Confused! Strange Hyperlink Action

[Rev. Michael L. Burns]

All of my OneNote 2007 notebooks are stored on my desktop pc. I also use a
tablet pc and a laptop, both of which are setup to use the notebooks on the
desktop through my wireless network. Have had no problems since I set them
up last fall and use them daily However, up to this point I had not used
hyperlinks to go to various places within the notebooks.

Last week, using my laptop computer I created a notebook (stored with the
rest of the notebooks on my desktop) that had several sections and
subsections (and subsections to the subsections) and numerous pages in each
subsection. I then created an index page with links to various pages in the
subsections. All seems to work ok on the system that I created the links on.

I then opened the same notebook on my tablet pc and desktop and most of the
links work as expected., going directly to the desired page within the
"Notes" section for instance. However, some links don't jump to the desired
page directly as expected. Instead, I get a message box asking me something
like "Do you want to open the *01 - Sales* notebook in OneNote (recommended)
or just open the "Notes" section from within it?"

This has got me baffled (usually doesn't take much) because all three
computers are pointing to the same files (notebook) and are all synced
according to the messages in OneNote. I have several other notebooks that I
use daily this way and I have never had a problem until I started using
hyperlinks to move around within OneNote. Maybe I'd see more clearly what
was happening if none of the links worked properly on the other computers
but that's not the case. All work on the laptop (where they were initially
set up) whereas many, but not all of the links give me the message on the
other two systems.

The link works as expected on the system it was setup on. As far as I can
tell by looking at the hyperlinks on either computer, they are the same.
Again, many of the links work ok on either computer but the ones that give
me the message are always on a computer other than where I initially set
them up.

If I go ahead and allow it to open either the section or notebook (both of
which actually open different subsections of the current notebook, external
to the notebook itself, as a separate notebook) I can make changes, add data
or delete it and it will sync fine with the laptop, placing all my changes
where they should go so it appears that it is just the links that are
getting screwed up.

If I go and change (set the links up that are not working) the links on the
two systems that are giving me problems, they then work but then the same
links are then screwed up on the system that originally worked. Actually,
let me restate that, the links that don't work properly, if set up again,
seem to never work on no more than one computer at a time whereas other
links work fine on all three computers. This doesn't make sense to this
feeble mind of mine since all three computers are using the same notebook
files.

Any ideas what's happening here?

Thanks,
Michael

 

[Ilya Koulchin]

Do you by any chance have the notebooks open with the UNC syntax on the
laptop (\\desktopname\share\notebook\etc) and the local syntax on the
desktop (c:\folder1\notebook\etc)? If so, then OneNote on the desktop
will think that the hyperlink points to a different notebook (because
the path looks different), even though the files are the same. The easy
fix is to open the notebooks on the desktop computer using the UNC path,
and close the copies opened from the local path. You'll get slightly
slower sync times on the desktop, but there should be no other adverse
effects.

Ilya

 

[Rev. Michael L. Burns]

Ilya,

That seemed to be it. I had several ways to access the notebooks on my
desktop (your first example was similar to how the links were set up in the
files and thus worked fine from the pc that I'd designed it on. From the
desktop I was trying to use the same notebook following your second example.
On the third system I had tried using a mapped drive setup to go directly to
the notebooks and also through my Hamachi remote network.) No wonder I was
having problems. Didn't think through what I was trying to do. Your
suggestion makes sense. When I accessed the notebooks from all three
computers with the proper UNC syntax all three worked ok.

Everything is working fine now from all three computers using the correct
path. However, I still don't understand why on the systems that weren't
working properly before, why some of the links were working but others were
not (but there's a lot that I don't understand).

Is there a way to do the links that would avoid this problem in the future.
I had originally set the links up by navigating to the place I wanted to
link to and selected "copy link to this paragraph" and then pasted this link
on my index page. Unfortunately it seems to use the UNC syntax by default
and will cause a problem if I ever decide to move the notebooks or share
them with someone else.

The real bummer is that if I ever move my notebooks (to a server for
instance, which I was planning in the future) I'll have to redo my links and
there are probably several hundred. Do you know if it's possible to do a
global find and replace of the links so as to replace every instance of
\\desktopname\share with \\Myserver\share\OneNote for instance. Such would
sure make life easier.

Thanks again. You saved my sanity for another day or so.

Michael

 

[Ilya Koulchin]

Everything is working fine now from all three computers using the
correct path. However, I still don't understand why on the systems that
weren't working properly before, why some of the links were working but
others were not (but there's a lot that I don't understand).

If some of the links were linking to other pages within the same
section, those would continue to work even if you move the notebook or
open it using a different path. It's the links between sections that
tend to break.

Is there a way to do the links that would avoid this problem in the
future. I had originally set the links up by navigating to the place I
wanted to link to and selected "copy link to this paragraph" and then
pasted this link on my index page. Unfortunately it seems to use the UNC
syntax by default and will cause a problem if I ever decide to move the
notebooks or share them with someone else.

That is the recommended way to create links. We're aware of this
problem, and are looking for possible improvements in the next version,
but I can't promise anything at this point.

The real bummer is that if I ever move my notebooks (to a server for
instance, which I was planning in the future) I'll have to redo my links
and there are probably several hundred. Do you know if it's possible to
do a global find and replace of the links so as to replace every
instance of \\desktopname\share with \\Myserver\share\OneNote for
instance. Such would sure make life easier.

There is no builtin feature that'd do a find and replace on hyperlinks,
but it's possible to write a powertoy/addin to do that.

Ilya

 

[Rev. Michael L. Burns]

Ilya,

Thanks again for the explanation on what I was seeing. Again you were right
on target. Great job! I am not a programmer so can't write such a powertoy
but hopefully someone else might see the need and write such a toy. Thanks
again.

Michael

 

[MrktngUser3966]

I seem to have the opposite problem to this poster. When I create an
Outlook task using OneNote 2007, the resultant task item is created
using UNC format (\\Computername\DriveName\...). The issue here is that
if I click on the task to go back to OneNote, it then thinks I am
attempting to open a shared notebook, which I'm not. I've noticed that
if I edit the Outlook Task item and recast it to local syntax
(C:\Foldername\...) then everything works fine.

My question is, how can I get OneNote to create the Outlook task items
using local syntax rather than the UNC format? Any help would be
appreciated.

 

[Ilya Koulchin]

I seem to have the opposite problem to this poster. When I create an
Outlook task using OneNote 2007, the resultant task item is created
using UNC format (\\Computername\DriveName\...). The issue here is that
if I click on the task to go back to OneNote, it then thinks I am
attempting to open a shared notebook, which I'm not. I've noticed that
if I edit the Outlook Task item and recast it to local syntax
(C:\Foldername\...) then everything works fine.

I'm not really sure what you mean. How exactly are you creating the
task? How are you editing the task item?