creating a CD-ROM business card (w/ autorun feature)

Do you ever wonder how these autorun CD's are created? You know those CDs you get and you pop it into your computer? And then, by gosh, the thing talks to you? Yeah, those!

It's simpler than you think. I will show you how to make one for yourself or your portfolio step-by-step.

The ingrediants are as follows:

1. 1 autorun.inf file
2. 1 CD icon (.ico file)
3. 1 landing page for your presentation
4. 1 CD-ROM label (optional) *This one depends on your expressionistic style.*

creating your autorun.inf file

Okay, you ready? Here we go. First off, the most critical piece to this operationally is your autorun.inf file. Believe it or not, this file only contains three lines. Yes, three damn lines and you're off and running.

Okay, to create the autorun.inf open Notepad in your computer. To do this you would navigation to the Start Menu. The path is start | programs | accessories | notepad. Notepad is a plain-text editor so just type away with your keyboard.

Type in the following exactly how you see it.

			  [autorun]
			  open = index.html
			  icon = autorun.ico
			  

Save this notepad file as autorun.inf. Be sure that you select "all files" for the "save as" file type.

That's it. Now we'll go through each piece of the code. We'll begin with line number one.

			  [autorun] 
			  

This line instantiates the PC to run this CD if autorun is enabled on your computer. Please Note: This will only work if you have autorun enabled.

Okay, line number two.

			  open = index.html

This line tells the computer to open the file that is listed after the "open" command. I selected "index.html" because it's easy. I'll get into this piece a bit later on.

Okay, line number three.

			  icon = autorun.ico
			  

This line points to an icon file you will create for your CD. This icon file shows up when the CD is inserted into the CD-ROM drive. It gives an identity for your specific CD.

In this case I call my file autorun.ico. You can call your (.ico) icon anything you want. If "stephanie.ico" makes sense, then do it.

creating your .ico icon file

Okay, this may be one of the more trickier pieces. If you don't have any experience with editing graphics this may seem nearly impossible. But not to faint over this. I will give step-by-step instructions to the best that I can.

First off, you have to select an image. This image should be something you don't mind representing yourself and your CD under. The image can be anything, but the simplier it is the better. WHY? The less colors your image software has the deal with the easier it will be on you and the image will be more clearer overall. Trust me on this one. It's a bit thang!

You will need a software that can specifically create .ico images. I have used a few of them in the past. One I would recommend is IrfanView (To download, click on IrfanView.) IrfanView is a freeware software and pretty cool to use overall.

Here's an example of an image I decided to use. It's a simple and straight-forward image to work with technically. The colors are not too varied or complicated so it will translate well as a .ico icon.

I resized this image to 32 by 32. There are a couple of different sizes you can set your icon to. They are described below with accompanying samples.

• For photo like icons when clarity is important use, 48 by 48
• For standard icons use 32 by 32

These sizes are flexible by all means. It really depends on your preference for using a larger icon versus a smaller icon.

When you've got your icon created name it autorun.ico and save it as a .ico image in IrfanView. This icon file will be referenced in your autorun.inf file discussed above.

** Looking for more icon ideas? Visit icomania.com.

creating your landing page

Your landing page may take some time and consideration. This will be the page that starts off your presentation. It may consist of various images and text for example with links to the specific content.

What kind of content can you put on a landing page and how? My website template walks you through this. Please keep in mind that an index.html webpage can be used for many purposes.

For example, you can launch a PowerPoint presentation from an index.html page. You could even launch a spreadsheet from it if you wanted to. Of course, if you are going to be launching specific document types, you need to think about whether your viewers will have the appropiate software. This is pretty obvious to most people. Keep your audience in mind.

creating your cd-rom label (optional)

This is like putting the bow on the box. It may be optional, it may not.

CD-ROM labels have become extremely easy to make. In my template I've included a template for a CD-ROM.

The most critical piece you will need to keep in mind for this piece is the size and shape of the CD. For example, there are the new CD-ROM business cards out there that are kind of neat. These CDs take on a square shape on two sides so that they fit into a pocket easily.

Using a CD template you can design your label using MS Word. If you want to get fancy you can buy a CD label designer software. Bear in mind these softwares do have limitations in terms of laying out various graphic elements and resizing text.

If you are the sort of person who is highly concerned with layout and/or design then you'll probably want to just do it yourself in Word or even consider hiring a graphic designer to it for you based on your specifications.

wrapping up

Now that you've got all of these ingredients assembled you will need to do a test CD.

You will need to pay attention to the file structure here.

For the CD to work correctly, in the sense that the autorun.inf file runs and launches your index.html page you will need to place the autorun.inf file in the root directory. What this means is that it should not be within any folder on the CD-ROM. See picture below.

Second, for simplicities sake also place your autorun.ico file at the root level of your CD-ROM. You see the little lady there? That's the icon file I created earlier.

The rest is pretty straight-forward. You'll want to put your index.html file in the root also. Everything else you can structure the way you're used to as long as you keep the file paths in mind when referencing various elements through your index.html page. In fact I have even included a dowloadable template of this for you to take a look at and use if you like. Fetch the autorun template.