software

I use hyperlinks that point to a bunch of PDFs on a server somewhere.
So I set up the 'hyperlink base' property in file-gt;properties such that
the base is p:\, which is the drive letter we always map the server to.

Now the first problem I have is that when I add a hyperlink by hand via
ctrl-K, the file requester never opens at the p drive, I have to
navigate all over the place to get there. Is there an option somewhere
so that this requester at least remembers the last path I opened? It
would be nice if the hyperlink base was understood as being the
preferred place to look first!

The second problem is that it looks like Excel enjoys 'expanding' the
path names fully, so rather than having a hyperlink like this
quot;datasheets\manufacturer\blabla.pdfquot; with the p:\ coming from the base,
I have
quot;file:///\\pcbserver\pcbdata\datasheets\manufacturer\blabla .pdfquot;.
Wasn't the whole point of entering a base to not end up with this
lengthy and unportable name?

The third problem is now I have to edit all the hyperlink names by hand
to remove the extraneous info.

The fourth problem is now all the hyperlinks that point to sheet names
now get a p:\ prepended to them, these links don't work anymore.

What am I missing?