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NancyDrew1's avatar
NancyDrew1
Copper Contributor
Nov 03, 2023

How do you make a hyperlink appear after selecting from a drop down list in Word document?

After creating a drop-down list, when selecting from the drop-down list I need the corresponding hyperlink to appear where I want it to on the document. How will I go about doing this for each item in the drop-down list? Instead of the hyperlink address appearing, I want to be able to name each hyperlink "Click on this link".

  • Charles_Kenyon's avatar
    Charles_Kenyon
    Bronze Contributor

     

    NancyDrew1 

    Hi Nancy,

     

    Consider, in a custom global template, or the template for your document, typing the various hyperlinks with your display text.

    Insert > Link > Hyperlink.

     

    Then select each of these and save it as AutoText. Alt+F3. Save in your template under a custom category "_Dropdown" and assign a name for each entry that will be useful for the person picking the hyperlink. Put information in the description.

     

    Then, in your document you can use a Building Block Gallery Content Control set for that category to create your dropdown. It will be a little different than the traditional dropdown.

     

    If in the document template, once the template is stored with the AutoText, you can delete the individual entries. If in a global template, you can leave them in the global template for easy access but do not need to do so.

     

    You could also place a Gallery button on your QAT as described in page last linked below.

     

    Resources:

     

     

    Here is a temporary link to a demonstration (macro-free) template that shows how this works. I set it up with four hyperlinks.

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/v3xj07usguq0mr5bhmt4p/Hyperlinks-in-AutoText-demonstration-template.dotx?rlkey=5hxb6h8pii2ieu2y9gq5dncq6&dl=0

     

    This is what the dropdown looks like before it is clicked on:

    When clicked on, it looks like this before the drop-down is pressed:

     

    Here is a screenshot of the dropdown after it is pressed:

    The content in the pop-up box is what was typed into the description for that AutoText entry.

     

    And, finally, what you end up with after picking one is an active hyperlink, complete with the tooltip in the hyperlink field, if any:

    The hyperlink tooltip can be the same as the description you use for the AutoText entry or something completely different.

     

    This can all be done without any macros or programming.

    The Building Blocks Gallery Content Control, once created, can itself be preserved as a building block for easy insertion.

     

    You could use any of the Building Blocks galleries including the custom galleries for storage. If you wanted to put a button on the QAT for the gallery, you would want to use a custom gallery, perhaps the custom AutoText gallery.

Resources