Linking to External Files

[Guest]

Using RoboHelp HTML 6, I can not seem to create a successful link to an external document in my baggage folder. Creating the hyperlink is easy. It works when I preview the file. But when I compile the project and view the results, the links do not open. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi o2b42itus. Have you added the external file to your baggage folder?

[johnmccallum]

If the file is in baggage, I wouldn't call it "external." What type of document are you trying to open? Do you want it to open in its own application (e.g. Word, Acrobat?) or in the help viewer pane? What calling method are you currently using?

Sorry, more questions than answers...

John

[Captiv8r]

Hi John

You might be seeing a side effect of the new "Mark of the Web" option provided in the WebHelp generation dialogs.

Try expanding your Single Source Layouts pseudo folder and double-clicking your layout. DE-select the "Mark of the Web" setting, generate the WebHelp and see if the links magickally begin behaving.

Cheers... Rick

[pniven76]

I'm having the same problem. Rick (Captiv8r), your suggestion seems to be correct and de-selecting the "Mark of the Web" setting does seem to make my links work now, however, I can't really publish without this option selected as it returns the IE blocking "feature", which is really unacceptable.

Also, I've noted that this is only a problem in IE. Firefox opens the links when I use the "Mark of the Web" setting just fine.

Any other options?

[Peter Grainge]

Where are you publishing to? The blocking only occurs on a local drive.

[pniven76]

Yes, I'm publishing to a local drive, but many customers will end up loading the help onto their local drives as well, so the problem is indicative of what will happen in the field...

[Peter Grainge]

WebHelp with MOW should run fine locally and the links should work. Does for me in IE and Firefox. Is the problem all links or perhaps links to PDF files?

[pniven76]

I have confirmed that it is only a problem on the local drive in IE (version 6) (they open fine from a remote location), but, as mentioned in my previous post, this unfortunately doesn't solve my problem for most customers.

The problem files are .wav and .xls files both.

BTW thanks for the quick responses!

[Captiv8r]

Hi again all

Okay, many of you here know I'm a wizard that walks in two different realms that often are used together. What I mean by this, is that in addition to being a Certified Adobe RoboHelp instructor and Adobe Community Expert for RoboHelp, I'm also a Certified Adobe Captivate instructor and Adobe Community Expert for Captivate.

I was pondering if there might be a way past this whole "Mark of the beas... er, Mark of the Web thing. I do believe I've stumbled across a possible solution. However, it will require having access to either Flash, Swish, Captivate or other application that is capable of creating a Flash .SWF output. Here's the deal, I created a little Flash movie that simply opens a desired .PDF file. I know we often see issues with Captivate when folks do this, so I often resort to the companion application called "MenuBuilder". Because the link action is occurring from a Flash element inside the web page, it seems to work just dandy! If anyone wants my little test project to see for themselves, just holler and I'll zip it up and make it available to you for download. You will need to send me a private E-Mail (rstone75 (at) kc (dot) rr (dot) com).

Cheers... Rick