Button or Link "ACTION" does not open file when file is .pdx on VISTA

Can you post details on how the Button action is programmed? Do you have specific Javascript code?

I have not used anything special except to use the drop-downs from:

the Button Properties/Action tab

Add an Action
Select Trigger: Mouse Up
Select Action: Open a File

Actions:
Set to open the .pdx file from a folder

This currently works to open a .PDX from XP
or
to open a .PDF or .DOC from that Open a File property option

We have tested it on Vista and Vista will use the same commands from the Button Properties Action tab and open either a .PDF or .Doc (or anything else) but will not OPEN A FILE that is .PDX

By the way, I tried to also use the LINK properties to accomplish the same thing. It worked on XP and did not work on Vista.

I am generating the PDF document with the link/button propertis in Acrobat Professional 8.1.2 on an XP system. Have not created the PDF with the links on Vista to test that, yet.

PDX is a registered file type under Windows. Can you check your list of registered file types under Vista to see if PDX is associated with an Acrobat Catalog file?

My user says this:

my .pdx says that it is an Acrobat Catalog Index file that should be opened with Adobe Reader 8.1

So if you click on the .PDX file it opens in Reader but just not through the button, correct?

that is correct.

After further testing...we have found this:

We had a VISTA user create the Button properties and save the PDF.
He was able to open the Index from the button embedded in the PDF.

But, once he moved that document it lost its relative path to open the .PDX when another Vista user tried to open the same document. Our development engineers seem to think this is the trouble area.

ALSO:
We are not sure that the properties for the
Select Action: Open a File
option are being retained when locked or saved. When we reopen the properties, this has defaulted back to: Execute a Menu Item (which is NOT what we selected on that dropdown).

It sounds as though you are breaking the index by moving it around. Here is some further detail taken from the Help files:
"If the index resides on a drive or server volume separate from any part of the collection it applies to, moving either the collection or the index breaks the index. If you intend to move a document collection either to another network location or onto a CD, create and build the index in the same location as the collection."

If you're going to move the index around a lot have you considered embedding it in your PDF. This is a new capability in Acrobat 8 and it also speeds up the search process.

You are RIGHT that we move it. But, we move it with all the associated files in the Catalog as instructed in the documentation. We have been doing this for years. It is still relative to the folder that the buttons and files were created in.

Again, we have been doing this for years and now it is only broken on VISTA. As the Acrobat Professional instructions read, you can even put this on a web server. While we haven't done that, we HAVE placed it on a network or our product CD to make documents easier to search.

VISTA doesn't use the same commands or doesn't understand the logic with how the button or links work. This is a bug.

THe only workaround in Vista that we have found is to drill down to the .pdx and open it in the directory, which is fine if you have the CD (we will document this Acrobat & VISTA bug in this way), but if you are on the web, and you are a VISTA user, you cannot drill down and find the .pdx yourself. You need the link or button command to WORK AS ACROBAT SAYS IT WILL.EDITED here's a quote from Acrobat Prof Help:
"If you work with large numbers of related PDFs, you can define them as a catalog, which generates a PDF index for the PDFs. Searching the PDF index—instead of the PDFs themselves—dramatically speeds up searches. "

So, embedding is not the answer for a catalog of related PDFs...also quoting:

"You can define a specific group of PDFs as a catalog and create a unified index for that entire collection of documents. When users search the catalogued PDFs for specific information, the index makes the search process much faster.

When you distribute or publish the collection on a CD or website, you can include the index with the PDFs. "

lkassuba You wrote to me:

"The reason I ask is because there is a setting under the Preferences (Trust Manager) that can allow/disallow certain attachments. This was a security enhancement made to version 8. This could be causing the issue too."

So, I tried this.

Interesting result. XP users still have a functional use of launching the PDX from a button on the PDF.

Vista users with Acrobat Professional as the reader were finally able to open the PDX from the button on the PDF.

Vista users with Reader only were not able to open the PDX from the PDF.

We have had software engineers looking into this and our conclusions are this:

IN VISTA ONLY:

The button action "Open a file" does not function to open a .PDX

and/or

It is losing the .\ relative path for finding the .PDX when we move the catalog and files to launch it to a Vista platform.

We have not heard anything by submitting this to Adobe Acrobat support.
We are now marking this bug as a notification to customers that they must use a workaround with this, if their Reader is on a VISTA system.

We hope to hear this issue is fixed in a later release of Acrobat Professional and/or Reader so that our Vista customers can use the BUTTON feature of the PDF.
2:18 p.m. CDT 04/15/2008

Thanks for researching the exact details associated with this issue and reporting it to technical support.

Reply to this situation:

We have now updated to Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended and we now have functionality with Windows Vista.

Hello. I am having the same problem with one of my CD's. I am wondering if I make the index using Adobe Acrobat 9 pro extended, will users be able to access the pdx link using an older version of Adobe? Or will the pdx link only work for users using Adobe 9 Pro?

We are using Acrobat Pro 9 (on Windows XP) to link and open external pdf files from the source pdf document (source pdf document and external pdfs are all housed on the same server and folder). Approximately 80-90% of the links to the external pdf files work.

In troubleshooting the issue, I've learned:
- the issue persists even when the link is removed, the source document saved and closed, and re-opened
- sometimes (but not always) saving the external pdf to a different location, then saving it back to the source folder corrects the link not opening the external pdf file issue
- sometimes (but not always) saving the external pdf to my desktop and re-linking it corrects the link not opening the external pdf file issue. Unfortunately this is not a long-term-fix option

Does anyone have any suggestions for addressing this issue? We cannot afford for any of the links not to work in the final document.

Thank you!

Using acrobat pro 9 is great for me.
Thanks