Relative Paths - An Explanation...

A very common problem that crops up on the Helpdesk (and that can often lead to a great deal of confusion) is relative paths, and how these are referenced.

By default Author-it uses relative paths when searching for Templates and external files, which makes authoring easier in a multi-user environment. Many users have different mapped drives to the same shared location, so a fully qualified path would not always be identical. The paths Author-it uses are relative to the Library (.ADL file) rather than the Author-it program (.EXE file) for this reason also.

However... what often happens is a library is moved but the templates and external files are not – which quickly leads to the relative paths becoming invalid.

With an understanding of the default folder structure and how Author-it handles relative paths, this can easily be overcome...

When you install Author-it, the default directory structure is created as:

In a multiuser environment the Data folder (and its subfolders) is stored on the network, enabling all contributors access to the shared components.

So let's assume that I've installed Author-it locally - accepting the default paths - and the full path to my library is:

C:\Program Files\Authorit 5\Data\Libraries\MyLibrary.adl

The templates are stored in:

C:\Program Files\Authorit 5\Data\Templates

Under this setup, the correct way to display the path to the Templates folder (as being relative to the library) is ..\Templates, and this is how you'll find the paths are referenced within Author-it.

Now let's then say that I want to move the library. There can be a number of reasons for doing this - I may need to move the library to another location where it can be automatically backed up by my network administrator overnight, or I may have upgraded to a multiuser edition and want to share the library with others in my team...

The easiest solution is to copy the entire Data folder – this folder includes both the Libraries and Templates folders, so moving the entire Data folder ensures they are kept together and the relative paths remain valid.

Otherwise, I must either:

1. Move/copy the Templates folder so that it is at the same level as the folder containing my library.

   So if for example, I moved my library to:

   F:\Documentation\ABC Product\Helpfiles\MyLibrary.adl

   Then my templates would need to be stored in:

   F:\Documentation\ABC Product\Templates

   -or-

2. change the settings in several Author-it objects so that the path to the external templates and files match where they are now stored.

   In particular:

   • Under the Print tab of the Book object, adjust the path in the Word template field.
   • Under the Web tab of the Book object, adjust the path in the Frameset Template and Additional Files fields.
   • Under the Web tab >HTML Help sub-tab of the Index object, adjust the paths to the Index template and Sitemap template fields.
   • Under the Web tab >HTML Help sub-tab of the Table of Contents object, adjust the paths to the Contents template and Sitemap template fields.

     In most cases these settings are inherited from the template the object is based on, so I would need to change the setting in the template.

Note: If using a SQL Server database, the locations of files are specified relative to the Library path directory that is specified in the Summary section of the Author-it Administrator).

What then, a lot of you may ask, does the setting under Tools > Options > File Locations do? This tells Author-it where to look first for those types of file each time you start a new session of the Author-it program – after that, the most recently accessed directory during the current Author-it session is defaulted. So if I open Author-it and go to open a library by selecting `More Files', Author-it will look in the Libraries folder that is set here.

Offline Libraries:

Relative paths still need to be valid if you are working in an offline library. To avoid problems with files not being found however, you can select to include these as an external resource – by marking the folder containing the object that references the linked files as Make Available Offline, and set the Properties of the Offline Library to include external files.

Otherwise, you'll need to ensure the offline library is being opened from a location (such as the default Libraries folder) where the relative path to the linked files is valid.

Hopefully, this makes everything as clear as mud!