Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Adding a ScreenTip.

Adding a ScreenTip

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 12, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365

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ScreenTips are a Web feature supported by the latest versions of Web browsers. They appear when your mouse pointer hovers over a hyperlink, and they are used in the same way that ToolTips are used in Excel. You can add a ScreenTip as you add a hyperlink by following these steps:

  1. Press Ctrl+K. Excel displays the Insert Hyperlink dialog box. (If you don't want to use the shortcut key for some reason, you can display the Insert tab of the ribbon and click the Hyperlink tool in the Links group.)
  2. Click on the ScreenTip button. Excel displays the Set Hyperlink ScreenTip dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. The Set Hyperlink ScreenTip dialog box.

  3. In the ScreenTip Text box, enter the text you want to use for your ScreenTip.
  4. Click on OK to close the dialog box.
  5. Set any other hyperlink values, as desired.
  6. When completed, click on OK.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8348) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Adding a ScreenTip.

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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What is five more than 6?

2026-03-15 07:39:22

zzzeddy

J. Woolley is correct about the Hyperlink.ScreenTip property.

But that doesn't mean you can't make Excel do exactly what you want. It will involve using simple macros to hide/display textboxes.

So first, just add a textbox, then format it to look exactly as you want when your "hyperlink" is 'clicked'. Maybe a rounded textbox with red background, white text of any font size you want, even mixed font sizes and words in different colours. Assign an appropriate name for this textbox e.g. myLinkTxt999. Add an on-click macro to this textbox to hide it.

Next, create another text box with transparent background, sized to overlay the cell containing your "hyperlink". You can use the 'snap to grid' feature to help with this.

When you move the mouse pointer over this 'invisible' textbox you will see the usual 'arrow pointer'. Now just right-click on this invisible textbox to assign a macro. This macro would be the one that makes your named myLinkTxt999 textbox visible.

This is the basic method. If your actual hyperlink does things like move to a different sheet, you just need to include these in the macro assigned to your myLinkTxt999

zzzeddy

2026-03-13 10:24:39

J. Woolley

@John Finch
No, you can't format the Hyperlink.ScreenTip property; it is a simple String data type.

2026-03-12 15:47:20

John Finch

Is there any way to format the Text in a screen tip?

2025-06-05 19:12:49

Kevin H

Nice tip. Thank you for sharing.

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