Error: filename, directory name or volume label syntax is incorrect

Question

Using Acrobat Pro 8.1.3. and Flash CS3 ... Have a link on Flash site to a PDF file for people to print/download sheet ... When link is clicked, Acrobat opens and display the error message : "there was an error opening this document. The filename, directory name or volume label syntax is incorrect" ...
Needless to say, all of these things are FINE with NO error whatsoever.
I know it's not Flash, the link itself works. Computer crashed 2 weeks ago, had to reinstall everything, including Acrobat Pro, and redownload updates ... All was working fine B4 crash (including link from flash and opening of linked files with Acrobat), not anymore since reinstall ... Wondering if some update/patch is messing it up ... Help anybody? Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

How do your users generate the link? Windows makes it surprisingly difficult to reference a file. I usually resort to 3rd party tools that allow me to copy a file name or path.
Much to my surprise, I find that if I use '''Insert|Link''' and ''browse'' to the required file, it generates a fully qualified URI and it works correctly when sent and received in Thunderbird. That's TB31.5.0 on Windows 7 Pro. So the transmitted URI will have this format:
<code>
file:///F:/projects/xyz/xyz%20Project%20Spend%20Production%205%20off.xls
</code>
It won't work if you just drop in a plain old DOS type filename.
Yes, it's a chore to browse to the required file when you have it in plain sight in front of you in your file manager. I'm using FreeCommander XE which is able to generate properly formed pathnames and copy them to the system clipboard, and these can be pasted as-is into message body, or pasted into the address box in the Insert|Link dialogue.