Can you hyperlink to an external document?

[bowen192]

Hello ,

As the title says, can you hyperlink in Framemaker to an external document?

The hyperlink will need to be clickable once converted to pdf.

[Bob_Niland]

Sure. References can be file system absolute, fs relative or URL.

The usual question is: where is that target document, and is it always "there" for all readers of your FM doc from random starting locations?

[bowen192]

This is very true.  I like to think that everyone is sufficiently scared enough not to move the Tech Pubs files around though.

I've looked how to put a file reference in and I can not seem to find anything.  Would it be:

Message Client

C:\Technical Publications\Document.pdf

or something different?

[RoboColum_n_]

Be weary of using an absolute path like that. If they have mapped or partitioned drives - or if they have control over where your documentation is placed - the link won't work. It would be better to use a relative path. For example if you have the documentation source inside C:\Technical Publications and place the PDF inside a folder called PDFs you'd just need to reference PDFs\document.pdf. This way no matter where the document is located, as long as the PDFs folder is there with it, the link would work. The other option is to use a URL as Error7103 suggested.

[bowen192]

RoboColum(n) wrote:

Be weary of using an absolute path like that. If they have mapped or partitioned drives - or if they have control over where your documentation is placed - the link won't work. It would be better to use a relative path. For example if you have the documentation source inside C:\Technical Publications and place the PDF inside a folder called PDFs you'd just need to reference PDFs\document.pdf. This way no matter where the document is located, as long as the PDFs folder is there with it, the link would work. The other option is to use a URL as Error7103 suggested.

OK, I like the sound of this.  I think you may over-estimate my ability though.   What commands am I going to use in the Hypertext box?

[Bob_Niland]

> What commands am I going to use in the Hypertext box?

First, ya gotta delimit what text is going to be active for the link. The usual way to do this is to define a character format, say, "Link", which may be "As Is" for everything, perhaps adding Underlined or blue color. Apply ChFmt to text string.

The basic implementation is, click in the text string:

Special > Hypertext

Command: Go to URL

message URL http://nonwww.enterprise_internal/resources/target.pdf or index.html, etc.

You can also insert it via the Special > Marker dialog.

Frame uses the character format to define the extents of the hypertext region.

Now, don't get into deep linking to specific content in target PDFs. That will derail the thread for sure

[bowen192]

Sorry, mate, but I'm not sure whether I'm not understanding you, or I'm not making myself clear.

I want to link to an internal document on our company server...

[RoboColum_n_]

Assuming your FrameMaker output will not be located on the same server, you'd need to find out the URL of the server and where the PDF is located within it. For example for an internal server address it could be something like:

\\<servername>:<port>\Technical_Publications\document.pdf

BTW I'd also avoid having spaces in your directory / file names. Some servers do not like these. Use an underscore if you are unsure.

[bowen192]

OK.  So I type the following in to a Go to URL Command:

message URL http:\\\192.XXX.XX.X:S:\TechnicalPublications\Documents\TS01090-A.pdf

This then gets re-written as:

message URL \\192.XXX.XX.X:S:echnicalPublications‡ocumentsS01090-A.pdf

What am I doing wrong?

I can't believe it's this difficult to put in a hyperlink.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

no no no - leave out the mapped drive part - the s:\ bit - that's all part of the UNC path - the
servername\folder\etc\doc<file://
servername\folder\etc\doc> part

[bowen192]

So I should have:

message URL \\192.XXX.XX.X\TS01090-A.pdf

or

message URL \\192.168.16.5\\TS01090-A.pdf ?

There also doesn't seem to be a way of testing whether the link works.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

UNC convention is
to start & \ for paths within the UNC - so
server_name\share_name\folder_name\file.pdf<file://
server_name\share_name\folder_name\file.pdf

[bowen192]

So now I have:

message URL \\192.XXX.XX.X\shared\Documents\TS01090-A.pdf<192.XXX.XX.X\shared\Documents\TS01090-A.pdf

Which gives me:

message URL \\192.XXX.XX.Xhared‡ocumentsS01090-A.pdf<192.XXX.XX.Xhared‡ocumentsS01090-A.pdf

[Bob_Niland]

Hmm. Your backslashes are being parsed as FM special characters.

Use forward slashes instead. FM, having been born on Unix, understands those.

[Arnis Gubins]

1. In dialog boxes, FM uses the "\" character to escape the following character for control, so in order to insert the "\", you need to use "\\". Or else use "/" instead.

2. To test a hyperlink within FM, hold down the ctrl+alt keys and mouse over the link. You should see the pointer change from the arrow to a pointing finger. When you click, it should take you to the specified destination/document.

[bowen192]

New Year, old problems.

I have picked this up again, and this is what I have:

message URL \\192.XXX.XX.X\\shared\\Technical_Publications\\Documents\\TS01090-A_-_Issue_003.pdf<file://192.XXX.XX.X\\shared\\Technical_Publications\\Documents\\TS01090-A_-_Issue_003.pdf

When I hold ctrl+alt and click the link, it does change to a pointing fingure, but still doesn't link to the file.

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

What is the address that the PDF searches for?

Can a browser find the address that the PDF is looking for?

[bowen192]

It is Framemaker that is doing the searching.

The address is:

S:\Technical Publications\Documents\TS01090-A - Issue 003.pdf

I'm not sure what you mean with regards to the browser finding the address.

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

Your original question centered on creating a link in the PDF. Since you probably don't care whether one can shortcut from the FM file or not, focus on what is produced in the PDF.

Now that you've set the link within FrameMaker, what is the link in the PDF attempting to open? Once you've tracked down that address, is it valid?

[bowen192]

My mistake, I see what you mean.

I've not tested it before, but with what I entered above, I get:

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

When I hover over a link in my PDFs I get a tooltip with the address. Do you see the same?

[bowen192]

I do, but it displays it in the same manner I type it in to Framemaker:

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

Try your original path, and check the tooltip again.

[bowen192]

Sorry Matt, I'm not trying to be funny, I really am this stupid; which original path are  you referring to?

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools · Accepted solution]

Navigate to the file via a browser, then (assuming aURL, and not a local mapped drive location) copy/paste that address into the marker.

Take the resulting tooltip in PDF, and replace the / that result in missing or odd characters with //