Hyperlinks are changing

[CroiX]

Greetings:

We have a number of Word documents which serve as an Index for opening a
number of other files. These index files contain nothing but relative
hyperlinks which point to the other documents.

From time-to-time, we have had trouble with an index file, that used to work
just fine, would suddenly fail to open any of the hyperlinks and very
quickly announce: "Cannot open the specified file."

We have verified that the file has not been modified, since the time at
which it was created and did work.

When we use the ALT + F9 command, the hyperlinks are revealed correctly as
in the following example: "{ HYPERLINK "../../125/12560366.DOC" }." However,
when we right-click the hyperlink, and choose to edit it, the Edit Hyperlink
dialog will reveal the path like this:
"../../../SHARED/GLOBAL/ENGDRAW/125/12560366.DOC" (which is obviously
wrong--and does not work).

Does anyone know how we can correct this problem and prevent it from
happening in the future?

Thanks,

Jerry

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I'm guessing here, but I was just made aware of a bug that sounds relevant,
where, if I recall right, Word measures relative paths *not* from where the
document is stored, but from the location that Word currently recognizes as
the active directory.

Now, when you open up the doc, that's all fine, because the location of the
doc is the active directory. But if you then go searching for another doc,
that becomes the active directory, and then your relative links are not
right anymore.

Then, in Tools>Options, General, Web Options....Files, there's a checkbox
that tells Word to update your relative links on Save for you. If that's
checked, then Word can change your links because, as above, it thinks the
relative links need to match some other location.

So see if unchecking that box helps prevent changes.

 

[CroiX]

Daiya:

Thank you for your reply.

I have a feeling you are on the right track. I have received some new
information since my original post. Some of which makes sense and some that
doesn't.

When I checked the properties of the file this morning, it said it hadn't
been modified since 5/25/05. However, the user is telling me now that he
added two links to it this morning. The two links he added both work, but
the rest of them do not (hundreds of links).

What I still don't understand is why the ALT + F9 command reveals that the
links all look just fine; when in reality they do not work. I even opened
the document in Notepad, where the links also looked just fine. If he edits
the links, the edit dialog shows the links as being wrong, but when he fixes
them, they work again. With and without correcting the hyperlink, the
Tooltip for the broken hyperlinks look like they point to the correct
absolute UNC path.

Tomorrow, I plan to restore the file from tape. I will change the option you
mentioned and then have him try again. If you do not hear from me again, you
may assume this issue is resolved.

Thanks again,

Jerry

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

See here for a more knowledgeable discussion of this issue:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/microsoft.public.word.docmanagement/brow
se_frm/thread/f27a2140b8c63ac7/7cd4eec78e76bf8b