Relative Link Paths

When our company moves a job folder to the archive drive, all the links are broken even though the folder's inside structure is unchanged (i.e., /root/layout.indd is the file, and /root/links/ contains all artwork).

If we ever have to resurrect that job, it takes as much as an hour to relink all the items...

-sigh-

Any solutions?

Well, as I saw it, you have a file manager that also updates links as files are moved around. The file manager would cover the same range as "Windows Explorer", but it would not be windows explorer, (unless it's enhanced with some kind of plugin). That's why I suggested Bridge for the job. Does that make sense as a concept?

I think you misunderstood what I meant by "open document". If Dreamweaver is closed entirely, it doesn't keep track of files that move. And if you already have Dreamweaver open and you move files, Dreamweaver can only keep track of that if the file is within the directory structure, AND moved through the program. If you move the files through Windows Explorer then it still loses the link. I see that as the major issue here.

How would a file manager in InDesign solve this?

Dreamweaver changes links whether files are open or closed. And yes if you change links outside of the program, you lose the link. Moreover, it only manages the links in a single site at a time.

You could compare the html files in Dreamweaver to the pages in Indesign.

the links panel might have a little file manager in it.

Trouble is, in an Indesign catalog type environment there are many links that do double or triple duty in many Indesign projects.

That's why the ultimate answer is to turn Bridge into an enhanced type of file manager that manages all links. You would set up all the files you want to change links in. That would be easy, it would be big list of your current Adobe files and projects. And when you move files around in Bridge, the program would update the links in Indesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and others, including the program where links are the most troublesome of all -- Premiere....

I may be wrong, but I think Dreamweaver can only deal with moved links when you use the Dreamweaver links palette to move them.

Mike, that's a good idea but how would you envisage it working? Say you had 50 linked files in your document, would it list the full path of each one and keep track of things when you move a file? And what if you moved a file while the document was closed? How would it keep track?

Obviously we're only talking about relative link paths but I'm not sure how an equivalent of the Dreamweaver Files panel would work.

I think I have a resolution, and if anyone looks at ...(gasp)...Dreamweaver they can see it.

There's a little file manager in there (Files panel) that changes links when you move files.

That's what I'd love to have in Indesign.

I have spent hours relinking files since so I've had plenty of time to wish for a better system.

yes you could package the files up in a separate folder. But then anytime you alter or replace an image, you have to alter the package, or several packages... it's just not clean when you get down to it and you have to be very patient and well organized and methodical. I'm already patient and methodical enough right now, I don't want to get even more so.

Have a good one

The fact that Adobe changes relative links to absolute links creates a big problem, especially if you're making the changes from a mapped or share drive. Any ideas on a resolution?

It seems incredibly strange that Adobe hasn't incorporated relative links within InDesign. If InDesign essentially uses an XML structure under the hood, why (oh why?) wouldn't they use a web convention like relative links, which is both more useful and more consistent with XML/HTML conventions? It's hard to believe that relative links aren't facilitated by InDesign. But given the posting above, I guess they aren't. Heavy sigh.

Maybe this won't apply to the person with the ID software issue.

However, you can make relative links in a PDF. At least in my experience with MS Word, it is relatively easy - no pun intended.
It requires setting the relative link in the origin document as a hyperlink, and then PDFing the MS Word file - using the Distiller button - directly from MS Word. Maybe you have this capability from the ID software. Check for a PDF Maker toolbar in "View Toolbars" to see if the button is available.

My biggest issue is getting Acrobat to PDF any individual or batch of files and maintain the relative links I set within MS Word.
For some reason, Acrobat changes all my relative links to absolute links. I wish it wouldn't do this, as our department has a large number of files that occassionally have to be rePDFd, and the batch process is the easiest method of PDFing over five hundred files at a time. (We have a document repository of over 15,000 files in over 1,600 folders. We also make our repository available on DVD; this is why we use relative links.)

Cheers,
Graham Cooke