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General discussion

Outlook - creating hyperlinks.

Sep 22, 2005 8:24PM PDT

Win XP Pro SP2 with MS Outlook 2002.

It is not much of a problem finding out how to create a hyperlink in Outlook - Start with file:///C:\ and follow on with the path to the file to be linked. However, I am not able to find out how, if at all possible, to change the underlined link to a ''Word to Show'', i.e. replace the link with a word, as in MS Word when the hyperlink is inserted via the insert hyperlink tool.

What I am trying to do: At Outlook-Task, where I have a description of the task to be performed, e.g. editing a document, I would access that document with a hyperlink as per above method, but instead of the path to the document, I would like to use a descriptive word, e.g. edit ''XO Contract'' with the ''XO Contract'' underlined as in a hyperlink. Any ideas ? Thanks.

christy

Discussion is locked

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Re: hyperlinks in Outlook
Sep 22, 2005 10:54PM PDT

An interesting discussion in experts-exchange: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Applications/MS_Office/Outlook/Q_21558859.html Just page down a few times to read it.

The two solutions mentioned there are:
- Set Outlook to use Word as email-editor, so you can use the Insert Hyperlink feature. Seems quite doable. I've got my Outlook XP at work (Windows XP, 256 Mb) configured like this without any issue.
- Buy Microsoft Sharepoint server. Seems a rather big step.

Hope this helps.


Kees

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Hyperlinks in Outlook
Sep 23, 2005 1:48AM PDT

Thanks, Kees,

Well, with e-mails, Word can be used as the Word editor to insert hyperlinks with a descriptive word, but in Calendar, Task and Notes, it cannot be done(at least, I don't know how). Another way to think about the problem is this: In MS Word, how would you create a hyperlink with a "Word to use" manually, i.e. withgout using the insert hyperlink tool ? The link can be created by "file:///C:\....", but how would I replace it with a descriptive "Word to use" ? The answer to this would be the answer to my query. I guess this is not a feature of MS Outlook ?

Thanks.

christy

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I'm afraid you're right.
Sep 23, 2005 6:19AM PDT

Christy,

The other way to insert a hyperlink is to use Insert>Field, then choose Hyperlink. I've got Word 97 here, and there is no option to enter a text, but that option lacks in the Insert Hyperlink also. Apparently, it was added in later versions. You can easily check it.

So it's a Word field, like pagenum and date and a lot more. And those simply aren't defined in simple editors like being used in Calendar, Task and Notes. You can't find it in Wordpad and Notepad either.

Maybe, quite maybe, somebody at Microsoft reads this and decides to make this a feature in Office 2006. That's totally xml-based, I'm being told, so a fully integrated html-editor makes sense. And any html-editor can attach a text to a hyperlink: <a href="location">text</a>. Would be nice indeed. Good idea.

Kees