Hyperlinking from FrameMaker to an external document

[Jorunn H]

What I am trying to accomplish is to insert hyperlinks in FrameMaker to external documents (Word, Excel etc.) residing on an organisation's server. The idea is that if the users click a link in the PDF file I make on the basis of the FrameMaker book, they open the external document. Does anybody know if this is possible at all? If yes, do you have any tips on how I could go about it?

[Bob_Niland]

... insert hyperlinks in FrameMaker to external documents ... residing on an organisation's server.

Apply a unique Character format (typically, "URL", a blue underline format) to the text that is to be the link.

Select that text.

Special > Hypertext

Command: Go to URL

Syntax:

message URL http://www...etc

[Jorunn H]

That's how I insert URLs, so I am familar with the method. But would this work even if the document is only available inside the organisation? I.e. the path does not begin with http:\\, but is something like this: T:\folder\subfolder\subfolder\Excel_file.xls

(And I realise that the link would only work if the document is used by people with access to that particular folder. But this is a document for internal use, not something that will be publicly available.)

[Michael_Müller-Hillebrand · Accepted solution]

Try using

message URL file:///volume/path/file.ext

- Michael

[Bob_Niland]

... the path does not begin with http:\\, but is something like this: T:\folder\subfolder\subfolder\Excel_file.xls

Unless you can put the only working copy of the PDF'd Frame document on the "T:" drive, and use relative "file:" paths to the other content, you're apt to have problems.

That volume won't necessarily be the "T:" drive on all PCs (unless IT is controlling desktop mounts and can assure that it is).

Users on other operating systems (Unix, Mac, Linux, Android) won't even have a "T:" drive.

At my company, they work around this by serving out shared file systems on an internal-only web site, so "http://xyzwww.domain.com/.." works for all end user platforms and all entity sites.

[Jorunn H]

Thank you both very much for your input. This seems to work fine in the FrameMaker file - I am aware of the station letter issue - but does not seem to be portable to the PDF file. Does anyone have any idea how I could make it work there as well, or am I trying to accomplish the impossible now?

[Michael_Müller-Hillebrand]

Jorunn,

I looked deep inside my folders of useful information and there it is, this awesome tip collection my Shlomo Perets, which is available but not linked to from anywhere (until now):

FrameMaker Hypertext Markers & Their Conversion to Acrobat/PDF (Shlomo Perets, Microtype)

Based on this and my own testing, you have two options to be used with a Hypertext marker:

bad:

message URL file:///H:/folder%20name/to/your/file.ext

After issuing a security question Acrobat will try to open the document with your browser, and if this is Internet Explorer it will offer you to download or open the file, if you select open it will use the Explorer association for the file extension. You have to URL-encode all non-ASCII characters like I did with the space character above.

better:

message openfile "H:/folder name/to/your/file.ext"

After issuing a security question, this works fine. You have to use quotes if your path contains spaces. I recommend changing all backslashes into forward slashes, because FrameMaker treats some combinations of backslash + letter as a special character, like \D become a double dagger (‡). If you like, you can just copy&paste the path of the file and check the Hypertext dialog afterwards for any changed characters.

- Michael

[Jorunn H]

Thank you so much for your advice!