Simple hyperlink to a file not working

[Zuma Hans]

Forgive me, but I have searched here and not found an active file about
my problem:

I am using Word 2004 in Panther. I cannot get a hyperlink to another
Word .doc to open. I have tried the trick of placing the documents to
be linked to in folders created within the Word "save as" dialog box,
to no avail.

Suggestions? Appreciated!

ZH

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi ZH -

Forgive the very fundamental question, but are you actually _selecting_ at
least one character or an image to use as the hyperlink? If the insertion
point is flashing, you can go through the motions, but the hyperlink won't
be created.

If this isn't the problem, post back in more detail exactly what procedure
you're following and what _does_ or doesn't happen as a result.

HTH |:>)

 

[Zuma Hans]

Thank you for your reply, CyberTaz!

What I do is this: in an existing document, I type a short case name (I
am studying law and this is for a hyperlink to an associated case).

I then highlight the phrase, APPLE-C, APPLE-N, save as, APPLE-V,
return. I then write the brief, and close it.

Then, in the original document, I again copy the name of the case to
the clipboard, use APPLE-K, select document, APPLE-V and press OK. The
program responds with this pathname
file://localhost/users/myname/desktop/Law&School/Criminal%Law/W%20Crim%20Briefs/U.S.%20v.%20Ashfari

It appears that the program is looking under the proper folder pathway.

This results in a "cannot open the specified file" message.

Taking a hint from this forum, I have tried creating new folders from
within the Word program "save as" dialog box, instead of in finder.

All of my efforts have been to link to documents that reside in a
different folder - maybe that is the problem?
Same failure.

 

[CyberTaz]

I played around with this, and it seems the problem may _not_ actually be
associated with Word. IIRC, OS X has a problem with immediacy of updating
the Finder. I haven't fully tested this, but it seems that as long as you
link to a previously created file there is no problem. Linking to recently
created new files seems to be the issue. Once Finder got itself together, I
was able to link successfully to files that had originally presented the
"Cannot open..." dialog when first created & linked to.

HTH |:>)

 

[PhilD]

I played around with this, and it seems the problem may _not_ actually be
associated with Word. IIRC, OS X has a problem with immediacy of updating
the Finder. I haven't fully tested this, but it seems that as long as you
link to a previously created file there is no problem. Linking to recently
created new files seems to be the issue. Once Finder got itself together, I
was able to link successfully to files that had originally presented the
"Cannot open..." dialog when first created & linked to.

For what it's worth, I had similar difficulties in Excel. It seems
that the problem was caused by spaces in the file name (shown by %20 in
the example given). By removing spaces in the link *and file name*,
the problem went away.

Whether this works in this case, I don't know, but it might be worth a
try.

PhilD

 

[Zuma Hans]

Thank you Phil and CTaz. I will test and report back.

 

[Zuma Hans]

I have been testing - the only apparent solution is to (a) make sure to
create a folder from within a MS Word dialog box, and (b) make sure the
linked documents (and the original) are all in the same folder. Very
disappointing.

P.S. Multiple-word doc names do not appear to be a problem - just file
hierarchies!

happy New Year.

 

[Zuma Hans]

Thanks. I'll test that. Happy New Year.

 

[Christoph Holzhey]

Hello, may i insert myself in your conversation on hyperlinks?
I am having the same problem that inserting hyperlinks to other (word)
documents just does not work properly on Word 2004 for Mac (on MacOS
10.4.4).
For me, the problem poses itself as follows, always creating hyperlinks
via 'insert hyperlink' and selecting a document (i.e. not typing in a
path and filename):

When i do this to link to a document in the same folder, it works fine
(the relative path address is, e.g. "test.doc").

When i try to link to a document higher up in the folder hierarchy, it
does not work b/c i still get "test.doc", even though the relative path
should be "../test.doc".

When i try to link to a document two levels up in the hierarchy, i get
"/test.doc" as address, which does not work. For what it should be is
"../../test.doc".

It seems to me that there is a basic error in how hyperlink paths are
defined by selecting a file in 'insert hyperlinks' -- but i can't find
anything except your conversation, which seems inclusive.

Thanks for any comments/suggestions/confirmations,
chris

 

[Bev Heron]

I've been having this same problem for years!--including this morning.
Finally looked on mactopia and was moved to rename my hard disk from a
hyphenated name to a name with an underscore. Miracle!--it worked.

The syntax of the link that *works*, from Document A to Document B, is:

file:///Users/MyUserName/FOLDER1/FOLDER2/FOLDER3/FOLDER4/DocumentB.doc

You can see that the HD's name isn't even in there, so I don't know why
removing the hyphen made a difference. Probably it was just incidental
to when the Word God/dess decided to let me have my way.

Wrt to other conjectures in the thread:
- I renamed Document B, the linked to Document, to a single word title
- DocumentB was created 2 days ago and last saved yesterday.
- The linked-from document, a running journal, is years old.
- I'm running 10.3.9 on a non-networked, older G4