Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Hyperlinks' topic. Click the article''s title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

   Activating a Hyperlink
Excel worksheets allow you to include hyperlinks that lead to resources on the Internet. Here's how to activate those hyperlinks so that you can get to those resources.

   Adding a ScreenTip
If you want people to know something about a hyperlink you added to your worksheet, one way to help them is to use ScreenTips. This tip explains what they are and shows you how to create them.

   Can't Use Hyperlinks
Before some features in Excel can function properly, you must have the correct permissions set for the user of the computer. This tip explores where to look to correct some of these problems.

   Changing Huge Numbers of Hyperlinks
Need to change the various targets of a group of hyperlinks? Getting at the underlying link can seem challenging, but it is easy to do if you use a macro.

   Changing Portions of Many Hyperlinks
If you need to modify the URL used in a large number of hyperlinks, you can do so by using a macro and a little ingenuity. This tip shows how easy it is to get the changes you need.

   Converting a Range of URLs to Hyperlinks
Converting a single URL into a hyperlink is easy. Converting hundreds or thousands can be much harder if you have to rely on manual methods. Here is a handy macro that can do the necessary conversion for you.

   Converting to Hyperlinks in a Shared Workbook
When you enter a URL or e-mail address in a worksheet, Excel usually converts it to a clickable hyperlink. This doesn't occur, however, if the workbook is shared; the URL or address remains regular text. This tip discusses ways you can get around this behavior so that you have clickable hyperlinks in shared workbooks.

   Copying a Hyperlink to Lots of Worksheets
Copying information from one place to another in a worksheet is easy. Copying hyperlinks may not seem that easy, but you can use the same editing techniques you use with regular information.

   Deleting a Hyperlink
Hyperlinks can be helpful in some worksheets but bothersome in others. Here's how to get rid of any hyperlinks you don't want.

   Drop-Down List of Hyperlinks
Creating a drop-down list with Excel's data validation feature can be a nice touch for a worksheet. What if you want the drop-down list to include active hyperlinks? While Excel doesn't allow you to create this, there are a couple of workarounds you can use.

   Dynamic Hyperlinks in Excel
Hyperlinks to many types of Web sites rely on passing parameters in the URL. Knowing this, you can construct a dynamic hyperlink by pulling information from various cells in your worksheet.

   Editing a Hyperlink
Excel will cheerfully keep track of all sorts of hyperlinks for you. If you want to change the hyperlink in some way, don't do it by clicking. Instead, use one of the techniques spotlighted in this tip.

   Extracting Hyperlink Information
In Excel, a hyperlink consists of two parts: the text displayed for the link and the target of the link. You can use a macro to extract the information in the hyperlink and place it in your worksheet.

   Extracting URLs from Hyperlinked Images
When copying information from the Internet to an Excel workbook, you may want to get rid of graphics but keep any hyperlinks associated with those graphics. This can be easily done by using the macro highlighted in this tip.

   Getting Rid of All Hyperlinks
Need to get rid of all the hyperlinks in a worksheet? It's easy when you use this single-line macro.

   Getting Rid of Many Hyperlinks
Got a bunch of hyperlinks you need to get rid of? Here's a handy (and simple) macro that can do the task for you.

   Hiding a Hyperlink on a Printout
Hyperlinks can be real handy in a workbook, but you may not always want them visible when you send the workbook to the printer. Here are a variety of ways you can hide a hyperlink so it doesn't clutter up your printout.

   Hyperlinks in Shared Workbooks
Inserting a hyperlink into a workbook that is shared with others is not possible in Excel. Here's what you can do about it.

   Hyperlinks to Charts
You can create hyperlinks to all sorts of worksheets in a workbook, but you cannot create a hyperlink to a chart sheet. This tip provides a workaround that should display just what you want hyperlinked in the first place.

   Inserting Hyperlinks
Connect your worksheets with other workbooks or with the world of the Internet. The ability to add hyperlinks makes this connectivity possible. Here's how to add a hyperlink to your worksheet.

   Jumping to Text in Worksheet from an Index
In putting together a workbook, you may develop a worksheet that acts as an index, to contain links that lead to other areas of the workbook. If you want to know how to use those links to jump directly to a particular cell on a worksheet, you'll need the techniques described in this tip.

   Links to Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks in a worksheet can be helpful or essential, depending on the nature of your data. If you create a link to a hyperlink, you may wonder why the link doesn't act the same as the original hyperlink. Here's why.

   Opening an HTML Page in a Macro
Excel allows you to open HTML pages within the program, which is great for some purposes. What if you want to open a browser window, however, from within Excel in order to display an HTML page? This tip highlights two methods you can use, within a macro, to perform the task.

   Opening Sites in a Browser
You can store all sorts of information in a worksheet, including Web addresses. If you want to open those addresses in a browser, you can click on each of them individually, or you can utilize a macro. This tip examines different ways you can open a number of different addresses using macros.

   Pasting a Hyperlink
Need a quick link within a document to some external data? You can paste information so that Excel treats it just like a hyperlink to that data.

   Putting More than One Hyperlink in a Cell
Excel allows you to put a single hyperlink in a cell. If you have a need to put multiple hyperlinks in a cell, then you need to enlist the capabilities of programs other than Excel.

   Removing Hyperlinks without a Macro
If you have a whole slew of hyperlinks in a worksheet and you want to get rid of them, it's easier than you think. This approach uses the Paste Special capabilities of Excel to get rid of the unwanted links.

   Removing Hyperlinks without a Macro, Take Two
Need to get rid of hyperlinks in a worksheet? Here's an easy way to do it without using a macro.

   ScreenTip for an Image
You can configure images in Excel so that if someone clicks on them, a macro is executed. You cannot, however, have a macro and a traditional ScreenTip tied to the same object. This tip explains how you can get around this limitation using two separate techniques.

   Showing Visited Hyperlinks
Many people like to use Excel to keep track of lists of hyperlinks. Want to keep a permanent record of which hyperlinks from the list you've visited? Excel won't do it for you; you need to get a bit creative, as described here.

   Special Characters In Hyperlinks
Do you use special characters (such as the pound sign) in your worksheet names? If so, you could run into problems creating hyperlinks that target those files. Here's how to get around this potential problem.

   Specifying a Browser in a Hyperlink
Excel allows you to easily add hyperlinks to a worksheet. Click on it, and the target of the link is opened in a browser window. If you want to specify which browser is used to display the link, things get more complex.

   Turning Off Hyperlink Activation
Does it bother you when you enter a URL and it becomes "active" as soon as you press Enter? Here's how you can turn off this activation so that your URLs remain as regular text.

   Tying a Hyperlink to a Specific Cell
Make a hyperlink to a cell in your workbook, edit the structure of that workbook a bit, and you may find that the hyperlink no longer targets the original cell you intended. Here's how to make sure that the link always stays associated with the desired cell, regardless of the editing you do.

   Unwanted Hyperlinks
Tired of having Excel convert what you type into active hyperlinks? Here are things you can do to undo Excel's conversions or stop them from happening in the first place.

   Using Drag-and-Drop to Create a Hyperlink
If you open workbooks in two instances of Excel, you can use drag-and-drop techniques to create hyperlinks from one workbook to another. This is a quick and easy way to link your data together.