Creating multiple links?

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Ga Bowen
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Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2016 5:05 pm

Creating multiple links?

Unread post by Ga Bowen »

I don't think there's a solution to this, but seeing as there could be potentially a lot of work saved, I thought I'd ask.

I have a huge amount of 3rd party pdfs I want to reference in my manual.

I have a big text list currently in H+M/Excel of which the text and filename are identical.

Is there a way of creating, or converting text to, multiple File Links?
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Tim Green
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Re: Creating multiple links?

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Gareth,
Is there a way of creating, or converting text to, multiple File Links?
Not directly. However, if you don't mind them being Internet links instead of file links you could copy all the filenames to an editor and then use search and replace to turn them into relevant URLs on your website, including the http:// or https:// prefix. If you then paste them into the HM editor they will automatically be turned into Internet links on publishing.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Ga Bowen
Posts: 324
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2016 5:05 pm

Re: Creating multiple links?

Unread post by Ga Bowen »

I'm just printing to pdf at the moment, but that's definitely useful for when I start publishing to ebook and web, thanks.

Another question; when publishing to pdf what is the best way of organising linked pdf files? I'd like to distribute as follows, but can't see any options to make it happen:

Manual-01.pdf
[FOLDER] 3rd party manuals
[FOLDER] Drawings
[FOLDER] Bill of Materials

Basically I'm after a way of nicely distributing to the client, but at the moment the only way I can make my links work is by putting everything in the same folder.
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Tim Green
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Re: Creating multiple links?

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Gareth,
Another question; when publishing to pdf what is the best way of organising linked pdf files? I'd like to distribute as follows, but can't see any options to make it happen:
I'm assuming that your entire documentation system consists of PDF files here. If you avoid spaces and special characters in your folder names you should be able to achieve this with the "Relative path to export with:" field in the File Link dialog. You need to make sure that the option for embedding linked files in the PDF is turned off in Config > Publishing > PDF > PDF Layout. Then you need to enter relative paths for each link.

For example, in one of the files in the sub-folders that is linking back to the main PDF you would enter ../ as the relative path (one level up). To link from the main PDF to one of the subfolders you would enter ./third_party_manuals as the relative path (go straight down from here). To link from one of the subfolders to one of the other subfolders you would enter ../drawings (go up one level and then down into Drawings).

If you use forward slashes the links will also work on Mac and Linux and Unix. If you use backslashes they will only work on Windows.

Note that there is no "back" for links in PDF. So if you want your users to be able to return where they came from, or to the top PDF, you need to provide links for that everywhere where it might be necessary.

All this being said, PDF is the worst format in the world for interactive documentation by a very wide margin. If you want interactive use WebHelp or eWriter. PDF is for reading from start to finish and for printing. It's not really usable for anything else. :)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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