Broken hyperlinks?

Oliver D Busch

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Jul 30, 2003, 6:10:50 PM7/30/03

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Hi,

can anyone tell me what's going on when hyperlinks work in InDesign 2.0 (i.e. clicking on "go to hyperlink destination") opens the .pdf-file I had intended to, but upon exporting the InDesign-file to a pdf-file itself, an error message pops up in Acrobat, claiming a "General Error"? (I DO use the export function in InDesign and don't go via the Distiller).

Specifically, the hyperlink destination is a pdf-file on my hard drive and the URL I use is "file://localhost/Vergleichstabelle/TM/Ecolab/200D.pdf".
BTW: the error message complains about a general error in the URL "file:///Vergleichstabelle/TM/Ecolab/200D.pdf"

I don't know much about hyperlinking, so please forgive me if this is really obvious...

Also, do I need to keep anything in mind if I later intend to put the entire job on a CD-R? Will the hyperlinks need to be made "relative" or will the URL's, once I get them to work, be just fine as long as I keep the original nesting of the folders?

Thanks for any help!

Oliver Busch

Dr. Smoke

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Jul 31, 2003, 12:56:18 PM7/31/03

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Hi, Oliver. I've never used a hyperlink to a PDF file, but you might try <http://> instead of ftp://

Try opening the file in your Web browser and copying the link from the browser to InDesign as the link destination.

Also, do I need to keep anything in mind if I later intend to put the entire job on a CD-R? Will the hyperlinks need to be made "relative" or will the URL's, once I get them to work, be just fine as long as I keep the original nesting of the folders?

Keep the nesting! The links are absolute in ID documents.

Oliver D Busch

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Jul 31, 2003, 2:41:20 PM7/31/03

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Hi Dr. Smoke!

Same thing... the hyperlink is valid in MS Internet Explorer: Acrobat launches and opens the file (using file://localhost/ etc). It seems to be just Acrobat that refuses to follow the link as I intend it to.

BTW, I tried to burn a CD with the Master pdf-file and its various subordinate files. Opening the master pdf-file works fine, of course, but when clicking on the links, Acrobat tries to "download" the subordinate file onto the CD and gives me an error that there is not enough room on the CD to download the requested file.

Strange, huh? Thanks nevertheless for your reply.

Since this seems to be a problem in Acrobat rather than in InDesign, I'll try a cross-post.

Oliver

Oliver D Busch

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Jul 31, 2003, 4:06:10 PM7/31/03

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Never mind,

I found the problem, thanks to a thread in the Acrobat forum (and thanks to Liam Kernell and Ron Lanham who figured this out).

Anyone who'd like to know:
set the Web Capture preferences in Acrobat so that the file you're linking to is opened in your Web browser, NOT adding it to your master pdf-file in Acrobat. When moving the pointer over the link, a "W" should appear, not a "+". Holding down the Shift-key will toggle this preference as well.

Finally, my experience shows that this does not work when Safari is set to be your standard web browser. But when I switch to IE as standard browser, IE launches, which in turn opens the subordinate pdf-file in Acrobat.

Cool!

Now this brings me to another question...

If my pdf-files are intended for use in a Mac, I have to begin my URLs with "file://localhost/ etc."
If I want them to work from a CD-R on my office PC, they have to begin with "file://E:/ etc."

Does this mean I have to set up ALL of the links TWICE and export to PDF on or the other version depending on where I intend to use the file???
Also, how do I get around the fact that on my PC, the CD/DVD drive happens to be E: while on others, it might be D: ???

Thanks,

Oliver