Opening a copy of a file in a container field

[mweiss]

Okay, basic set-up, I have stored a reference in a container field to a file. When I double-click the container field, the file (a Word document) opens up. Easy. But what I want is for a copy of the document to open, so that the original remains untouched/uneditable.

I realize that I could accomplish this by locking my original file (so that when it opens, it will be read-only), but I need my file to remain unlocked for other purposes.

Any simple solutions?

Edited October 23, 2006 by Guest

[Manjushree Das]

Right click on the container field in the browse mode and select Insert Object.Check the box Create from file and provide the path of your file.Check all the checkboxes there in the dialog according to your requirement.Now when you click on the container field the file opens up and you can make changes to it and save it at a different location.The original file remains unaffected and new changes are reflected in the new file.

[Fenton]

There is not an "Insert Object" on a Mac. That's a MS-only technology. What we do have is AppleScript. You will need to parse the file path from the file's container field and convert to a Mac path (either old style or POSIX; I'm doing old style here).

Then tell the Finder to duplicate the file, and open the copy. Of course then you've got 2 files. You could rename the copy and move it somewhere else before opening it.

ContainerFile_copy.zip

[mweiss]

Fenton,

That was exactly what I needed. Thank you so much.