Relative Link Paths

Report · Jul 26, 2007

It would be great if you could set all links, or individual links, within a document to be either absolute or relative.

Every time I change a drive letter or folder name where a linked file is stored, I have to re-link it within InDesign. If I could specify a relative path for these such links (e.g. "../../image.psd") then it would go a long way to avoiding this issue. Making the path type changeable per link would mean files which reside in a folder which never changes would mean you could confidently set them as absolute paths.

Report · Jun 04, 2008

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?

Report · Jun 06, 2008

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

Report · Jun 06, 2008

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.

Report · Jun 06, 2008

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

Report · Jun 09, 2008

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....

Report · Jun 09, 2008

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?

Report · Jun 10, 2008

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?

Report · Sep 09, 2008

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?

Report · Sep 10, 2008

Are you using the Package command to make the archive?

Report · Dec 01, 2008

We spoke to an Adobe customer support rep on this very issue after migrating to newer servers recently and the support person commented that Adobe's "official" position on this issue is that InDesign wasn't designed to operate in a networked environment and there is no fix or work around. Thanks Adobe for making things even more difficult on top of your memory hog applications.

Report · Jan 19, 2009

We would do *anything* for relative paths in InDesign.

For a variety of reasons we have to copy InDesign projects from one server to another (server upgrades, document owner moves offices etc.). In most cases all our linked files are contained within a 'links' folder adjacent to the .Indd file. Even though InDesign stores absolute paths, it is clever enough to look inside the 'links' folder *if* the linked file can not be found along the stored path.

But, if the project is copied to another sever and the original server is still available on the network, InDesign will continue to load linked files from the original location (which may be on the other side of the planet in our case), not the copied to location on the new server. Suddenly an InDesign file grinds to a halt.

Do the same thing with one of our CAD projects, and everything works sweetly (most CAD packages have the option of storing paths as either relative or absolute).

Absolute paths also defeat the benefits of using DFS (Distributed File Shares) in a windows environment for the same reason.

Very frustrating!

Report · Apr 08, 2009

I also just realized how much I would love to have a relative link option in InDesign. I've learned to deal with the packaging idea, but it kind of unorganizes my files... Here's my scenario:

I have a custom media kit I make for many clients, based on a template. There are many many elements involved so I have subfolders under my assets folder (which is my name for links) for each section. If I package it, all subfolders are lost and all links are stuck in one folder, making it very hard to navigate to what I need to change. If I could drag the file and assets subfolder to the new clients name, keeping my subfolder organized, it would be much easier to just open the files in the new location, change them, and have inDesign update the links. As it stands now, if I did that, inDesign would still pull from the original folder and I would have to relink everything to the new folder.

It's not a matter of packaging not being able to solve the problem, the issue is that I find it much more of a hassle and much more time consuming that way, when relative links just seem more intuitive in this case. Not to mention, it takes a lot more time to open the doc, package, and find the new place, rather than the simple drag and drop idea.

I think having the option to have links be relative or absolute would help me out GREATLY. I am sure there are others in my position.

Report · May 06, 2009

Indesign CS4 has a 'Relink to Folder' option in the Link palete flyout menu. The problem with this is tha t it does not search subfolders.

This would solve the problem by selecting 'Relink to Folder' you would be able to select the parent folder even the whole drive/server and Indesign would find it where ever you placed it. As long as you chose a folder in the higherarchy above the image you want to link.

But in my tests Indesign will only find the links if you point it directly to the folder that contains the missing links.

I have a problem, where our catalog was out sourced, and now I want to relink it to our huge image library that is organized as follows: server/alphabetically1/comapny/alphabetically2/product (e.g images/C/Canon/P/Canon Powershot G10.eps).

To relink my files I need to relink them individually to the 'alphabetical2' folders.

Maybe someone knows how to write a script for this?

Report · Jul 21, 2011

I'm amazed that, this many years later, this simple feature request still hasn't been addressed. It isn't terribly confusing. "Relative" and "Absolute" are just two different methods for locating a referenced resource. More specifically, the difference is simply in where ID begins looking for the resource. Although they are both so simple, it would be easy to impliment the feature as a per-document (or even per-link) option.

