Make Links Live in Excel

Some time ago, we had a Microsoft Excel macro developed that would automatically make up to 10,000 rows of links “live” in a spreadsheet, the way they should work in Excel anyway.

Now, we’ve made it a free Add-in for Excel, putting a one-click button (Excel 2007 or 2010) right on the data tab.  One click makes dozens, or even thousands of links all “clickable”.

Steps for use below (or watch the 3 minute video to the right):

1. Download (Save As) the Excel Add-in here

(updated 10/25/2011 – If you already installed this before, just overwrite your old file with this one – No need to reinstall – Now works for email addresses, secure URL’s, and almost anything else you can think of.

2. After downloading the Add-in, to install it, open Microsoft Excel 2007 or 2010, and go to the top left “Office” circle, and then to the bottom for Excel Options

3. Go to the add-ins button, ensure that Excel Add-ins is selected, and hit GO

4. Browse to wherever you saved it, and install it

5. Access the new Make Links Live button on the data tab, and enjoy!

That’s it!

Older Macro Version for Excel 2k – 2003:

(For those that use older versions of Office, you can still get the macro and all of the original instructions and the macro download are below… It will NOT add a button, and the macro is tedious by comparison, since you have to install it for on every spread sheet)

Isn’t it a shame that MS Excel is just “too stupid” to do this automatically? That’s why we’ve made a spreadsheet with the embedded macro for our members.

Directions for use:
1. Download the spreadsheet (at the bottom of this page after login). When you open it, note the “security” warning that will appear (in Excel 2007) above column A.

This “warning” simply tells you there’s a macro that you need to enable.

2. Hit “Options” to enable the macro by choosing “Enable This Content” and checking the radio button that says “Enable macros in this document”.

3. Import or paste your links into an empty version of the spreadsheet. Currently, in the file you download, column A is labeled for URL’s, but thats not a requirement, so feel free to change it.

4. Then all you have to do is click on the top link in the column that you wish to “activate”, and press the button to make all of your links instantly live.

5. Feel free to leave comments about this tool here and/or Stumble, Digg, etc. below.

Download the OLD MACRO HERE for the above instructions.

Remember, these are old instructions for the Macro, and if you have Office 2007 or newer, the Add-on is much better – Get that here – or you can also download download the Add-on at File Fishstick.