Need portability of docs with hyperlinks

[Teresa]

My many hyperlinks in a group of five Word documents work fine, thanks to
input from several of you.

Now I need to know how to make them all work when I move the files up to the
network drive (into more than one folder), or over to my colleagues’
computers (into a single directory). All the links want to go back to the
target docs on my hard disk drive.

I’ve learned to do File>Properties and fill in the Hyperlink Base, then
Alt+A and F9 to update, but that only helps if I’m on my own computer. I have
no control over what happens to these Word files after they leave my computer.

This is also a problem when I convert the docs to PDFs and sent them to the
network, to my colleagues, or worse, put them on CDs to our customers.

I’m using Word 2003 and Adobe Acrobat 8 Pro on XP. Thanks!

 

[Idaho Word Man]

I don't have time to write a detailed treatise on hyperlinks, but you need to
know that the target address of the hyperlink is context sensitive. (The
target address is different than the text to be displayed.) A target to a
file on your hard drive will not work when you move the files to a CD or to a
company network or to the Internet. That means that you need to edit the
hyperlinks when you move files to a different location.

Right-click on the hyperlink, choose "Edit Hyperlink," and edit the target
address (should be at the bottom of the window). If the hyperlink is to a
file on a network directory, the target must start with two backslashes and
the server name, and must include the complete path to the file. (In my
company, the address is "\\AMWS0025\Enterprise\something.doc.") If the link
is to a file on the Internet, the target must start with the URL (usually
http://www.something). Note that server addresses use backslashes and URLs
use forward slashes.

If your network server is mapped as a drive on your computer, you can't use
a target address that includes the drive identification unless everybody in
the company has the same server mapped as the same drive. If you have the
server mapped as your F:// drive, a target that starts with "F://something"
will ONLY work for those employees who also have it mapped as their F drive.
If some employees have that directory mapped as their G drive or something
else, your links won't work. It's safest to use the server name. You can
usually get the server name by using "My Network Places" to navigate to the
right file, and then copying the full address out of the address bar.

I don't know how to format a hyperlink so it will work on a CD. Sorry.

This is only the two-minute lesson, but I hope it gets you started in the
right direction.

Fred

 

[Henk57]

In addition: a quick work around is to ensure that the recipient use the
same directory structure as the creator, and copy the files to that
structure. Say, you use C:\Project as the base structure when creating
the file with linked files. Copy all linked files to any directory with
subdirectories you want and copy this main directory (say
ProjectX\..\..\) to C:\Projects\ProjectX... This ensures consistent
links and works for every person who has a C-drive, even if they are
not on the same server. Of course there are some drawbacks, e.g. if
the files are not kept on the C drive, or other file management
restrictions. But for quick and dirty collaborating on projects this
works.
HTH,
Henk

 

[Teresa]

Thanks, Henk57 and Fred.

I always just figured the Word and PDF hyperlinks would be relative instead
of absolute until I noticed this problem and had to learn about the Hyperlink
Base. I will use Henk57's suggestion to make the base a directory on the C:
drive, and include instructions to paste the files there.

Thanks for the help.
Teresa