Many Excel users appreciate its linking capabilities for a variety of uses. You can insert dynamic information and more with links. Use the following articles to understand the types of links Excel supports and how to link information in your workbooks.

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

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

   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 Link References
If you use UNC paths in your links to external information, those paths may need to be changed at some point. You can easily do this by using the standard find and replace tools in Excel.

   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.

   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.

   Determining If a Workbook is Referenced by Another Workbook
It is a difficult task, in Excel, to determine if a workbook is the target of any external links. This tip examines some ways you might be able to track down those external links.

   Don't Update Links to Other Programs
If you have links in your workbook to data in other workbooks, you may want to control whether Excel updates those links or not. Here's how to find the settings that Excel uses for that purpose.

   Easily Changing Links
If you have linked information in your worksheets, you may want a way you can easily change the targets to which those links are pointing. One way you can do this is to make the links dynamic, using the INDIRECT worksheet function.

   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.

   Finding Wayward Links
Combining workbooks that have cross-links to each other can offer some special challenges. This tip examines how you can get around those challenges.

   Generating Automatic Links to Audio Files
Need to create links to many filenames on your system? Here are a couple of quick ways to get just the connection you need.

   Getting Rid of Workbook Links
Excel allows you to easily link information from one workbook to another. If you want to get rid of links that may be within a workbook, there are a couple of ways you can accomplish the task.

   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.

   Incorrect Links after Sorting Hyperlinks
When you sort your data, you should always check to see if the sort was done correctly. What if sorting messes up hyperlinks in a worksheet, though? That seems to be an unfortunate problem with Excel under some circumstances.

   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 a Specific Cell Using a Hyperlink
Excel allows you to define hyperlinks in your worksheets, and these can target specific cells on other worksheets. Here are two ways to make this happen.

   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.

   Pulling Access Information into Excel
If you have a lot of data stored in Access databases, you may want to get at that information using Excel. There are a few ways you can go about this task.

   References to Hyperlinks aren't Hyperlinks
Make a reference to a hyperlink in a formula, and you may be surprised that the reference doesn't return an active hyperlink. Here's why that happens and what you can do about it.

   Replacing Links with Values
Need to get rid of the links in your workbook but save the values that were retrieved by those links? It could be easy or hard, depending on the complexity of your workbook. Here are some great ideas you can try.

   Restrictions Blocking Hyperlinks
Excel allows you to easily add hyperlinks to your worksheets. If those hyperlinks are suddenly being blocked, it can be frustrating. This is a Windows issue which can be addressed using the information in this tip.

   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.

   Updating Links
When you establish links between data on a target worksheet and data on a source worksheet, those links are typically updated when you open the target workbook or choose to print the workbook. If you want to manually update the links at some other time, however, you can use the steps in this tip.

   Updating Links in Copied Files
When you copy workbooks that contain links, you may be at a loss as to how to update those links. There are a couple of ways you can approach the task, as discussed in this tip.