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C3005 - Why are my library links disappearing?

by - Joseph Ganci

I opened my piece and all library links are broken. It says "library: Unknown". Please anyone, do you know what to do????

In the libraries, you'll see on each line that there are several columns - Link, Icon, Title, Date, and Link Name. It doesn't matter if you change the icon name, but it is very important that you never change the link name, because that is the name under which Authorware has linked to the library icon.

Try this.
1. Create a new Authorware file and a new Authorware library.
2. On the Authorware flow line, create a Display icon called "apple".
3. Once you've done that, drag it to the library.
4. Notice that the icon and the link name are both set to "apple".
5. Change the icon's name in the library (not the link name) to "orange". Notice Authorware has no complaints.
6. Change the icon's link name in the library to "orange". When you try to do that, notice Authorware will pop up a dialog box telling you that the link name is in use and asks if you want to relink the icons that are currently linked to the link name "apple", break the links, or cancel. You can see why the link name is important.

Now you get the warning because your main file name is open. What if you opened the library with a different Authorware file name, even an empty one?

1. Save your library.
2. Save your Authorware file.
3. Create a new Authorware file.
4. Open your saved library.
5. Change the link name from apple to orange. Authorware does not complain because it sees no links in the current file.
6. Save the library again.
7. Open your previously saved Authorware file.
8. Your link is broken! This is true though you haven't changed the icon name (but you have changed the link).

This may or may not be your problem. Do check the link names, though. I bet that's what are getting messed up. To double-check what Authorware thinks is being linked, click on any of the links in your main Authorware file and choose the Modify pulldown menu, then Icon, then Library Links. You'll see there what it thinks the library link name should be. If you can find that library link in your library, then you have a problem (why isn't it finding it?). If you cannot find it in the library, then you also have a problem - the library links are being changed (either by you, another human being, or by some strange quirk of Authorware). If it's an Authorware quirk, you may have corrupt files, in which case - ouch - you may have to recreate files.

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