Office 97 Access
HyperLinks to Database Objects and the Internet
Microsoft Access 97 includes hyperlinks to help you
easily connect your application to the Internet or an
intranet. A hyperlink can jump to a location on the
Internet or on an intranet, to an object in your database
or in another database, or to a document on your computer
or on another computer connected by a network.
Microsoft Access provides a new Hyperlink data type that
can contain a hyperlink address. You can define a table
field with this data type in order to store hyperlinks as
data in a table.
You can also include hyperlinks on a form or report. Three types of controls can contain hyperlinks: command button, label, and image controls. Each of these controls has a Hyperlink property, which returns a Hyperlink object representing the hyperlink contained in the control. Each control also has a HyperlinkAddress and HyperlinkSubAddress property, which are used to set or return the address and subaddress for the hyperlink.
Table Containing HyperLinks using the HyperLink Datatype
Clicking a control that contains a hyperlink follows the hyperlink and also triggers the control's Click event. When the hyperlink is followed, the document or object specified by the HyperlinkAddress and HyperlinkSubAddress properties opens. For example, if the HyperlinkAddress property refers to a form in your Microsoft Access database, that form opens. If it refers to a Microsoft Word document on another computer that can be accessed across a network, Microsoft Word opens and the document opens in it. If it refers to an address on the World Wide Web, your Web browser (for example, Microsoft Internet Explorer) opens and displays the Web page.
In Visual Basic, you can simulate the effect of clicking on a hyperlink by using the Follow method of the Hyperlink object, or the FollowHyperlink method of the Application object. For example, you can include code in a form's Load event that follows a specified hyperlink when the form is opened.
