Links to pages behind login throw error in Word

(Charlotte Westney) #1

Hi everyone,


I've got an annoying problem with links to my login-accessed pages on my Intranet not working from MS Word. So its not really a Matrix issue, but I'm hoping some of you might know an answer anyway!



We've got a couple of Intranets running in Matrix 4.8.0, where all the pages and files have no public user read access, but read access to users in the 'intranet' usergroup.



If I take a url to a page in the Intranet, (or a file) and paste it into a Word document, and then click the hyperlink that Word has made it into, I get an error message in Word: 


    Unable to open http://intranet.southdowns.gov.uk/path/to/mypage. Cannot download the information you requested.


I get this if I'm logged into the site or not, so its clearly not getting to the browser to open it, but trying to open the link itself and failing before it passes it to the browser. I would have expected it to do what it does for Public Read accessible pages, open a new tab in my browser and load the page url, but then let the browser either show me the page (if I'm logged in) or show me the login screen.


Does anyone else have login protected areas of their site, and is there a way around this problem?

Thanks!
Charlie.
(Nic Hubbard) #2

I have had this issue as well.


I think this is just yet another case of Microsoft making our lives worse.

(Charlotte Westney) #3

Hi Nic,


Thanks, I thought that might be the case. I'll add it to the long, long, long list of things I hate about Microsoft, and break the bad news to the team.



C ;o)

(Nic Hubbard) #4

[quote]
Thanks, I thought that might be the case. I'll add it to the long, long, long list of things I hate about Microsoft, and break the bad news to the team.

[/quote]



What version of Word? Perhaps MS has fixed this in new versions?

(Charlotte Westney) #5

Im in Word 2010, and I think the team with the problem were too. And I doubt either of us will be getting an upgrade anytime soon, (unless its one of the dozens of annoying updates they send when you're in a real rush to leave the office and just want to close your PC down. Next purchase for me will be a Mac I swear.)


In outlook its even weirder - in a draft email the link gives an error, but once that email is sent, the link works fine! …but then, when did any MS functionality ever make any kind of logic, reason, sense or above all usability?!



Its a shame, because they understandably want to put all their core information on their intranet, and be able to send Word documents to staff and board members with direct links to various pages and files. I guess we'll have to do some training in cutting and pasting links instead :frowning:

(Nic Hubbard) #6

[quote]
In outlook its even weirder - in a draft email the link gives an error, but once that email is sent, the link works fine! …but then, when did any MS functionality ever make any kind of logic, reason, sense or above all usability?!

[/quote]



Ha. I have worked on a Mac for the last 12 years and had to use Outlook on a PC the other day. I almost pulled out my hair in frustration because the interface and features were so frustrating!

(Mswenson) #7

hello! after struggling with this same problem which was brought to me by a user at my company, i found this forum and your topic describing the EXACT symptom with links in MS Office albeit we are not working with the "Squiz" product (and not even sure what it is yet!)

 

while searching the error message being throw i found very few fixes and the few that i found were ineffective. like you describe, the problem URL linked to a protected page that requires a user logon, while hyperlinks to Google or other public pages opened fine. also, this was not limited to MS WORD, and extended to Excel and Outlook as you experienced yourself (possibly to the entire Office suite but this was not tested)

 

HERE IS A WORKING FIX from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/218153

 

the error described is not the exact error message (similar...) but the real key is that this page was linked from another MS KB that expanded on the reasons the "Fix It" was issued in the first place (here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899927/en-us, section "Hyperlinks from Office to Internet Explorer or to another Web browser") and confirms your suspicion that the call to open the URL was not making it to the browser at all.

 

looks like this thread is a *bit* old but perhaps someone can use this info, since obviously MS still hasn't worked a fix into their updates channel a year later :P

(Robin Shi) #8

We have the same issue, it looks like MS Word tries to validate the destination for your PC safety, which turns out silly. Our workaround is to convert Word to PDF. Or use IP restrition to bypass authenticaiton for in-office users.