Linked table in MS Access needs a hyperlink column

Question

I've recently moved a table from MS Access 2003 into SQL Server 2005. Then in the Access DB I created a linked table back to the table in SQL Server to replace the original table.

So far everything is working great. With one exception. Several of the columns had a datatype of hyperlink in Access but now are VARCHAR(MAX). From what I can tell from research on-line there is no way to change one of the columns in a linked table back to a hyperlink.

So what I am asking is 1) Does anyone know better? Can a column in the linked table be changed back to a hyperlink? or 2) Does anyone know of a good workaround? The user's application seems to require the hyperlink datatype to work correctly.

Answer 1

As a workaround, store your link in the SQL Server text field with the format "display text#URL#", eg. ...

Stack Overflow#https://stackoverflow.com/#

Then use a form with a text box bound to that text field and set the text box's Is Hyperlink property to Yes.

That's probably not what you had in mind. But since SQL Server doesn't offer a counterpart to Access' hyperlink data type, this is the best workaround I've found.