hol said:
Thanks for all your responce.
I did try RvT_PE's suggestion and it was actually my very first try. For
some reason, it didn't work. It works with JPGs, Gifs etc but not word
documents.
Now as far as Adrienne't reply, I understand what you are saying, but there
is nothing suspicious behind this method. The site is being built in Flash
and when the user clicks a certain button it loads the HTML file that opens
the word document. So the user decides whether or not to open it.
Whether or not the user's browser will 'open' a Word document or gives a
'Save as' dialog depends on, the user's OS, the user's browser, the
user's has the application 'Word' and what the user's default handling
settings are for Word documents. The key work here is 'user' not your
coding, in fact using your JavaScript method of creating a popup window
linked to the original document's onload event in a misguided attempt to
'force' the document on your visitor's will not work with my Firefox
that will block the popup!
This is just a bad idea on many levels!
1. Word documents like many high-level document formats can have
embedded scripting code that has been frequently use as worm delivery
tools, so there is a security issue involved here and this type of file
should never be 'automatically' loaded!
2. Yes Billy does own most of the world but not ALL of it yet, Word is a
proprietary document, so again should never be 'automatically' loaded!
3. Word documents because of their formatting, scripting and proprietary
format a generally larger (most time many-fold) then plain text or html
counter parts and are not optimal for general web delivery especially if
'automatically' loaded! Not everyone has broadband.
4. Lastly it is just bad etiquette akin to a tele-marketer's call at
diner-time. Be polite use a regular link with the file description and
file size noted
<a href="pricelist.doc">Our Price List in MS Word200 format (1.2 MB)</a>
or in <a href="pricelist.txt">Our Price List in plain text (10 KB) </a>
