Starting an acrobat reader and passing it the name of a pdf 1

[jimsterS]

I want to be able to pass the name of a PDF to open it programmatically. It seems that the shell function will allow me to open PDF reader but I can't figure how to pass it a pdf name.

Thanks
Jim

 

[jfischer]

I use a variety of routines to open up PDF files using the Shell function. First, I have a group of functions to check the Windows registry for the location of Acrobat Reader. (I'm not going to post all the Registry access code here--you can use whatever technique you like to locate the program.) The point is that you get the "open" command string for Acrobat Reader. It usually looks like:

"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 5.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" "%1"

Then, I replace the "%1" parameter of the open command with the name of the PDF file to view, and put double quotes around the name. Then, I use the Shell function to execute the final command line string. For example:

Function AcroRdOpen(sPDFName As String, _
                    lWindowFocus As Long) As Boolean
  Dim sOpenCmd  As String
  Dim sShellCmd As String
  Dim i As Integer
  Dim result
  
  On Error Resume Next
  AcroRdOpen = True
  'Get AcroRd32 "open" command from Windows Registry
  sOpenCmd = gcAcroRdOpen()
  '(Error checking omitted here for brevity)
  i = InStr(sOpenCmd, "%1") 
  If i > 0 Then
    sShellCmd = Left(sOpenCmd, i - 1) _
              & Chr(34) & sPDFName & Chr(34)
  Else
    sShellCmd = sOpenCmd & " " _
              & Chr(34) & sPDFName & Chr(34)
  End If
  result = Shell(sShellCmd, lWindowFocus)
  AcroRdOpen = (result = 0)
End Function

I hope this helps.

 

[jimsterS]

Thank You - thats what I needed

Jim Shepard