Publisher book chapter references should use relative paths

[herrkjeldsen]

Perhaps a minor for some people, but it sure would be nice if .afbook files used relative paths for chapter references. Rarely, if ever, have I had use for an absolute file reference.

It makes switching from laptop to desktop cumbersome when using cloud storage, as well as with any collaborative workflow.

(If I'm missing a setting for using relative paths, I'd love to hear about it  ).

Edited September 12, 2023 by herrkjeldsen
minor fix

[PaoloT]

Not only that: if duplicating a book for an alternative version, the duplicated book still points to the original documents, and one will risk to overwrite them instead of the new, duplicated ones.

Paolo

 

[walt.farrell]

On 9/13/2023 at 10:55 AM, PaoloT said:

Not only that: if duplicating a book for an alternative version, the duplicated book still points to the original documents, and one will risk to overwrite them instead of the new, duplicated ones.

I've confirmed that, and it is disturbing.

It could easily lead to data loss.

[walt.farrell]

Basically, with the current setup that uses absolute paths, you need to do something like this if you have a folder (that contains a .afbook and its .afpub files) and you want to make a copy of it to safely experiment with, or to use for versioning:

Suppose you start with a folder named MyBook with the .afbook and .afpub files in it. And you want to make a new version (v2). You would do something like this:

1. Make a copy of MyBook named MyBook-V2.
2. Rename MyBook to MyBook-V1.
3. Open the .afbook file in MyBook-V1. Publisher will complain of missing chapters (because MyBook doesn't exist) and ask if you want to locate them.
4. Say yes, and select the appropriate .afpub file in MyBook-V1.
5. Close that .afpub file, and close the .afbook file.
6. Open the .afbook file in MyBook-V2. Publisher will complain of missing chapters (again because MyBook doesn't exist) and ask if you want to locate them.
7. Say yes, and select the appropriate .afpub file in MyBook-V2.
8. Continue working on V2, or close its .afpub and .afbook file to continue working later.