Linking Files

[cjebccanada]

View Video I Uploaded Illustrating Linking File Issues.

I will also include this in a bug and fix issue topic.

Edited January 18, 2020 by cjebccanada

[R C-R]

Although your video is over 4 minutes long, at least for me the audio cuts out & the video freezes at about 1:18 with the lower half covered by a blurred & highly pixelated image, so it is not possible to see what bug you are demonstrating.

This happens whether I view it in place in the forum or download the file & try to run it using Quicktime player.

[walt.farrell]

I experience the same loss of audio, @cjebccanada.

How about just describing the problem here for us.

[cjebccanada]

This Video Works, I posted this on the bug thread, I wish I could edit the main video but I don't know how. Its too much to explain.

[R C-R]

It isn't totally clear to me what "Desktop" is in your video, but it appears to be an iCloud volume named "Desktop," not your Mac's startup drive's desktop, & at about 2:40 in the video you can see that it is full ("iCloud storage is full").

 I also think you said something ("Wise Budget" maybe?) was already saved somewhere but it does not show up in your video in this iCloud "Desktop" folder, so I do not understand how you could save it there (because iCloud storage is full), if that is what you are trying to do.

There are other things not clear from your video (which is why you have been asked to supply a text description in both your topics!) but for now please at least clear up the above.

[dutchshader]

I wonder if linking to a file would work anyway.

As far as i can see publisher uses a absolute path.

So if you would send the pdf to some one, all links will be broken

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, dutchshader said:

I wonder if linking to a file would work anyway.

I can find almost zero documentation on how hyperlinks to files are supposed to work. In the Hyperlinks video tutorial, at about the 5 minute mark, the presenter says that if the "Include File on Export" option is enabled the file will "go with" the main publication, "almost like a sidecar document," but nothing else.

So among other things it is not clear exactly when or how the referenced file will "go with" the (I presume) PDF export; if both must be in the same folder, in a zipped archive, or what; or if there are any limitations on what file types or apps that this supports.

Experimenting with the Hyperlink panel "Go to target" button might help answer some of this but since only in the latest (?) beta has this been implemented for URL hyperlinks, that feature may not yet be implemented in retail or beta for File hyperlinks, & even if it is it probably won't explain exactly how the "go with" option is supposed to work.

[cjebccanada]

On 1/20/2020 at 1:17 AM, R C-R said:

It isn't totally clear to me what "Desktop" is in your video, but it appears to be an iCloud volume named "Desktop," not your Mac's startup drive's desktop, & at about 2:40 in the video you can see that it is full ("iCloud storage is full").

 I also think you said something ("Wise Budget" maybe?) was already saved somewhere but it does not show up in your video in this iCloud "Desktop" folder, so I do not understand how you could save it there (because iCloud storage is full), if that is what you are trying to do.

There are other things not clear from your video (which is why you have been asked to supply a text description in both your topics!) but for now please at least clear up the above.

Its from my SD Card my iCloud is full but has nothing to do with this.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, cjebccanada said:

Its from my SD Card my iCloud is full but has nothing to do with this.

At about 2:39 in your video, it looks like you are trying to save the PDF to iCloud:

[cjebccanada]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

At about 2:39 in your video, it looks like you are trying to save the PDF to iCloud:

Thats just apple's marketing message from my desktop saying the could is full. This has nothing o do with iCloud so get that whole idea out of the picture. If your iCloud is full as it backs up from your desktop it likes to nag at you like your mother.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, cjebccanada said:

Thats just apple's marketing message from my desktop saying the could is full.

OK, but at about 2:44 you said 'There is already one there," & a bit later that you will replace it. Where is the "there" you meant, & what is it that is already there? It is not "Wise Budget," or at least there is not a file by that name among the 10 items in the Desktop folder shown on the right in that part of the video. Later, there is a "Wise Budget.pdf" among the 13 items shown on your desktop, so I am a bit curious about the cause of that discrepancy.

One of the 13 is "Desktop," but that appears to be the SD card, right? Your hyperlink is to a path beginning "/Volumes/Desktop/" which implies it is trying to link to an item on the SD card, but earlier in the video when you relink it, we never see if that was successfully done or not.

