I am trying to directly link the announcement item to the document or
text without having to go through the second web page.

I.E. News Announcement -> Word Doc or HTML Page or Created Text

I can edit the page in XSL but don't know the variables that contain
the document text direct link.

??? Document Variable, Created Text Variable, Link Variable ???

The issue is to go directly to the information without having to view
the intermediate web page.