There is a difference between linking within a PDF document and linking
to a file. I have had this problem going from the PC to the Mac
platform; maybe it is similar to what you are experiencing. When you link
to a file, the platform you are working in (in your case the Mac), uses
Mac syntax to record the path to the file. That syntax is hard-coded into
the PDF file. Your error message would indicate that your Unix machine
is looking for a file pathname expressed in the PC language. But
unfortunately your pathname was recorded on a Mac.
That was my experience in Acrobat 2.1, that the Link to File feature
would not work across platforms. I don't know if 3.0 has fixed this
problem - it sure would make my life easier....

Bob Perry
www.cgf.org (Tons of PDFs)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 8 Apr 1997 11:20:29 -0800
From: "Stephen N. Spencer" <spencer@cgrg.ohio-state.edu>
Subject: linking from PDF to local HTML document...

I've got a situation for which I need to find a solution. I'm *almost*
there,
but not all the way.

The particulars: ISO 9660/Mac hybrid CD-ROM, with a mix of PDF and HTML
documents. Using PDF version of 'table of contents' with links from it to

PDF and HTML content on the CD-ROM. (no off-CD links)

Links from PDF to PDF work perfectly on Mac/W95/UNIX platforms.
Links from PDF to HTML work perfectly on Mac/W95, fail on UNIX -- I get
an

Could not open the specified file '/CDROM/iso9660/a/b/file.htm'

which is the correct path on the CD-ROM to the HTML document. (And yes,
I'm being careful about the letter case -- I realize it's important.)

Used "open file" action in creating the link from PDF to HTML document.
Did not use "World Wide Web Link" because (a) the HTML document isn't on
the Web and (b) the Exchange online documentation doesn't say the "file"
URL is supported by WebLink, only ftp, http, and mailto URLs.

(As an aside: why *doesn't* the "file" URL work any more? It used to...)

I've set up my ".mailcap" and ".mime.types" as follows:

.mime.types:

#mime types added by Netscape Helper
type=text/html \
desc="Hypertext Markup Language" \
exts="html,htm"

.mailcap:

text/html;/usr/bin/X11/netscape %s

and set up the "EXTENSIONMAPS" and "MAILCAPS" environment variables.

Used Acrobat Exchange 3.0 on Macintosh to create the links, and using
Acrobat 3.0 Reader on an SGI to look at the PDF documents on CD-ROM.

Anyone have a clue as to what information I'm not giving to Acrobat
Reader
on the SGI so that it knows to take this file-that-ends-in-htm and send
it
to Netscape?

Stephen N. Spencer 614.292.3416 (v) Graphics Research
Specialist
spencer@siggraph.org 614.292.7776 (f) ACCAD - The Ohio State
University
spencer@cgrg.ohio-state.edu SIGGRAPH Director for
Publications
spencer@acm.org "After ecstasy, laundry." - Zen
writing