How to link to a specific link in a page AND automaticaly open the file it points to

[sylvieh38837858]

I don't know if my question is understandable, I'll try my best.

I have multiple pages that have links that point to the same document.

Ex. In the INDEX page there is a link to the DOC-018.pdf document.

     In the HEALTH AND SECURITY page there is a link to that same document.

The problem comes when we modify that DOC-018 document, I need to go to every page that has that link and change it.

The other problem is that I don't even know on which pages there are links to that document.

(btw I didn't create the website, and I'm using Dreamweaver CC)

Is there a way to arrange it so that I only have to change one of the links and that all other links are modify?

I thought I could link to a specific link in a page (Like INDEX) and have the file open, but that doesn't work.

I  used the <id> to point to one specific link (could be the one in the INDEX page) but it doesn't open that document, it just opens the web page and position itself to that link.

Hoping this is somewhat clear.

If anyone can help, I'd greatly appreciate it.

[Jon Fritz]

It would probably be best to show us the code you're working with. I'm making a couple assumptions here...

1. When you modify the document, you're changing the filename slightly or something?
2. The html text and src attribute of the link have the file name in them

Using a Find & Replace should allow you to change both the text of the link and the src attribute of the link pretty easily.

Find In: Source Code

Find: DOC-018
Replace With : DOC-19

Replace All

That would change both the html text of the link and the src (as long as they're both written out the same) across an entire page, or site, depending on what you select in the F&R tool (Ctrl + Shift + F)

The above would work if your source code looks something like...

<div>
     <a href="DOC-18.pdf">Click for the DOC-18 pdf file</a>
</div>

[sylvieh38837858]

Ok, just discovered something weird.

When I try to do an Entire Current Local Site search, I get a message saying there is no current site.

Then, I went to Site/Manage Sites and there is nothing. No website is define...

I don't even know what to say beside that this was done in 2008 by someone else and I don't think he changed much since then.

I might be the first one in years trying to improve it.

Any idea how to get DW to define a site?

I did look for a .ste file and there is none.

I'm discourage now... lol

Have a great day, Sylvie

[Jon Fritz]

Defining a site is Step One for working with DW.

If you have all the files on your local machine, it should be pretty easy...

Here's a video: Define a site

Once the site is defined, using the local folder all of your sites files are in, you can make changes to filenames in the DW Files window and the program will automatically update the links to a given file across the site.

So, when you make changes to your PDFs, you could save them over the local copy with the same name, then rename them in the Files window with the new revision number or whatever you normally do. You would then upload any changed page and the pdf file to the server.

[osgood_]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Jon+Fritz+II  wrote

Defining a site is Step One for working with DW.

If you have all the files on your local machine, it should be pretty easy...

Here's a video: Define a site

Once the site is defined, using the local folder all of your sites files are in, you can make changes to filenames in the DW Files window and the program will automatically update the links to a given file across the site.

So, when you make changes to your PDFs, you could save them over the local copy with the same name, then rename them in the Files window with the new revision number or whatever you normally do. You would then upload any changed page and the pdf file to the server.

How do you bake a cake? Actually what is a cake?

[Nancy OShea]

Go to Site > New Site and point DW to the site folder on your local hard drive.  Example, C:\MyTestSite\

[sylvieh38837858]

Great! Thank you, I was able to do that and it allows me to do entire site search. Which is perfect because I don't even know where all the links are on the site. I can then find them and link each one to the .pdf or whatever. Thank you all for your help, I'm happy I found you.

[BenPleysier]

All roads lead to Rome. There are many ways to do this, but short of a database solution try the following if your server has access to PHP.

Name the include file HealthSecurity.html and include the following content

<a href="DOC-018.pdf ">Health and Security</a>

Then in the documents where you want to place the link, put the following code instead of the link

<?php include('HealthSecurity.html'); ?>

You will also have to change the extension of each of those documents from .html to .php.

Every time you change the document, go to HealthSecurity.html

[sylvieh38837858]

Here is part of the code (or did you want the whole thing???)

•         DOC-011 Entente d'utilisation de logiciels

And this is how it is on the HEALTH page

Liste de vérification mensuelle - gérant

I hope you guys can see the codes like this???

[Jon Fritz]

Neither document came through, one was a Word .doc and the other a .pdf, neither will show in the forum.

The code I'm talking about above would be the actual HTML of the page you are modifying on your website. Looking at your document names, I'm thinking this is going to be more involved than I had originally assumed.

To post code in the forum, you can either give a link to the online page, or copy/paste from DW to the forum itself (do not use email, the code won't come through).

This may all be somewhat meaningless if you don't have a site defined in DW though. Most of the advice given will likely revolve around being able to use DW's built-in functionality. A lot of that functionality won't work if you have no defined site.

[Nancy OShea · Accepted solution]

PDF is not a web page.  It is a media file that must be downloaded and viewed in a suitable reader app like Acrobat or your browser's PDF plugin. 

If I read your question correctly, you want people to click a link to an anchor on your Index page and open the PDF file?  Forget about linking to the Index page.  Just link directly to the PDF file.   Problem solved.

Nancy