hyperlink feature won't work for internal documents...

[biased_perspective]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Hello everyone. I have created powerpoints on the PC side and switched over to a Mac a year ago. For those powerpoints (which I have spent a lot of time creating) I am now unable to open the hyperlinks I have created to internal documents (e.g., Word documents, pdf, movie files, etc). External hyperlinks work fine (e.g., websites). Thus, in order to view my powerpoints and have all the hyperlinks work, I have to run parallels and open up Powerpoint 2007 for PC. The computer programmers I have access to cannot figure out the problem. They have tried to reinstall Office 2008 completely but to no avail. IF I create a new presentation in powerpoint 2008, then the internal hyperlinking works fine. It does NOT help my situation to remove the PC hyperlink and re-hyperlink with the Mac. The error messages I get are as follows: "cannot open specified file" and "Powerpoint couldn't create a hyperlink to."

Thanks for any insight and/or suggestions you have. As a teacher, I use internal hyperlinking in every presentation I give so this is tremendously frustrating.

Best,
Aaron

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Hello everyone. I have created powerpoints on the PC side and switched over to a Mac

a year ago. For those powerpoints (which I have spent a lot of time creating) I am now
unable to open the hyperlinks I have created to internal documents (e.g., Word
documents, pdf, movie files, etc). External hyperlinks work fine (e.g., websites).
Thus, in order to view my powerpoints and have all the hyperlinks work, I have to run
parallels and open up Powerpoint 2007 for PC. The computer programmers I have access to
cannot figure out the problem. They have tried to reinstall Office 2008 completely but
to no avail. IF I create a new presentation in powerpoint 2008, then the internal
hyperlinking works fine. It does NOT help my situation to remove the PC hyperlink and
re-hyperlink with the Mac. The error messages I get are as follows: "cannot open
specified file" and "Powerpoint couldn't create a hyperlink to."

Thanks for any insight and/or suggestions you have. As a teacher, I use internal

hyperlinking in every presentation I give so this is tremendously frustrating.

A few ideas:

See if there's a hyperlink base set for your presentation. This appears on the Summary
tab of the Properties dialog box. This explains how to get there:
Check or change the Document Properties for your presentation
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ01024.htm

Try installing and running the free FixLinks demo (http://www.pptools.com/fixlinks/)
into your Windows PPT setup. Run the link report tool and post the results here, at
least the portion that reports on links that don't work on the Mac side.

"Round-trip" the presentation through HTML on the Windows side.
HTML "Round-tripping" to repair corruption
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00526.htm

 

[biased_perspective]

Hey Steve:

A few ideas:

See if there's a hyperlink base set for your presentation. This appears on the Summary
tab of the Properties dialog box. This explains how to get there:
Check or change the Document Properties for your presentation
<http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ01024.htm>

When I open the properties feature, the "hyperlink base" is blank.

Try installing and running the free FixLinks demo (http://www.pptools.com/fixlinks/)
into your Windows PPT setup. Run the link report tool and post the results here, at
least the portion that reports on links that don't work on the Mac side.

I wish I could attach this, but I don't see how I can, so here it is:

To repair other link types, please register FixLinks Pro
at <http://get.pptools.com>

LINKED PICTURES, SOUNDS, MEDIA; SHAPES WITH ACTION SETTINGS
Slide ShapeName Mouse Status Link Type
===== ========= ===== ====== =========
ACTION SETTINGS ON TEXT WITHIN SHAPES
Slide ShapeName Mouse Status Link Type
===== ========= ===== ====== =========
HYPERLINKS
Slide ShapeName Status Link
===== ========= ====== =====
3 Content Placeholder 2 <http://www.worldmapper.org/index.html>
Link text: place

3 Content Placeholder 2 <http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=292>
Link text: Suicide

3 Content Placeholder 2 <http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=293>
Link text: Prisoners

4 Text Box 2 <

>
Link text: What is Crime

6 Text Box 10 Movies\Video clips to use-teaching\Hemp_for_victory_1942.mpeg
Link text: HEMP for victory

11 Rectangle 3 <http://www.thenation.com/special/bigten.html>
Link text: <http://www.thenation.com/special/bigten.html>

12 Rectangle 3 ..\Stuff for powerpoints\Death Penalty survey data.docx
Link text: Death penalty

12 Rectangle 3 ..\Stuff for powerpoints\Safety perceived survey data.docx
Link text: Safety

12 Rectangle 3 <http://www.pollingreport.com/crime.htm> Fear
Link text:

26 Text Box 5 <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5356029>
Link text: Medical Marijuana debate

36 Text Box 3 <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/eande.htm>
Link text: Criminal Justice

36 Text Box 5 <http://www.bing.com/search?q=States+releasing+prisoners+to+cut+costs&filt=all>
Link text: corrections

41 Rectangle 3 <http://coexgov.securesites.net/index.php?keyword=a432fbc34d71c7>
Link text: Evidence-based policy

49 Text Box 10 <

>
Link text: Milgram

49 Text Box 10 <http://www.performancetrading.it/Documents/JmAbuGrahib/JmA_Milgram.htm>
Link text: 1

TRANSITION SOUNDS
=================
(NOTE: transition sounds are always embedded, not linked.)

