External Link Navigation Still Working?

Is external link navigation still working in DOORS?

On 9.6.1.2 I can still navigate to a Word document at:-

C:\MyDocs\Sample.docx

but the syntax for navigating to a bookmark (called for example BM1) in that document does not seem to work anymore

C:\MyDocs\Sample.docx#BM1

Re: External Link Navigation Still Working?
kourosh - Thu Jun 25 13:45:22 EDT 2015

if you go to start > run from your windows taskbar and put "C:\MyDocs\Sample.docx#BM1" in the "open" field, does that work? if that does not work, then I wouldn't expect it to work from a DOORS external link

Re: External Link Navigation Still Working?
DoorsXLAustralia - Thu Jun 25 19:47:17 EDT 2015

Thanks Kourosh,

It does not work from 'run' or 'cmd'

So what is the correct syntax to navigate to a bookmark in a Word.doc or Word.docx using a DOORS external link?

The format above (C:\MyDocs\Sample.docx#BM1) used to work when I was demonstrating external links in DOORS to Word in training classes.

To navigate to a cell in a spread sheet I think it it used to be

C:\MyDocs\Sample.docx#Sheet2!B4

but this does not work any more either

thanks

Sean

Re: External Link Navigation Still Working?
kourosh - Tue Jun 30 12:26:19 EDT 2015

I'm not sure to be honest, to me that seems like it changed within MS Office. I recommend checking with their forums/support.

Re: External Link Navigation Still Working?
DoorsXLAustralia - Wed Jul 08 23:22:51 EDT 2015

I see gbgedi is asking the same question now at

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/forums/html/topic?id=28bed0aa-06d2-4749-bc99-6bef8735dd5c&ps=25

Well I just tested it and there is nothing wrong with # tags in bookmarks in MS Office.

I create a word doc worddoc1.docx

I add some content and a bookmark called BM1 halfway down page 2

I create a second word doc worddoc2.docx

In worddoc2.docx I add the following hyperlink:-

C:\TestData\wordoc1.docx#BM1

I ctrl-click to follow the link. Worddoc2.docx opens and scrolls down to BM1 in page 2 so link navigability is working fine in office. It is the external link capability in DOORS that is broken. This used to work fine in earlier 9.x versions of DOORS.

Sean

Re: External Link Navigation Still Working?
kourosh - Thu Jul 09 19:40:44 EDT 2015

You said, "It is the external link capability in DOORS that is broken." I disagree with you. If you try to put C:\TestData\wordoc1.docx#BM1 in a browser you will notice it doesn't open the file and go to the bookmark. But if you put just put C:\TestData\wordoc1.docx without the bookmark, it does open the file.

And if you look at the DOORS documentation, it says "Where an external link is a URL, it is treated like a hyperlink and is opened by the default browser." Therefore, since a Word URL with a bookmark can't be opened from the default browser, then it shouldn't be expected for it to work from DOORS either.

You also said "This used to work fine in earlier 9.x versions of DOORS. " So I just downgraded to DOORS 9.2, and I noticed it still didn't work there. My guess is at the time you were using an earlier 9.x version, you were also using an earlier version of Word which allowed this to work.