How to add a hyperlink to another worksheet

Ekaterina Bespalaya by , updated on

In this article I'll show you 3 ways how you can add hyperlinks into your Excel workbook to easily navigate between numerous worksheets. You'll also learn how to change a link destination and modify its format. If you don't need a hyperlink any more, you'll see how to quickly remove it.

If you are a real Internet surfer, you know firsthand about the bright sides of hyperlinks. Clicking on hyperlinks you instantly get access to other information no matter where it is located. But do you know the benefits of spreadsheet hyperlinks in Excel workbooks? The time has come to discover them and start using this great Excel feature.

One of the ways you can put spreadsheet hyperlinks to good use is to create a table of contents of your workbook. Excel internal hyperlinks will help you to quickly jump to the necessary part of the workbook without hunting through multiple worksheets.

If you need to add a hyperlink in Excel 2016 or 2013, you can choose one of the following hyperlink types: a link to an existing or new file, to a web page or e-mail address. Since the subject of this article is creating a hyperlink to another worksheet in the same workbook, below you'll find out three ways to do that.

The first method of creating a hyperlink within one workbook is to use the Hyperlink command.

  1. Select a cell where you want to insert a hyperlink.
  2. Right-click on the cell and choose the Hyperlink option from the context menu.
    Click on Hyperlink in the context menu to open the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.
    The Insert Hyperlink dialog window appears on the screen.
  3. Choose Place in This Document in the Link to section if your task is to link the cell to a specific location in the same workbook.
  4. Select the worksheet that you want to link to in the Or select a place in this document field.
  5. Enter the cell address in the Type the cell reference box if you want to link to a certain cell of another worksheet.
  6. Enter a value or name into the Text to display box to represent the hyperlink in the cell.
    Choose the worksheet and enter the cell address to add a hyperlink.
  7. Click OK.
    Click OK to see a hyperlink in a cell.

The cell content becomes underlined and highlighted in blue. It means that the cell contains the hyperlink. To check if the link works, just hover the pointer over the underlined text and click on it to go to the specified location.

Excel has a HYPERLINK function that you can also use for creating links between spreadsheets in the workbook. If you are not good at entering Excel formulas immediately in the Formula bar, do the following:

  1. Select the cell to which you want to add a hyperlink.
  2. Go to Function Library on the FORMULAS tab.
  3. Open the Lookup & Reference drop-down list and choose HYPERLINK.
    Click on HYPERLINK in the Lookup & Reference drop-down menu to start entering the formula.
    Now you can see the function name in the Formula bar. Just enter the following two HYPERLINK function arguments in the dialog window: link_location and friendly_name.

    In our case link_location refers to a specific cell in another Excel worksheet and friendly_name is the jump text to display in the cell.
    Fill in the link_location and friendly_name text boxes in the Function Arguments dialog window.

    Note. It's not a must to enter friendly_name. But if you want the hyperlink to look neat and clear, I'd recommend to do it. If you don't type in friendly_name, the cell will display the link_location as the jump text.

  4. Fill in the Link_location text box.
    Click on the Select range icon to pick the destination cell.

    Tip. If you don't know what address to enter, just use the Select range icon to pick the destination cell.

    The address displays in the Link_location text box.
    Click Enter or the Select range icon again to display the address in the Link_location text box.

  5. Add the number sign (#) before the specified location.
    Add the number sign before the specified location to indicate that the location is within the same workbook.

    Note. It is crucial to type the number sign. It indicates that the location is within the current workbook. If you forget to enter it, the link won't work and an error will appear when you click on it.

    When you move to the Friendly_name text box, you see the formula result in the bottom-left corner of the Function Arguments dialog.

  6. Enter Friendly_name that you want to display in the cell.
  7. Click OK.
    Click OK to insert a hyperlink into a cell and to see the hyperlink formula in the formula bar.

Here you are! Everything is as it should be: the formula is in the Formula bar, the link is in the cell. Click on the link to check where it follows.

The quickest way of creating hyperlinks within one workbook is using the drag-and-drop technique. Let me show you how it works.

As an example, I'll take a workbook of two sheets and create a hyperlink in Sheet 1 to a cell in Sheet 2.

Note. Make sure that the workbook is saved because this method doesn't work in new workbooks.

