How to Embed Links in a Word Document
By Jim Lengel, Boston university College of Communication
If you embed Web links in a standard Word document, your readers will be able to follow those links when they open your document on their computers. This is a very good way to distribute assignments and readings that contain references to online documents and web sites. These documents can be distributed through CourseInfo, attached to an email, or saved to a disc. Here is an example: The America's Cup is a trophy granted to the winner of an international sailboat race. You can learn about the history of this cup at the Herreshoff Marine Museum http://www.herreshoff.org/ This example contains two types of links. The first implicit link, on America's Cup, hides the URL, while the second shows it explicitly. These instructions show you how to create both kinds. The Steps: 1. Open a new Word document. Enter the content of the document. 2. When you get to the place where you want the link to be, stop for a moment. Save your document. 3. Open your web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape). 4. Connect to the web page you want to link to. 5. Select the URL of the site in the browser's address bar. 6. Choose Copy from the File menu. This copies the URL to your computer's memory. 7. Go back to your Word document. If you are creating an implicit link: 4. In Word, select the text you want to link from. 5. Choose Hyperlink from the Insert menu. 6. Paste the URL into the box at the top. 7. Click OK, and watch the selected words turn blue. If you are creating an explicit link: 4. Paste the URL into the text of the Word document. 5. Press return on the keyboard. 6. Watch the URL turn blue. When your document is complete, save it. Then test it by clicking the links to make sure they work. You may upload this document to your CourseInfo site; you may attach it to an email; you may distribute it on floppy disk or CD-ROM; you may post it to a web server. No matter how you distribute it, when your students open it, they will be able to follow your links.