PDF Hyperlink not working-why?

Question

I use a variety of hyperlinks within my topics - internally
within the topic, externally to remote topics, externally to other
media such as Excel, Word, etc. My problem is with PDF's.
My coworker can link no problem, and if I work on one of his
topics, I also see the pdf. If I create the pdf, however, on my pc
and embed it as a remote hyperlink, when clickin on the link in the
chm, I get the good ole "Page Not Found" error in the topic pane.
He and I both have XP and both use Office 2003. In our Word, we use
the PDF Toolbar to compile our Word Docs into pdfs.
WEIRD THING: I created several topics awhile back in Office
2000 and those pdfs continue to work!!!! Everytime I try to update
however, even those old topics, the new pdf won't open. If I
restore it to the old pdf, it works again. I assume by this there
is something weird on my pc with my MS Office - any ideas?
What kind of setting can we compare? Neither my supervisor
nor VP has any idea why this happens - Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi Lisa and all
Well, I do have one thought that may work. Seems the goal
here is to use MOTW and still be able to make links work. I'm
thinking that one could create a redirect topic that would do the
linking. The trick with this would be to keep the redirect page out
of the main topic files. After all, the topic files are all
recipients of MOTW. So how to create a HTML page that doesn't end
up receiving MOTW?
Use RoboHelp to create the redirect page. A redirect page is
created by inserting the following META tag:
<meta HTTP-EQUIV=refresh CONTENT="0;URL=FileName.PDF">
Just replace FileName.PDF with the actual file name you wish
to use.
Now you should have a topic in RoboHelp that will perform a
redirect. The trick here is to make RoboHelp unaware of it. So this
is one of the few times I'll actually suggest stepping behind
RoboHelp's back and making a change. Right-click the redirect topic
and look at the topic properties. Click the File tab. See that
button labeled "Open Folder"? Click the button. Rename the topic
file name and close Windows Explorer.
Back in RoboHelp, you should see that RoboHelp now has a
fancy red X on the topic, indicating it cannot find it. This is
good and what you want! Just delete the topic from RoboHelp. You
aren't really deleting the topic. Only the errant reference. Now
right-click the baggage files folder and import the redirect topic
as a baggage file. If the topic exists as a baggage file and not a
normal topic, it shouldn't receive the standard MOTW stamp.
Give that a go and see if it works. Hopefully it will!
Cheers... Rick