• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

bVisual

  • Home
  • Services
    • How Visio smartness can help your business
    • Visio visual in Power BI
    • Visio Consulting Services
    • Visio Bureau Services
    • Visio Training and Support Services
  • Products
    • Visio Shape Report Converter
    • SS Plus
    • LayerManager
    • visViewer
    • Metro Icons
    • Rules Tools for Visio
    • The Visio 2010 Sessions App
    • Multi-Language Text for Visio
    • Document Imager for Visio
    • multiSelect for Visio
    • pdSelect for Visio
  • Case Studies
    • Case studies overview
    • Using Visio in Education for GIS
    • Visualizing Construction Project Schedules
    • Visio Online Business Process Mapping
    • Nexans Visio Template
    • CNEE Projects, WorldCom
    • Chase Manhattan Bank
  • News
    • Recent news
    • News archive
  • Resources
    • Articles➡
      • ShapeSheet Functions A-Z
      • Comparing Visio for the Web and Desktop
      • Customising Visio Shapes for the Web App
      • Key differences between the Visio desktop and web apps
      • Using the Visio Data Visualizer in Excel
      • Using Visio in Teams
      • Creating Visio Tabs and Apps for Teams with SharePoint Framework (SPFx)
      • Designing Power Automate Flows with Microsoft Visio
      • Innovative uses of Visio Lists
    • Webcasts ➡
      • Visio in Organizations
      • My session and other Visio sessions at MSIgnite 2019
      • Power up your Visio diagrams
      • Vision up your Visio diagrams
      • The Visio 2010 MVP Sessions
    • Visio Web Learning Resources
    • Books➡
      • Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio
      • Mastering Data Visualization with Microsoft Visio
      • Microsoft Visio Business Process Diagramming and Validation
      • Visualizing Information with Microsoft Visio
  • Blog
    • Browse blog articles
    • Visio Power BI articles
    • Visio for Web articles
    • A history of messaging and encryption
  • About us
    • About bVisual
    • Testimonials
    • Bio of David Parker
    • Contact Us
    • Website Privacy Policy
    • Website terms and conditions
    • Ariba Network
You are here: Home / Visio / Importing Hyperlinks into Visio Shapes

Published on November 15, 2007 by David Parker

Importing Hyperlinks into Visio Shapes

Visio shapes can have multiple hyperlinks, but it can be a chore to add them with the Insert / Hyperlinks … command.  Fortunately, Visio 2007 Professional has the Data / Link Data to Shapes … command.

If you were to have a data source, such as an Excel spreadsheet, that contains hyperlinks (see the example below)…

ExcelHyperlinks

… then you can import these hyperlinks onto shapes, and they will be added, not only as Shape Data, but also as hyperlinks! In the example below, I have enhanced the Data Graphics to display the Shape Data on each shape.

HyperlinksInVisio 

When you save the Visio document to a web page as VML, then the multiple hyperlinks are available on each shape!

WebPageHyperlinks

Unfortunately, the PDF and XPS exports don’t preserver the multiple hyperlinks – just the first one.

Related

Filed Under: External Data, Hyperlinks, ShapeSheet Formulas, Visio

About David Parker

David Parker has 25 years' experience of providing data visualization solutions to companies around the globe. He is a Microsoft MVP and Visio expert.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. k8simpson says

    March 11, 2008 at 12:01 pm

    This is hugely helpful – thank you!
    Does the above work if the link is to an Excel spreadsheet? It seems my links (whether in Shape Data or as links on the Shape themselves) don’t display as links coz they’re not ‘recognised’ as links…?
    I guess I need to maybe output the excel to RDF or something so that they have an actual linkable ‘home’?
    Anyway, love the blog!

    Reply
  2. Spamtr says

    November 25, 2010 at 10:14 am

    Hey,
    i´ve got a problem with Visio HTML Export. I want to open a extern hyperlink in the same frame as the diagram means frmDrawing. I´ve tried a lot but it won´t work with silverlight. I´ve tried to open my changed HTML without Silverlight and then i´ve got the extern hyperlink in the frmDrawing frame.

    Please help, i need it so much.

