Link to video file

[rkocinski]

Hi all - I'm new to this forum and new to PDF-XChange. I am trying to create a hyperlink to open a video file in the same directory as the pdf. I notice when I set the action to open file and point to the video file, it saves the entire directory. The problem is that I want to put this into a dropbox / goodreader account for users on an iPad. I'd like for the pdf file to be a table of contents of sorts, and let the user click on the video that they want. I am setting the link for "Video A" to point to "Video A.mp4", but when I put it into dropbox and open it on the ipad, it does not link. Any suggestions? Any and all help greatly appreciated.
Rich

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello rkocinski,

When creating the link try to pass the path in relative terms e.g. ./videos/video_1.mp4
It will appear as the full link when you preview in in our PDF Viewer, but it should still be stored as the relative link in the document, and should then work wherever you move both files (provided the relative paths stay the same).

Also please make sure that you are working in a folder when making those files and the links between them, as if you are working in e.g. C: the links might become absolute.

Best,
Stefan

[rkocinski]

I did try that. I hit browse, selected my file, and then deleted all the C:\.......my documents\video etc and just pointed to the file. The pdf and the video file are in the same directory, so it should work. In fact, when I run it from my pc, it does indeed work. When I copy the pdf and videos to the cloud and then sync them with ipad, it does not work. Frustrating.

[John - Tracker Supp]

Can you please provide us with a sample file (zipped) with a valid link we can access ?

Thanks

[chs200123]

I'm a heavy user of your awesome product. I recommend it to everyone. But please either modify your help file or the much better alternative and modify the user interface under View - Other Panes - Attachments and include either a tick mark or something that indicates where files/links are relative links or absolute links.

BTW, just to clarify to anyone else who is having this issue, you must to the following to set a relative link to a video. I'm using build 194.0 version 2.5


Under destination and "file name", use the following without quotes ".\myrelativefilename.flv" (use file extension of corresponding file and erase everything before the period)

Under Options - Directory, use the following without quotes: ".\mydirectory\" (Use whatever your highest directory you want to set as relative)

Save document and test - it works for me. But there should still be a better UI to manage links and attachments. there should also be a way to set attachments as relative links too because using the standard file attachment tool does not allow the user to set the document as relative (it should at least be an option)

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Thanks for the input chs200123,

you are right in the way you use .\ to define the current directory and the relative path.

It may be practical to have the GUI switch from generating absolute to relative paths. I will ask the development team to see what they think. The use of relative links should resolve the cloud sync issue. For now I suggest tyuping it as chs200123 pointed out.

Regardless of relative or absolute links both are dependent on your files remaining in the same locations, move one and it breaks your link. Would it not be better to attach the video as an attachment - then the need to maintain the link is gone?

Also I'd suggest we wait and see what V3 brings in terms of support for multimedia files.

hth

[chs200123]

I would absolutely not recommend embedding files over linking them. Linking files has some incredible advantages over embedding. Consider this example. You have an excel sheet that you want to link to 10 different reports. While you could embed the excel sheet, or even embed a screen shot of the excel sheet, you would then have to re-embed those files every time you made a change and wanted to redistribute those 10 reports.

Linking on the other hand only requires a single file to be changed. Which will then automatically update those ten reports when they are opened. This is an oversimplified example. Now image you increase the work flow by 10. Another beauty to linking over embedding is the advantage gained when assigning multiple people on one project. Because files are linked instead of embedded, it allows much less overhead because everyone only has to concentrate on information that people have linked to their data.

Most people never take advantage of linking vs embedding because they don't realize the benefits. Also because software like Microsoft and adobe don't make linking vs embedding manageable because both software packages force the user to link with relative files in the same directory only - which is retarded.

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi chs200123,

good point, when you know what you are doing, this does of course mean that you have to manage distributing the linked files with the PDF and the ensuing issues with the paths.

I'll have a word to the development team to see of the relative/absolute paths can be handled better in the UI.

cheers

[chs200123]

Was there ever follow up to this? Did your development team say that that could make UI adjustment to better manage relative file paths vs. absolute file paths?

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello chs200123,

Paul is in our Canadian office and it is still quite early there, but I will pass this topic to him and he should follow up here a bit later today.

Best,
Stefan

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

HI chs200123,

while we finish up V3 of the Viewer we will not be adding new features to the current version so there won't be any change in this until after V3 is initially released. We are too close to that now to be changing what V3 initial release looks like I'm afraid.

After V3 is released we should revisit this idea if needed.

hth