The Opus 2 Autolink tool is a feature that is useful for automatically creating multiple links within a document to other documents within a workspace, using citations enclosed in curly brackets ({ }).


Step-by-step guide

Preparing documents for Autolink:

Some manual work is required in order for this feature to be used effectively.

  1. The first requirement is to select an existing metadata field that could function as a unique identifier value for the citations, i.e., BegBates or magnumid. 
  2. If the Document Name itself can stand as the unique identifier or is taken from a Bates or ID field, the user may run an export of the Document Name values, and then overlay it via the Import Metadata function into the desired identifier field, i.e., BegBates.
  3. Enter those values, enclosed in single curly brackets ({ }), into the appropriate sections in the document. Once the document has been created and finalized with the correct values in curly brackets, upload this document to Opus 2. 

Applying the Autolink feature once the documents are ready:

  1. Right-click on the main document, click on More..., and select Autolink from the additional menu options.
  2. In the Link Format box, type in the name of the metadata field that is associated with the citation enclosed in double curly brackets. For instance, {{BegBates}} or {{magnumid}}. Click on Find Matches next to initiate a search of those values within the workspace.
  3. Note that the lines highlighted in orange are the ones that are found and those that are pink were NOT found. The Source Page Link (left-most) column reflects the page in the main document where the citation will appear, while the Target column reflects the actual value that the citation will be linked to. 
  4. Click on Create Links to generate the links to all the matches listed. WARNING: Do not click on Create Links more than once; Opus 2 will create a new set of links for each time this button is clicked, resulting in duplicate links.
  5. Once the links are created, the rows should turn green. A notification should pop up confirming that Autolink completed.
  6. Click on the document preview to open it and check for the new link(s). It should appear like this within the page: 



BEST PRACTICES:

  • Avoid choosing metadata fields that contain spaces or special characters as these will not be recognized by the Autolink tool. One example is Document Name, as these commonly contain spaces and special characters. 
  • Ensure that the metadata field choses for Autolinking contains values unique to each document to avoid duplicative linking.