It isn't a major problem I suppose but some people that I gave my ebook to have IE installed as part of Windows but normally use Firefox and have asked why it opens external pages in IE. I thought I might be able to have page links use their preferred browser when they open a blank external web page. I'm happy for internal pages to use IE as they're all within the confines of the ebook but it would have been good if blank pages could have been opened using whatever browser the reader prefers.
Uninstalling IE altogether would render the eBook useless, wouldn't it? Anyway, that's not what I meant but it seems that AEC will only allow external links to open in IE so it doesn't really matter. I just hoped that it could be set to use the user's default browser when it opens a web page into a new window that isn't part of the ebook itself. When it's opened within the ebook it doesn't matter that it's IE because nobody would notice but if people don't like using IE it would be good if an opened browser window was opened with the one they normally use.
Sounds simple enough but I don't know how these things work so I assume it isn't.
My point is that IE exist with all WIN OS. A user doesn't know that the ebook has an IE shell. The addition of additional browser installations is a moot point. Or am I missing something?
IE exists, yes, but for normal browsing someone may prefer to use Firefox and ignore IE completely. Perhaps they hate it and refuse to use it.
Obviously, when they open my ebook it uses the IE engine to display pages within itself, and as you say, they won't be aware it is using IE so that part is perfect.
But some pages within my ebook have links to certain websites that I open in new browser windows, separate from the confines of the ebook. Normally, those websites open in IE.
But if their preferred browser is Firefox, they may be unhappy that I'm forcing them to open websites in IE.
I know I am anyway if I display a website page within the ebook, but that won't be obvious and it won't be a problem.
I simply hoped that there might be a way to force my links that open new browser windows to call their default engine (say Firefox, but could be anything, including IE), rather than automatically using itself (IE).
I know that's asking one browser to call on another to open a page, but I thought/hoped there might be a way to do it.
What you say makes a lot of sense now that I've got a better picture of what you're trying to do. It's an interesting idea.
You'd probably have better luck finding a developer's web site and posing the question there. It's going to take someone with specialized knowledge to tell you if it is even possible.
Maybe if you created a program to search for installed browser programs, then let the user select which browser to open the external page in. Just because FireFox is installed does not mean that it is the preferred browser. My system has several browsers installed and I'm not sure how anyone could determine which is my preferred browser.
Yeah, I just assumed there might/could be a default browser setting, like email clients can be set as default so that mailto links open their preferred email client.
But thanks for your input, Storyman. It isn't a major thing but the question I got from a couple of readers made me think about it so I'll keep making enquiries. I'll post in this thread if I turn up anything of interest.
I've been pondering the idea some more and have suggestion that might be suitable. Allow the user to set the default browser. Maybe an alert book could open when the ebook is launched the first time. It could inform the user that IE is the current default browser for that ebook and give them the option of selecting their preferred browser by locating it. After that the information could be stored in a cookie.
Wow! The page with links on loads into the ebook from a server so that I can update it so I wasn't expecting that to work but I just did a quick test and it seems to be working fine. Can't believe how easy that turned out to be.....
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