Using Hyperlinks with Other Office Documents

Using Hyperlinks with Other Office Documents

What is a hyperlink? A hyperlink is a '90s term that refers to a piece of text or graphic in a document that links to other documents. You can create your own hyperlinks to move to a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Access file. You can even link to a specific location in a document. When you point to a hyperlink, Word displays the document path (for example, c:\excel\mydocuments\mybudget.xls ) to which the link points. When you click a hyperlink, Excel moves to the location to which the link points. A hyperlink appears in blue (default color ) text in the worksheet.

Hyperlinks are useful when you're distributing your document electronically and expect people to read it onscreen. Make sure that your readers will be able to access the documents to which you link. As an example, if you link a workbook on your local hard drive (C:) instead of a network drive, other people on your network won't be able to jump to the workbook, unless you make the entire contents of your machine available to other users on the network.

You can browse through files on your computer or on a network drive that contain hyperlinks.

Creating the Hyperlink

You need to use the Insert Hyperlink command to create a hyperlink so that you can move among Office documents. Perform the following steps to create a hyperlink to move from an Excel worksheet to the Word document. Once again, you'll be using the My Budget workbook and the Word document you created earlier called My Integration.

1. Click cell B75 on the Summary sheet. This cell will contain the hyperlink that brings you to the Word document.

2. Select Insert, Hyperlink (or press Ctrl+K). Excel opens the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, as shown in Figure 48.8.

   Figure 48.8. The Insert Hyperlink dialog box.

   

3. Click the Browse for File button. Choose the folder, select the file named My Integration, and choose OK.

4. Click OK in the Insert Hyperlink dialog box. The document name is now a hyperlink and appears as blue, underlined text in cell B75.

5. Point to the hyperlink. Notice how the mouse pointer becomes a hand. A ScreenTip containing the filename and path appears below the hyperlink (see Figure 48.9).

   Figure 48.9. The hyperlink and ScreenTip with the pathname.

   

6. Click the hyperlink. Microsoft Word opens and you see the My Integration document.

7. In Word, select File, Exit. This closes the document and Word, and then returns you to the Excel worksheet.

8. Click the Microsoft Excel button on the Windows taskbar. You see the My Budget workbook again. Notice the hyperlink text appears in purple, indicating that the hyperlink is selected.