Hide values in colum if same as above & generate PDF with functioning hyperlinks (or html?

I would like to share an index of files with someone who is overwhelmed by excel. My thought was to provide a pdf document with functioning hyperlinks. I am completely open to alternate suggestions.
1. When I convert the workbook to pdf none of the links function.
2. I thought, to make the index cleaner, it would be nice to hide values if they are the same as the cell above. I tried conditional formatting to turn text white if same as above, but it didn't work for me. Not sure if my conditional formatting formula was wrong, or if it doesn't work because while the ccells may display the same value there are functions?
Any help appreciated or recommendations for a better solution, many thanks