----- Original Message -----
From: "2dogs"
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.word.docmanagement
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 9:36 PM
Subject: How to create relative and shorthand file path names
I know that Office and Windows XP accept many file path naming conventions
other than a full absolute file path such as "C:\program files\microsoft
office\documents\file.doc", and etc. I have seen a variety of shorthand
methods for naming file paths and some that appear to be relative file
paths
that reference a child folder, or parent folder, or perhaps no folder at
all
if the file being referenced is in the same folder as the application that
uses it. This would seem to be an absolute necessity, for the sake of
portability from one machine to another, where a file that references or
is
referenced by another file may be located somewhere other than in its
original location.
Here is an example of what I mean:
I have 2 folders. (not really, but lets pretend OK)
Here are their absolute locations:
Folder 1 is at location C:\2dogs\my documents\folder1
Folder 2 is at location C:\2dogs\my documents\folder1\folder2
I also have 3 files. (not really, but lets pretend again OK)
Here are their absolute path names:
File 1 is C:\2dogs\my documents\folder1\document1.doc
File 2 is C:\2dogs\my documents\folder1\document2.doc
File 3 is C:\2dogs\my documents\folder1\folder2\image.jpg
In File 1 there is a reference to File 2 that is in the same folder. File
1
refers to File 2 by using the absolute path name to File 2. In File 1
there
is also a reference to File 3 that is in a folder that is 1 level farther
down in the directory tree. File 1 refers to File 3 by using the absolute
path name to File 3.
I send the 2 folders (folder1 with folder2 inside it) to Bill (don't worry
about who Bill is because we are still pretending OK). Bill puts the
folders
in his personal folder on his D: drive. So now the paths to the folders
a
D:\Bill\Personal Folder\folder1
D:\Bill\Personal Folder\folder1\folder2
When Bill opens the files and tries to use them they will not work because
all the references in those files point to locations that no longer exist.
That is because the references were absolute file paths that pointed to
locations on 2dogs C: drive. Ther must be path naming conventions that
prevent this kind of problem.
Some of the many formats I have seen are things like "document.doc",
"...\filename", ".../../../My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/document.doc",
C:\\document folder\\document.doc. I have no idea what these formats are
and
I can't give better examples because I don't know anymore about the
subject.
All I know is that they are obviously not classic long form direct path
references.
There are, obviously, many methods for giving references using relative
path
names instead of absolute path names and also methods for abbreviating
path
names both relative and absolute. I have queried the Microsoft DB for
hours
and have found nothing on this subject. When I posed this same question in
the XP forum it was stated that all these shorthand methods are program
dependent and are different in every program; however I suspect they are
also
very Operating System dependent as well. If I am writing HTML code it has
its
own format for relative adressing but I suspect that if I open any
Microsoft
program the techniques are the same and are dependent on how the OS
handles
file path names. These techniques must be documented somewhere.
My question is; Where?
--
2dogs in Oregon USA
dogs,
the simpliest solution to your transport and configuration (for
the new user) problem is to Win ZIP the files that you created. Into a
self-extracting zip. (Note exe zips make no mention of ISP and AV software's
and the handling of exe's.)
This will deliver the newly created directory structure to the new user.
I would advise prior to zipping, however, that you create your initial files
as close to c:\root as possible and gived the primary directory a name that
most people would not imagine. (an old DOS trick was to begin file and or
directory names with a "p" in front of a normal name.
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