Jumping to Text in Worksheet from an Index

David has a series of worksheets in a workbook with the first worksheet containing an index to the other worksheets. The index shows all players in a competition. Each of the other worksheets contains the players in a single team. When David clicks on a player name in the index worksheet, Excel displays the team worksheet on which the player's name appears. The player could be anywhere on the worksheet, so David is looking for a way to jump right to the name, instead of just to the worksheet.

One way to do this would be to use defined names for your players. Go to the worksheet containing the player's name (the team worksheet) and select the player. Click on Insert | Name | Define to display the Define Name dialog box.

The player's name should already appear in the Names in Workbook box, so all you need to do is click OK. This adds a defined name that is equivalent to the player's name. You need to do this for each of the players on the team.

Now, return to the index worksheet and select a cell containing a player's name. Set up a hyperlink to the defined name by following these steps:

1. Display the Insert Hyperlink dialog box. (Choose Insert | Hyperlink.)
2. In the list of places you can link, at the left of the dialog box, choose Place in This Document. Excel changes the Insert Hyperlink dialog box so that it lists all the names defined in the workbook.
3. In the Defined Names area, select the name of the player. (This is the name you defined earlier.)
4. Click OK.

Repeat these four steps for each of the names you've listed in the index worksheet. Now, when you click one of the hyperlinked names, the team worksheet is displayed and the players name is automatically selected.

Another advantage of this approach is that it is possible for a person to jump to a player's name without the need to display the index worksheet. All a person has to do is press F5, which displays the Go To dialog box. This provides a list of all the defined names (the players) in the workbook. Select a player's name and click OK, and you jump right to that player on whatever team worksheet is appropriate.

It is possible to develop indexes without using the hyperlinks, but such an approach involves the development of macros that would respond to a click on an index name and then start searching through the cells in the workbook to find a matching name. Such an approach is probably beyond the scope of what is required for this tip.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3083) applies to Microsoft Excel 2000, 2002, and 2003.