Data With a Click

I’m preparing a memo for clients that contains definitions of many technical terms. Although I must include those definitions somewhere in the memo for nonaccountants, I don’t want the definitions to get in the way of the flow of the text; nor do I want them stuck at the end, thus making readers flip back and forth to read them. Can I add a button that, when pressed, will take a reader to the definition?

A hyperlink would be perfect for the job. A hyperlink is like a super bookmark that automatically sends a reader to a specific location either in the same document, another document or in Excel or PowerPoint. For example, if your Word memo needs to refer to data in an Excel spreadsheet, a hyperlink will do the trick. Here’s how it works in Word:

Place your memo in one document and all the definitions in another. Open both documents and click on Windows, Arrange All . That places both documents on the screen—one above the other (see screenshot below).

Now go to the definitions page and highlight the first definition, right-click on it and drag the text to the place in the memo where you want it to be available. Then release the mouse button, and this screen will appear (see screenshot below).

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Now click on Create Hyperlink Here and the hyperlink (see screenshot below) will appear.

When readers come to the term “technical terms,” they just need to hold down the Ctrl key and click on the hyperlink and the definition pops up.

To create links in Excel or PowerPoint, the process is slightly different. If the data you want to display with the hyperlink are in Excel, you must define the data with either a range or a name (see screenshot of defined data with the name “QuarterSales”).

Then copy the name, switch to the Word document, click on Edit and then on Paste as Hyperlink (see screenshot below).

That immediately pastes the hyperlink into the document (see screenshot).

To do it in PowerPoint, copy the slide, switch to the document and click on Edit and then on Paste as Hyperlink.