Hello,



I am having a problem using hyperlinks within IF THEN conditional statements with Mail Merge in MS Word 2010. I have been trying to use quick parts->Field->Hyperlink, however, when I run the mail merge, the hyperlink isn't there, only the hyperlink text. Any ideas?

Cheers

Hyperlinks are a bit fiddly to implement in mail merge - see http://www.gmayor.com/hyperlink_merge_fields.htm

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Graham Mayor - MS MVP (Word) (2002-2019)
Visit my web site for more programming tips and ready made processes www.gmayor.com

Thank you very much Graham!

Will this work if I need to share the document with several other people, who won't have this add in on their version of word. I can download it, but I don't think having 10+ people also download it to see the hyperlinks is a great solution for me.

Would it be possible to create a macro that would go in and add hyperlinks after or before the mail merge?

I found this post on a Microsoft forum here:

"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.
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.

Now, as for implementing your IF tests along the foregoing lines, you should be able to use:
{HYPERLINK "{IF{MERGEFIELD M_CXdotLIBORTEST}= "N" "http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h15" "http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3020-moneyrate.html"}"}
for the hyperlink field code (step 3) and:
{IF{MERGEFIELD M_CXdotLIBORTEST}= "N" "Federal Reserve Statistical Release" "Wall Street Journal"}
for the display text (step 6), respectively. As you can see, the HYPERLINK field code reverses the arrangement you had, by putting the IF test inside the HYPERLINK field rather than the other way around; HYPERLINK fields inside IF tests will always come out as plain text."




I am having an issue with this code. For my link, it is either there in some cases, or not there in other cases. (If Variable='Y', the hyperlink exists), (If Variable!='Y', there is no hyperlink).

I have figured out how to have the correct hyperlink with the proper text- but when I complete the Mail Merge, the link is appearing in all cases (even when Variable!=Y) rather than just when Variable =Y.

Have you read the Mailmerge Hyperlink ‘Click Here’ Insertion topic in the 'sticky' Mailmerge Tips and Tricks thread at the top of this forum:
https://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-...ps-tricks.html

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Hi, thanks for replying!
Yep. I've read that and it was helpful for getting the proper link and text to appear.

All that is giving me trouble is the fact that the link is still appearing when it should not. My code is like this:

{HYPERLINK "{IF {Mergefield Variable}="Y" "http://www.google.com" ""}"}

So I only want the link to appear if the Variable=Y, and it does. But it is still appearing when the Variables !=Y. I'm guessing it has something to do with the IF being inside the Hyperlink and not outside, but I'm not sure how to work around that to get it to go away when Variable!=Y. I hope this makes sense.

The problem you're having is that you're trying to conditionally display a hyperlink, not vary it. Aside from your field coding being incorrect, Word will always output a hyperlink with such a field (even an ostensibly empty one consisting of just a space). The correct field coding is:
{HYPERLINK "{IF{Mergefield Variable}= "Y" "http://www.google.com" " "}"}
Note the difference in spacing in the field code.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks Paul! I tried that coding though with the proper spacing and am still having the link show up in all of the merges, not just the ones where the variable=y. Any ideas?

Did you implement step 9 of the process you quoted in post #5?

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Yep, did that.

It works correctly for me. Check your field coding.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Now the link itself is not appearing, but the text still is. Sorry! I'm definitely doing something wrong here...

Can't argue with that!

Can you attach the problem document - with your field code intact - to a post (delete anything sensitive)? You do this via the paperclip symbol on the 'Go Advanced' tab at the bottom of this screen.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

This will require a bit of work to get rid of sensitize data, but I will post back tomorrow if I'm still unable to figure it out the issue between now and then! I will report back either way.

Cheers