Maybe none of this has anything to do with it but I just get the feeling there is something else going on in the background that is, so it seems like  the iCloud backup process might be involved somehow.

[cjebccanada]

11 hours ago, R C-R said:

OK, but at about 2:44 you said 'There is already one there," & a bit later that you will replace it. Where is the "there" you meant, & what is it that is already there? It is not "Wise Budget," or at least there is not a file by that name among the 10 items in the Desktop folder shown on the right in that part of the video. Later, there is a "Wise Budget.pdf" among the 13 items shown on your desktop, so I am a bit curious about the cause of that discrepancy.

One of the 13 is "Desktop," but that appears to be the SD card, right? Your hyperlink is to a path beginning "/Volumes/Desktop/" which implies it is trying to link to an item on the SD card, but earlier in the video when you relink it, we never see if that was successfully done or not.

Maybe none of this has anything to do with it but I just get the feeling there is something else going on in the background that is, so it seems like  the iCloud backup process might be involved somehow.

Yes what I want was when I exported it to my desktop the first time to test it it was there, but I deleted it, I realized. And exported it again for the video. Bottom line, I can't link files from the root folder into a folder where I organize videos and files. It doesn't work. That is the main problem, and I hope the developers look at this and come up with a solution.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, cjebccanada said:

Bottom line, I can't link files from the root folder into a folder where I organize videos and files.

From your video it appears your hyperlink points to an Apple numbers file on an SD card named "Desktop." Is this correct?

[cjebccanada]

Yes and that is the problem with the linking procedure. Regardless it shouldn't matter if it is on my SD card or on my Drive or on a USB it should link from the proper folder I want it to link from, and I should be able to edit the path properly, but it won't allow me. With Adobe Acrobat the product is already in PDF and I use their linking tool and it works from linking file right from the folder the PDF is in to the folder I have my files organized. This is a bit different where you export the file after, but I should still be able to have the path go from, wise budget folder to videos folder, to video A or B or C etc, if I want. But if you edit the path then it recognizes that as a broken link. I have troubled shooter all possible scenarios from editing links to trying to keep the product in the same folder to having the file export as a side card and see if it links. I think the linking files feature just needs to be better implemented with an update.

[R C-R]

33 minutes ago, cjebccanada said:

Yes and that is the problem with the linking procedure. Regardless it shouldn't matter if it is on my SD card or on my Drive or on a USB it should link from the proper folder I want it to link from, and I should be able to edit the path properly, but it won't allow me.

Unless or until a staff member can clarify how this is supposed to work, all we can do is guess about what does & does not matter.

That said, I wonder if the SD card being named "Desktop" has anything to do with it. Have you tried renaming the card to something else & redoing the hyperlink to point to it? Also, what file format is the SD card formatted with? I suspect some formats are not (yet) supported.

[cjebccanada]

The tutorial doesn't go over linking files very well. So it would be nice if they look into this.

The Bottom line is I want to zip up the package and sub folders with the files, that would be linked from the pdf. So when it is unpackaged on a desktop or anywhere, the links work, like how a website would be linked. It would essentially act the same way. I can have my website on my drive, desktop and where ever, or upload it to a server, and the links work in all instances the same. That is what I am trying to essentially achieve. Otherwise I could host all my files online and link it from a http address and it would work that way, but then, the user always has to have an online connection. Which in this day and age, is probably not a major inconvenience to most people.

[walt.farrell]

10 hours ago, cjebccanada said:

The Bottom line is I want to zip up the package and sub folders with the files, that would be linked from the pdf. So when it is unpackaged on a desktop or anywhere, the links work, like how a website would be linked. It would essentially act the same way. I can have my website on my drive, desktop and where ever, or upload it to a server, and the links work in all instances the same. That is what I am trying to essentially achieve. Otherwise I could host all my files online and link it from a http address and it would work that way, but then, the user always has to have an online connection. Which in this day and age, is probably not a major inconvenience to most people.

For that to work, one thing you'll have to do is edit the Hyperlink path to make it relative. You'll first need to click the ... in the Text > Interactive > Insert Hyperlink dialog to locate the file, then you'll need to remove everything prior to the file name. Or, depending on how you package it, you may need to make other adjustments; without more details of your directory organization on your system and in the exported package I can't say for sure.

