Hello everyone, only one question so far...

How do chaps and chappette's!

I have been working with PC's for about 5 years and using them from back in the 386 days. I have just started a new job and have a lovely 27"iMac on my desk which (I never thought I'd say) is a genuine treat to use. So far I only have one thing I haven't been able to work out;

I am using CAD and a colleague checks the files for me and visa versa, what I'd like to do is mail a shortcut to a file on our server/network share.

I have done some searches on the webbernets and not really found anything useful.

Over to you!

Hello there,
In Mac you can create an 'Alias' for the file in question, it is a dynamic link and will access the file wherever that file is moved to.
Right click the folder and 'Make Alias', it's a bit like a shortcut but will always reference the original file.
If your colleague is operating OSX then he/she can make an alias and drag it onto their desktop or into the Finder window sidebar for example.
It might not be possible if your colleague is not on OSX though..I've never tried it.

pendlewitch said:

Hello there,
In Mac you can create an 'Alias' for the file in question, it is a dynamic link and will access the file wherever that file is moved to.
Right click the folder and 'Make Alias', it's a bit like a shortcut but will always reference the original file.
If your colleague is operating OSX then he/she can make an alias and drag it onto their desktop or into the Finder window sidebar for example.
It might not be possible if your colleague is not on OSX though..I've never tried it.

Click to expand...

Thank you Pendlewitch, I have seen that you can make alias' for files. Then I tried to put the alias into a mail but it just puts the file in instead of the alias.

While typing this I have had an idea that may work, there is that cool air-drop thing. I will see if I can do it that way.

No problem SL.
Yep, should be in your colleague's Public Folder.

pendlewitch said:

No problem SL.
Yep, should be in your colleague's Public Folder.

Click to expand...

It kinda works, but we really need to be mailing the links back and forward to see where we are with the projects.

I've read that you can type a link to a folder, would take way to long but some say it works. file://server/blah/blah.

Not got that to work yet tho

Smelly Llama said:

It kinda works, but we really need to be mailing the links back and forward to see where we are with the projects.

I've read that you can type a link to a folder, would take way to long but some say it works. file://server/blah/blah.

Not got that to work yet tho

Click to expand...

Try dragging the file into an empty Safari window and copy paste the resultant URL from the address bar into your Mail.

pendlewitch said:

Try dragging the file into an empty Safari window and copy paste the resultant URL from the address bar into your Mail.

Click to expand...

I like it!

This works well with pictures and pdf's, that I've tried so far. But the files we are sharing are for CAD and as such fail to open or even report a url in the address bar. They do flash up with an address for a second or two tho before disappearing.

Ok so far. Just making a cup of tea for thinking time!

pendlewitch said:

Ok so far. Just making a cup of tea for thinking time!

Click to expand...

OK, just tried to send a link for a pdf. The link works fine on mine but not on my colleagues mac if he tries to open the file.

Have you looked at the Automator application on your Mac yet?

I'm only just discovering it and have created a couple of simple applications so far, for example I made a Safari workflow that when I click on the icon it launches Safari and opens 4 favourite URL's in separate tabs within the pane simultaneously.

I was trying to work out what we could do and I found this link which if anything will give you an insight into this wonderful app. The articles a bit old but the content looks relevant.

Email Attachments with Automator | Tips | The Mac Observer

You could quickly send the CAD file as a zip this way or you could automate an email notification or possibly create a workflow that would email any new aliases to your colleague. Just thinking aloud really.

Right click the file > Get Info > General > Where. Copy that location to your email.

One thing you need to note is the ways in which different operating systems represent network locations. For instance, if the share is a SMB share (Windows share) at 192.168.1.1, the location string is as follows:

Windows: \\192.168.1.1.
Unix (OS X and Linux for example): smb://192.168.1.1.

As such, if you're colleague is using Windows, you'll need to be aware of this. What OS is your colleague using? Do you know what type of shared folder it is?

vansmith said:

Right click the file > Get Info > General > Where. Copy that location to your email.

One thing you need to note is the ways in which different operating systems represent network locations. For instance, if the share is a SMB share (Windows share) at 192.168.1.1, the location string is as follows:

Windows: \\192.168.1.1.
Unix (OS X and Linux for example): smb://192.168.1.1.

As such, if you're colleague is using Windows, you'll need to be aware of this. What OS is your colleague using? Do you know what type of shared folder it is?

Click to expand...

Hi there Vansmith, I found this info page earlier and tried to send one but I don't think i made it a link.

I have just sent one now and we will see if that get's it!

We are both using Mac OS, how ever our CAD is running in a vmware version of windows 7. It will open files in the vmware straight from the email if we send the files directly but we don't want to have to copy them from the folders and clutter up the mail server with tons of files.

thanks

Thank you Vansmith, this seems to be a suitable work around. When I send the link and my colleague clicks the link it opens the folder of the file, he can then open it from there without having to run the rabbit warren of folders!

Cheers to both of you