Creating Links to PDF's of boring logs in Google Earth

RE: Creating Links to PDF's of boring logs in Google Earth

Philips Gravener — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 23:20:33 GMT

This is very good and enough information for create link to PDF. After read your post I am well aware of how to create PDF link. I appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

RE: Creating Links to PDF's of boring logs in Google Earth

szang — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 14:44:34 GMT

Based on your description it appears you are trying to include full file paths to your pdf files of boring logs. Back many moons ago (when I first posted this) I had gone through a long process of trying to incorporate file paths into the link. I had many issues with google earth not interpreting the file path correctly. Spaces in the file path caused issues, special characters in the file path caused issues, mapped drives in file paths caused issues. I finally decided that not using file paths and simply placing the kml file in the same directory as the pdf files was the way to go. This allowed me to easily move the boring logs and kml to any location I wanted to without needing to change the links. I could load as many kml's as I wanted to for different projects in google earth and they would all find their own respective pdf's even if they were in different directories. And, when our IT people decided to change our network directory structure, it was not a big deal; once I fond the new path to the kml every thing worked fine. I could even place the directory containing the pdf's and kml on a CD or flash drive for off-line use. And finally, the gINT project file did not need to contain path information so it also was easily transportable to other locations and other servers. This is why the original post was written to not include file path information in the link.

I would hope that google earth's html interpreter would have improved since the original post and perhaps now file paths can be reliably incorporated into the links but I have not explored that option recently. Not using file paths and placing the kml in the directory with the logs has provided all the functionality I have needed so far. If you want to break your boring logs down into to subgroups with each stored in it's own directory, simply create a KML for each subgroup and then open each kml on start.

If you find you can reliably include path information, please update this post with your findings.

RE: Creating Links to PDF's of boring logs in Google Earth

cbaker — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 16:56:04 GMT

What you suggested worked when I tested that on a google earth file with direct file paths in the reference links, but when I tested it in my file with relative file paths in the reference links, it didn't work. Do you know if relative references just don't work in snippets, or is there a work-around I could try?

RE: Creating Links to PDF's of boring logs in Google Earth

szang — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 19:24:06 GMT

I have been able to duplicate this behavior by unchecking the "Show web results in external browser" box in google earth under Tools, Options, General Tab. This box should be checked per the instructions in the original post to force the PDF to display in a separate window rather than in the google earth map pane. Not sure why this causes a problem but check it and see if it resolves your issue.

RE: Creating Links to PDF's of boring logs in Google Earth

cbaker — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 18:27:01 GMT

I'm having difficulties opening linked files from the snippet shown in the places pane in Google Earth. The links will open from the description in the placemark balloons but not from the snippet in the pane. This was not happening when I originally created the links, though. Is there a way to fix this?

RE: Creating Links to PDF's of boring logs in Google Earth

szang — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 15:49:48 GMT

The links in the kml file contain no path information so they rely on the fact that google earth looks in the same directory as the kml file if it finds no path information. That is why the kml file MUST be in the same directory as the pdf's. When you save the original kml file into your "my places" it gets merged with your myplaces kml that is stored in a default location on your computer (search for the file "myplaces.kml" on your computer if you want to know where it is...it varies by operating system and google earth version). Google earth automatically loads the myplaces kml when it starts but since the pdf's of the boring logs are not in the same directory as the myplaces.kml the links will not work.

To get around this, I simply create a shortcut on my desktop to the original kml file in the directory with the boring log pdfs (Step 6 in the original post). Clicking on this shortcut starts google earth with the project kml file already loaded and the boring log links working. (it also loads your myplaces kml). I have a shortcut for each project that I am working on placed on my desktop. If the kml and pdf's are located on a networked drive, multiple users can create similar shortcuts on their desktops to access the boring information using a google earth interface. Just remember to set the google earth options on each users machine as described in the previous posts.

RE: Creating Links to PDF's of boring logs in Google Earth

Estela Leon — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 14:25:07 GMT

This information was incredibly helpful. Now I have another issue. Once I save the file to My Places and close Google Earth, when I try to go back in, the link no longer works. Do I have to open the kml file from the original folder every time?

Re: Creating Links to PDF's of boring logs in Google Earth

GFAColin — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 01:29:48 GMT

That was it! thanks!

Re: Creating Links to PDF's of boring logs in Google Earth

szang — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 01:15:02 GMT

This is usually the result of not setting options in google earth asw described in the original post. I have repeated them below:

"Thus to make this work, you need to do the following:

◦Upgrade to Goggle earth 5.0 if you have an earlier version

◦Start Google earth and Under Tools, Options, General tab, make sure the following are checked:

◦Display box - "Show web results in external browser"

◦Placemark balloons box - "Allow placemark balloons to access local files and personal data"

◦click Ok and exit google earth"

This must be done to each computer that is accessing the KML file. Once done it does not need to be done again.

I presume you have placed the KML file and the pdf fiiles in the SAME directory on the server and not used any path names in the pdf.

Re: Creating Links to PDF's of boring logs in Google Earth

GFAColin — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 00:48:50 GMT

I am having difficulties opening the linked boring log from different computers that are accessing the KML file that is on a server.

I have created a KML file in a folder on a server with the pdf files of each boring logs. Everything works great on the computer that I created it but when I try and access the kml file from another computer on the server I am unable to open the pdf boring log. Am I missing a step?

Re: Creating Links to PDF's of boring logs in Google Earth

arkose78 — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 04:23:14 GMT

Thanks for this szang! Hopefully I get to try this on future projects.