This article is a sequel to the "How do I inoculate (protect) my links using LinkFixer Advanced" lesson. It presumes knowledge contained in that article. Applying the steps of this article also requires that the sample files referred to in this article were inoculated during the previous lesson.
If you have not studied and applied "How do I inoculate (protect) my links using LinkFixer Advanced", please do so now.
In this lesson, you will learn about LinkFixer Advanced’s unique ability to automatically fix broken links contained in parent files caused by either parent or child files being moved or renamed.
The Cure process does not repair broken links by moving child files back to their original locations or by "re-directing" queries from the old location to the new location. LinkFixer Advanced actually updates links so that they point to the correct child files, even if the child files were renamed or moved!
In this lesson, we will intentionally break a link in the “Excel2010 Questions File.xlsx” file by manually renaming and moving the “EXCEL2010 Data File.xlsx” file. Then we will use the Cure process to automatically repair the broken link!
Trial Note: In the trial version of LinkFixer Advanced, the Cure function will process up to 500 links per day, and 5,000 links during the 21-day trial period
- To get started, open your “LinkFixer Advanced” folder located on your desktop and navigate to the “XLSX 2010” folder located under your Excel samples files. Select EXCEL2010 Data File.xlsx, right-click on it and select “Rename” from the menu. Rename the file to “ThisNameHasChanged.xlsx”.
- Navigate up one level. In the Excel Sample Files folder create a new folder and name it as “XLS Moved”.
- Navigate back to the “XLSX 2010” folder. Cut the “ThisNameHasChanged.xls” file and paste it in the newly created “XLS Moved” folder.
- Navigate back to the “XLSX 2010” folder and open the “Excel2010 Questions File.xlsx” file. Click on the hyperlink “2010 Excel Data.xlsx”. Note that the link is now broken and does not respond by opening the file, because the child (target) file has now been renamed and moved. This confirms that we have broken this link.
- Close the “Excel2010 Questions File.xls” file in Excel.
- Go back to LinkFixer Advanced home screen. Click on the {Cure} button.
7. The “Select Folders” section appears. Navigate to the “XLSX 2010” folder, as shown below.
Note: If you have other files selected from a previous run, use the {Clear Folder Selection} button located on the top-right to clean-up and reset your folder selection tree.
8. Select this “XLSX 2010” folder so that all the files in these parent and child folders are available for the repair of any broken links.
9. Also select the “XLS Moved” folder, so that the child file that was moved to that folder is included during the Cure process.
Important: In this “Select Folders” step of the Cure process, you must select all drives and folders where any parent or child files have been relocated. LinkFixer Advanced needs to be able to find and process all parent and child files in their new (moved) locations, in order to repair the links between those files.
Note: When using LinkFixer Advanced to cure the links in your parent files, it is possible that you may not know exactly where the needed child files are located. In such cases, you may need to select a higher-level folder, or an entire drive, to ensure that required child files are included during processing.
10. Click “Select Files”. For this lesson select “Process all files in selected folders.”
11. Click “Select Links”. For this lesson select “Process all links in selected files.”
12. Click the {Next} arrow button. The “Preview Links to be Cured” screen appears. Since the Excel Sample Files were inoculated in the previous lesson, LinkFixer Advanced can now automatically repair the broken links caused by our manual move and rename. Notice that the “ThisNameHasChanged.xls” child file will be re-linked, in its new location, to the “XLS2003 Questions File.xls” parent file, as shown below.
13. Click the {Process Files} screen.
14. Click the {Run} button to perform the Cure process on the selected files.
When the processing is complete, the LinkFixer Advanced “Cure Process Dashboard” window is displayed which shows the following “Status” pane.
15. Congratulations, you have now successfully cured all of the broken links, automatically!
16. Click on the {Summary} button below the progress bar to open the “Cure Report”, as shown below.
17. Review the report in detail and note how it lists each parent file and its links, and how it shows which links were automatically re-linked (cured).
18. After viewing your report, close the report window.
19. Return to your File Explorer. Open the “XLS2003 Questions File.xls” file and again click on the hyperlink that now points to the “ThisNameHasChanged.xls” file. This link will now operate correctly, causing the file “ThisNameHasChanged.xls” to open and display. The broken link caused by our manual rename and move, has been automatically repaired!
20. Close Windows Explorer