Putting More than One Hyperlink in a Cell

Subscriber Kenton Smith asked if there is a way to have more than one hyperlink in a cell. For instance, if you enter keywords on different lines in a cell (by pressing Alt+Enter between each keyword), is it possible to assign a hyperlink to each keyword, independent of the other keywords in the cell.

The short answer is that this cannot be done. Excel only allows you to enter hyperlinks on a cell-by-cell basis. Even if you add the hyperlinks to adjacent cells, and then merge the cells into one, only the first hyperlink is maintained by Excel.

The workaround is to not just rely on native Excel. Instead, you could use the OLE features of Excel to insert objects from programs that do support multiple hyperlinks. For instance, you could follow these general steps:

1. Create a list of keywords in a Word document.
2. Within Word, specify the hyperlinks for each keyword.
3. Select the list of keywords and press Ctrl+C to copy it to the Clipboard.
4. In Excel, choose Paste Special from the Edit menu. Excel displays the Paste Special dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
5. Choose Microsoft Word Document Object in the list of pasting formats.
6. Click on OK.

The Microsoft Word object is now in your document. You can double click on the object at any time, which "activates" it within Word, and then you can click on the hyperlink.

You can also, if desired, add controls from the Forms toolbar to your worksheet, and then assign hyperlinks to the controls. If you position the controls just right, they can appear to be within a single cell.