Using a Command Button to "Click" Hyperlink in Email

[bigbudgie]

Hello,This is my first posting being new to the forum so hello to everyone!
I was hoping for some guidance with a problem I have.

I have a word mail merge document that i use to send emails to numerous contacts I have in an excel spreadsheet. I have had to implement several work-arounds to get it to do what I require, but am 90% there.

The data in the merge document is populated from 2 sources, first of all, I merge the main data from an access database. I then save the document and press Ctrl+6 to remove merge fields and then merge again using the excel sheet as the data source to populate the recipients and to "personalise" the email. ( the reason I need the email personalised is that I require each recipients details to "pre-populate" a form I have in my website.

The Problem!
I have a hyperlink in the merged document that is used to populate the webform, as you can imagine, this is quite long. I would prefer to add a shape or "button" which the recipient can click to take them to the form and fills in their details that are contained within the hyperlink but cannot get the hyperlink that I place in the shape to update to each of the merged recipients personal details, as such, I have to use the "long Hyperlink" which does not look very professional.



I had a thought of adding a command button that would then "click" the merged link that is located in a field in the merged email document!

I am not sure if this is possible, I know in theory I could add a link within the command button but am not sure if this could be updated for each "personalised" recipient. (Typically, each email is sent to about 100 recipients).

Sorry for such a lengthy question but felt it important to try and provide the information as to what I am trying to do.

I would really appreciate any guidance or perhaps a simpler alternative; I have no experience of VBA and my computer skills are limited!! Please write any reply slowly!

May I also take this opportunity to thank everyone for reading this and in anticipation of any help or guidance.

best regards,

bigbudgie

[gmayor]

Use a shorter hyperlink text - see http://www.gmayor.com/hyperlink_merge_fields.htm

[bigbudgie]

Hello,

Thank you for your reply and guidance; I downloaded the add-in, all looked good except my hyperlink is not contained within the final data source (or any data source) that is used when I carry out the final merge for distribution to my contacts.

The hyperlink contains information from both the initial merge from my database (which contains the information I wish to offer the contact) as well as the second merge data source which contains the contact details (name, address, telephone etc.).

Information from both data sources is needed and used to pre-populate the web-form from the url hyperlink.
The complete URL hyperlink is contained within the document that is emailed to my contacts, it is in a table and can be contained within <> tags but is not inserted from a data-source but generated from information contained within both data sources used for the two merge operations.

I am sorry if I did not fully explain, I hope this provides clarification and would appreciate any further guidance.

best regards and thanks

bigbudgie