Relative Links from PowerPoint

Have you tried to use the PDF Maker option and not tne MicroSoft Add-In?

Well, I don't really know what the PDF Maker option is. I have tried the following ways:

1. Save As Adobe PDF from the PowerPoint file.
2. Create PDF button from the Acrobat tab in PowerPoint.
3. Print to Adobe PDF from the PowerPoint File menu. (This third method creates no links at all.)

Use the Create PDF button. You may need to set some of the conversion options to create ative links.

Can you elaborate on which conversion options? I have selected "Add links to Adobe PDF" everywhere I can find it (inside Adobe preferences and in PowerPoint Adobe tab preferences). Is there somewhere else to set preferences or some other conversion options to set?

Maybe I'm not asking my question clearly??? I want to create a CD with a PDF of a PowerPoint presentation that links to other PDF files. I can successfully do this on our network using absolute links but when I move the files to a CD, the links no longer work because they are not relative. If I create relative links on the network, the links no longer work. I have gone through all the conversion settings but I don't know what to look for. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

In the MS Office source document you leave the "Base URL" blank for the document properties, create your links by navigating to the relative location or entering the relative link into the MS Office document's Hyperlink window. You have to bring up the 'Acrobat' ribbon and change the conversion settings for what you want linked and create the PDF. You should be able to move the PDF and associated linked files from the common directory on up the tree.

Thank you very much for your response.

Unfortunately, I cannot figure out where in PowerPoint 2007 to change the document properties for the base URL. When I bring up the document properties, there is no place to change the url. The only field I see for a url is required and unchangeable.

If, by "create your links by navigating to the relative location or entering the relative link into the MS Office document's Hyperlink window" you mean entering something like "\Folder\Document.pdf" in the Edit Hyperlink dialog box for the link, I have done that.

I do not understand what you mean by "change the conversion settings for what you want linked". I have selected the check box that reads "Add links to adobe PDF". If there are other conversion settings I should be changing, I don't know what they should be.

Thank you.

After reading posts in other forums, I have come to the conclusion that there is no way to create relative links in the manner in which I need without a third party PDF creation application. So ... I will go back to the drawing board and come up with a non-PDF solution.

Thank you for your time.

I have had no problem doing this in Word or PowerPoint. Now the links in Acrobat appear to be absolute, so the only way to verify that they are relative is to test them. You do need to keep the relative directory positions for all linked files.

You could also add manually add links to the PDF.

I understand what you are saying in theory. Just unable to implement your suggestions. Don't understand how. For example, I know that the links appear to be absolute. Testing proves they are and that's the problem. When I copy the files to a CD, I am keeping the same structure, but the links do not work. Manually adding links to the PDF is my last option, as the file will be changed often and that will become a maintenance nightmare. By the way, I'm having issues making relative links in the PDF as well.

My current workaround is to NOT make the PPT a PDF file but to set it up as a kiosk presentation instead. So far, my tests are working with that.

Thank you for your time.

Update - still having issues with relative links. Apparently, all the linked files need to be in the same folder as the powerpoint presentation, which isn't what I wanted to do. If anyone has any ideas on how to create relative links from a powerpoint kiosk presentation without including all the linked files in the same folder, please let me know.

Thank you.

Hi,
Ran some trials with Powerpoint 2007.
File placement shown below. Note that target PDFs are not in the same folder as the PDF
that is created from the powerpoint file.
Set links to PDFs in a nine slide powerpoint file using the Hyperlink tool.
From the command menu, selected Acrobat. Off the Acrobat ribbon, selected Preferences.
Under the Settings tab, selected Add Links.
Selected Create PDF. Output PDF had working links to for all links set in the Powerpoint
file by the MS Office Hyperlink tool.

From the PDF Reference for version 1.7 (Acrobat 8.x) the discussion on "file specification"
discusses how relative paths are resolved in context of the absolute path of where the PDF(s)
actually are. Since the update 7.0.5, Adobe Reader/Acrobat search the local drive,
web servers, and shared (network) drives as appropriate to resolve relative paths in
context of the "host" absolute path.
Above, the resolved absolute paths are in context of "C:" and its children directories and
sub-directories. A similar resolution occurs for the PDFs if they are copied to network or
web space where the conventions for UNC or URI/URL, respectively, are in play.

To burn to OSM -
I use a directory ("_aBurn") to which I copy the folders/files that I burn to OSM.
One "_aBurn" is on the root of the C: drive. The other is tucked two levels down
on a USB HDD. Got curious one day and tried a burn from a network share; did not work .If "test1" and "test2" are copied to "_aBurn" and this content is burned to OSM the
file sets maintain their relative locations and links work.
As mentioned above, Reader/Acrobat will resolve the "relative" to "absolute" in context
of the drive that contains the OSM.


Good References:
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/forums/aucbb/viewtopic.php?id=2063]Hyperlink Troubleshooting Tips - Part I[/url]

[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/forums/aucbb/viewtopic.php?pid=35524#p35524]Hyperlink Troubleshooting Tips - Part II[/url]

Be well...