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CrossOver Mac
Discussion about CrossOver Mac

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Starting a Mac Program

Hi,
Is it possible to run a native Mac application from within Crossover.
Eg I have a document file (*.doc) that the user would like to have automatically opened and they have Mac Word installed, so it is possible for me to start Mac Word and get it to open the document for me?
Thanks

Similarly, is it possible to start Safari with a specific web site?

A Windows program can run a Mac program like it runs a Windows program. However, I think a Mac->Windows space mimetype link does not exist yet, only Windows->Mac.

If the Mac root directory ("/") is mapped as drive Z:\, you can tell a Windows app to run Z:\bin\ls. Heck, even something like CreateProcess(..., "/bin/ls", ...) works. If a Windows software mangles the program strings it will need a windows-style path though.

The other issue is that if you want to pass a file to the Linux/Mac app you have to take care about the format too. "/bin/ls C:\windows\notepad.exe" is not going to do what you want it to do. There's a script in CrossOver called Winepath that can be used to write wrappers around a mac app and convert paths. However, this is nothing a Windows app can control - the Mac user(or CrossOver setup wizard) has to do that.

Thanks for the reply.
BTW I am trying to do this with code from within my app and I've managed to work it out and it works really well.
It seems Crossover has implemented the ShellExecute Win32 API and so if you pass it a URL it will open up the default browser such as Safari or if you pass it a document it will open it with the app in OS X that has been associated with that extension.
The only trick with ShellExecute is it needs a protocol at the start. Eg "http:\....." or "file:\C:....." etc

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