Changing Portions of Many Hyperlinks

Kerstine has a worksheet with many, many different hyperlinks in it. She is wondering if there is a way she can replace just a part of each link. For instance, she might like to change any instance of http://www.mysite.com/ to c:/documents/mycopy/. If there is anything additional in the links, then that part should remain. So, for instance, if the original link is http://www.mysite.com/thispage.html, it would be changed to c:/documents/mycopy/thispage.html.

This can be easily done with a macro. The reason is because the hyperlinks can be examined and changed using regular string functions. The following macro provides a simple way to address the issue.

Sub EditHyperlinks()
    Dim lnkH As Hyperlink
    Dim sOld As String
    Dim sNew As String

    sOld = "http://www.mysite.com"
    sNew = "c:/documents/mycopy/"

    For Each lnkH In ActiveSheet.Hyperlinks
        lnkH.Address = Replace(lnkH.Address, sOld, sNew)
        lnkH.TextToDisplay = Replace(lnkH.TextToDisplay, sOld, sNew)
    Next
End Sub

This routine steps through all the hyperlinks in the current worksheet and makes modifications, if necessary, to each one. Both the hyperlink and the displayed text are changed, as appropriate. All you need to do is make changes to the sOld and sNew strings to specify what you are searching for and what you want to replace it with.

You should note that this macro uses the Replace function, which is built into the later versions of VBA. If you are using an older version that does not include the Replace function (you'll know because you'll get an error when you try to turn the macro) then you will need to create your own Replace function that replaces one portion of a string with another. Such functions have been covered in other issues of ExcelTips.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3358) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Changing Portions of Many Hyperlinks.