Hyperlinking in ArcGIS 9.2 Via Attribute/Field

Initial Setup:

• The hyperlink tool is found on the standard Tools toolbar. The icon turns into a yellow lightning bolt when hyperlinked information is available. Otherwise the icon will be grayed out.

• Open the Attribute table and create a new field that will be used to store the path/url/location of the hyperlinked media (i.e. "C:\images\001.jpg," "http://www.flickr.com/jpg/001.jpg," etc.)
  

  Name: "Link"
  Type: Text / String
  Length: 100 characters should be suitable

  


• Context click (right click) on this layer in the table of contents pane and choose Properties
• Choose the Display tab
• Check "Support Hyperlinks using field"
  - Choose Document for images stored on the hard drive
  - Choose URL for web-based images
  
  
  
• Locations with an associated hyperlink will turn blue when the hyperlink tool is selected. Loctaions without a hyperlink will remain rendered with their predefined symbology.
  
  
  
• The cursor will turn into an empty lightning bolt when this tool is selected:
  
  
• When hovering over a hyperlinked point, the cursor will become filled:
  
• Simply click on a location to open the image in Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, or Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.

Simplify Hyperlink Launching:

• In the ArcMap Selection menu, choose Options to bring up Selection Options
• Raise the Selection tolerance to 10 pixels or above to simply selection; otherwise it can be difficult to launch a hyperlink when using a very small (2 pixel) tolerance
  
  
  

Data Management:

• When collecting in situ data, it may help to simply save the image name to a separate text field ("001" rather than "001.jpg: or "C:\...\001.jpg")
• Use Field Calculator to populate the full path to the location of the image using a similar statement:
  "C:\Images\" & [FIELD_ID] & ".jpg"