Excel 07 breaking links

LisaK · External Since: Feb 17, 2009 Posts: 4

We have a document on a shared drive that we update often and hyperlink to
other documents. Currently, I created a link to a Word doc but when I email
it to a colleague, her link looks for the doc on her C drive. We've done
this many times with no problem. We have removed and retried creating the
link several times, have moved it to a higher level folder on the shared
drive, and have gone to the drive and found the doc, just to be sure it was
put in the right place. Does anyone know what this problem might be? Thank
you.

Jeff Gordon · External Since: Mar 17, 2009 Posts: 2

"LisaK" <LisaK.RemoveThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:79F9B4B0-7AA7-4487-ABEB-4EF960481B37@microsoft.com...
> We have a document on a shared drive that we update often and hyperlink to
> other documents. Currently, I created a link to a Word doc but when I
> email
> it to a colleague, her link looks for the doc on her C drive. We've done
> this many times with no problem. We have removed and retried creating the
> link several times, have moved it to a higher level folder on the shared
> drive, and have gone to the drive and found the doc, just to be sure it
> was
> put in the right place. Does anyone know what this problem might be?
> Thank
> you.
>
You have to save it somewhere on hard-drive and reopen it. If you open
attachments from email, then the link does not work. Otherwise, if you have
sent just a hyperlink like - file://C:\\Shared folder\Shared document.doc -
then it open that from local drive. I prefer this version - \\server\shared
folder\Shared document.doc -.

Anyway, any of those does not open anything, if you have made link to a Word
document and you have opened that as attachment from mail. Hope this give
an advice?

JG

LisaK · External Since: Feb 17, 2009 Posts: 4

I'm not sure I agree with this. We've been using links in this way for
years, and it has worked. The document is being opened by people within the
group, not being sent outside the company or anything like that. Maybe I'm
missing something, as I don't find this answer to be clear.

"Jeff Gordon" wrote:

>
> "LisaK" <LisaK RemoveThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:79F9B4B0-7AA7-4487-ABEB-4EF960481B37@microsoft.com...
> > We have a document on a shared drive that we update often and hyperlink to
> > other documents. Currently, I created a link to a Word doc but when I
> > email
> > it to a colleague, her link looks for the doc on her C drive. We've done
> > this many times with no problem. We have removed and retried creating the
> > link several times, have moved it to a higher level folder on the shared
> > drive, and have gone to the drive and found the doc, just to be sure it
> > was
> > put in the right place. Does anyone know what this problem might be?
> > Thank
> > you.
> >
> You have to save it somewhere on hard-drive and reopen it. If you open
> attachments from email, then the link does not work. Otherwise, if you have
> sent just a hyperlink like - file://C:\\Shared folder\Shared document.doc -
> then it open that from local drive. I prefer this version - \\server\shared
> folder\Shared document.doc -.
>
> Anyway, any of those does not open anything, if you have made link to a Word
> document and you have opened that as attachment from mail. Hope this give
> an advice?
>
> JG
>
>
>

Jeff Gordon · External Since: Mar 17, 2009 Posts: 2

Hi!

Let me know, how the link look like.

JG
"LisaK" <LisaK.TakeThisOut@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AB5179FF-BDF4-496B-9796-7942E3AD727D@microsoft.com...
> I'm not sure I agree with this. We've been using links in this way for
> years, and it has worked. The document is being opened by people within
> the
> group, not being sent outside the company or anything like that. Maybe
> I'm
> missing something, as I don't find this answer to be clear.
>
> "Jeff Gordon" wrote:
>
>>

jaf · External Since: Sep 30, 2003 Posts: 56

Hi Lisa,
I saw your other post as well.
The forward slash "/" is UNC convention.
The backslash "\" is windows path convention.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_(computing)

I would say Excel is confused as to what the link should be if your seeing both slashes.

C:\ will assumed to be a drive on the local machine, unless your company has mapped "C:" as a network drive you will run into
problems.

You mentioned hyperlinks. Are the hyperlinks or Excel links?

Stick with //server/share to avoid problems. You never know when a drive is going to get remapped.

John

"LisaK" <LisaK.DeleteThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:AB5179FF-BDF4-496B-9796-7942E3AD727D@microsoft.com...
> I'm not sure I agree with this. We've been using links in this way for
> years, and it has worked. The document is being opened by people within the
> group, not being sent outside the company or anything like that. Maybe I'm
> missing something, as I don't find this answer to be clear.
>
> "Jeff Gordon" wrote:
>
>>
>> "LisaK" <LisaK.DeleteThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:79F9B4B0-7AA7-4487-ABEB-4EF960481B37@microsoft.com...
>> > We have a document on a shared drive that we update often and hyperlink to
>> > other documents. Currently, I created a link to a Word doc but when I
>> > email
>> > it to a colleague, her link looks for the doc on her C drive. We've done
>> > this many times with no problem. We have removed and retried creating the
>> > link several times, have moved it to a higher level folder on the shared
>> > drive, and have gone to the drive and found the doc, just to be sure it
>> > was
>> > put in the right place. Does anyone know what this problem might be?
>> > Thank
>> > you.
>> >
>> You have to save it somewhere on hard-drive and reopen it. If you open
>> attachments from email, then the link does not work. Otherwise, if you have
>> sent just a hyperlink like - file://C:\\Shared folder\Shared document.doc -
>> then it open that from local drive. I prefer this version - \\server\shared
>> folder\Shared document.doc -.
>>
>> Anyway, any of those does not open anything, if you have made link to a Word
>> document and you have opened that as attachment from mail. Hope this give
>> an advice?
>>
>> JG
>>
>>
>>

