Some Word, Excel and Powerpoint links don’t work properly — but why and where do they go?
Some Microsoft Knowledge Base articles open up more questions than they answer .. take this recent addition … KB949282 headed:
“You may not be redirected to the correct Web site when you click a hyperlink in Excel, in PowerPoint, or in Word”
That’s a pretty serious problem, when you click on a link it should take you to that place not somewhere else. It applies to Word, Excel and Powerpoint for Office 2003 or Office 2007.
Some web links don’t point directly to web pages, instead they are pointers to other places on the web. These redirections are common and very useful – chances are you click on redirection links every day.
According to Microsoft, some redirection links in Office 2003 or Office 2007 won’t take you to the redirected location — in other words, they don’t take you to the place the writer intended.
But the article isn’t very helpful other than a broad description of the problem. There’s no indication of what types of redirected links are affected or where the link takes you to, if not the correct place.
Microsoft’s workaround is often impractical – they say you should stop using redirected links and point directly to the right place. Nice theory, but that’s not always possible or practical.
Tick to Microsoft for admitting there’s a problem at all but big red cross for failing to explain more about the problem.
More details on the type of links affected might help us work out the severity of the problem in various situations.
If the redirected link doesn’t go to the correct place – where does it go? Knowing that would help support staff identify the problem when it arises.
Oh yes, and some timeline for a fix would be good too.
