RH 2020 - Issue Hyperlinks - Hyperlink to Word document does not open the most recent version

[.HannaH.]

Hi all!

I am making use of Hyperlinks in my Project. I linked to an external webpage. This works fine. 

I also tried to link to a Word document saved to my computer. This half works. I ran into two issues:

1) The hyperlink does not open the actual source document. It opens a new version of the document that is saved into my downloads. Not the biggest issue, but why is this happening? My explanation is because not everyone might have access to the drive that my document is saved to. 

2) This is a bigger issue. The hyperlink opens the Word document that was available at the time that I linked it. It does not reflect changes. If I update & save the Word document on my computer, RH still opens the 'old' version. Why is this happening?
The source remains the same. There are no changes to the folder or the file name. I only changed some content in the Word document. To my understanding, the updated Word document should open. 

The only work-around that I could find is to manually remove & re-add the hyperlink. This is not ideal as I'm planning to link to several Word documents. 

Because of my issue with the Word document, I am also wondering what happens if a website is updated. Will RH only display the website available at the time of linking? Or will any changes be reflected?

[Amebr · Accepted solution]

Linking to a website will open the website as usual.

For a Word document, linking to them will typically download the file as that is how browsers are set up to work. 

Now, Robohelp 2020 won't let you link to a local file or network share, so when you link to a file, Robohelp copies that file into your project in the /assests/docs folder and links to that file instead. This is a once off copy process. That's why you see an old version in your output.

You would need to update the document in /assets/docs to see the updated version in your output when you regenerate. This might work if the document is something you maintain.

You could use the Link File functionality which will store the original location as well as copy the file into your project. But to get the updated file into your output you'd need to Sync > From Source to Project and regenerate the project each time the document updated.

If you want to link to the document and have the latest version of the doc always opened, I think the only way is to link to a web address. 

If it's a regular web address the word documents would need to be copied up to that location each time the file is updated, as generally documents are not edited on the web server.

If you use sharepoint and all your users have access to that sharepoint instance, then you could store and edit the documents in Sharepoint, and link to the sharepoint document address (I haven't tried it personally, but I believe it should work.)

[prhmusic2]

I don't like this change. It used to be that if you linked to a Word file on a Network drive, you *didn't* get a copy of the file copied to your local directory. If you have a project with 1000s of Word files, this change means that you need enough C: drive space on your local machine to store all of those 1000s of Word files. I think there should be an option to either make RoboHelp 2020 give you the option to link to the Network Word files and *not* copy those Network Word files to the local drive or to copy those Network Word files to the local drive. From my perspective, the benefit of linking to 1000s of Word files is that I don't have a copy of those 1000s of files on my C: drive.

[.HannaH.]

Clear thanks @Amebr !

I think that in my case, hyperlinking is easier than linking RH to a Word source. 

The Project will be linked to several Word documents that are updated regularly. I feel that 'Link File' makes it harder to keep the TOC structured. 
If I hyperlink I just have to ensure that the /assets/docs are up-to-date. 

Is there a way to update all /assets/docs at once - similar to the 'sync all' function for Link File?

[Amebr]

The only way to sync is through the Link function.

I'm not sure I understand why you think linking would be harder to maintain the toc ?

[.HannaH.]

Hi Amebr!
If I don't link to a source and instead create the Topics myself in RH, I can auto-update the TOC. 

When I link word documents, extra folders are created for every linked Topic. This means that I cannot auto-update the TOC. I have to drag & drop every single Topic into the TOC and manually reflect changes. As per on of my previous community questions there seems to be no work-around - https://community.adobe.com/t5/robohelp/rh-2020-linking-word-documents-creates-extra-folders/m-p/123...

I prefer to be able to auto-update the TOC. When I linked documents, it became hard to keep an overview with all the extra folders. 
Instead, I will create the Topics myself in RH. I will use hyperlinks where I need to link to a Word doc. I'll see if we can set up a sharepoint so the most up-to-date information will be loaded.  

Have a nice day 🙂 

[Amebr]

Ah, I see what you're saying.

If a Sharepoint site ends up not being possible, you could try linking the document but not clicking the "Create/Update Topics" menu item. (In theory this should work fine, although I haven't tried it.) Then you should be able to link to the Word document as needed, and use the Sync feature to update the Word file only. You would need to republish when the Word doc updates, but it's an option to consider, just in case.

[Amebr]

You can request features and report issues here: https://tracker.adobe.com/

Post the item number in the discussion so people can easily vote if they want the same functionality.

[prhmusic2]

I have an Enhancement Request already filed: https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/RH-10261