Approximate link storage: 807 bytes

KEY to Report
=============
STATUS:
OK Link is good; file is where it's supposed to be
BAD Link is bad; file is missing. FixLinks Pro will allow you to locate and relink it
N/A Not a link; data may be embedded

NOTES:
RUN MACRO actions are reported as BAD links though they're embedded in the PPT file
They don't work in the PPT Viewer; they may not work in PPT due to security settings

RUN PROGRAM actions are reported as BAD links if the full path to the program or file
isn't specified in the link; some programs like NOTEPAD.EXE and other Windows utilities
may work regardless. Testing is in order.

"Round-trip" the presentation through HTML on the Windows side.
HTML "Round-tripping" to repair corruption
<http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00526.htm>

Okay, I installed the "round tripping" program and it "repaired" the file by converting to HTML and then back to .ppt. Unfortunately, it did not fix my problem even though I had a positive attitude throughout the whole process! It is interesting b/c when the files would not open when I first opened powerpoint on the Mac side, I relinked the files but to no avail. Then when I tried to open the files on

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

When I open the properties feature, the "hyperlink base" is blank.

OK, that's what we want for now.

[link report]

I wish I could attach this, but I don't see how I can, so here it is:

No problem, here's fine .. I'm deleting the info about links to URLs, since they're
working right.

6 Text Box 10 Movies\Video clips to use-teaching\Hemp_for_victory_1942.mpeg
Link text: HEMP for victory

12 Rectangle 3 ..\Stuff for powerpoints\Death Penalty survey data.docx
Link text: Death penalty

12 Rectangle 3 ..\Stuff for powerpoints\Safety perceived survey data.docx
Link text: Safety

=======================================================================

The links all use PC-style paths, which might be part of the problem on the Mac side,
but also the paths are all relative.

Try this for at least a couple of the links:

Delete the link
Copy the linked file to the same folder as the PPT file you're working on
Re-create the link; this time, link to the file in the folder with the PPT
Test on the Mac side.

Hm. Actually since you have FixLinks installed, rearrange the presentation so that
the busted links are in the first couple slides and let the FixLinks demo do its
thing. Basically, it'll do what I just described. Fast. But only for the first half
dozen links or so.

Okay, I installed the "round tripping" program and it "repaired" the file by

converting to HTML and then back to .ppt. Unfortunately, it did not fix my problem
even though I had a positive attitude throughout the whole process! It is interesting
b/c when the files would not open when I first opened powerpoint on the Mac side, I
relinked the files but to no avail. Then when I tried to open the files on

... and there your message got cut off for some reason.

 

[biased_perspective]

When I open the properties feature, the "hyperlink base" is blank.

OK, that's what we want for now.

[link report]

I wish I could attach this, but I don't see how I can, so here it is:

No problem, here's fine .. I'm deleting the info about links to URLs, since they're
working right.

6 Text Box 10 Movies\Video clips to use-teaching\Hemp_for_victory_1942.mpeg
Link text: HEMP for victory

12 Rectangle 3 ..\Stuff for powerpoints\Death Penalty survey data.docx
Link text: Death penalty

12 Rectangle 3 ..\Stuff for powerpoints\Safety perceived survey data.docx
Link text: Safety

=======================================================================

The links all use PC-style paths, which might be part of the problem on the Mac side,
but also the paths are all relative.

Try this for at least a couple of the links:

Delete the link
Copy the linked file to the same folder as the PPT file you're working on
Re-create the link; this time, link to the file in the folder with the PPT
Test on the Mac side.

Hm. Actually since you have FixLinks installed, rearrange the presentation so that
the busted links are in the first couple slides and let the FixLinks demo do its
thing. Basically, it'll do what I just described. Fast. But only for the first half
dozen links or so.

Okay, I installed the "round tripping" program and it "repaired" the file by

converting to HTML and then back to .ppt. Unfortunately, it did not fix my problem
even though I had a positive attitude throughout the whole process! It is interesting
b/c when the files would not open when I first opened powerpoint on the Mac side, I
relinked the files but to no avail. Then when I tried to open the files on

... and there your message got cut off for some reason.

 

[biased_perspective]

Sorry about that previous post but there was some blip on my Mac.

Okay, so the first thing I did was just move the file to the same folder as the presentation and that FIXED my over 1 year problem! Weird that if I create a new presentation, I can link to an internal document outside of the same folder as the presentation but if I am bringing a presentation from the PC side, it has to be in the same folder.

This is still going to be a pain when I show a video clip b/c I have to keep those in a separate folder or I will have trouble conveniently locating these files when needed for non-presentations, etc. BUT this is clearly going to make my life easier. Thank you Steve!

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Sorry about that previous post but there was some blip on my Mac.

Okay, so the first thing I did was just move the file to the same folder as the

presentation and that FIXED my over 1 year problem! Weird that if I create a new
presentation, I can link to an internal document outside of the same folder as the
presentation but if I am bringing a presentation from the PC side, it has to be in the same
folder.

I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but by and large, when you link to external files in
the same folder as the PPT, the link points to just the file name (w/ no drive/path). If
you link to a file elsewhere, you get the full drive/path (or at least a relative path).

I'm guessing that the paths aren't right as seen from the Mac, so the links break.

This is still going to be a pain when I show a video clip b/c I have to keep those in a

separate folder or I will have trouble conveniently locating these files when needed for
non-presentations, etc. BUT this is clearly going to make my life easier. Thank you Steve!

Glad it all worked out.