How to Link with Excel Hyperlink Formula

When using Excel, do you ever need to quickly access information stored elsewhere– the internet or your company’s intranet, for example? Taking the time to find these files outside of Excel can waste valuable time, especially if you get lost navigating away from your spreadsheet and forget the information’s context while you search. Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be the case.

The Excel hyperlink formula allows users fast, simple access to the exact files or spreadsheet cells that they need.

Using the hyperlink function is relatively simple. In the cell that you wish to contain the hyperlink, insert the following formula:

HYPERLINK(link_location, [friendly_name])

This will create a link that takes users directly to what was specified by the link-location argument.

The link_location argument in the Excel hyperlink formula must be entered for the function to work. It can be the address to a site on the internet, a specific file within the company’s intranet, or even something as specific as a cell in another Excel spreadsheet stored on the computer’s hard drive.

Try this: =HYPERLINK(“http://www.pryor.com/blog/category/excel”, “Open Excel Blog”)

Notice that the URL is in quotations. This is necessary to make the argument work.

The friendly_name argument is optional. This is the text that will appear as a typical underlined, blue hyperlink. It can be the name of the file being linked to, or whatever the user desires. If no friendly_name is entered, then the hyperlink will appear as the link_location text by default.

If the spreadsheet is not saved before attempting to test out any hyperlinks set up using this function, clicking on them may generate an error. If that’s the case, fixing the error is usually as simple as saving the spreadsheet and trying again.