Using Web Hyperlinks in Visio 2010

Web hyperlinks are very simple to setup and share a lot of properties of hyperlinks connecting to other Visio diagrams or other Office files.  Web hyperlinks are also useful for linking to shapes within the same diagram or to specific sections within documents. When we are dealing with web hyperlinks, it can be either be a link to a publicly available web address or URL, or it can be to an internal private web address or intranet. In this article, we will be focusing on creating links to a public web address.

Linking to a web site

1. Right click on an object/shape you would like to put a link, and select Hyperlink in the context menu.
2. In the Hyperlinks dialog, enter the URL address in the Address field, e.g. https://www.simonsezit.com.
3. Type a short description of the web site in the Description field. Click OK when finished.

4. Hold CTRL key and left click to follow the link. A browser pops up taking you to the https://www.simonsezit.com web site.
Tip: To obtain a URL of a specific page in a web site, visit the page that you want in a Browser and copy the URL from the browser’s Address Bar.

Another thing you can do with hyperlinks to web addresses is that you can use a Base Address. A base address is a part of a URL that serves as a reference point for other addresses. It is normally the first half of a web address or URL.

Let us use this particular URL as an example: https://www.simonsezit.com/courses/microsoft/learn-microsoft-visio-2010-training-tutorials/. The full and complete URL is what we call the absolute path. If you extract the base address from the URL, in this case https://www.simonsezit.com/courses/; the remaining part of the URL, microsoft/learn-microsoft-visio-2010-training-tutorials/; is what we call the relative path. It is important that we can identify the base address, absolute path and relative path in order for us to be able to create a base hyperlink address.

Creating a base hyperlink address
1. Copy the base address from the absolute path.
2. Go to the File (Backstage view) > Info > Properties > Advanced Properties.
3. In the Properties dialog, paste the base address in the Hyperlink base field. Click OK once done.

4. Go to the object/shape that you want to place a link, right click and choose Hyperlink to bring up the Hyperlinks dialog.
5. Enter the relative path in the Address field.
6. Write a Description as usual and click the OK button once done.
7. When you follow the link that is now in place, you will be taken to the page of the absolute path.
Tip: Now that the base address is already specified and setup, you can create links to other pages of the same website as long as it has a common base address. No need to paste the entire URL in the Address field of the Hyperlinks dialog, all you need is the last part of the page’s URL or the relative path.

Simon Calder

Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA.He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!