Hyperlink Edit in Word for Mac

Question

I create a hyperlink (to a 'local' doc) in a Word for Mac 2011 document and save file as Web Page. I close it then open the page in browser and click on hyperlink. It works.

Then I reopen the Word file, add a new hyperlink and save. When I reopen html file in the browser and click on the first link, I get a 'can't find' message. It shows the pathname for the file it is looking for has a colon instead of the forward slash when designating the last folder of the pathname. On re-checking the Word file and hovering over the link, it shows that any spaces (normally shown in html as "%20") in the path replaced by "%2520". Consequently and naturally, with these changes, the required hyperlinked file can't be found when clicked in the browser.

How can a Word file with hyperlinks be edited without destroying the pathnames of previously saved and working hyperlinks (problem occurs in Firefox and Safari, so doesn't appear to be browser-related)?

Answer 1

I think the "Stick with .docx" idea would work if I was planning to start a new file. I would always write and save it in .docx first, then do Save As Web Page. If I later wanted to add or edit, I should do it in the docx file and save it in that format first, effectively keeping it as the master file, then again Save As Web Page to replace the old htm file. In other words, I shouldn't open the htm file in Word and expect to be able to edit it then re-save it in that format. Working directly in the htm file and saving it 'as is' (either as a docx file or as a web page) seems to be where the problems come in.

This still shouldn't happen, even when done that way, if Word actually allows an htm file to be opened and edited.

Note to self for future ... use docx as the Master and do any later editing directly in there. Presumably then the links etc wouldn't be "internally tinkered with".

Just to add further to the list of glitches (even in the older Word 2008) ... when a file contains a picture (e.g. jpg) which has been inserted amongst the text then Saved as a Web Page, it appears ok later in a browser. But then if further editing is done, the picture may or may not still appear in the htm opened in Word! If it doesn't appear (and this only seems to be a random thing) then the (empty) space where the pic was is still there, and clicking in the area shows a black frame where the picture should be. So I have to delete the empty frame and again do Insert/Photo/Picture from File where the original one was.

Think I should have just taken a deep breath 'way back' and bought a dedicated web writing program in the first place!

Thanks again Peter for your efforts!

Paul

Answer 2

A pity that the "stick with .docx" approach didn't work. 

I'm doing some experiments to try to find out what whether this really is just a Mavericks thing, and also to follow up your comments about the links not working from a browser.

I may be some time...

Answer 3

Peter ... thanks for your prompt reply to my problem. You have understood it perfectly and included pathnames that illustrate exactly what happens (I should have probably included those myself in my initial post, but evidently what I wrote must have been understandable!). I have tried your suggested approach of working from a docx version of the file, then Saving As a Web Page later, but still no success.

When I edit such a file by for example by adding a new hyperlink in a new place in the doc and then attempt to save first as a docx then as a Web Page, I get an error message: “A file error has occurred. Check your network connections or make sure the disk is properly inserted and not defective”. There are no such connections or disks associated with the file (even with a test file that I set up). When I then close Word and go to open the test html file in a browser, it opens, the new hyperlink works, one of the previous ones works, but the other previous one shows the pesky colon again! Hence it doesn’t understand the link and doesn’t open!

I also have an older laptop running Leopard 10.5.8 (!) with Word for Mac 2008. When I write and save a test file as a Web Page there, it seems to work ok, even when I edit/save/close Word/open browser.

But when I transfer my ‘real’ files & folders via a USB stick to the old and attempt to edit a hyperlink then Save, I get the same ‘file error’ message.

Seems to be a problem emanating from Word for Mac 2011. When I first started this rather long family history file on the old laptop using Word 2008, I had no problems with editing, changing etc the hyperlinks. The problem has only developed when I have updated everything to Word 2011. Must be a bug there somewhere which I can’t seem to work around.

The other thing that happens whenever I open the htm file in Word 2011 is that any text surrounded by a border is given a second border, then a third one if I close and reopen again! Not quite such a problem as the hyperlinks as I just copy the text within the first border, paste in lower in the doc then delete the double border text. A nuisance but at least able to be worked around.

Guess I’ll just keep the current family history file and accept that I can’t make further changes.

Thanks again for you prompt attention to my request.

Paul

Answer 4

Sounds like you found a System Bug Pete if so you need to go to where ever Apple's Bug reporting is and File a Bug. If you go to Apple's Support Forms and then choose Mavericks and post your findings I'm sure someone will point you to correct URL to report the Bug.  Though it may not Matter a new system is due in the Fall which I dread. More changes. More IOS-fication.

Answer 5

First, I can replicate this behaviour on Mavericks 10.9.3

I have also tried with Chrome and Safari set as the default browser - it does not appear to make much difference. What I have not tried is a system with no browser other than Safari.

Ensuring that the "Update links on save" Web option is unchecked) makes no difference.

There seem to me to be two problems:

 a. each time you work with the HTML format file, and change/save/close/reopen, you get an extra "25"

 b. initially, Word inserts what looks like a "relative pathname" such as

my%20folder/my%20file.docx

Then it changes it to 

my%2520folder:my%2520file.docx

Then it changes it to 

file://localhost/my%252520folder:my%252520file.docx

As soon as it introduces the file://localhost, it can't really be interpreted as a relative hyperlink, but the path is now likely to be wrong (e.g. it should probably be

file://localhost/Users/myname/Documents/my%20folder:my%20file.docx

or some such.

At the moment, I can only see two workarounds:

 a. you always work with a .docx, then save separately as a web page (in that case, Word seems to re-impose the full file:// path name in some circumstances) or

 b. you insert the full pathname as a file:// path from the beginning, using %20 and other escapes as necessary.

(Edit: incidentally, Mac Word seems even more aggressive than Windows Word when it comes to replacing the hyperlink address in the HYPERLINK field)