I'm trying to create an image database that will help me print my Photo Portfolio. It's working great BUT. I have PC and Mac Versions. I was tinkering yesterday at home (PC) but want to print from my Mac (Office) as color calibration with the printer has already been set.

I've been using the Insert/Picture with "Store only a reference" option as I'd like to be able to manipulate images in Photoshop and have FM reference those files to print.

Problem: when I open my file created on the pc (the images are on the PC as well so I can do a tape backup) on the Mac, rather than seeing the images I get. Could not Draw Picture file: ImageName.jpg.... I assume that the mac is lost and doesn't see the full path to the file. Is this right, and is there some way to lie to one of these machines to circumvent this problem? Should I develop on a 3rd machine so the file refference is never local?

Only the host computer can actually view anything stored in a container field, where the content is stored as a reference. There is however a plugin available that can extract the stored reference path, which would allow you to mount the shared disk/folder on the other computer and, for the Mac anyway, you could applescript a button to locate that particular image and open it into Photoshop. Afraid I don't recall the plugin name though ...

When you store a reference instead of the actual image, the image can be viewed by the guests if they have access to the volume the image is stored on. For example, if you have an AppleShare IP server and put the the images on a shared drive accessible to all users, the images will display in FM. If the host and guests have the same path to the images, you won't need a plug-in to resolve the path. AppleScripts can be useful for making sure the volume is mounted, but are not absolutely necessary if the volume is mounted at startup.

-bd

I've had success viewing linked pics when I move the folder with the pics along with the FMP database -- as long as the relative path between the pics and the DB remains the same.