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Tips.Net > ExcelTips Home > Online and Web > Linking to a Specific Page in a PDF File

Linking to a Specific Page in a PDF File

Summary: The HYPERLINK function is great for linking to Web pages and some other resources, but it won’t allow you to access a target page in a PDF file. Instead, you may need to use a macro that accesses the desired destination. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007.)

Gary wants to link from an Excel worksheet to a specific page in a PDF file. He can get Excel to link to the PDF but it starts on the first page of the PDF, not the page he wants. Gary believes that Excel is ignoring the PDF command that tells it the page he wants. As an example, he can use the formula =HYPERLINK("E:\\test\gary.pdf#5") and Excel ignores the #5 part and opens to the first page of the PDF.

This does, indeed, seem to be the case, Gary. The HYPERLINK worksheet function seems to ignore the page specification for some strange reason. There also doesn't seem to be a way around this problem with the function.

Fortunately, you can use a macro to do the opening, if you desire. The following macro relies upon Internet Explorer to open the PDF and display the proper page:

Sub OpenPDFpage()
    Dim myLink As String
    Dim TargetPage As Double
    Dim objIE As New InternetExplorer

    myLink = "path/filename.pdf"
    TargetPage = 7   'Page number to be shown

    With objIE
        .Navigate myLink & "#page=" & TargetPage
        .Visible = True
    End With
End Sub

The code could also be rather easily changed to a function to which you can pass the desired path and target page.

Tip #3350 applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007


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