Publisher 1.8.3 (Windows): a surprise with the 'Collect' feature

[MikeA]

I did a first-time test of the make-collection feature and got quite the surprise. I made a temporary directory of the hard drive. With a small Publisher document open, I selected Document > Resource Manager, selected all image files shown there, and clicked Collect. For the destination I selected the temporary directory and then the collection was made.

After checking to ensure that all files appeared in the temporary Collect directory, I removed it. At that moment Publisher announced a loss of linkage to all of the image files in the document. It appears the program had just re-linked all images to the versions that were copied to the Collect subdirectory.  (Had I missed an option that specifies: only copy them — don't re-link them?)

Then I had to re-link all of them manually to their original location. I'm glad it's a small document. If I had to do that in the document once it's finished, I'd be at it all day as there does not appear to be a way of doing it in a batch (which would make sense if the missing image files were all in the same directory—which, in this case, they were). Restoring the links seems to be a one-file-at-a-time operation.

As far as I can tell, Publisher's online help file (the topic on making a collection from the Resource Manager) does not mention the change of linkage in this situation.

Is the feature working as designed? The "gotcha" of suddenly changed linkages could be a nasty surprise indeed for the unwary with a large document containing image files residing, originally, in multiple locations.
 

[Wosven]

That's the purpose for archiving files, to get them in the same folder and linked here.
It's usefull too when converting PDF to APub files, or for getting rid of embeded file.

But if the app was able to relink to files in a same folder, that would be great!

 

(Why didn't you closed the document without saving it?)

[MikeA]

I could certainly have closed it without saving. But I wasn't entirely certain what had just happened and I wanted to be damsure the thing got back into its original condition, quick-like.

I'd submit that one among several possible reasons for archiving is simply to collect files in a single location (without necessarily having to link them to that location). Well, I'll find other ways to do this in the future.

Yes, a single click to re-link to all files in a given folder would be well worth having.

[Wosven]

Link to that location is essential, but other apps create a copy of the original file which is linked to the files in the folder, since it's possible you want to export for archiving, but also for other reasons that need keeping the original file with its links to original files in different folders (as adds on a server, for example).

 

In the futur, you do the same with a copy of your file that you save in the same folder if needed.

[carl123]

7 hours ago, MikeA said:

Yes, a single click to re-link to all files in a given folder would be well worth having.

I think that's all ready possible...

 when you get the first message about a missing file select "Yes" to relink it (do not select goto the Resource Manager option) relink that one file and any others in the same directory structure should relink automatically

[MikeA]

47 minutes ago, carl123 said:

 when you get the first message about a missing file select "Yes" to relink it (do not select goto the Resource Manager option) relink that one file and any others in the same directory structure should relink automatically

The only sort of notification—a small popup window—I've seen so far contains only a Resource Manager button. No Yes button in sight. If you're using the Mac version, perhaps its way of handling this differs from how the Windows version handles it.

[carl123]

You should be seeing something like this...

 

[MikeA]

I'm going to try pasting in a screen shot of what I see. Haven't been able to do that in the forum but I'll try again... nope. It failed yet again. That's getting really tiresome. Ok, I'll upload the screen shot to Google Drive.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=14sR5KIneuQcA_McwKzfjU08WeF-IPOHN
 

[Edit: Now I see... the dialog you displayed is what appears when you open the document when items are missing. The alerts I displayed are the ones that appear the moment the files go missing. Then, it sounds as if the workaround (such as it is) will be to save the document with the error uncorrected, close it, re-open it, and try to automate relocating the missing items that way—which does work as you noted. Thanks.]