Activating a Hyperlink

Any Web-savvy person knows how to use hyperlinks on a Web page. When you are using a Web browser and you move your mouse pointer over a hyperlink, it changes to a pointing hand. When you click on the mouse button, the Web browser jumps to the Web address that is the target of the hyperlink.

Excel is no different. If you have defined hyperlinks in your workbooks, you use them by moving the mouse pointer over them. The pointer changes to the same pointing hand you use in your Web browser. When you click on the hyperlink, Excel jumps to the location. If necessary, Excel even opens the application program required to display the target. For instance, if the hyperlink is to a location on the Web, your Web browser is opened. If the hyperlink is to a Word document, then Word is opened.

It is interesting to note that you can move the mouse pointer over a hyperlink, and if you leave it poised there (when it is shaped as a pointing hand), a tool tip appears beside the pointer to indicate the target address associated with the hyperlink. This is a handy way to tell where clicking your mouse on a hyperlink would take you, before actually taking the plunge.