The Publish Wizard is used to create a program that runs independently of the Opus Editor environment. This is called Publishing and there are several ways you can publish your publication:
Standalone – You can publish to a single Standalone publication which the user would run from the hard disk of your computer, a network, or to copy onto a CD-ROM to run from there. The publish process will create an EXE file.
Updateable Publication – You can publish a version of your standalone publication which is divided up into chapters or pages (you can choose which on a subsequent dialog) to allow you to update portions of your publication separately later. Use this option the first time you want to create a publication for updates. Updating Publications
Publication Updates – used in conjunction with the preceding option this will allow you to publish sections of your publication which have been updated. Another dialog will appear after you choose this option which will allow you to choose the sections the publication has been divided into (chapters or pages) and then you will be given a list of those sections so that you can select only those you want to update. Updating Publications
Plexus Plug-in – You can choose to create the publication in a version suitable for use on the internet. Unlike HTML editors, Opus offers full-blown multimedia on the internet through the Plexus Plug-in so your publication will appear on the internet exactly as it appears on your machine. The publish process will create an HTML file.
Opus Flex – if you select the Opus Flex type from the Type tab of the Publication Properties dialog you can create a Adobe Flash SWF file that can play inside the Adobe Flash Player or in browsers. Opus Flex means you can now create an Opus publication that can run on a Macintosh computer – see Opus Flex for more information. The publish process will create a Adobe Flash SWF file.
Screensaver – you can choose to create your publication as a screensaver. This can be particularly useful for creating motivational or information material that automatically comes up on the recipient’s computer whenever they leave it inactive for a period of time. The publish process will create a SCR file.
Note:
Before you create a published version of your publication you may want to consider some of the suggestions in Overview of Publishing in Opus for more information.
Click on the Publication menu, then select the Publish option. This will open the Publish Wizard.
The first page shows the types of publication you can produce. Select the type of publication you want to create from the Do you want to: list. Click on the Next button to continue.
Note:
If you select the Opus Flex or Opus Video Creator type in the Type tab of the Publication Properties dialog, this page will not appear because the publications are always published as the required type. The second page of the wizard will be displayed instead (point 3 below).
The second page of the wizard shows the location where the publication will be published. Click on the Browse… button to open the Windows Open File dialog box if you want to save your publication in a new folder. Click on the Next button to continue.
The third page of the wizard provides a summary of the publishing process Opus will undertake to create your standalone publication. Click on the Show progress details while publishing option, if you want to see what Opus is doing during the publish process.
If you want to change the publishing settings before you publish, click on the Settings button to open the Publish Settings dialog. Make your changes to the Publish Settings dialog and press the OK button to close the dialog and return to the current page of the Publish Wizard, then click on the Next button to start the publishing process.
Note:
The Publish Settings dialog provides the same options for each type of publication with the exception of Opus Flex and Opus Video Creator publications – see Overview of the Publish Settings dialog for more information.
Video Creator Note:
When publishing Opus Video Creator publications it is strongly recommended that you use the settings dialog to select suitable video and audio codecs. The default settings will produce uncompressed video files, which will give the best quality, at the expense of producing very large files.
If you have already made changes to the Publish Settings dialog, click on the Next button to start the publication process.
Note:
If the Show progress details while publishing option is ticked when you click the Next button, you will see a report log of the publishing process in the Publishing Details dialog on the screen. If the option was not ticked, a progress bar will appear in the wizard.
Once the publication has finished publishing, the last page of the wizard will appear providing a list of tasks you can now perform now that the publication has been published.
Click on the Show Details of Publishing Process button to open the Publishing Details dialog.
Click on the Open Publish Folder option if you want Opus Pro to open the folder in which you have created your published version of the publication in a new Windows Explorer window.
Click on the Test button if you want to run the newly published version. You can use this to check that your publication works as you expect it will work.
Use the Click on Finish to: options to set what will happen when you click the Finish button. There are four options available: Return to the Opus Editor; Launch Distribution Wizard; Launch Upload Wizard; or Launch CD-R Wizard.
Click on the Finish button to close the Publish Wizard.
Note:
The Run Last Published option on the Publication menu of the Opus Editor allows you to run the last published version of the current publication. This is particularly useful for testing purposes and is different from previewing your publication by pressing the F4 or F5 function keys.
Once you have published for the first time you can republish quickly using the same settings using the QuickPublish option on the Publication menu.
If you also want to automatically test your publication once the Quick Publish is complete you can select this option.