file linking relative paths question

[meumax]

At my work we produce a CD with PDF documents for management. These PDFs are to have links contained in them to various other documents (usually Word) documents.

When we create the links we use relative path syntax for example "../corporate/test.doc". The reason being that the links must work on any PC as they are distributed on CD.

The problem is that Acrobat 5 doesn't like to keep the file paths the way we type them. Instead of keeping the "../" part, it changes it to whatever the root folder of the PC where we are creating the link is called. For example, if my PC was called Civic1 and I tried to save the PDF file, it changes my link from "../Corporate/test.doc" to "//Civic1/Corporate/test.doc". This obviously would not work when we publish it to CD.

The funny thing is this never happened when we had Acrobat 4. It's only with version 5 that we have this problem.

How do I make Acrobat stop doing this?

 

[meumax]

Just an addendum to my problem. The person who produces the CDs has shown me the procedure they use to make the links and it happens in Word before the document is converted to PDF.

They use the "Insert hyperlink" feature of Word to create the relative link as before and then use the Acrobat converter to make it a PDF. When we used Acrobat 4, it preserved the path we typed with the "../" part but now with 5, it changes our "../" link.

 

[theOMega]

simple but efective... put the link in acrobat in not already in word....... in word you just write the part that will be the link in the way you would like it to appear..... something like "fat, blue, underlined" but without link, convert to pdf and put a link over the word you want....... finshed.......

hope that helps

 

[lichter]

meumax,

did you get the desired help by now?
If yes, please let me know, since I have the same problem.
Since I don't use Word to create the files I convert into pdf, I can't put the hyperlink in, before getting to Acrobat. ( I don't want to start with Word now just because of this problem. )
If you can help it would be great

 

[meumax]

Sorry lichter, no resolution as yet. We have reverted to using Acrobat 4.

 

[ETID]

Hi meumax,


Did reverting to 4.0 solve this problem?

 

[ETID]

I just downloaded the 5.05 update from the adobe web site...

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=1&platform=Windows

It cleared up this problem with relative referances.

 

[lichter]

Hi Etid,

after reading your mail I downloaded the Acrobat update 5.05.
But I coudn't see any difference to 5.0 so far. How do you handle the paths? Under "link-file" I can't chose the path I want, the programm always puts in the absolute path including the letter of the local hard disk.

Lichter

 

[ETID]

Yes I see that too, I thought that the upgrade cleared this up, but now I see that it did not.

It did change however,... with 5.0 I used to get the full path. now at least I get "./filename.pdf" so it's now looking only one folder up in the branch.

4.0 does not suffer from this problem.
maybe this link will help you...(I didn't have any success)

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html

 

[ETID]

Ooops look to this tech doc on the adbe site.

Adobe Systems Technical Document 326245

 

[meumax]

Yes ETID, the 5.05 update resolved the issue for us.

 

[lichter]

I noticed that with 5.05 more links work but not all.
How did it resolve your problems, meumax?
and you, Etid, could you put the link to the site with the Adobe Systems Technical Document 326245 in you next e mail or do you have to log in the site with an Adobe ID?

 

[meumax]

I have only tested the 5.05 patch with test documents so far but it seems to work. Sometimes however, you need to re-apply the "Embed tags in PDF" option in Conversion Settings under the Acrobat menu.

That option is supposed to be ticked but I found that even if it was ticked the conversion of links still wasn't working. It was only after I unchecked it, closed conversion settings, then openned it again and ticked the box that conversion of relative links worked properly.

 

[lichter]

ETid,


are you sure about the tech doc number? I only found numbers with five cifers on the adobe.com site and none is refering to Acrobat.



lichter

 

[ETID]

Well, I got an email from Adobe tech support. with a ref. to doc number 326245, I don't want to post it because it's plastered with copywrite notices.

So you'll have to call them...

Please note that I had to resort to Adobe 4.0 to to cure this problem.

 

[meumax]

lichter, here's a direct link to the document:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/2aab6.htm

 

[lichter]

Thanks meumax!

What concerns the paths I experienced the following:
You have for example a Start Document with five links to documents in the same subfolder. Three of them work two don't.
What I do so far until the problem is solved:
With your CD burn program you create a virtual volume on your hard drive ( doesn't work with Nero ), put all the folders with the files into it set the links/ paths. They work. In case you burned a master and recopied the files back onto your hard disk because you wanted to change something like layout, replace pages etc and burned it on CD again, the paths still work. ( For someone who can't create a virtual volume on the hard drive. )
But this is a way around the problem and not really a solution, I know.


lichter

 

[mortkc]

I am having the same problem on Acrobat 5.0, 5.0.5 and 6.0. The links work on some machines, but not on others. The hyperlinks are created in code and point to the PDF documents, but I only get a blank web page with the title in the address bar and no error. I have managed to get the links to work on two machines running Windows XP with Adobe 5.0.

 

[mortkc]

I have found that going into preferences in Adobe and unchecking "display pdf in browser" has given me a work around. It is not a cure, but allows the document to open.