Link to external application in LaTeX Beamer

Question

Is there a way to link to an external application (so that it starts) when clicking on a link in a PDF file, e.g. in a beamer class LaTeX file?

Answer 1

I'm quite sure you can't. It's very application-dependent, system-dependent, and other-1000-things-dependent.

Afaik only url works quite well...

Answer 2

I usually use the movie command to open any video, audio, image file in an external viewer. But no, it will not open programs.

\frame{    
\movie[externalviewer]{Audio Title}{audio.wav}
\movie[externalviewer]{Video Title}{video.mp4}
\movie[externalviewer]{Image Title}{image.jpg}
\movie[externalviewer]{PDF Title}{doc.pdf}
\movie[externalviewer]{Gedit}{/usr/bin/gedit} % does not work
}