Microsoft Office Forums - View Single Post - [Solved] Embeding hyperlink within a template that autoupdates

macropod · 01-29-2013, 07:59 PM

Hi Brenny,

It is possible to include hyperlinks in a mailmerge, but the procedure isn't obvious.

By default, if you insert a mailmerge field into a hyperlink field, the hyperlinks will all show the first record’s address as the 'Text to display' text. Here's how you can do get a mailmerge to display your preferred default 'Text to display' text instead:
1. Disregarding mergefield issues for the moment, insert a hyperlink into the document in the normal way, choosing whatever 'Click Here' text you want in the 'Text to display' box.
2. Select the inserted hyperlink and press Shift-F9 to expose its field code.
3. Replace everything in the field after 'HYPERLINK' with your mergefield. This assumes your mergefield contains the full hyperlink address. If it doesn't, you'll need to prefix the mergefield with the static part of the address.
4. Select the field and press F9 to update the display.

In Word 2007 & later, you can make the display text variable also, by following these additional steps:
5. Position the cursor anywhere within the display text.
6. Insert a mergefield pointing to whatever data field you want to use for the display text (this could even be the same field as used at step 3 above).
7. Delete all of the previous display text either side of your last-inserted mergefield (note that this field will likely have updated already).
8. Execute the merge.
9. After merging to a new document, use Ctrl-A, F9 to update all fields. Without this, the mergefield hover text won’t update to the correct targets.