Cannot open file through Win Explorer on network 4

[Kokonee]

When I use Windows Explorer to navigate to a Pagemaker file on a server drive and double click to open, I receive the error "Cannot Open File. 8009:16404." Clicking the file will launch pagemaker, but then the error message displays. I get the same error if Pagemaker is already open. I can open a file on the local drive correctly this way.

There are hundreds of Pagemaker documents on the server in an extensive folder structure, and it is very time consuming to navigate to the correct file through the Pagemaker File Open command. Usually I end up doing both - first with explorer to find the file, then through Pagemaker to open it. All other applications/files open correctly through Windows Explorer.

Any help? Thanks.

 

[Eggles]

Well, as you have found out, PM does not like being opened across a network. Page layout applications are among the most complex type of files you can work with. In fact, opening over a network is almost a guaranteed way to end up with corrupted files. Adobe themselves recommend always copying the file (and any linked graphics) to the HD first. You might try simplifying the number of levels of folders in which the PM file is stored on the network, as I have found that if it has a very long filepath, even on your HD, there are problems, esp when trying to convert to PDF.

 

[horqua]

Koko,
With all due respect to Eggles, who I have seen on this site for a couple years and who I respect as a real PM/Acrobat guru, I disagree. I'm opening PM docs across a network all the time at my workstation along with my co-workers. (200+ employees) Our PM docs are arranged into numerous folders that are several layers deep on a super-drive (260gb). The problem you are experiencing has not been duplicated in my office. I'm able to open those docs by using Windows Explorer and/or PM File>Open. I send them thru email and open them from the letter and I trade them interchangeably with my graphics team and other teams in my office.

Now, in this situation, I'm a user and not part of the IT team that keeps our systems in tip-top shape. They obviously know something I don't. But, we rarely ever have problems opening PM docs across the network and I have never received your specific error message in the three years I've been doing this job. I disagree with Eggles (no disrespect intended) because I do what he says can't (or shouldn't) be done 8 hrs/day and 5 days/week.

I googled your error message and here's a link to follow for research:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/2f0be.htm

While this link doesn't address your exact error message, it should begin to give you clues where to look.

FYI: My workstation consists of a Dell Optiplex P4 2.8ghz with 512mg RAM running Win2K (SP3) with PM7. It's a hell of a system with more horesepower than I can imagine.

If you or Eggles would like to be put in contact with our IT department, who I believe can explain how our system is designed, I am happy to assist you. Send your email address to: horqua@netscape.net and I will instruct you on how to make contact with our IT dept.

Best of luck!

Knock and the door shall be opened unto you. Seek and ye shall find!

I love Mondays cause they're the Second day of the week!

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, Horqua,

You have made the key point - "IT team that keeps our systems in tip-top shape."

I quote from AdobeForums

"The Basics

First of all, here is the general consensus of most experts who give advice here regarding PageMaker and networks:

Do not run the PageMaker application over a network. It must be installed on the workstation.

Do not open and work on files off a network file server. Copy the file to the local hard drive prior to the work session, save to the local hard drive, then, at the end of the work session, copy the file back over to the file server for storage.

Do not place graphics that are stored on a network file server. Again, you can store them on the file server but copy them to your local hard drive prior to placing.

Don't Kill The Messenger!
Okay, before you throw up your hands in protest or start flaming me, please read on:

I know you think PageMaker SHOULD be able to open files over a network and place graphics from a file server. I know you are doing it with other programs. Heck, I personally have run big, fat, graphics-laden PM files over our office network trouble-free. If it's working for you, great. Lucky you.

HOWEVER, beware. Problems with PageMaker and networks are the norm, not the exception. Many are the stories I've read of people doing this with apparently no problem, then suddenly finding themselves with a cascade of corrupt and even unopenable documents. If you are having problems and you are running PM docs or placed graphics over a network, the most immediate and straightforward solution is: Stop doing that.

