Relative vs Absolute hyperlinks

[HDMW]

Hello

I'm having trouble grasping how I can make a relative or an absolute
hyperlink to an external file.

When I browse to the file in the hyperlink men, which is on the file server
in the domain network, I get the full path. But sometimes the path starts
with \\..\..\ instead, and here the links are now for the first part
relative, and don't work on ohter PC's.

I checked the properties of the document, and the hyperlink base field is
empty. If I add something here, some relative links get corrected, some
don't, but when I delete the entry in the hyperlink base field again, the
relative part of these links that were not changed at first are now removed
too.

It's bloody confusing. Does anyone have a clear manual of how this feature
works and what procedure I should follow to get repeatable results? I'm
using Office 2000 by the way.

Thanks in advance.

HDMW

 

[Dave Peterson]

If you always want the absolute address...

A few people have said that this has resolved the problem for them:

In xl2003 menus:
File|Properties|Summary Tab|Hyperlink Base
change it to C:\
(something that's always available)

In xl2007:
Click on the Office button
Choose Prepare, then properties.
Then use the arrow on the Document Properties dropdown
Choose Advanced Properties
And then change the hyperlink base on the Summary tab.

 

[Engin Tarhan]

As far as I know, there is no such thing as "a relative or an absolute
hyperlink to an external file". You can define a hyperlink to an external
excel file as an absolute pointer (or whatever it is called).

Perhaps you are talking about "a relative or an absolute REFERENCE to an
external file. However, external excel files may be referenced only in an
absolute manner, because a relative reference would have no meaningful
starting point.

Decide what you want.

Good luck,

Engin

 

[HDMW]

If you always want the absolute address...

A few people have said that this has resolved the problem for them:

In xl2003 menus:
File|Properties|Summary Tab|Hyperlink Base
change it to C:\
(something that's always available)

That does not seem to work, now all my links point to c:\

Perhaps because I have xl2000?

HDMW

 

[HDMW]

As far as I know, there is no such thing as "a relative or an absolute
hyperlink to an external file". You can define a hyperlink to an external
excel file as an absolute pointer (or whatever it is called).

yes, I know, as I said in my original message. However, it's not working
consistently, sometimes I get an absolute path, sometimes a relative one.
It's not clear why Excel chooses one or the other.

Perhaps you are talking about "a relative or an absolute REFERENCE to an
external file. However, external excel files may be referenced only in an
absolute manner, because a relative reference would have no meaningful
starting point.

Not sure what you mean by reference, but you're right, a relative path to an
external file is useless, however, Excel adds them anyway, that's the
problem

HDMW

 

[Dave Peterson]

Now point your links back to the correct location.

If you have to change lots and lots and lots back...

You could use the code from David McRitchie's site:

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/buildtoc.htm
look for:
Fix Hyperlinks (#FixHyperlinks)

If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm

(If it's just a few, I'd do it manually.)

======
Personally, I like to use the =hyperlink() worksheet function. It has never
failed me this way:

=hyperlink("file:////yourpathtothe/something.xxx","Click me")

I find these much more behaved.

 

[HDMW]

Thanks for the links! I'll go over them carefully and see if this fixes
things

HDMW