THE HYPERCARD CENTER

HyperTalk Reference

Note: This is a work in progress and many formatting issues have been fixed. Read more about the project on the home page.

open

open application

open fileName with application

The open command launches another application program or opens a document with another application from within HyperCard. You must provide the full path names for the files if they’re not at the same directory level as HyperCard.

Under the Finder in System 6, HyperCard sends the suspend system message to the current card before turning over control to the application.

If HyperCard can’t find the document or application, it displays a directory dialog box and asks the user to find it. HyperCard also sets the result to Cancel if the user clicks Cancel in the dialog box. Otherwise, it sets the result to empty.

If HyperCard has problems opening the specified application (for example, there’s not enough memory), it sets the result to "Couldn't open that application."

Examples

open "TeachText"

open "Read Me" with "Teach Text"

open "the document you want" with "the application" -- invoke dialog box

answer file "Start what application?" of type application

if it is not empty then open it

Demo Script

on mouseUp

  -- this demo only works with System 7

  if not systemSeven() then exit mouseUp

  -- asks the user for an application

  put askForApplication() into appName

  if appName is empty then exit mouseUp

  open appName -- open the selected application

  wait 5

  open the long name of HyperCard -- bring HyperCard to front

  wait 30

  close appName -- close the just opened application

end mouseUp

function askForApplication

  answer file "Select an application to open:" of type "APPL"

  if it is empty then return empty

  if it is the long name of HyperCard then

    -- the user selected the current running HyperCard

    answer "Try selecting an application other than HyperCard."

    return askForApplication() -- recursion

  else return it

end askForApplication

function systemSeven

  return the systemVersion ≥ 7.0

end systemSeven

Placeholders

application

An expression that evaluates to a text string and that is also the name of a Macintosh application.

"MicroSoft Word"

"HD20:Applications:MacWrite"

"Claris MacWrite alias"

fileName

An expression that evaluates to a text string that is also a valid Macintosh filename.

For example:

"my stack"

"HD20:Wally's Stacks:my stack"

"my file alias"

HyperTalk Reference

Version 0.8b4 (July 4, 2025)