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Sumatra PDF: The Red Cross, and your portable applications.

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Gimmick
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Sumatra PDF: The Red Cross, and your portable applications.

Hello,
I am a volunteer with my local Red Cross Chapter, and I am deeply involved with their tech department. My department is looking into putting a large amount of information onto flash media (Thumb Drives) so if there is a computer handy, whoever is using the info may do so in a quick and efficient way. Laptops for everyone would be nice, however what money our chapter of the Red Cross receives, needs to go to higher priority things than laptops. So, we are looking at the flash media as a way to access the data should a laptop or PC be available.

Currently almost all of the data (primarily volunteer lists) are in the form of databases in MS access. I know you have open office in a portable format, however I do not know open office. I would like to learn, however as of yet, I have not been able to find a way to easily transfer all of my current data and work (specifically the forms I've built) to open office.

So, in the event that the available computer does NOT have MS access, I have found a way to output the data in PDF format. Which is where your SumatraPDF viewer really shines. Not many people know this, but you can drag and drop a PDF file into a shortcut file that points to the .exe of the viewer, and the viewer will open the PDF file. This makes it very handy and simple. I just keep all my PDF files in the same folder with a shortcut that points to the .exe of the viewer.

So, my thanks from Red Cross goes out to all of you that made this come to be. It makes life easier, and with the way our economy is going right now, life easier is always better.

Regards - Tim D.

P.S. It would be nice to have the "E-Mail this PDF" command in Sumatra. Smile But hey, it works, and I'm happy.

Chris Morgan
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Drag and drop into an

Drag and drop into an executable actually does pretty much exactly the same thing as the Windows file association - runs the program with the argument set to the file it's given. Care has been taken with our launchers so that they do not destroy that functionality, but pass on command line arguments to the program.

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Ryan McCue
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Mmm.

Not many people know this, but you can drag and drop a PDF file into a shortcut file that points to the .exe of the viewer, and the viewer will open the PDF file.
Well, we definitely do, because we have to specifically put the code into the launcher to make it do so. Smile

P.S. It would be nice to have the "E-Mail this PDF" command in Sumatra. Smile
We don't develop SumatraPDF ourselves, so the original author is a better person to contact for this.

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solanus
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Welcome to PortableApps.com!

Open Office is pretty easy to get used to.
It's designed to use a lot of the familiar functions that are found in MS Office, so in some parts it is nearly identical, others it is analogous.
Additionally, it supports a wide variety of file formats, including MS Office formats
"Writer" is just like "Word, "Calc" is just like "Excel", and both can easily handle their respective MS Office file formats.
Unfortunately, the program for databases, "Base", is not fully compatible with the MDB files from "Access". You can open Access database files, but not the forms:-(

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horusofoz
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You could try using Cafe MOD

You could try using Cafe MOD or Portable File Associator to make the files open even easier.

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