How to link to documents stored in other directories?

[Guest]

I have a presentation which contains several slides with objects holding
hyperlinks to other documents (PPTs, Word, Excel, etc.). I have created this
document and stored it as well as the subdocuments on my hard drive.

Path is something like C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local
Setting\OE\master.ppt

Subdocuments might be several layers below the OE folder.

I know that I would need to transfer the entire folder to another computer
for the presentation to function as designed.

How do I:

Set the hyperlinks to work on a relative path so that no matter where the
end user stores the files the links work? That is - if they decide to create
a new directory and store somewhere else, the ppt links aren't looking in
C:\Documents or something like that?

Keep my folders & subfolders organized the way they are now and have the
presentation be transferable to other user's PCs?

I have looked at some of the discussion on the site and haven't found
anything that speaks specifically to this issue. Any help would be
appreciated.

 

[Guest]

Keep your presentation and linked items in the same folder. Always transfer
that folder in its entirety.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I have a presentation which contains several slides with objects holding
hyperlinks to other documents (PPTs, Word, Excel, etc.). I have created this
document and stored it as well as the subdocuments on my hard drive.

Path is something like C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local
Setting\OE\master.ppt

Subdocuments might be several layers below the OE folder.

I know that I would need to transfer the entire folder to another computer
for the presentation to function as designed.

How do I:

Set the hyperlinks to work on a relative path so that no matter where the
end user stores the files the links work? That is - if they decide to create
a new directory and store somewhere else, the ppt links aren't looking in
C:\Documents or something like that?

There are utilities that will help with this (our FixLinks at
http://fixlinks.pptools.com is one, but don't go there just yet)

You'll save yourself an AWFUL lot of trouble if you put everything in one folder
with the PPT and re-create your links. Even if you can get PPT to do relative
links the end user will have to create the same directory structure relative to
the PPT file.

If you create the links to files in the same folder as the PPT, for the most
part you'll be able to move the presentation (and linked files) to any folder
and have it still work.

If these are OLE links, all bets are off. They're ALWAYS hard-coded fully
pathed links.

The free FixLinks demo's Link Report tool will help you track down the linked
files from wherever they are now.

Keep my folders & subfolders organized the way they are now and have the
presentation be transferable to other user's PCs?

If you really can't put the linked files into the same folder as the PPT, the
full version of FixLinks will help. It'll let you create another PPT for
distribution in another folder, collect all the linked files, copy them to the
folder with the PPT and relink.

 

[Guest]

Steve,
Will this FixLinks work for moved Excel files as well? How and where can we
find this? Is there a demo on the product?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Steve,
Will this FixLinks work for moved Excel files as well?

Here's what it will do in brief:

For each link to an external file, it will look in the same folder as the PPT itself.

If it doesn't find the file there, it will look for it along the link path (ie, where
the link points). If it finds it there, it will copy the file to the folder with the
PPT and reset the link to point there.

If it doesn't find the file in one of those places, it will bring up a dialog box so
you can browse to the file and locate it manually. If you do that, it'll do the same
as above ... copy the file to the PPT folder, reset the link to there.

If the linked file can't be found by the program or the human, then the link stays
broken. Can't link to a file that isn't, after all. ;-)

How and where can we
find this? Is there a demo on the product?

http://fixlinks.pptools.com

There's a free demo; it reports on all links but only fixes image links.

However if it doesn't do what it promises to, you can get a full refund.