Starting with version 1.3.6, it is possible for administrators to customize the installation of AlternaTIFF to preset certain options and/or skip over certain prompts.
This is mainly intended for use with the licensed version of AlternaTIFF, but it may be useful in some other circumstances.
Plug-in version: The plug-in version of AlternaTIFF may be distributed as a self-extracting archive (.exe) file, or as a raw ZIP (.zip) archive. In either case, first use WinZip or another unzip program to extract the files from the archive. Then, create a new text file named "options.txt" and add it to the distribution. If you want the distribution to be a self-extracting archive, you must then use your own software to recreate one.
ActiveX version: When installing the ActiveX control (alttiff.ocx) with regsvr32.exe, AlternaTIFF looks for the "options.txt" file in the folder that contains alttiff.ocx. It also looks for the alternate filename "alttiffoptions.txt", which may be useful for avoiding filename conflicts.
File format of the options.txt file
Each option must be on its own line, and start at the beginning of the line.
The option name and value are separated by an equals sign (=), with no
spaces. Any option that does not appear in the file will be left at a
default setting. See samples at the end of this document.
The available options are listed below.
showconfig (plug-in version only)
Controls whether the main configuration dialog should be shown to allow the user to change settings. If this is shown, the user will be able to override most of the other settings in the options.txt file.
values:
0: Do not show the configuration dialog
1: Show the configuration dialog [default]
showerrors
Controls whether error and warning messages are displayed during installation.
values
0: Do not display errors or warnings
1: Display errors, but not warnings
2: Display errors and warnings [default]
showresult (plug-in version only)
Controls whether the final "success/failure" message appears after installation.
values:
0: Do not display the results message
1: Display the results message only if it indicates failure
2: Always display the results message [default]
autoupdate
Controls whether the plugin should periodically make an internet connection to determine if an updated version is available.
values:
0: Do not make update checks
1: Do make update checks
The default is 1, or the current setting if AlternaTIFF has been previously installed.
access
Sets the access control to the given number. Refer to the technical documentation for more information. The old setting is overwritten if it exists. To keep the old setting, do not include an "access" line at all.
values:
0: Enable all features
(higher numbers): disables certain features
mousemode
values:
0: default to "zooming" mode
1: default to "panning" mode
The default is 0, or the current setting if AlternaTIFF has been previously installed.
allowscript (ActiveX version only, v1.5.0+)
values:
0: Scripting will be disabled by default
1: Scripting will be enabled [default]
filetypes (ActiveX version only, v1.5.0+)
AlternaTIFF registers with Windows to handle certain file types. This allows you to control which types are registered. Set this to the sum of the values for the types you want to register.
values:
1: image/tiff (.tif)
2: image/x-tiff (.tif)
4: application/x-alternatiff (.alttif)
For example, to register only image/tiff and application/x-alternatiff, set this to 5 (1+4).
The default is 7 (1+2+4), which registers all types.
toolbaritems (v1.5.1+)
This can be used to define a custom toolbar. It should be set to a toolbar string.
For example,
toolbaritems=PR,SA
would set the toolbar to have only a Print and a Save button.
preapprove (v1.8.3+)
If set to "1", attempts to configure the system so that using the ActiveX version of AlternaTIFF for the first time will not require confirmation from the user. This is done by writing to the Windows registry under [HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\PreApproved]. Note that preapproval is not necessary for ActiveX controls that are auto-installed by IE.
Here's a sample options.txt file, which makes installation of the plug-in version as noninteractive as possible:
showconfig=0 showerrors=0 showresult=0