Then you'll need to manually package your PDF and the file(s) you've hyperlinked into a new directory.

[dutchshader]

 

49 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

For that to work, one thing you'll have to do is edit the Hyperlink path to make it relative. You'll first need to click the ... in the Text > Interactive > Insert Hyperlink dialog to locate the file, then you'll need to remove everything prior to the file name. Or, depending on how you package it, you may need to make other adjustments; without more details of your directory organization on your system and in the exported package I can't say for sure.

Then you'll need to manually package your PDF and the file(s) you've hyperlinked into a new directory.

I  think there is no need to edit the hyperlink, when "include file on export" is checked in the hyperlink menu. Than in the exported pdf the hyperlinks are relative.

test zipfile:

hypertest.zip

[R C-R]

18 minutes ago, dutchshader said:

I  think there is no need to edit the hyperlink, when add image is checked in the hyperlink menu. Than in the exported pdf the hyperlinks are relative.

I am not sure what you mean by this. There is no "image" choice in the Hyperlink Properties window or anywhere else I can find. Experimentally, the way it seems to work for File hyperlinks with the "Include File on Export" option checked is that on export, a copy of the hyperlinked file is automatically created in the same directory as wherever the PDF export is saved to, & in the PDF a fully specified file path to that file is created for the hyperlink, not a relative one.

However, relative paths do not seem to work at all, at least on my Mac. With or without the "Include File on Export" option enabled, if the complete file path is not specified, then on export the following warning pops up:

The "Ignore and continue" option not too surprisingly does not create a hyperlink that works. Of course, it could be that I just have not figured out the proper format for a relative path link, but none that I tried worked.

Anyway, (apparently) in the OP's video, the hyperlink file path is fully specified. It points to a subdirectory on an SD card ("/Volumes/Desktop/200117/Business/Planning Dev<something truncated>") so if the "Include File on Export" option checked, I think what should happen is a copy of that numbers app file should be created in the same directory as wherever the PDF is saved. However, since the app crashed earlier, there is no way to be sure (that I can see in the video) if the full path to that file is still there & intact when the OP finally exports to PDF.

BTW, I can also get Apu to crash if I try creating file hyperlinks to certain volumes other than the Mac startup drive, but I have not tested that extensively enough to know which ones work & which ones do not.

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I am not sure what you mean by this.

What I see in @dutchshader's post is

Quote

when "include file on export" is checked in the hyperlink menu

and as I remember that's what was originally posted. Where do you see "add image ..." in that post?

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, dutchshader said:

 

I  think there is no need to edit the hyperlink, when "include file on export" is checked in the hyperlink menu. Than in the exported pdf the hyperlinks are relative.

test zipfile:

hypertest.zip

Interesting. Thanks.

Yes, that works. The PDF and the included files are exported to the same directory, and can be moved elsewhere, and the links continue to work.

[dutchshader]

13 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I am not sure what you mean by this. There is no "image" choice in the Hyperlink Properties window or anywhere else I can find.

that was a little mistake, i did not have the hyperlink window open, and thought is said image.

edited a little later, but the damage was done 

[R C-R]

22 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Where do you see "add image ..." in that post?

I see it in the part of the quote I underlined from the post I quoted it from.

 

17 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Yes, that works. The PDF and the included files are exported to the same directory, and can be moved elsewhere, and the links continue to work.

It is not working for me. When I open the "linktest.pdf" file in Safari on my Mac & click either link I get this:

I get similar problems when using other web browsers, Apple's Preview app, etc.

EDIT: When I try opening the downloaded & unzipped "linktest.pdf file" in Affinity Publisher on my Mac, there are no hyperlinks in it at all -- "Link" & "Link 2" are just ordinary frame text objects & the underlines have been converted to rectangles.

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, R C-R said:

It is not working for me. When I open the linktest.pdf file in Safari on my Mac & click either link I get this:

I get similar problems when using other web browsers, Apple's Preview app, etc.

If you hover over the link, what URI is shown?

If you create your own .afpub file, with some text and a File hyperlink, and export as PDF, does that link work for you? If so, what URI displays when you hover over the link? How does it compare to the URI from dutchshader's file?

[dutchshader]

Just tested on android, and the links are broken.