hyperlinks in a spreadsheet keep breaking - any thoughts ?

I have a list with about 380 records which I use with filters on at the top
of the column. One column refers to filenames which I have tried to replace
with hyperlinks - I set the links up then after eg filtering, and moving
around the sheet, and perhaps closing & reopening the book, the links fail to
work again, the error message is "address not valid".
How can I ensure the links keep working ? I am working on a network.

I think I'd try creating the hyperlinks using the worksheet function:
=hyperlink().

Say your filename is in A2, then put this in B2:
=hyperlink("file:////"&a2,"Click Me")

and see if it works.

A2 should contain the full path:
c:\my documents\excel\myfile.xls
or
\\sharename\folder\myfile.xls



RolandIllman wrote:
>
> I have a list with about 380 records which I use with filters on at the top
> of the column. One column refers to filenames which I have tried to replace
> with hyperlinks - I set the links up then after eg filtering, and moving
> around the sheet, and perhaps closing & reopening the book, the links fail to
> work again, the error message is "address not valid".
> How can I ensure the links keep working ? I am working on a network.

--

Dave Peterson

I encountered this problem when I converted from Office 2000 to Office 2003.
The syntax of the links in Excel to files on my network drives became
scrambled into a web-style format using forward slashes instead of back
slashes. The effect seemed random through - some links continued to work and
some didn't. I could recreated a link and it worked OK until I saved my work
book (without closing Excel) then it became scrambled again. Switching to the
format Dave Peterson recommended seems to be working. Here's the syntax I
adopted:

=HYPERLINK("file:\\folder\folder\...\filename.xls","display name")


"Dave Peterson" wrote:

> I think I'd try creating the hyperlinks using the worksheet function:
> =hyperlink().
>
> Say your filename is in A2, then put this in B2:
> =hyperlink("file:////"&a2,"Click Me")
>
> and see if it works.
>
> A2 should contain the full path:
> c:\my documents\excel\myfile.xls
> or
> \\sharename\folder\myfile.xls
>
>
>
> RolandIllman wrote:
> >
> > I have a list with about 380 records which I use with filters on at the top
> > of the column. One column refers to filenames which I have tried to replace
> > with hyperlinks - I set the links up then after eg filtering, and moving
> > around the sheet, and perhaps closing & reopening the book, the links fail to
> > work again, the error message is "address not valid".
> > How can I ensure the links keep working ? I am working on a network.
>
> --
>
> Dave Peterson
>