Nagging mystery - why won't this page open?

  • Thread starter Thread starter david.f.jenkins
  • Start date Start date
D

david.f.jenkins

I'm working on a PowerPoint pres., and it contains a link formatted as
a Hyperlink that I can't use to get the indicated page to open (form
within PowerPoint). If I copy that link onto the IE6 address, it also
fails to open. If I type the same link info in the IE6 address line, I
can open the page. How can I find out what's causing the original link
to fail?

In doing some communicating with others on this isse, I've copied the
"failing" URL into an e-mail note, where it appears as a link.
However, it won't open. If I type the same info into the note, it is
also recognized (and formatted) as a link, and it *will* open. In
effect, the note shows two "identical" links - but one of them works,
the other doesn't.

(If I knew how to get links into this post, I'd show you what I mean,
but I don't know how to do that...)

This is not an earth-shattering problem, and the workaround is pretty
easy. However, I'd like some help figuring out what's going on behind
the scenes to cause this behavior. Any diagnostic procedures you all
can suggest would be appreciated - thanks!
 
....
I'm working on a PowerPoint pres., and it contains a link formatted as
a Hyperlink that I can't use to get the indicated page to open (form
within PowerPoint). If I copy that link onto the IE6 address, it also
fails to open. If I type the same link info in the IE6 address line, I
can open the page. How can I find out what's causing the original link
to fail?



In doing some communicating with others on this isse, I've copied the
"failing" URL into an e-mail note, where it appears as a link.
Click to expand...


That's the key. It *appears* as a link. What's inside? <w>


However, it won't open. If I type the same info into the note, it is
also recognized (and formatted) as a link, and it *will* open. In
effect, the note shows two "identical" links - but one of them works,
the other doesn't.

(If I knew how to get links into this post, I'd show you what I mean,
but I don't know how to do that...)
Click to expand...


Does it have a right-click menu, with a Copy Shortcut command?
That copies the part that is used when you click it. The part that
you see is just text. Trouble happens when the two pieces get
out of synch or as I suspect has happened in your case, the hidden
part gets corrupted and the showing makes the link appear deceptively
intact.

This is not an earth-shattering problem, and the workaround is pretty
easy. However, I'd like some help figuring out what's going on behind
the scenes to cause this behavior. Any diagnostic procedures you all
can suggest would be appreciated - thanks!
Click to expand...


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---
 
Hi Robert:

Thanks for the advice. I brought up the email message in Outlook, and
right-clicked the two links in question. Both bring up a right-click
menu, but neither menu has a Copy Shortcut command. However, I can
view the html source. Here's the pertinent part of that source, that
contains the display of the two URLs. Can you make head or tail out of
this code, and tell me what's wrong with the first one? I know
absolutely nothing about html, URLs, etc., or I'd attempt to figure
this out on my own. I'm just hoping that there's something obvious
there that will pop right out of this morass of angle brackets... BTW
(if it's at all pertinent), all this started with a hyperlink on a
PowerPoint slide that failed - for us - but not for the originator of
the PowerPoint file - he says the link worked just fine for him.

I do see that the html for the second link has a target="_parent" in
it, but the "bad" link does not. Is that significant? Could that
explain why it works for the originator, but not for us?

<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'><a
href="http://www.sytsma.com/CISM700/TOC.HTML">http://www.sytsma.com/cism700/toc.html</a></span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=1 color="#000072" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:6.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000072;font-weight:bold'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></b></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=1 color="#000072" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:6.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000072;font-weight:bold'><a
href="http://www.sytsma.com/cism700/toc.html" target="_parent"><font
size=2><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>http://www.sytsma.com/cism700/toc.html</span></font></a></span><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>

I really do appreciate your taking the time to scratch my curiosity
itch, Robert - thanks.
 
FWIW, here's a more accurate chronology of what went on:

In the original PowerPoint file, the URL was formatted as a hyperlink,
and it worked just fine. It looked like this:

http://www.sytsma.com/cism700/toc.html

A macro was then used which removed the hyperlink formatting. And
magically, it then looked like this:

http://WWW.SYTSMA.COM/CISM700/TOC.HTML

That link was copied to the browser, and did not work. When I got the
error page, I noticed that the URL had been changed to:

http://www.sytsma.com/CISM700/TOC.HTML

That one didn't work, so I changed the upper case stuff to lower case,
and it *did* work. What's up with that?

I then reverted to the original slide, and removed the hyperlink
formatting by clicking right and selecting PowerPoiont's Remove
Hyperlink, and it then showed as this:

http://www.sytsma.com/cism700/toc.html

I copied that to the browser, and it *did* work.

So I'm thinking that the problem lies with the way the macro removed
the hyperlink (and hence ended up with a bum URL) - do you think that
could be the root of all this? If so, then I have sub-mystery to
solve: other links on the same PowerPoint slide were treated
identically (the same macro was run against those) and the subsequent
un-hyperlink-formatted URLs did not get their cases changed, and they
subsequently worked ok when browsed to. And what's up with *that*?
 
I've found that the macro in question did other nefarious things,
predicated on whether the URL contained mixed alpha and numeric
elements. If it did, it arbitrailiy was changing the URL to upper
case. (WTF?) So the hyperlink changing was kind of a red herring as
far as how the case was getting diddled.

I think I've pretty much settled in my mind what's been going on with
this. Thanks to anyone who gave this more than a moment's thought.
 
....
Hi Robert:

Thanks for the advice. I brought up the email message in Outlook, and
right-clicked the two links in question. Both bring up a right-click
menu, but neither menu has a Copy Shortcut command. However, I can
view the html source. Here's the pertinent part of that source, that
contains the display of the two URLs. Can you make head or tail out of
this code, and tell me what's wrong with the first one? I know
absolutely nothing about html, URLs, etc., or I'd attempt to figure
this out on my own. I'm just hoping that there's something obvious
there that will pop right out of this morass of angle brackets... BTW
(if it's at all pertinent), all this started with a hyperlink on a
PowerPoint slide that failed - for us - but not for the originator of
the PowerPoint file - he says the link worked just fine for him.

I do see that the html for the second link has a target="_parent" in
it, but the "bad" link does not. Is that significant? Could that
explain why it works for the originator, but not for us?
Click to expand...


No. That just tells the browser where to open the URL.

<a href="http://www.sytsma.com/CISM700/TOC.HTML">http://www.sytsma.com/cism700/toc.html</a>
Click to expand...


This is showing exactly what I was expecting you might see.
If the server is using case sensitive file or path names
then the request is going to be made for the URL which contains
uppercase characters but the one you say you copied and know works
does not contain any uppercase characters.

I really do appreciate your taking the time to scratch my curiosity
itch, Robert - thanks.
Click to expand...


You're welcome. Happy to help.


Robert
---
 
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