Add Variable Hyperlink in Mail Merge in Word 2013

Question

I\'m trying to add a hyperlink to a mail merge field. So something like this:

{HYPERLINK \"{MERGEFIELD \"Links\" }\"}

So I create a field l

Answer 1

I got this working thanks to this thread, but then it stopped working and I figured out why so I thought I'd say thanks by posting what I discovered here.

The issue is that word has a special type of curly brace. Copying the code text from this thread may not work for that reason. To get the curly braces Word wants, I used Fn + Command + F9 on my Mac running Catalina and Office 365. Apparently some Mac users may find Command + F9 works -- just test to find out. I'm sure Windows has a similar keystroke set. I found the Mac solution in this post.

Also, the syntax that works for me is: { HYPERLINK { MERGEFIELD "url" } * MERGEFORMAT } where "url" is the label of the column with the link in my Excel file. Note the position of the quotes. This differs from other posts here (I tried the other combinations) but I wouldn't be surprised if the syntax may vary across Word versions and operating systems.