Here is an excerpt from Adobe's document on proper PageMaker workflow:

"Open publications from the hard disk. Before you open a publication stored on removable media (for example, 3.5" disk, Zip disk) or a network drive, copy it and all linked graphics files to your hard disk. Slow access times between the hard disk and removable or network disks can cause data to become incomplete, lost, or corrupt, resulting in damage to the publication."

Click here to read the entire Recommended Workflow document from the Adobe PageMaker Support Knowledgebase.

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/2f0d6.htm

But wait...there may be hope yet!
I can't make any promises, but Peter Linnell, an IT expert familiar with PageMaker who posts in this forum from time to time, has released an article on setting up your system to work with files and graphics over a network. This would be a good place to start if network access is essential for your workflow.

Click here for Peter Linnell's PM/network article

http://www.atlantictechsolutions.com/network.html

"

Personally, I've had very little problem opening files from a server but anything I consider critical, I locate locally. I have lost complete files before, but fortunately always had a back up.

Iechyd da! John
00:00 07/08/2003 BST

 

[Eggles]

Howqua

I think you are very lucky having a network that works so well for you. You obviously have a job where Pagemaker is used by lots of people; I don't and never have and have always been the only PM user in my workplace and have had to struggle to get anyone else to understand what I am faced with. In my last job, I was the only person using PM and had to find out why I couldn't get PM to duplex print on our new Xerox digital printer (it was a matter of copying the PPD to the right file) - but neither of the other two GDs (who didn't use PM but used Illustrator for all their layouts, including multipage catalogues i.e. one AI file per page so you can see what I was up against), the IT guy or even the Xerox tech support people had a clue why I couldn't access all the print functions.

Because I discovered the answer to my printing problem on a forum, I also started reading the wealth of material about recommended workflow in PM on that forum. And have religiously observed the advice I read. I have been fortunate since then that I have never lost or corrupted a PM file, even through several different workplaces, all with their own quirks and way of doing things. I am not about to start tempting fate by working across a network, unless I was able to have input into how things were set up on that network, which is just never going to happen.

And by the way, I'm a she not a he.

 

[Eggles]

Sorry horqua for calling you howqua, it's just that we have the most beautiful river valley here in Victoria Australia by that name.

And BTW John - thanks for jumping in and providing some authoritative backup plus links for my rather light-on original response.

horqua - hang on to that job of yours with both hands! and count yourself lucky.

 

[horqua]

Folks,
Thanks for the great replies! You've given me lots of useful info.

Eggles, I appologize for the gender mis-identification. Nothing was intended by it. I work in a multi-national corporate environment (Reuters) where PM is resident on almost every machine in our Denver office. All workfiles reside on the server. I link excel charts and graphics to documents to create client specific reports. Most times, we PDF those reports into books and deliver hard copies to the clients. We're using Canon high-speed color laser printers. As far as a work environment goes, it's pretty classy. If you're interested, I'll send you a PDF of what we do.

Big John, I hear what you and Adobe are saying and I'm not saying you're wrong. I just ask you to hear me when I tell you I do this stuff every day and it goes off without a hitch. Obviously, we have a great IT dept and I couldn't do what I do without their hard work. But we make it happen. I very rarely keep any of my work on my local drive because it's discouraged, only personal stuff. IT backs-up constantly. Only once have I had to ask IT to recover a file and that was because I accidentally hit the delete key and the files don't go into a local trash-bin. IT recovered it that night. The department that has the greatest difficulty in my organization is the data collection dept. who continues to use an r-base product(among others)that needs constant attention. Fortunately for me, I never have to deal with it.

I frequent this forum during my off-season, which is the late summer (up north). The reports we produce are closely tied around end-of-year and fiscal-year-end-report time. Within the next couple months, my presence on Tek-tips will disappear because I'm too busy slammin together financial reports. This is a great forum and I've really learned a lot that I've been able to pass on to my graphics team. I'm the newest member on a three woman and one man team. I have a very interesting job. Kinda like a line in Elton John's "Rocket Man": "And all the science I don't understand" but for me it's financial data that's way over my head. I don't question, I just do.
God Bless!



Knock and the door shall be opened unto you. Seek and ye shall find!

I love Mondays cause they're the Second day of the week!

