A hyperlink is an item in a file that links to another location in the same file, or to another file altogether. Word processing documents, workbooks, and web pages, are all types of files that can contain hyperlinks. When you click on a hyperlink, the file, or location that is associated with the link will appear on your screen. The files connected by hyperlinks do not have to be in the same directory, or even on the same computer. In fact, you can have a hyperlink in one file that links to a file thousands of miles away. The World Wide Web makes extensive use of hyperlinks, to link web pages. The web is the place where most computer users become familiar with hyperlinks.

Quite often, hyperlinks come in the form of an underlined word or phrase in a bright blue font (Like This). This does not have to be the case though, as hyperlinks can be a word, a phrase, a symbol, or a picture. Each hyperlink, has a statement called a URL (uniform resource locater) associated with it. The URL tells where the file or object that the hyperlink points to is located, and what protocol should be used to retrieve it. A typical URL that you might see in the address bar of your web browser could look something like http://www.something.org. When you click on a hyperlink, the information in the URL associated with it is used to locate and retrieve the linked file or object.

This is an Excel worksheet that contains two hyperlinks.

In this lesson, you will learn about Hyperlinks and the Internet. You will learn how to insert hyperlinks into a worksheet, how to modify hyperlinks in a worksheet, and how to browse hyperlinks. At the end of the lesson, you will be introduced to Excel’s Web toolbar.