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Word 2013 - Embed URL into Mail Merge

Ok, doing a mail merge to create a document using an Excel sheet.  The excel sheet has a column for URL as this is creating a directory for companies and this is their websites.  Some of them are rather long and when I get them merged in and then convert over to a PDF for publication, any URL that stretches to the next line will only push the first line to the browser.  Instead of creating tinyurl's for each one, is there a way in the merge to just have the word website by have that word hyperlinked to the actual URL?  So right now, my directory looks like this:

Company Name
Address
City, State, Zip
Phone
Fax
http://www.company-website-that_
I_have.html

The only thing gets pushed to the browser when clicked on is http://www.company_website_that and it obviously gives and error.  I would prefer to do it like this:

Company Name
Address
City, State, Zip
Phone
Fax
Website

Where website is the actual link to the URL when the word is clicked on.

Suggestions?

Thanks.

Jayson

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Here's how you can do get a mailmerge to display your preferred default 'Text to display' text (e.g. 'Website'):
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.
Cheers
Paul Edstein
(Fmr MS MVP - Word)

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Thanks for the reply and I am not sure why this is seeming to be such a problem as this looks very easy to do.  So here is what I am doing and what I am getting.  I have to be missing a step:

1. I created the line that says Website:  Click here
2. I then hyperlink the "Click Here" to the URL so the doc shows this for the line:  Website:  Click Here
3. I highlight Click Here and hit Shift F9 and I get this:  {HYPERLINK "http://www.website.com"}
4. I change it to {HYPERLINK «Web_Address»}
5. Then hit F9 to update
6. the link doesn't work


So, what did I miss?

If highlight the when the code is up and I go to the top and use Insert Merge Field and choose Web_Address, it adds it but for all records, they all have the same URL as the first one even though each listing has unique URLs to them.

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Did you type '«Web_Address»', or is that the mergefield? You can't type or copy & paste the chevrons (ie '« »') - they're part of the actual mergefields, which you can insert from the mailmerge toolbar.

 

Also, did you 'Finish' the merge, or are you just previewing it? A preview won't work.

Cheers
Paul Edstein
(Fmr MS MVP - Word)

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Ok, so I have this working to insert the hyperlink and it works, but only for the first entry.  It does not advance going into any of the additional entries other than to give everyone the same address.  

So through the insertions and add, nothing was typed out by hand, my code line looks like this:  { HYPERLINK { MERGEFIELD Web_Address \* MERGEFORMAT} \* MERGEFORMAT}

What am I missing?

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Have you actually completed the merge or just previewed it? If you have completed the merge, does Ctrl+A, F9 fix it?
Microsoft MVP (Word) since 1999
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Ok, it does appear that was what I was missing.  I hadn't gone far enough to complete the merge fully.  That did work.  

Now a question.  Before I did this process, I did the merge, the full URL came up and then I printed to a PDF and it worked just fine and the links worked from within the PDF.  The only problem was that any URL that was too long and went to a second line would not work and only push the first line to the browser.  

Now that I have done this, I see the Click Here and in Word it all looks and works fine but when I push to a PDF, the URL's don't work.  If I do a Save As in word and choose PDF, it pushes to a PDF and the links work but because this is a merge, it only does page 1 and there are 13 pages in total with this document.  

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That's probably a limitation of your PDF 'printer driver'. However, since you can already use Save As to generate a working PDF, why not use that? I assume you're using a macro for this; it wouldn't take a great amount of re-coding to save each record as a PDF.
Cheers
Paul Edstein
(Fmr MS MVP - Word)

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I'm having the same problem.  I've followed all of the steps above (multiple times), but continue to only get the 1st URL in my mail list that is replicated in all of the merged emails.  To "complete" I did a "Finish and Merge" but rather than email, I just viewed individual documents.  I've tried the CTL A, F9 thing etc.

I use both the long URL and one with a nicer title via the "Insert Hyperlink" idea in my document to test.  The one with the hyperlink field never changes though the regular URL field moves with each new record.   When I do the "Insert Merge Field" operation, I do not see any of the \* MERGEFORMAT stuff, though I have tried adding it/them with no effect.

I also notice that if I "Highlight Merge Fields" the standard ones I have inserted  (Name, Company, etc) are highlighted but never the one associated with the hyperlink???

Thanks,

Roy

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The process previously described does work when the steps are followed. Since we can't look over your shoulder, we can't see what else you might be doing.
Cheers
Paul Edstein
(Fmr MS MVP - Word)

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Thanks for the (non) help.  What could I provide that might get me further along?  I'm usually pretty good at figuring these things out and using web resources, but this has me stumped.

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Last updated October 5, 2021 Views 1,741 Applies to: