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These days, business relies on the Internet
as much as cellphones and fax machines. Although Project isn’t a web
browser or email program, it doesn’t leave you stranded offline. Far
from it. Just as hyperlinks help you navigate websites, you can access
web pages by following hyperlinks in Project files. You can even access
other files the same way.
Like any self-respecting Microsoft program, Project also has a
strong working relationship with Outlook. For example, you can share
tasks and contacts between Project and Outlook (so you can take
advantage of Outlook’s reminder feature, for example). You can even
send email messages and attachments right from Project—ideal for things
like circulating reports among project stakeholders.
Hyperlinking to Information
Managing projects means keeping track of information stored in
different places and different types of files. As a project manager,
your nose is usually buried in a Project file, so why not access the
information you need directly from Project? For example, you can add
hyperlinks to tasks to access the corresponding work package Word
documents, an Excel spreadsheet with financial figures, or the web page
with your customer’s mission statement. Project hyperlinks can also
jump to tasks or resources within the Project file.
Note
You can add only one hyperlink to each task, resource, or assignment.
Creating a Hyperlink to a File or Web Page
Hyperlinks can connect to any kind of file—a Word document, an Excel
spreadsheet, a web page, and so on. Although the destination file can
reside anywhere (anywhere that’s accessible to the people who need it),
the file must remain in the same place. If the file moves to another
location, the hyperlink can’t find the file and becomes what’s known as
a broken link.
To create a hyperlink in a Project file, do the following:
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Display the view that shows the task, resource, or assignment to which you want to add a hyperlink.
You can insert hyperlinks in any view. -
Right-click the task, resource,
or assignment, and then choose Hyperlink. (Or select the task,
resource, or assignment, and then press Ctrl+K.)
The Insert Hyperlink dialog box opens. -
In the “Text to display” box, type a brief description of what you’re hyperlinking to
.
The “Text to display” box is initially empty. If you type a description, as shown in Figure 1, Project leaves it in place when you select a destination file.
The Insert Hyperlink dialog box also has a ScreenTip button. When
you position the pointer over a hyperlink indicator without clicking, a
ScreenTip appears immediately below the description. If you type a
meaningful description in the “Text to display” box, you may not need a
ScreenTip, but it’s handy if you want to see more information about a
hyperlink before you click it. -
In the “Link to” section, select the type of destination to which you want to hyperlink, like “Existing File or Web Page”
.
The left side of the Insert Hyperlink dialog box has two navigation
bars for choosing what you want to hyperlink to: “Link to” and “Look
in”. In the “Link to” navigation bar, the aptly named “Existing File or
Web Page” and “Place in This Document” are the most popular types of
hyperlinks. (The next section describes the steps for linking to a
location in your Project file.)
Although you can create a new document and hyperlink to it at the same time, creating
the document outside Project is more expedient. Outside Project, you
can create the document based on a template. Moreover, you keep your
multitasking to a minimum. You can also create a hyperlink to an email
address, so you can easily email the person assigned to a task. -
In the “Look in” section, navigate to the folder that contains the destination file, and then select the file name.
The “Look in” drop-down list includes all the locations you can
reach through the My Computer window: drives on your computer, network
drives, and removable drives. To look for the file you want, click the
“Browse for File” button (which looks like an open file folder) to the
right of the “Look in” box. The “Link to File” dialog box opens.
The “Look in” area’s navigation bar has three choices for finding
files or web pages. Current Folder shows the files in the folder you’ve
selected. To hyperlink to files or web pages that you’ve used recently,
select Browsed Pages or Recent Files.
The “Browse the Web” button to the left of the “Browse for File” button opens an Internet
Explorer browser window. Surf to the web page you want. When you click
the Address box in the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, Project copies the
URL into the box. -
Click OK.
A hyperlink indicator (which looks like a globe with links of chain)
appears in the Indicators column. Double-click the indicator to open
the hyperlinked file with its associated program.
If the Indicators column isn’t visible, then you can’t tell which
elements have hyperlinks. However, if you know a hyperlink exists, you
can follow it by right-clicking the task, resource, or assignment, and
then, from the shortcut menu, choosing Hyperlink→Open. To insert the
Indicators column in the table, right-click the table heading, and then
choose Insert Column. In the drop-down menu, choose Indicators, and
then click OK.
You can edit or remove hyperlinks. For example, if a destination
file moves to a new location or a web page address changes, edit the
hyperlink to point to the new location:
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Modify a hyperlink.
Right-click the task, resource, or assignment, and then, on the
shortcut menu, choose Hyperlink→Edit Hyperlink. The Edit Hyperlink
dialog box has all the same components as the Insert Hyperlink dialog
box. Change the values you want, and then click OK to update the link. -
Remove a hyperlink.
Right-click the task, resource, or assignment, and then, on the
shortcut menu, choose Clear Hyperlinks. Project deletes the hyperlink,
and the hyperlink indicator disappears.
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