Merge Hot Hyperlink

[Jaywhat]

I am using Word XP 2002 SP2.

I need to merge a unique URL for each record in an email merge. Currently, the URL appears as text only.

How do I get the URL to be a "hot" link that changes for each record in the merge?

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?SmF5d2hhdA==?=,

I am using Word XP 2002 SP2.

I need to merge a unique URL for each record in an email merge. Currently, the URL appears as text only.

How do I get the URL to be a "hot" link that changes for each record in the merge?

What's your data source? Does installing SP3 help?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not
by e-mail

 

[Jaywhat]

Cindy,

Thanks for helping me...

My data source is Excel XP 2002 and I have now installed SP3.

In the word document I begin by typing a dummy web address and then press Alt+F9 to switch to field codes which gives me

{HYPERLINK "http://www.test.com" }

I then remove "http://www.test.com" and click on "More items" in the mail merge window and insert the field containing URL address. The word document then appears as

{HYPERLINK {MERGEFIELD "HyperLink"} }

Now when I press Alt+F9 the link appears as www.test.com (the original dummy link) instead of the URL I am merging in.

If I complete the merge and send the emails, it contains a hot link to the dummy site instead of the URL in the Excel document.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Jaywhat]

Cindy,

Thanks for your help.

My data source is Excel XP 2002 and I have now updated to SP3.

In the word document I type a dummy URL and press Alt + F9 to switch to field codes. I get the following

{ HYPERLINK "http://www.test.com" }

I then delete "http://www.test.com" and replace with field containing link in the Excel file to get.

{HYPERLINK {MERGEFIELD “Hyperlinkâ€} }

When I press Alt+F9 to check how the link appears, it is the original dummy link instead of the URL from the Excel file.

If I continue with merge, the hot link appears in the email as www.test.com instead of the merged URL.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Jaywhat]

Cindy,

Thanks for your help.

My data source is Excel XP 2002 and I have now updated to SP3.

In the word document I type a dummy URL and press Alt + F9 to switch to field codes. I get the following

{ HYPERLINK "http://www.test.com" }

I then delete "http://www.test.com" and replace with field containing link in the Excel file to get.

{HYPERLINK {MERGEFIELD “Hyperlinkâ€} }

When I press Alt+F9 to check how the link appears, it is the original dummy link instead of the URL from the Excel file.

If I continue with merge, the hot link appears in the email as www.test.com instead of the merged URL.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Jaywhat]

Cindy,

Thanks for your help.

My data source is Excel XP 2002 and I have now updated to SP3.

In the word document I type a dummy URL and press Alt + F9 to switch to field codes. I get the following

{ HYPERLINK "http://www.test.com" }

I then delete "http://www.test.com" and replace with field containing link in the Excel file to get.

{HYPERLINK {MERGEFIELD “Hyperlinkâ€} }

When I press Alt+F9 to check how the link appears, it is the original dummy link instead of the URL from the Excel file.

If I continue with merge, the hot link appears in the email as www.test.com instead of the merged URL.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Bob S]

My data source is Excel XP 2002 and I have now installed SP3.

In the word document I begin by typing a dummy web address and then press Alt+F9 to switch to field codes which gives me

{HYPERLINK "http://www.test.com" }

I then remove "http://www.test.com" and click on "More items" in the mail merge window and insert the field containing URL address. The word document then appears as

{HYPERLINK {MERGEFIELD "HyperLink"} }

Does it work any better if you use this

{HYPERLINK "{MERGEFIELD HyperLink}" }

instead of this

{HYPERLINK {MERGEFIELD "HyperLink"} }

?

Bob S

 

[Jaywhat]

Bob,

Thanks for your help.

Unfortunately this did not work (or I am doing something wrong).

When I replace "http://www.test.com" with "{MERGEFIELD HyperLink}" then click outside the hyperlink it goes back to "http://www.test.com".

Is there a way of creating the initial hyperlink with a mergefield instead of starting with the test one?

 

[Brigitte]

I am having the same problem. Have you worked out how to do it yet?

I would really like to know the answer.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?SmF5d2hhdA==?=,

In my experience, as soon as you Alt+F9 to toggle the field codes back to a result, the URL
and display text are "locked into" the field and will not change. After you insert the merge
field, execute the merge *immediately* to a new document. Then Ctrl+A, F9 and, lastly,
Alt+F9.

My data source is Excel XP 2002 and I have now installed SP3.

In the word document I begin by typing a dummy web address and then press Alt+F9 to switch to field codes which gives me

{HYPERLINK "http://www.test.com" }

I then remove "http://www.test.com" and click on "More items" in the mail merge window and

insert the field containing URL address. The word document then appears as

{HYPERLINK {MERGEFIELD "HyperLink"} }

Now when I press Alt+F9 the link appears as www.test.com (the original dummy link) instead of the URL I am merging in.

If I complete the merge and send the emails, it contains a hot link to the dummy site

instead of the URL in the Excel document.
Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the
newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[morvi]

Have the same problem, any clues how to solve it?

Mauricio

 

[Thomas Mallié]

Hi,

I also have the same issue.
I want to do a mail merge to email message.

One of the field is a hyperlink which is different for each person
(http://www.mywebsite.com/Param1/Param2/...). Of course I do not want the
link to appear in "raw" format but would like it to be added to a text string
("please fill in THIS FORM" the link would be on THIS FORM). I found no way
to do it so far. The trick {HYPERLINK "MERGEDFIELD{"MyLink"}"} doesn't work.

Anyone has any idea?

Thomas

 

[Doug Robbins]

That's not something that I have had to do yet, but if you can't get
mailmerge to do it (as a minimum you would need Word XP updated to SP2), I
would be pretty sure that it could be done by merging to a new document with
a placeholder such as XXX where you want the link to be located, then have a
separate catalog merge containing each email address and its corresponding
link and then run a macro to access each Section in the merged document, and
replace the XXX with the link and then email each individual document. It
would be a modification of the macro in the article "Mail Merge to E-mail
with Attachments" at
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MailMerge/MergeWithAttachments.htm


--
Please respond to the Newsgroup for the benefit of others who may be
interested. Questions sent directly to me will only be answered on a paid
consulting basis.

Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - Word MVP