Displaying a Web page or document about a feature

Using hyperlinks, you can display documentssuch as a text file or imageor Web pages accessed over the Internet by clicking a feature in your map. A hyperlink is a document path and name or a Web page address stored with a feature. You can dynamically create hyperlinks as you browse your map, or alternatively, you can store hyperlinks with your data in an attribute field. You can create hyperlinks easily and save them to the current ArcMap document or write them to a layer file by clicking features in the map and typing the hyperlinks. If you would like to store the hyperlinks in the layers attribute table, create a field in the feature attribute table and enter the hyperlinks for each feature. You must then instruct ArcMap to access the hyperlinks from this field.

Creating and accessing hyperlinks stored in a layer file or ArcMap document

1. Click the Identify button on the Tools toolbar. 2. Click a feature. 3. In the Identify Results window, right-click the feature you want to set a hyperlink for and click Add Hyperlink. 4. To add a hyperlink to a Web page, click Link to a URL and type a URL. To link to a document, click Link to a Document and type a pathname to the document. 5. Click the Hyperlink tool on the Tools toolbar and click a feature.

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Tip Displaying hyperlinked documents If you specify a Web address as a hyperlink, ArcMap launches your default Web browser and displays the Web page. If you specify a document as a hyperlink, ArcMap opens that document in its native program. If the linked document is on a server, the document is only available to those with access to that server. Tip Using the Hyperlink tool The Hyperlink tool respects the selection tolerance, which is the search radius used by tools to select features. Only features falling within the search tolerance will be selected. You can set the selection tolerance in the Selection Options dialog box.

Using an attribute field as a hyperlink

1. In the table of contents, rightclick the layer containing a field with hyperlinks and click Properties. 2. Click the Display tab. 3. Check Support Hyperlinks using field. Click the dropdown arrow and click a field. 4. Click Document or URL. 5. Click OK. 6. On the Tools toolbar, click the Hyperlink button. 7. Move the mouse pointer over a feature and click to display the hyperlink.

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