Creating hyperlinked titles with tooltips in SharePoint link lists using SharePoint Designer workflow

Let’s put those link lists to good use. I wanted one master or parent link list with a number of views. I would then use those views in different list view web parts across my site, removing the toolbar (view/edit/add options), column headers, chrome border and select/deselect checkmark column so that essentially I had a section of my page with a header/chrome title like “HR Forms” (removing default link to “parent” list) and then just a list of hyperlinked form titles with tooltips providing more info on each form as seen above. This post will cover how to get the hyperlinked title text with tooltip. Another post coming soon will cover the “clean-up” of the list view web part so that you’re left with a title and list items alone.

First, create a new column in your link list that will be the placeholder for the live link. It should be a multiple lines of text, either rich or enhanced text column. Your workflow will populate this column, so you won’t enter anything in the column. Your title text will copy over to this new column and become hyperlinked, with a tooltip based on your notes (or other additional text) field. I’m calling this new column “FormURL”.
Now create a 2013 workflow in SharePoint Designer on your link list. After you’ve named it and added any description you wish, add an action: “set field in current item”. Change the “field” to your newly created FormURL column. Change the value, using the string builder, to

<a href=”[%Current Item:URL%]” title=”[%Current Item:Notes%]”>[%Current Item:Title%]</a>
Add a “go to” action in the transition step and end your workflow.
Click “Workflow Settings” from the top toolbar and select all start options so your URL is always up-to-date.
e.g.
Publish your workflow. You can now either go in and edit your list items to trigger the workflow, or manually start it on each item if you wish.
Now for your new views, you need only your new FormURL column (or whatever you named it). Filter by any metadata you may have used for various web parts (e.g., HR, Accounting, Travel, etc.)