How to publish to single file executable with additional files

sandran

Hello everyone,

I just wrote a blog post about this, but thought that it fits here, too. (Hope that posting something double is ok, otherwise tell me..).

Today I tried to publish my course to a single file executable. In my course I had several flv and f4v movies that were not directly imported into lectora but play through an swf. I also have one Dragster (see www.webducate.net) drag and drop flash activity in it and that didn't work either. After a while in the forum I found out that the reason for that is that the additional or external files this content needs, doesn't get published with the exe. Adding the files with the "Additional Files" tab in the Title Properties didn't work for me either. And I also didn't want to publish as HTML.

Then I saw a hint in the forums, that it works if you use the option "Publish to CDRom" and copy the media files in the "image" or "media" folder (try what works for you). Now if I start the exe in the CD folder, everything works fine. BUT if I want people to download my course it looks kind of messy with the folder they have to navigate to and the exe file they have to pick out.

So I went searching for a program that turns such a folder structure into an installation/setup package. I found a great little program called Inno Setup that's free for private AND commercial use! It's very easy to use. A wizard guides you through the steps and helps you set where it should install the content on your learners computer, if it should show up in the start menu and all the stuff needed for installing something. Then one click and you have one single setup.exe that installs your course and gives your learners an entry in the Start Menu or a Desktop icon to start the course.

Here's the link to the program: http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php#stable For me this is a better solution than publishing to HTML. Hope this helps some people out there.

--- Sandra