automatic hyperlink update

[Don]

Hello,

My advisor wants me to use master document for my thesis contrary t
the advice of others. As such he is also requiring that the hyperlink
to the subdocuments automatically update upon moving files to ne
folders or computers. I can't seem to get this to work. Everytime
move or save the documents to a different folder the hyperlinks retai
the original path to the folder they were created in (I always keep th
master and subdocuments together in the same folder). Does anyone hav
a suggestion on how to make these links automatically update to the ne
file location? This is important for when I save my thesis and give t
him to review, he wants to be able to simply open the master documen
and expand the subdocuments without going through each file to chang
their root location.


Thanks,
Do

 

[macropod]

Hi Don,

Check out 'hyperlink base' in Word's Help file. It says "If you do not
specify a hyperlink base, the paths to hyperlinks are relative to the
document they are contained in". You don't need a master document for this
to work. Again, paraphrased from the Help file: If you type the full address
for the hyperlink in the Insert Hyperlink dialog box instead of selecting a
file from the list, you'll set the path to the hyperlink as a fixed file
location (which is not what you want).

I'd also strongly recommend keeping your thesis as one document or, if
that's not possible, keeping the different parts as separate documents that
aren't part of the master document. Then, use the master document 'feature'
only on copies of these documents so that you can recover from the
almost-inevitable corruption.

Remember too that your advisor has no right to expect you to maintain YOUR
thesis in an unreliable format just for his convenience. After all, if you
tell him what the required folder structure is for using your hyperlinked
documents, he could easily enough replicate that on his own system.

Cheers

 

[Joseph]

Don,

In monitoring this newsgroup for the past two months, I've been struck
by the number of instances where MVPs mention that using Master
Document can lead to document corruption. I had considered using
it, too, but decided against doing so because of fear of corruption.

Save all your documents frequently to hard drive, and back up to CD
if possible.

Sorry. Don't have an answer to your question. Just wanted to warn
you that using master document is not for the faint-hearted.