How to make "File Attachments" references relative (relocatable).

The problem: 1) I need to link thousands of PDF files, many of them very large, to their EndNote citations. 2) To manage disk space, I occasionally need to move branches of the directory tree where these documents are filed from one divice (disk drive) to another. 3) EndNote does not provide a mechanism for batch-changing the paths to files that have been moved. 4) EndNote’s approach to making files “relocatable” (copying them all into a single folder) is obviously not suitable when the PDF library already occupies more than one disk drive.

I wrote a query about how to solve this problem some time ago but got no replies. (I think I posted it to the wrong group).  In the mean time, a more savvy computer jocky than I (my son!) came up with a solution.  It is simple and I thought I would share it incase anyone else faces a similar quandry.

The solution he suggested was to use Window’s Network sharing facility.  I presume Mac has something similar.

  1. Select a directory branch that will never expand to exceed a single disk drive’s capacity.

  2. Right click on this folder, select “Sharning and Security”

  3. Mark the folder shared “Share on the network” and give it a share name

  4. In the EndNote File Attachments field, use the path "\[your computer name][share name][path to PDF[name].PDF. For example, on my system this might read [\PIL\Authors_A-C\AA\Aartsen_1988.PDF](file://pil/Authors_A-C/AA/Aartsen_1988.PDF)

  5. The share name “Authors_A-C” can now be moved anywhere on the computer and EndNote File Attachment link will still work.

Pat

There might be another method too. I found out that the “Change text” command (Cntrl+R) can actually search the ‘file attachment’ field also. I tried to replace an outdated path name with the new path name, and it worked. So if you moved files from (say) C:\folder1 to F:\folder2, searching and replacing this text in the file attachment field should do a ‘batch move’ that you wanted.