Hyperlinks to web pages in my Excel workbook don't work now

Question

Hyperlinks to web pages, saved in my Excel workbook don't work after upgrade to Windows 7 & new hard drive. Have had this spreadsheet for years. I was always able to click on the link and it launched Chrome and loaded the web page.

I use Chrome. Have been for a long time. I saved the workbook in a newer format. I browsed to some of the sites, logged in, etc. thinking it was a cookie issue. Still not working. Changed cell format from General to Text. No result. Tried CTRL-Click and double click just for fun, nothing. Default settings for HTTP type files is Chrome.

Any ideas, thoughts, solutions? Many thanks!

Answer 1

If the links need one to be logged in to the target website, or are doing some redirecting, then not using Internet Explorer as the default browser might be troublesome. See "Clicking hyperlinks in Email messages becomes painfully slow" here on Super User, for an explanation about the "Microsoft Office Protocol Discovery".

Answer 2

I'll assume it is not a HYPERLINK() function, i.e., the formula bar does not start with =HYPERLINK( .... First, try changing format back from Text to General. Then click in the formula bar, as if you were going to edit the cell text/formula. Then press Enter and see if it re-creates the hyperlink.

Another manual way to put the hyperlink in is to right click on the cell. If Hyperlink appears near the bottom of the context menu that pops up, click on Hyperlink to add a hyperlink. If Edit Hyperlink appears, click on that to verify the location it is navigating to.

You can also verify the hyperlink of a bunch of cells using the macro/formula in this post: Can I use an excel formula to extract the link location of a hyperlink in a cell?.

If the problem is that the text was brought over to the new format, but not the hyperlinks, try something like this to replace all the URL text with hyperlinks.

Sub InsertHyperlinks()
' Inserts hyperlink for all cells that begin with http
    Dim rng As Range
    For Each rng In ActiveSheet.UsedRange
        If Left(rng.Value, 4) = "http" Then
            ActiveSheet.Hyperlinks.Add Anchor:=rng, _
                Address:=rng.Value
        End If
    Next rng
End Sub

Answer 3

We've had a similar problem but through Outlook (links not working). It was resolved by setting IE or Chrome as the default program under "Default Programs" and clicking for it to use all of its defaults.