I am using PowerPoint 2007 to create brief technical manuals for custom built
machines, and I have folders full of AutoCAD drawings and the like that I
need to link to for each machine section. I can link to the folders on my own
machine, of course, but when I package it to run as a slide show on the
customer's machines, I can only copy the linked files. The linked folders
don't copy. I can't create an individual link for each file, as there are
hundreds of them. Help?

Are you trying to open an AutoCAD drawing from within PowerPoint using the
hyperlink? And how would the link work on the customer's computer even if you
could link to the individual drawing, if the customer doesn't have the
drawing?

I'm not sure if this would help, because I'm not understanding exactly what
you're trying to do, but you can create an Action Setting that opens a
program, in this case AutoCAD, and you could then open the drawing from
there. Insert tab> Links group> Action button and then choose the Run Program
option.

Ellen
--
Author of How to Do Everything with PowerPoint 2007
http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com


"Eric_Fischer" wrote:

> I am using PowerPoint 2007 to create brief technical manuals for custom built
> machines, and I have folders full of AutoCAD drawings and the like that I
> need to link to for each machine section. I can link to the folders on my own
> machine, of course, but when I package it to run as a slide show on the
> customer's machines, I can only copy the linked files. The linked folders
> don't copy. I can't create an individual link for each file, as there are
> hundreds of them. Help?

Have you considered inserting DWF files? You can publish to DWF using the
PUBLISH command in AutoCAD, creating a multi-page file that contains the
drawings. (Never tried it with hundreds though!)
Here are the steps for putting an AutoCAD drawing into PowerPoint
http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/auto...owerpoint.html

Ellen
--
Author of How to Do Everything with PowerPoint 2007
http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com


"Steve Rindsberg" wrote:

> In article <E4BAD11A-BAF4-4773-A21B-(E-Mail Removed)>, Eric Fischer
> wrote:
> > I am using PowerPoint 2007 to create brief technical manuals for custom built
> > machines, and I have folders full of AutoCAD drawings and the like that I
> > need to link to for each machine section. I can link to the folders on my own
> > machine, of course, but when I package it to run as a slide show on the
> > customer's machines, I can only copy the linked files. The linked folders
> > don't copy. I can't create an individual link for each file, as there are
> > hundreds of them. Help?
>
> The usual advice is to put all files to be linked into the same folder as the
> PPT itself and then link to them, but this seldom works for graphics, and it
> doesn't work for OLE links.
>
> How are you creating the links? Depending on how they're created, our FixLinks
> addin might help (by copying all the linked files to the same folder as the PPT
> itself then making all the links pathless, effectively pointing them at whatever
> folder the PPT lives in). http://www.pptools.com/fixlinks/ for more info, but
> please, don't buy it right off, not until we've figured out whether it'll help
> or not. ;-)
>
> Next, assuming they're links to ACAD files, must the end user be able to open
> the files in AutCAD or equivalent, or is it enough that they can view a detailed
> rendering of the drawing? We did something like this years ago using PDFs of
> each drawing in the collection instead of the CAD files themselves. All the
> users needed was a copy of the free Acrobat Reader to view the files.
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
> PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
> PPTools: www.pptools.com
> ================================================
>
>
>