Example:

This document:

/archive/project/document.indd

Contains a link to this resource:

/archive/project/images/photo.psd

Imagine that we save the entire contents of the project folder on a network drive (or check it into a versioning system, or whatever), and the location on that computer becomes:

/main/project/

Absolute:

When ID opens document.indd and encounters the link, it sees this information: /archive/project/images/photo.psd and it begins searching for photo.psd from the root. So it asks "Is there a folder in / named archive?". If it can't find the folder so it begins a sort of convoluted process of searching in other places (read previous posts to learn more about how). Suffice it to say that ID's process will fail to locate photo.psd due to the fact that the project/ folder is located in a folder named something other than archive/.

Relative:

If ID would implement relative linking, it would see the information ../images/photo.psd when it encounters the link and begin searching from the folder where document.indd currently resides. So it begins looking in the project/ folder and, it doesn't care what the name of the parent folders are.

Report · Sep 13, 2011

Hello Every One,

I am I reading this right. If all the images ( images just for now ) are stored at the same folder level as the document, or within sub folders at the same level as the document ID fails to find these images when the folder containing the document is moved to a new volume?

P.

Report · Sep 13, 2011

Hi P,

Yes, this is true. InDesign is not capable of creating or automatically following relative links. When you store the resources for your indd file in the way you mentioned and move the indd file and those resources to a new location (while maintaining their locations relative to each other), InDesign will not be able to automatically locate those resources when the indd file is opened from the new location. It will prompt you aksing if you want it to "fix" "broken" links. If you confirm that dialog, it will alter the document's links and create a new revision of the file simply because you opened it.

It get's very frustrating in a team environment where InDesign documents are under revision control.

Report · Sep 13, 2011

Hello,

I did a quick test.

I created a folder in my documents folder, copied a png file into it, created a document in that folder and placed the png file. Closed the document and copied it to my pen drive and opened it from the pen drive. The link palette showed that the image path was still to my documents folder. I closed the document and renamed the folder in my documents folder and reopened the document from the pen drive, the path to the image was now showing the pen drive.

Is that not what you want to happen?

I did my test test on Mac CS4.

P.

Report · Sep 13, 2011

Link paths are absolute. ID looks FIRST to the path listed, and if the file is found it will be used (which is why making a copy of a project without using the Package command is dangerous if the old files are left alone). IF, and only if, the listed path is no longer valid, ID will begin to search ofr the links in the same folder where the .indd file is located, and in subfolders.

When you package, you make copies of everything, including both the ID file and the links, and the links in the copyied file are reset to point to the Links folder in the package.

Report · Sep 13, 2011

Ahh, I think I might have missed the point.

You actually do not want ID to update the path in the document but still resolve it. ( closer? )

Is there a way of editing a path to an image? An interesting test would be to change the path to be "./truncated file path". "." being the where the document is stored.

P.

Report · Sep 13, 2011

After you moved the indd file to the pen drive and opened it, did InDesign prompt you about missing links? If so, did you choose to fix them? To me, it sounds like you "fixed" the link and that is what changed it. I'm on CS5.5 in Windows 7, but I don't think this behavior has changed at all between any of the last major versions. I'll try the same test later and report back.

Report · Sep 13, 2011

No, I wasn't prompted.

I think Peter has answered this. I think I would package my stuff before archiving it or passing it onto some one else.

P.

Report · Sep 13, 2011

Yes, you can edit the links by relinking them or by allowing InDesign to "fix" the links.

Packaging is a really useful tool that I use sometimes when sending my indd project to people outside my team, but packaging isn't practical in a revision controlled environment as a standard means of collaboration. I don't want to duplicate all my linked resources just to maintain links. In my opinion, that defeats the purpose of a link in the first place. If I was going to package the project everytime I wanted it to be editable from a different location, then it would be more practical to do away with linking altogether and simply embed the resources in the indd file.

Report · Oct 27, 2012

It's not amazing. Adobe is a monopoly. With a captive market, there is little incentive for Adobe to listen to their customers.

I just made a folder containing an Indesign document as well as place graphics. I only just now learned this folder isn't portable. 😠

Report · Oct 27, 2012

Toad41 wrote:
I just made a folder containing an Indesign document as well as place graphics. I only just now learned this folder isn't portable. 😠

If the links are in the same folder as the .indd file, or a subfolder, they will be found. That's how packaging works.

Report · Aug 22, 2011

Another vote for relative paths for Indesign hyperlinks.

I need to distribute a final PDF on CD-ROM that links to all sorts of files (Word docs, images, other PDF's, Excel files, etc...). If InDesign had relative links when I export to a PDF, I could put the CD on any computer and the links would work fine. Now I have to relink every link in Acrobat everytime there is an edit, no matter how simple. What a waste of valuable time.