  1. Select the hyperlink destination cell in Sheet 2.
  2. Point to one of the cell borders and right-click.
    Point to one of the cell borders and right-click to grab the cell.
  3. Hold the button and go down to the sheet tabs.
    Right-click and hold down the button to drag the cell into the other worksheet.
  4. Press the Alt key and mouse over the Sheet 1 tab.

    Having the Alt key pressed automatically takes you to the other sheet. Once Sheet 1 is activated, you can stop holding the key.
  5. Keep dragging to the place where you want to insert a hyperlink.
    Have the Alt key pressed to switch to the other sheet.
  6. Release the right mouse button for the popup menu to appear.
  7. Choose Create Hyperlink Here from the menu.
    Release the right mouse button and choose Create Hyperlink Here from the popup menu.

After you do that, the hyperlink appears in the cell. When you click on it, you'll switch to the destination cell in Sheet 2.

No doubt that dragging is the fastest way to insert a hyperlink into an Excel worksheet. It combines several operations into a single action. It takes you less time, but a bit more attention concentration than two other methods. So it's up to you which way
to go.

You can edit an existing hyperlink in your workbook by changing its destination, its appearance, or the text that is used to represent it.

As this article deals with hyperlinks between spreadsheets of the same workbook, the hyperlink destination in this case is a specific cell from another spreadsheet. If you want to change the hyperlink destination, you need to modify the cell reference or choose another sheet. You can do both, if necessary.

  1. Right-click the hyperlink you want to edit.
  2. Choose Edit Hyperlink from the popup menu.
    Right-click and choose Edit Hyperlink to open the Edit Hyperlink dialog box.
    The Edit Hyperlink dialog box appears on the screen. You see that it looks the same as the Insert Hyperlink dialog and has the identical fields and layout.
    Make changes in the appropriate fields of the Edit Hyperlink dialog.

    Note. There are, at least, two more ways to open the Edit Hyperlink dialog. You can press Ctrl + K or click on Hyperlink in the Links group on the INSERT tab. But don't forget to select the necessary cell before doing it.

  3. Update the information in the appropriate fields of the Edit Hyperlink dialog.
  4. Click OK and check where the hyperlink jumps to now.

    Note. In case you used Method 2 to add a hyperlink in Excel, you need to edit the formula to change the hyperlink destination. Select the cell that contains the link, and then place the cursor in the Formula bar to edit it.

Most of the time hyperlinks are shown as an underlined text of blue color. If the typical appearance of hyperlink text seems to you boring and you'd like to stand out of the crowd, go ahead and read below how to do it:

  1. Go to the Styles group on the HOME tab.
  2. Open the Cell Styles list.
  3. Right-click on Hyperlink to change the appearance of the hyperlink that was not clicked. Or right-click Followed Hyperlink if the hyperlink was activated.
  4. Choose the Modify option from the context menu.
    Right-click on Hyperlink or Followed Hyperlink and choose Modify to open the Styles dialog box.
  5. Click on Formatin the Styles dialog box.
  6. Make the necessary changes in the Format Cells dialog window. Here you can change the hyperlink alignment and font or add fill color.
  7. When you are done, click OK.
  8. Make sure that all the changes are marked under Style includes in the Style dialog box.
  9. Press OK.
    Make the changes in the Format Cells dialog window and have them marked in the Style dialog box.

Now you can enjoy a new individual style of the hyperlinks in your workbook. Pay attention that the changes you made affect all the hyperlinks in the current workbook. You can't change the appearance of a single hyperlink.

It will take you a few seconds and no efforts to delete a hyperlink from the worksheet.

  1. Right-click the hyperlink you want to remove.
  2. Choose the Remove Hyperlink option from the popup menu.
    Right-click on the cell and choose Remove Hyperlink to delete the hyperlink from the worksheet.

The text remains in the cell, but it is no longer a hyperlink.

Note. If you want to delete a hyperlink and the text that represents it, right-click the cell that contains the link and choose the Clear Contents option from the menu.

This trick helps you to delete a single hyperlink. If you want to know how to remove multiple (all) hyperlinks from Excel worksheets at a time, follow the link to our previous blog post.

I hope that in this article you saw the simplicity and effectiveness of using internal hyperlinks in a workbook. Just a few clicks to create, jump and discover the massive content of complex Excel documents.

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