A uniform resource locator (URL) is embedded in computerized or digital documentation for a physical and/or a software process control element existing within a process control environment to thereby provide an automatic link to documentation or other applications that exist in other processing or data environments, such as in a word processing environment or in a data manipulation environment. The URL may include a generalized field having a descriptor that identifies a property of the process control element and that operates so that, when the URL is selected, the generalized field is replaced with the property identified by the descriptor.