Relative links disappearing- PPT and Presenter

May 06, 2011

Hi everyone,

I know that this issue has been brought up before, but I am really desperate for a solution.  My presentations generally include 45 or 50 pdf attachments.  I add them as relative links in PowerPoint 2010 using the format data/downloads/nameoffile.pdf.  I then link them using the Attachments feature in Presenter.  Everything works fine, UNTIL i save and re-open my presentation.  All of the links are broken - the slashes have disappeared and it seems that the  only way to repair them is by re-creating all of the hyperlinks, a time consuming and frustrating process.

To further complicate matters, I am a free lance developer, so I do not have access to the LMS. My role is to take the content that is sent to me,  package it in Presenter, publish, and send the published files to my employer who then loads them to the LMS.

Is there ANY solution that would work?  My Presenter projects go through numerous edits, so there is a cycle of publishing, editing, and re-publishing and I am wasting so much time because of this problem.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks! Diana

7 Replies
diana reardon

Thanks Phil for all of your suggestions!

Some of the forward slashes are changed to backslashes, but the slash between data/downloads is removed completely.

As far as using tiny.url, I'm not really familiar with this function,but wouldn't the pdfs need to reside on a web server for it to work?  The pdfs that I attach are residing locally on my C drive.

Thanks,

Diana

Phil Mayor

Hi Diana

I have just checked one of my links after closing and it has been change to

data\glossary\engage.html?vStartingSlideGuid=bfe08b41-c635-4ac5-be61-841388881556

I am using 2007 on this machine, but I know my macro works on a 2010 machine so they are not being stripped on that either.  I dont know why it is stripping out, you could try putting your attachments in a folder (we add a glossary folder to the data folder after publishing) and then adding a relative link.  Obviously its a bit of extra work.

I think you can do relative links in tinyurl, never tried it myself

Phil

diana reardon

Justin Wilcox said:

You can workaround this by following the steps outlined here:

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=907

under Hyperlink to an Existing File


Justin, thanks for the workaround, which did work, but I am faced with another issue.  I need to use the built-in zip feature offered by Presenter after publishing for the presentation to work successfully in the LMS.  So would I need to unzip this version, add the pdf files as instructed in the workaround, and then re-zip?

Thanks,

D

Phil Mayor

Hi Diana

If after [publishing you click open folder in stead of zip (do not close the publish window) you can add the files to the folder and the use presenter to zip the files, presenter zzips anything found in the published folder

I think the reason your lms will not accept you zipping the folder is that you are zipping the folder, if instead you highlight the everything inside the folder and right click zip then it should zip it correctly, for scorm it is important the manifest folder is in the route of the zip

Phil

diana reardon

Phil Mayor said:

Hi Diana

If after [publishing you click open folder in stead of zip (do not close the publish window) you can add the files to the folder and the use presenter to zip the files, presenter zzips anything found in the published folder

I think the reason your lms will not accept you zipping the folder is that you are zipping the folder, if instead you highlight the everything inside the folder and right click zip then it should zip it correctly, for scorm it is important the manifest folder is in the route of the zip

Phil


Thanks for the tip Phil, I'll try it. 

I wish there was an easier solution - using the method described by Justin does work, however, I cannot see the links when I preview the course.  So now  the only way for me to verify that I have successfully linked all of the attachments is to publish the project move the attachments, then test.  Since all of the presentations that I work on have up to 50 attachments, it's inevitable that I miss one.

Oh well, end of rant.!  Many thanks Phil and Justin for responding so quickly to my question - especially on a Friday!

Diana

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