theGman · External Since: Jun 09, 2009 Posts: 1

LisaK, we have this same issue in our Excel 2007 files sometimes. I am
really curious if you have solved it.

We have hyperlinks to files on our internal LAN SharePoint servers. The
hyperlinks work fine for me and others. But every so often someone opens the
Excel file and resaves it (without deliberately editting any of the
hyperlinks) and suddenly all of the hyperlinks no longer point to the server
location but instead to that person's C:\ drive (which of course is wrong, so
the link is broken now forever). Re-fixed the hyperlink just starts the
process all over again, the links always break/re-point to the wrong
location.

Folks are not saving the file to their C: drive at all. It is very
strange, and I would like someone from Microsoft (or others who can) to
explain why Excel would change the "absolute" (not "relative") file path
designated in the Hyperlink in Excel 2007.

kangdang · External Since: Aug 18, 2009 Posts: 1

Gman,

I am having this same problem exactly and have yet to find a solution. Even
after fixing the links to point back to their original location, they
eventually go back to pointing to the user's C:\ drive. As with your issue
both users are using Office 2007, so there isn't any compatability issues.
Anyone who could resolve or assist in this problem would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks

"theGman" wrote:

> LisaK, we have this same issue in our Excel 2007 files sometimes. I am
> really curious if you have solved it.
>
> We have hyperlinks to files on our internal LAN SharePoint servers. The
> hyperlinks work fine for me and others. But every so often someone opens the
> Excel file and resaves it (without deliberately editting any of the
> hyperlinks) and suddenly all of the hyperlinks no longer point to the server
> location but instead to that person's C:\ drive (which of course is wrong, so
> the link is broken now forever). Re-fixed the hyperlink just starts the
> process all over again, the links always break/re-point to the wrong
> location.
>
> Folks are not saving the file to their C: drive at all. It is very
> strange, and I would like someone from Microsoft (or others who can) to
> explain why Excel would change the "absolute" (not "relative") file path
> designated in the Hyperlink in Excel 2007.

Metoo · External Since: Sep 01, 2009 Posts: 1

Gman,
Yup, I have the exact same problem, but mine happens in Word too. We have
coworkers collaborating on a document, but when I go to do the final review,
all sharepoint hyperlinks (Intranet) are converted to C drive links and are
unusable.

I am going to play with some document library settings. I seem to remember
a setting that allows checked-out documents to be stored on the local drive
until they are checked back in. I wonder if that is causing the
problem....For me, it is very frustrating because some documents have
literally a hundred hyperlinks to internal forms and info.

Funny, the internet (external) links don't get changed at all.

Gary1972 · External Since: Sep 10, 2009 Posts: 1

Just to add another me too:

Hyperlinks like http://mycompany.com/folder/this.xls in an excel spreadsheet
are getting converted to file:///c:\my documents\folder\this.xls.

It seems to be when saving the excel file into a Sharepoint 2007 document
library.

"Metoo" wrote:

> Gman,
> Yup, I have the exact same problem, but mine happens in Word too. We have
> coworkers collaborating on a document, but when I go to do the final review,
> all sharepoint hyperlinks (Intranet) are converted to C drive links and are
> unusable.
>
> I am going to play with some document library settings. I seem to remember
> a setting that allows checked-out documents to be stored on the local drive
> until they are checked back in. I wonder if that is causing the
> problem....For me, it is very frustrating because some documents have
> literally a hundred hyperlinks to internal forms and info.
>
> Funny, the internet (external) links don't get changed at all.
>
>

Bill Manville · External Since: Jul 30, 2004 Posts: 539

If the links were originally to files in the same folder as the
spreadsheet (or possibly sub-folders thereof) then Excel will hold them
as relative links by default. So, when the spreadsheet gets moved
somewhere else the links will be interpreted as relative to that new
folder and the files may well not reside there.

I recommend trying the following (2003 or earlier):
File > Properties > Summary > Hyperlink Base:
\\SomeNonServer\SomeNonFolder

In Excel 2007 you get there by [that's progress for you!]:
Office Button > Prepare > Properties > Document Properties > Advanced
Properties > Summary

This will force Excel to hold hyperlinks as absolute rather than
relative to its assumed base (the folder it came from). Then remake
any links which are not pointing to the right place.

If you try this, please post back here with the results so that others
can tell whether the advice is worth following or not.

Bill Manville
MVP - Microsoft Excel, Oxford, England
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