Insert Hyperlinks into Excel or OpenOffice

A hyperlink is used to create a link between two entities. Everybody is familiar with the use of hyperlinks, especially on websites. Using Aspose.Cells, developers can create different kinds of hyperlinks in Microsoft Excel files. This topic discusses what types of hyperlinks are supported by Aspose.Cells and how they can be used in our Excel files.

Adding Hyperlinks

Aspose.Cells allows developers to add hyperlinks to Excel files either using the API or designer spreadsheets (spreadsheets where hyperlinks are created manually and Aspose.Cells is used to import them into other spreadsheets).

Aspose.Cells provides a class, Workbook that represents a Microsoft Excel file. The Workbook class contains a WorksheetCollection that allows access to each worksheet in the Excel file. A worksheet is represented by the Worksheet class. The Worksheet class provides different methods for adding different hyperlinks to Excel files.

Adding Link to a URL

The Worksheet class contains a getHyperlinks() collection. Each item in the getHyperlinks() collection represents a Hyperlink. Add hyperlinks to URLs by calling the Hyperlinks collection’s add method. The add method takes the following parameters:

Cell name, the name of the cell the hyperlink will be added to.
Number of rows, the number of rows in this hyperlink range.
Number of columns, the number of columns in this hyperlink range.
URL, the URL address.

	const path = require("path");
	const AsposeCells = require("aspose.cells.node");

	// The path to the documents directory.
	const dataDir = path.join(__dirname, "data");

	// Create directory if it is not already present.
	const fs = require("fs");
	if (!fs.existsSync(dataDir)) {
	fs.mkdirSync(dataDir);
	}

	// Instantiating a Workbook object
	let workbook = new AsposeCells.Workbook();

	// Obtaining the reference of the first worksheet
	let worksheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(0);

	// Adding a hyperlink to a URL at "A1" cell
	worksheet.getHyperlinks().add("A1", 1, 1, "http://www.aspose.com");

	// Saving the Excel file
	workbook.save(path.join(dataDir, "output.out.xls"));

view raw Cells-Data-Hyperlinks-AddLinkToURL.js hosted with ❤ by GitHub

In the above example, a hyperlink is added to a URL in an empty cell, A1. In such cases, if a cell is empty then the URL address is also added to that empty cell as its value. If the cell is not empty and a hyperlink is added, the value of the cell looks like plain text. To make it look like a hyperlink, apply the appropriate formatting settings on that cell.

Adding a Link to a Cell in the Same File

It is possible to add hyperlinks to cells in the same Excel file by calling the Hyperlinks collection’s add method. The add method works for both internal and external hyperlinks. One version of the overloaded method takes the following parameters:

Cell name, the name of the cell the hyperlink will be added to.
Number of rows, the number of rows in this hyperlink range.
Number of columns, the number of columns in this hyperlink range.
URL, the address of the target cell.

	const path = require("path");
	const AsposeCells = require("aspose.cells.node");

	// The path to the documents directory.
	const dataDir = path.join(__dirname, "data");

	// Create directory if it is not already present.
	const fs = require("fs");
	if (!fs.existsSync(dataDir)) {
	fs.mkdirSync(dataDir);
	}

	// Instantiating a Workbook object
	let workbook = new AsposeCells.Workbook();

	// Adding a new worksheet to the Workbook object
	workbook.getWorksheets().add();

	// Obtaining the reference of the first (default) worksheet
	let worksheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(0);

	// Adding an internal hyperlink to the "B3" cell of the other worksheet "Sheet2" in
	// The same Excel file
	worksheet.getHyperlinks().add("B3", 1, 1, "Sheet2!B9");

	// Saving the Excel file
	workbook.save(path.join(dataDir, "output.out.xls"));

view raw Cells-Data-Hyperlinks-AddLinkToCell.js hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Adding a Link to an External File

It is possible to add hyperlinks to external Excel files by calling the Hyperlinks collection’s add method. The add method takes the following parameters:

Cell name, the name of the cell the hyperlink will be added to.
Number of rows, the number of rows in this hyperlink range.
Number of columns, the number of columns in this hyperlink range.
URL, the address of the target, external Excel file.

	const path = require("path");
	const AsposeCells = require("aspose.cells.node");

	// The path to the documents directory.
	const dataDir = path.join(__dirname, "data");

	// Instantiating a Workbook object
	const workbook = new AsposeCells.Workbook();

	// Adding a new worksheet to the Excel object
	const i = workbook.getWorksheets().add();

	// Obtaining the reference of the newly added worksheet by passing its sheet index
	const worksheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(i);

	// Adding an internal hyperlink to the "B9" cell of the other worksheet "Sheet2" in
	// The same Excel file
	worksheet.getHyperlinks().add("A5", 1, 1, path.join(dataDir, "book1.xls"));

	// Saving the Excel file
	workbook.save(path.join(dataDir, "output.out.xls"));

view raw Cells-Data-Hyperlinks-AddLinkToExternalFile.js hosted with ❤ by GitHub

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