How to setup a dynamics hyperlink in visio?

[NJDevil]

I need to setup a dynamic hyperlink in Visio. I'd like to create set of
template documents and be able to change the name of the ones that are linked
into the master documet by simply changing the name that I link to. For
example, I could create a set of project documents that are to be used across
projects. The templates would all be the same. The projects, of course, are
all different and will have different names. My changing the name
dynamically and having the links change along with it as a 'symbolic'
variable, a whole new set of documentation coudl be referenced quite easily.
All I'd nned to do is create a master set of docuemnts with a certain naming
convention, use the naming convention along withhte symbolic variable, create
the master document to hyperlink to the symbolic name, and viola... it should
work.

How can I set this up? Also, once the variable is setup where would I set
the value ofthe variable (e.g. ' Test Project')?

Thank you.

 

[Al Edlund]

Have the hyperlink use a custom property and it should probably work. We use
it with telnet and ipaddresses to allow us to have a template for linking to
devices (all I have to do is initialize the ipaddress custom property).
al

 

[NJDevil]

Hi Al,

How do I reference it in the hyperlink? I'm new to this. Thanks.

NJDevil

 

[Al Edlund]

a simple example (hopefully)

create a new document (I used a flowchart)
drag a shape onto the page
add a second page

with the shape on the first page, select the shape, right click and open
properties, select define property, add a property called "NewPage", label
it "NewPage", value is "Page-2" without the quotes. click ok. reselect the
shape and the properties to see that the new custom property and it's value
are correct.

select the shape again and from the menu do an insert hyperlink, for the
subaddress use the pulldown menu and select page 2 (we're doing this just so
that we have a hyperlink in the shape) . test the new hyperlink to
demonstrate it takes you to page-2

open the shapesheet for the shape and you will see that page-2 is stored in
the hyperlink subaddress. highlight the field and then erase the value.
replace the value by clicking the prop.newpage field in the custom
properties section. this should replace the value you just erased with the
property name/line. at least on my system I am now able to link to a new
page based on what is in the custom property of the shape. Subaddress is
what is used to move within a document, address is used for linking to an
external document (obviously when it is blank you are in your native doc).

al

 

[NJDevil]

OK, that much I understand, no problem. But how do I use a reference to an
external document while allowing that external reference to be dynamically
referenced in a hyper link? For example, I want to create a visio template
with 'dynamic' hyperlinks to reference external files. Say the files to be
referenced are: project1.doc, project2.doc, projectN.doc... I want the hyper
link to be something like &projectname.doc where the '&projectname' is the
dynamic or variable name that is set on-the-fly. This way I can have one
template for lots of projects.

Do you understand?

How can I do that?

Thanks again for the help.

NJDevil

 

[Al Edlund]

add a custom property to each shape that you want to point to a document (
i.e. ProjectName ), add a hyperlink to the shape, and put the custom
property name in the address field of hyperlink. Then when you add the name
of the document to the custom property (either via the properties menu, or
code), the hyperlink will point to the external document.
al

 

[NJDevil]

Thank Al,

It sounds lke you are on the right track, but I am having trouble getting it
to work. Here's what I've done:

1) Created a custom property in the shape that I will link *from* called
ProjectName
2) Updated the Address field in the same shape (as in step 1) to use
'ProjectName' (no quotes).
3) Set the ProjectName value via:
a) right click on the shape
b) select 'properties'
c) set the value of 'ProjectName' the the docuemtn path/name... also I
use relative pathing.

Nevertheless, it doesn't work. It's looking for a file called, literally,
'ProjectName'. Is there a way I ned to reference it correctly in the custom
property setup? For example, something like:

property.ProjectName

or

&ProjectName

(By the way, I've tried both of these ways and it doesn't work).

But there must be a way to tell it that I'm referring to the custom property
name!

Please help.

Thanks.

NJDevil

 

[NJDevil]

Hi Al,

What's your emali address? (e-mail address removed) does not work.

NJDevil

 

[Al Edlund]

Unfortunately I have had to remove my real address from the forums. Some
people are not considerate enough to use anti-virus and I was getting
several hundred a week. The correct format would be prop.projectname. I
usually just clear the field and then click on the property name's value
field in the custom property section of the shapesheet (it should save the
name in the proper format).
al