Macromedia Director allow you to open a file with an application or just launch an application with the "open" lingo command. The problem is that you must know the path to the application, which you don't know, unless you distribute your movie to known users. Fire-Up addresses this issue, but Fire-Up can also open folders, print files and copy / install files and folders to the user's hard disk or network path. All usefull features for which there is no standard lingo command.

Opening a file

1. Create a Director movie, save it.
2. Save the file you want to open in the same folder as your Director movie, for example "Fire_Up.pdf".
   Another restriction of the exec fscommand is, that it does not allow filename arguments containing dashes (-) or spaces. So don't use any dashes or spaces in your filename.
3. Copy the Fire-Up application to same folder.
4. Rename the Fire-Up application to "<file to open>.<command>.<extension>"
   e.g. "Fire_Up.pdf.open.exe" on Windows or "Fire_Up.pdf.open.app" on Macintosh.
   For compatibility with Classic, your filename may not exceed 32 characters on Macintosh.
5. Create a button in your Director movie. Attach the following script to the button:

   on mouseUp me
       if the platform starts "win" then
           ext = "exe"
       else
           ext = "app"
       end if
       open "Fire_Up.pdf.open." & ext
   end

   This script first checks if the Director movieis running on Windows or on Macintosh. Then it issues the "open" lingo command, with your file, and adds the appropriate extension.
6. Run your movie

Printing a file

Same as opening a file, only use the "print" command in the filename and the fscommand.
e.g. "Fire_Up.pdf.print.exe" on Windows or "Fire_Up.pdf.print.app" on Macintosh.

Copying a file

Same as opening a file, only use the "copy" command.
e.g. "Fire_Up.pdf.copy.exe" on Windows or "Fire_Up.pdf.copy.app" on Macintosh.

Opening a folder

Same as opening a file. The folder is opened in Windows Explorer or the Finder on Mac.
e.g. "Fire_Up_folder.open.exe" on Windows or "Fire_Up_folder.open.app" on Macintosh.

Copying a folder

Same as copying a file. The folder and all of it's contents are copied.
e.g. "Fire_Up_folder.copy.exe" on Windows or "Fire_Up_folder.copy.app" on Macintosh.