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, horqua,

> I do this stuff every day and it goes off without a hitch. Obviously, we have a great IT dept and I couldn't do what I do without their hard work.

Your situation is definitely not the norm, and you are indeed fortunate.

I work in local government where despite all the propaganda about top classes services the reality is that any thing above the minimum essential is not justifable. So, for example, our Novell file server is still a 386 and eeverything that goes with that, despite the fact that many workstations are Win2K P4s.

The other issue PM itself. Its root are back in the 80s, and it sill has parts of it core going back to those days, when networks were rare. Networks today are not just an expected part of computing, but far more secure and stable. PM still struggles with long filenames, and couple that with a less then perfect network, then disaster is going to happen.

Any way, I'm off to Scotland tomorrow with my girl-friend, and we should be in Glasgow for tea. Then we'll hit the city! I'll see yous all in about ten days! Have fun!!

Iechyd da! John
01:40 08/08/2003

 

[Eggles]

Hey horqua

I know you didn't intend anything by calling me a he. How would you know from my username? (like I have no idea if YOU are a he or a she). So no need to apologise.

John

Have a great trip, you lucky devil. Think of me while you are away, slaving over yet another job application.

Eggles (Lyn)

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, Lyn,

> Think of me while you are away

I thought of you whilst I was sailing through the Western Isles, eating smoked salmon and drinking the finest Malt Scotch in the most glorious of weather. Then I got a belt off my girl!

I have to say I was proud of myself for taking a holiday in the north and keeping my money within the UK economy.

http://www.hilbreview.mersinet.co.uk/scotland2003/images/31scotchbottles.jpg

Iechyd da! John
15:09 17/08/2003

 

[Eggles]

John

Good to see you back. Did Scotland have the same hot weather as the southern part of England? I hear they have had record high temps there in the last week or so - on a par with our Aussie summers - high 30s Celsius.

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, Lyn,

Scotland at 57°N was a bit cooler at around 22°-25°, but still hot by my Irish Sea summer standards of 18°-20°. I've been in 30+° while I was India, but it was dry there - the humidity here is exhausting.

Back home, by the seaside, it's lovely at about 18° with a cooling 20kph breeze blowing from the west/the Atlantic. The sun will set about 20:45 so plenty of time for drinking in the pub gardens or having a barbie.

I'll e-mail you url of my photos when I've finished annotating the pages.

How's winter in Aus? (-:

Iechyd da! John
16:53 18/08/2003

 

[Eggles]

Winter? what winter? The nights can get pretty cold - it's been down below 10C a few times. Day temps are mid-teens, so it really hasn't been too bad. Our problem is rain - or lack of it. Our city reservoirs are down to less than 50% capacity which means Stage 2 water restrictions here e.g. no washing cars except by bucket or at a carwash, hand held hoses for the gardens, no watering of lawns. We haven't had decent sustained rain for a long time. Couple of years or more. Good to see you back. Thanks for the link.

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, Lyn,

> > The nights can get pretty cold - it's been down below 10C a few times

That cold eh? It's similar to summer here.

> > Stage 2 water restrictions here

I drove home from Scotland via the reservoirs in the Peninnes near Crowden, and given all the very hot weather we've had, I was surprised that all but the very highest were 100% full.

http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?X=410000&Y=400000&scale=100000&coordsys=gb

> > Good to see you back.

Thanks!

Iechyd da! John
15:41 20/08/2003

 

[Eggles]

The part of Australia where I live is the coldest of the capital cities (except Hobart down in Tasmania - the little island to our south) during winter. We also happen to have some of the hottest summers because of the geography of Australia. Northerly winds are commmon in summer and those that blow down to Melbourne have traversed the continent and picked up incredible amounts of heat. So we have temps often higher than Sydney or Brisbane which are closer to the equator.

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, Lyn

It all seems far too hot for me!

This is a typical(?) summer day - a cool sea breeze is essential!

http://www.hilbreview.mersinet.co.uk/openday2000/pages/16redarrows.htm

Iechyd da! John
16:00 20/08/2003