Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Extracting Hyperlink Information.

Extracting Hyperlink Information

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 11, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2000, 2002, and 2003


Cheryl has a worksheet that contains many hyperlinks. The display text for each hyperlink is different than the target for the hyperlink. These hyperlinks are all in column A. Cheryl would like to leave the display text in column A, move the target URL into column B, and delete the hyperlink in column A. What she needs to end up with is the display text in column A, the URL in column B, and no active hyperlinks in the worksheet.

Processing and extracting information from hyperlinks in this manner requires the use of a macro. The following is an example of a flexible macro that examines whatever hyperlinks are in the selected range of cells. If a hyperlink is found, the URL for the hyperlink is entered to the right of the hyperlink and then the hyperlink itself is deleted. This leaves the display text in the cell where the hyperlink used to be.

Sub GetHLInfo()
    Dim rRng As Range
    Dim cell As Range

    Set rRng = ActiveSheet.Range(ActiveWindow.Selection.Address)
    For Each cell In rRng
        If cell.Hyperlinks.Count > 0 Then
            cell.Offset(0, 1) = cell.Hyperlinks(1).Address
            cell.Hyperlinks(1).Delete
        End If
    Next
End Sub

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9896) applies to Microsoft Excel 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Extracting Hyperlink Information.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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