How to send a clickable link to a file in Outlook

Submitted by ChatMafia on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 16:06

Sometimes you want to send users a clickable link to a folder or file on your network rather than sending them the whole document as an attachment or just the path as text eg; N:\Common\test.doc (where N: is a network drive)

The following syntax makes sure that you can do this no matter what format of email message you or the reciever users (plain text, rich text or html), the following syntax gaurantees that your message would be recieved with a clickable link to the folder or file you specify!

Simply use the following syntax and replace the drive letter and foldernames to the network drive letter and folder / file of your choice

Following example embeds a link to a file called test.doc residing on a network drive N:\common

<file://N:\\Common\test.doc>

Following example embeds a link with the UNC path instead of a hard coded drive letter where the document test.doc resides on a fileserver called Pluto in a share called corporate$

 

<file://pluto\corporate$\test.doc>

Following example embeds a link to a folder called DropBox which lives on network drive R:\

<file://R:\\DROPBOX\>

Following example embeds a link using a UNC path instead of a drive letter, to a folder called DropBox (which is on a windows share called corporate$ on a fileserver called Pluto)

<file://pluto\corporate$\DropBox>

What is the file has a space

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 09/16/2009 - 10:12.
What is the file has a space in it?

Space Solution

Submitted by jxramos (not verified) on Mon, 12/12/2011 - 11:53.
My coworker just helped me on this problem, I replaced every location where a space occurs with the string %20, works like a charm =)

Then you can try the

Submitted by iwscmsadmin on Tue, 10/20/2009 - 22:20.

Then you can try the filepath in double quotes

Clickable Network Link (UNC) in Outlook

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/18/2011 - 03:06.
Set brackets around the link. Slashes only used to make it visible here. Use backslashes instead.
<//my host/my path/my long file name.doc>

Bracket Hyperlink for Outlook 2010

Submitted by Linky (not verified) on Mon, 07/18/2011 - 11:30.
I used this method many times in Outlook 2003 but it doesn't seem to work now that I've converted to Windows 7 and MS 2010. Are there settings I need to adjust or is the method different for Outlook 2010?