Doc Link Compatability with PCs

[schad]

Hi - I am trying to share a set of interlinked documents (using the
hyperlink function in Word) with PC users. I have had problems with
this in the past, but today my problem is that the person I am working
with can't access the files that are supposedly linked in the text. It
tells her Word can't find the file. I sent her a zipped file, she saved
it to her documents folder, and opened the navigation page by clicking
the document. I asked her to tell me what appears in the "file
location" field when she views the link in the "Insert: Hyperlink" menu
option, and it has the correct filename (but no filepath - I was
thinking that if there is no filepath indicated, Word assumes the file
is in the same directory location - correct?).

Has there been any reported problems with compatability of this kind
between Macs and PCs?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi-

More detail would be most helpful:

Which versions of Word on each platform?
Are all documents Word files?
If not, what type of files are they?
How is the file being "sent"?

In the meantime, the lack of a path may very well be the problem.
Directory structure is different on the 2 platforms, and "zipping" the
files may very well be causing the disassociation when the files are
unzipped.

Can the other user re-establish the link? |:>)

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

There is one problem you need to check for:

Open your copy of the document and right-click one of the hyperlinks.

View the field code (not the display text) and make sure Word has not
written colons into the file path instead of forward slashes.

You will find that it helps a lot to place all of your linked documents into
the same folder. That means Word will write "relative" path names instead
of the absolute path names it is so fond of.

Absolute path names written from one computer do not work on another because
the name of the hard disk is included...

Cheers

Hi - I am trying to share a set of interlinked documents (using the
hyperlink function in Word) with PC users. I have had problems with
this in the past, but today my problem is that the person I am working
with can't access the files that are supposedly linked in the text. It
tells her Word can't find the file. I sent her a zipped file, she saved
it to her documents folder, and opened the navigation page by clicking
the document. I asked her to tell me what appears in the "file
location" field when she views the link in the "Insert: Hyperlink" menu
option, and it has the correct filename (but no filepath - I was
thinking that if there is no filepath indicated, Word assumes the file
is in the same directory location - correct?).

Has there been any reported problems with compatability of this kind
between Macs and PCs?

Thanks in advance for any help!

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[schad]

Hello All - Thanks so much for the advice. I would send more
information, but the issue has resolved itself. I'm posting how it
resolved so others can know.

When PC recipient clicked to open the zip file, she chose the option
"Open" rather than "Save". She should have saved the uncompressed file
(folder and Word documents contained therein) to her hard drive and
then proceeded into the documents. I don't know what that does,
technically, but I assume it resets the file paths, otherwise it is
probably trying to interpret the filepaths that were saved into the
document on my Mac. Is that right?

Anyway, thanks again, folks. I appreciate the help.

Best

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Oi Vveh...

When they open out of email, all the links point to a folder structure
relative to the document. But until they save and unzip the zip file, that
folder structure does not exist.

When they unzip the folder, their computer creates an outer folder holding
the document, and nested folders containing everything else. The links will
work fine from there

Cheers

Hello All - Thanks so much for the advice. I would send more
information, but the issue has resolved itself. I'm posting how it
resolved so others can know.

When PC recipient clicked to open the zip file, she chose the option
"Open" rather than "Save". She should have saved the uncompressed file
(folder and Word documents contained therein) to her hard drive and
then proceeded into the documents. I don't know what that does,
technically, but I assume it resets the file paths, otherwise it is
probably trying to interpret the filepaths that were saved into the
document on my Mac. Is that right?

Anyway, thanks again, folks. I appreciate the help.

Best

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410