Illustrator (Mac) forces absolute/volume-anchored links instead of relative paths — breaks on folder move

Question

Why does Illustrator on Mac store linked file paths as absolute/volume-anchored instead of relative to the .ai file — breaking every link when I move the project folder — when the same folder structure stays linked correctly on Windows? Is there a setting to force relative path linking, or can this be added as a feature?

Example of my folder structure:
/ProjectName
/dsgn
project_dsgn_v01.ai
project_dsgn_v02.ai
/lib
image1.psd
image2.psd

Randy Hagan · Answer

I can’t say why. I’m an end user just like you.

InDesign has provisions to look at relative links on both platforms, provided the placed graphics are stored within the same folder structure (packaging InDesign documents stuffs them in a sub-folder named Links) as the placed document.

They’re not the best possible solutions, but I’d suggest that maybe compositing your various placed elements with InDesign rather than creating nested links to one given Illustrator document, or embedding the elements instead of using the File>Place links when creating your Illustrator files.

Either option will get you past the issues you’re currently having.

Randy

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