FP2000: Microsoft Access 2000 Hyperlink Fields Are Displayed As URLs Rather Than Descriptive Text

When you insert data from a hyperlink field in a Microsoft Access 2000 database into a database region in Microsoft FrontPage 2000, the data that is displayed is the Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The URL is displayed rather than the descriptive text that is displayed in the Microsoft Access table.

To display the descriptive text instead of the URL, follow these steps.

CAUTION: If you follow the steps in this example, you modify the sample database Northwind.mdb. You may want to back up the Northwind.mdb file and follow these steps on a copy of the database.

Copy Data from Microsoft Access

1. Start Microsoft Access, and then open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
2. Open the Suppliers table in design view, and then create an additional field that is named HomePageText and has the Text data type.
3. Save the Suppliers table, and then open it in datasheet view.
4. Copy the descriptive text from the HomePage field to the HomePageText field.

Use Database Results Wizard in FrontPage

1. Start FrontPage 2000, and then create a new one-page Web.
2. Right-click anywhere in the folder list pane, click New Page on the shortcut menu, click Normal Page, and then click OK.
3. On the Insert menu, point to Database, and then click Results.
4. In the Database Results Wizard - Step 1 of 5 page, click to select Use an existing database connection, click a system Data Source Name (DSN) that connects to the modified Northwind sample database, and then click Next.
   
   NOTE: For more information about creating database connections, see the "References" section of this article.
5. In the Step 2 of 5 page, click the Record source list, click Suppliers, and then click Next.
6. In the Step 3 of 5 page, click Edit list. In the Displayed Fields dialog box, remove all fields from the Displayed fields list except CompanyName and HomePageText, click OK, and then click Next.
7. In the Step 4 of 5 page, click Next. In the Step 5 of 5 page, click Finish.

Edit Hyperlink

1. Right-click the <<HomePageText>> field in the database region, and then click Hyperlink on the shortcut menu.
2. In the Create Hyperlink dialog box, click Parameters.
3. In the Hyperlink Parameters dialog box, delete http:// in the Path box, click Insert Field Value in the displayed list click HomePage, and then click OK.
4. In the Edit Hyperlink dialog box, click OK.
5. On the File menu, click Save As. In the File name box, type Suppliers, and then click Save.
6. On the Window menu, click Default.htm.
7. Drag the Supplier.asp icon from the folder list pane onto the default page.
   
   A hyperlink that displays CompanyName is produced.
8. Click the Preview tab, and then click the CompanyName hyperlink. The displayed records show descriptive text for the hyperlinks.

In a table with few hyperlinks, such as the Suppliers table from the Northwind database, you may find it most convenient to copy and paste data from the hyperlink field to the text field. On the other hand, if there is a large number of records with hyperlink data, you may want to use an update query by using Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) string functions.

For more information about database connections, click Microsoft FrontPage Help on the Help menu, type database connection in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.

For additional information about creating a system DSN, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: