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Creating hyperlinks in Excel

BY J. CARLTON COLLINS, CPA

Please note: This item is from our archives and was published in 2013. It is provided for historical reference. The content may be out of date and links may no longer function.

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Q: My accounting software enables me to export my customer data to Excel, but the customers’ email addresses do not show up as clickable hyperlinks. I must edit each email address one at a time to delete the leading apostrophe to convert the text-based email address to clickable email addresses. Is there an easier way to do this?

A: Excel 2010, 2007, and 2003 provide a hyperlink function that converts text to a clickable hyperlink. In the example below, I entered =HYPERLINK(L2) in cell M2, which converts the text-based data in cell L2 into a clickable hyperlink. I then copied this formula (in cell M2) down to convert the other text-based email addresses to clickable email addresses.

Caution: Using the Copy, Paste Values commands to convert the =HYPERLINK formula to regular text removes the hyperlink.