The use of hyperlinks in Excel can transform a spreadsheet into an entire filing system.

For example, if you have a spreadsheet that keeps track of your expenditure, imagine how much more organised this would be if, a scanned-in image of every invoice or receipt that you received, could be opened up by a simple click of a hyperlink. This is shown below:

How to Create a Hyperlink in Excel

The easiest way to create a hyperlink in Excel is to use the mouse to right click on a cell, and select Hyperlink from the right-click menu. Excel will then present you with the Insert Hyperlink options window, shown on the right.

Type the text that you want to display in the Excel worksheet into the top Text to display area and then use the options in the window to define your link address.

The available types of hyperlink are listed on the left hand side of the 'Insert Hyperlink' window. These are described, individually, below:

Hyperlink to an Existing File or Web Page

The default option in the 'Insert Hyperlink' window is to create a hyperlink to an Existing File or Web Page. You can either navigate to the file or web page through the 'Insert Hyperlink' window, or you can type the address of the file or web page directly into the Address: field.

If the file you link to is an Excel file, you can set the hyperlink to go to a specified place in the document. To do this, select the Excel file that you want to link to, and then click on the Bookmark... button, which is located on the right hand side of the 'Insert Hyperlink' window. This causes the window shown on the right to appear. This window gives you the option to select a worksheet and specify a cell reference to go to, when the hyperlink is clicked. In the example shown on the right, the hyperlink will take the user to cell B5 on Sheet2 of the selected Excel workbook.

Hyperlink to a Place in This Document

The second option on the left of the 'Insert Hyperlink' window is to Hyperlink to a Place in This Document.

If you select this option, you will be presented with options that allow you to select a worksheet and specify a cell reference within the current Excel workbook. In the example shown on the right, the hyperlink will take the user to cell C3 on Sheet3 of the current Excel workbook.

Hyperlink to a New Document

The third option on the left of the 'Insert Hyperlink' window is to create a hyperlink to a New Document. If you select this option, you will be presented with a window that asks you to specify the name and location of the new document. If you enter these details, and click OK, a new Excel document will be created and hyperlinked to.

Hyperlink to an E-Mail Address

The final option on the left of the 'Insert Hyperlink' window is to create a hyperlink to an e-mail address. Selecting this option allows you to specify an e-mail address to link to, either by typing the address directly into the window, or selecting from recently used e-mail addresses.