note Pad as a simple example. Click the "Start", mouse over "Programs", mouse over "Accessories", right click Notepad and select "Properties" from the right click menu. In the "Notepad Properties" dialog select the "Shortcut" tab (if not already selected:-), note the Target field. it should be:

%SystemRoot%\system32\notepad.exe

Note that "%SystemRoot%" is actually your "C:\WINDOWS\" folder, so the full path would be:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\notepad.exe

Using Explorer or "My Computer" navigate to the above, select the file, do a copy. Now navigate to the "SendTo" folder, right click and select the "Paste shortcut" option - all done.

Note that 90% of the programs that you want to add to your SendTo folder will have the full path in the Target field within the properties dialog and not some %SystemRoot% path.

That said, here is another hint:

In Explorer or "My Computer", copy the path only and paste it into the "Address" and hit the enter key, it will then open the appropriate folder, which will save lots of clicking:-) And yes, it will take %SystemRoot%\system32\ too:-)

HTH and happy ToolBooking.