Relative Links with includeText

[Jason Krug]

I am trying to create a document strucutre that I can
copy into several folders. A generic master Document
that pulls in additional data specific to the server,
based upon the folder it is in. I have a script that
will create the data files; I store those data files in
separate folders. I would like to copy the 'SAME' master
file to each FOLDER?

I can do this EASILY with Hyperlinks, but you will not be
able to print the contents of MASTER.DOC and the DATA
files in 1 print. I want to include the data 'inline' in
the MASTER.DOC. I started to do this with includeText
(from Insert>File, Insert Link).

This is what the directory would look like:
FOLDER1\
MASTER.DOC
disk-data.txt
cpu-data.txt

FOLDER2\
MASTER.DOC
disk-data.txt
cpu-data.txt

PROBLEMS:
1) The Update Method (Automatic/Manual) in the Edit>Links
dialog are disabled! These links do NOT automatically
update when I open the document. I must manually update
them. The only way I can get Update Method
(Automatic/Manual) enabled is by linking through the
PASTE SPECIAL > AS LINK Method.

2) The Links are FULLY QUALIFIED! (C:/file/folder1/disk-
data.txt) not Relative (./disk-data.txt). Therefore,
when I copy MASTER.DOC to Folder2, the links are still
pointing to Folder1. I have to manually recreate the
links to Folder2 (complicated since I have 6 data files,
and 10 folders). I tried to make it relative through
Edit Field, and changed the link to ./disk-data.txt. I
thought I had it working last night, but now I
get "Error! Not a vlid file name." error.

3) As well, the Links have to be relative since the file
will be accessed BOTH from a WWW Page, as well as a C
Drive. So I cannot fully qualify the links and have it
work in both locations!

I am open to the format of the data files (HTML, TXT,
etc). I may even be open to the format of the MASTER
Document, since I can save WORD as pretty much anything.

The GOAL is just to:
1) Have a Template that will work in different folders
2) Have the actual data appear inline in the MASTER.DOC
MASTER.DOC
MASTER-TEXT1
DISK-DATA-VALUE1
DISK-DATA-VALUE2
DISK-DATA-VALUE3
MASTER-TEXT2
CPU-DATA-VALUE1
CPU-DATA-VALUE2
CPU-DATA-VALUE3
MASTER-TEXT3
3) Have the data updated AUTOMATICALLY when the
MASTER.DOC is opened

Help!
--Jason

 

[Graham Mayor]

I wonder if the following would work for you?
See the method used to save the current document to different locations.
http://www.gmayor.com/automatically_backup.htm. It would be simple enough to
add the extra locations required.


--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
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[Jason Krug]

Graham-

Thank you for the reply... it is nice to see people
actually reading and helping.

I see this saving the same document in multiple places, I
don't see this addressing the Links? All this does is
save the document in multiple locations, I do not see any
proccesing that would redo the links to the new location?

In looking around, I saw this idea which may be closer to
my issue (of relative links):

---------------------------

Can relative file references be used instead of

absolute
(C:\........\filename) such that the "set" can be
transported together?
Using Word 2000.Steve Hudson found a way to do this. It's not exactly
intuitive, and you
can't *see* that the link is relative, but it does work.
Let's see if I
can remember the steps...

1. Start in the Master Doc view

2. Click the button to bring in a file as a sub-doc and
navigate to the
folder location

3. CLOSE the dialog box without actually inserting the
file

4. Go immediately back into the dialog box, select the
file and insert it
as a sub-doc.

Even though the link information appears with an absolute
path, Word
should remember it as "relative". To test, save and close
the documents.
Copy them to a different folder and open the master doc.
Can it find the
sub-doc?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update
Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Graham Mayor]

I don't think Steve Hudson (who posts as Word heretic) accesses this group,
and Cindy has been away for a while (she'll be back). I have cross posted to
two other groups where one or other of them may be monitoring.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>