    Reply
    • davidjpp says

      November 26, 2010 at 9:57 am

      It is a known problem because the JavaScript function (GetHLAction) generated by the SaveAsWeb feature will only use the first default hyperlink that it finds on a shape.
      However, you do get multiple hyperlinks if you switch to using the VML output.
      The Silverlight code produced is version 2 compliant, I believe, so there is plenty of room for improvement.

      Reply
  3. TRomanski says

    November 25, 2010 at 9:32 pm

    Hey,

    i cannot See those pultiple Hyperlinks in my WebPage.
    What am I doing wrong?

    Reply
    • davidjpp says

      November 26, 2010 at 9:55 am

      Are you using the Silverlight option in Visio 2010?
      If so, you have a problem because the JavaScript function (GetHLAction) generated by the SaveAsWeb feature will only use the first default hyperlink that it finds on a shape.
      However, you do get multiple hyperlinks if you switch to using the VML output.

      Reply
  4. Slimani Hakim says

    August 20, 2012 at 6:28 pm

    hi, Is it possible to load a link to another page of the visio (subaddress) instead of a web hyperlink?

    Thanks a lot,

    Reply
    • davidjpp says

      August 29, 2012 at 1:50 pm

      Yes, but it is easier to explain how with a new blog article : http://blog.bvisual.net/2012/08/29/creating-shape-to-page-hyperlinks-automatically-using-link-data-to-shapes/

      Reply
  5. Meimei says

    July 15, 2015 at 11:09 pm

    Is it possible to give the link a description from the import instead of saying Link1, Link2 etc.

    Reply
    • davidjpp says

      August 30, 2015 at 4:23 pm

      I don’t think that is possible, unfortunately

      Reply
  6. Micah Greene says

    July 6, 2017 at 7:28 pm

    You can name the Hyperlink columns anything you want and the format of the cells can be whatever you want.
    All you have to do is right click on a line in the External data in Visio and change the column data type or check the Hyperlink checkbox to force Visio to recognize it as a Link.

    More information can be found in the book:
    Mastering Data Visualization with Microsoft Visio Professional 2016
    By David J. Parker

    Reply
  7. Marc Murray says

    April 1, 2022 at 12:43 pm

    David, this is a truly stunning page full of champion league expertise on Visio. I would have much less grey hair had I found this earlier.
    I had a few questions and your page helped a long way, thank you!
    Best
    Marc

    Reply
    • David Parker says

      April 1, 2022 at 2:02 pm

      Well thank you, Marc.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Creating Shape to Page Hyperlinks Automatically using Link Data to Shapes « bVisual says:
    August 29, 2012 at 1:48 pm

    […] demonstrated how to import hyperlinks into Visio shapes in a previous post – see http://blog.bvisual.net/2007/11/15/importing-hyperlinks-into-visio-shapes/, however, one of my readers wanted to know if the same mechanism can be used to create an hyperlink […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Recent Posts

  • Fixing dimensions of 2D shapes
  • Merging Linked Data from Similar Tables
  • Smart Radio Buttons and Check Boxes in Visio
  • Using Button Face Ids in Visio
  • Grid Snapping Revisited

Categories

Tags

Accessibility Add-Ins Connectors Containers Data Export Data Graphics Data Import Data Visualizer Educational Excel GraphDatabase Hyperlinks Icon Sets JavaScript LayerManager Layers Legend Link Data to Shapes Lists MSIgnite MVP Office365 Org Chart PowerApps PowerBI PowerQuery Processes Setup and Deployment Shape Data Shape Design ShapeSheet ShapeSheet Functions SharePoint 2013 SQL Teams Validation VBA Video Visio Visio 2007 Visio for the Web Visio Online Visio Services Visio Viewer Webinar

Footer

bVisual Profile

The UK-based independent Visio consultancy with a worldwide reach. We have over 25 years experience of providing data visualization solutions to companies around the globe.

Learn more about bVisual

  • Amazon
  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Search this website

Recent posts

  • Fixing dimensions of 2D shapes
  • Merging Linked Data from Similar Tables
  • Smart Radio Buttons and Check Boxes in Visio
  • Using Button Face Ids in Visio
  • Grid Snapping Revisited

Copyright © 2025 · Executive Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in