retaining links pc to mac

[pspdfppd]

The problem:

Quark 4 PC file with 300 plus pictures. File names too long to be opened on Quark 4 Mac without losing all the links. Each link must be updated individually. The job must end up in Quark 4 Mac to impose for plates. (every book is a roster using only basic fonts like Times, helvetica, etc so font substitution is not a big deal). We coiuld create pdf's off the PC file and impose back into 4 I know this.


But is there ANY way of retaining the links directly? We've tried to get the customer to burn the cd a different way.....reduce the file names etc. but they won't do it.

[prepress_brillance_43]

I've never used it so this is a shot in the dark but, does Virtual PC for the MAC allow you to run PC programs?, if so could you run the quark 4 file on your mac through Virtual PC with Quark 4 for the PC? Did that make sense? Would doing this allow the PC version of the files to retain their long name? Again, just a shot in the dark because I haven't used Virtual PC so I'm not aware of all of it's abilities.

Just reach out and slap the shit out of me if this is a stupid suggestion, I won't mind. I don't like my own ignorance either. Maybe I'll go get Virtual PC and find out it's abilities before I post anything else.

[Joe]

Try zipping the files on the PC. Copy the zip file to the Mac. Use stuffit to unstuff the zip file. If you're on OS X the long file names shouldn't truncate.

[mattbeals]

The problem is the UNC (if you've done it "right") paths that Windows uses vs. how Mac does it. \\server1\share1\customer1 vs. Server1:Share1:Customer1. Maybe it's smart enough to translate the paths, but I doubt it. If you can, keep all the links in the same folder as the native document. Or, try to make a folder called "images" in the same folder as the Quark document.

[Joe]

I would make sure to put the files on the local drive on the Mac. Not a server. If you are using appletalk the names WILL get truncated if they are over 31 characters. Keeping the images in the same folder as the document is a good idea too. Quark should do the translation without a problem as long as the names aren't truncated.

[JoePixel]

If you can work on it in OSX on the Mac then the long names won't hurt you.

I did this a few years ago when we OSX first came out. I was hesitant to use OSX unless I had to. I had a PC file with a ton of links with really long names so I copied the file to the server while booted in OSX and the names kept their characters and didn't truncate.

I then opened up the file in OSX and linked and everything was fine. I then saved the file down to Quark 5 and rebooted into Mac classic and worked on the file that way. It retained the links no problem.

The problem you may have is if the client burned the files and the files on the CD are truncated. Then you are pretty much toast.

[David]

Quark 4 PC file with 300 plus pictures. File names too long to be opened on Quark 4 Mac without losing all the links. Each link must be updated individually. The job must end up in Quark 4 Mac to impose for plates.

Your best bet is to go the PDF route and impose those on the Mac. It has been a problem for us too (not so much recently, it's been a while since we got a PC Quark file). The last time this happened to us we had to put the images and the quark file in the same folder and most of them linked okay, we just had to force a few that for some unknown reason just would not link automatically (even after linking and saving the file, reopening the same file they were missing again!). PITA
JoePixel has a great idea, sound like it should work too.
Quark on the PC side has always been a special project because the way Quark designed the app (build for a mac then modified for a PC, it's a quickdraw thing)
Good luck with it,
David