How to "link" a PDF file in computer to Endnote X3 but not attach the PDF file itself?

Dear experts;

I searched a lot but didn’t find an answer. The only thing to do is to physically attach the whole file? I only want to have a link in the entry, so that I can click on the link to open the file…

Another question: After I transfer the references from Endnote Web to local Endnote, the previously attachments to other entries disappeared, and it does this each time…Could someone explain this? Many thanks!

js128 

@js128 wrote:

I searched a lot but didn’t find an answer. The only thing to do is to physically attach the whole file? I only want to have a link in the entry, so that I can click on the link to open the file…

You want an absolute rather than relative link, and you specify this in the Edit> Preferences>URLs&Links options. You would untick the box there.  Can’t help on question 2. 

Thanks a lot for quick reply…For the 1st question, I tried absolute link before, and I used it in any field other than the URL and File Attachment fields, and it did not work…the example in Endnote is too simple, and I followed the “%20” thing, still did not work? Any suggestions?

For the 2nd question, I’m sure other people see it too, unless I did something wrong…

If the setting is set as absolute, dragging and dropping the file on record, makes the link in the PDF field.  From there, if you changed your mind, Endnote will “harvest” the files and move them to the relative folder. 

 When I want to point to a file using the URL,  I make sure the names are relatively short and that there are no spaces in the name, because I can’t keep track of the %20 stuff. 

Check out this thread where myoshigi has some more details and suggestions in naming conventions. http://forums.thomsonscientific.com/ts/board/message?board.id=en-general&message.id=1149#M1149

to you second question: 

Attachments are lost when you transfer from Endnote to Endnote Web. You need to manualy reattach them. (They arent put back when transfering from web to local). 

For links its a bit different: They will not work in Endnote Web, but after transfering back to local Endnote they should work again.

(I’m not sure where i read that, but it wasn’t that long ago. I didn’t verifyed it, just took it as it was written.)