Hyperlink not working in Excel

[StefC]

I am new to file sharing on Dropbox and am looking to use Dropbox to house an excel spreadsheet which has hyperlinks to pdf's.  I emailed the spreadsheet as an attachment to my colleague direct from excel and when they opened the spreadsheet and clicked on the hyperlink for the PDF they got an error message stating the PDF's were not available or something along those lines. Note, when I click on the hyperlinks from my computer, they go right to the PDF's with no issue, but I am assuming that's due to the fact that I am working on the PC that has Dropbox downloaded and it's pulling from those files. 

In doing some research, I think what I need to do is move all the data (pdf's and spreadsheet) in a folder that I share with my colleague, so when he opens it he is able to click through to the PDF's. Is that accurate?

[SecretaryBJS]

Hi

This is exactly my problem however I have a query, at what point in the hyperlink do you suggest placing the wildcard  This is an example of a path to a file I want users to access from an Excel spreadsheet - obviously this is my path D:\Dropbox (Busselton Jetty Swim)\2020 Event\2020 Event Management\Compliance Documents\City of Busselton.

thanks

[SecretaryBJS]

Hi, the earlier query may have been answered however I lodged a further query on this same issue. Please advise on where exactly the wildcard should be placed in the hyperlink to link to a document on another user's system.  thanks

[Walter]

Sorry for the late reply @SecretaryBJS; how are you today?

Even though this fall outside the scope of my expertise (perhaps you'd be better off asking in a Microsoft forum), I'll try to help as much as I can with this.

In your example, the wildcard (%HOMEPATH%), will need to replace the 'D:\Dropbox (Busselton Jetty Swim)' portion but note that for this to work, all the members accessing those spreadsheets will need to have their Dropbox Folder on the same location as you (their D drive in this case) in order for those links to not break and be functional as normal.

Note that I'd still suggest you also asked Microsoft directly about how you should go with the task at hand as this is out of our remit. 

I hope this helps to a certain extent and feel free to give this a try but note that YMMV. 

[SecretaryBJS]

Thank you Walter. You are correct, our members have their own 'filing' of shared folders so i am working from the Microsoft end and attempting to link to the web version for certain folders.  Thank you for your suggestion.

[jnewton]

Hi All

We have a shared dropbox folder at work. We have a master document (excel spreadsheet) where we dump the raw data and another spreadsheet where we tidy it up into charts to then print off. On my laptop we have it so when the raw data in the master doc changes the charts in the other document update automatically. However, when someone else accesses the document through dropbox the link cannot be found as the file location is specific to the user that created. For example the cells that are linked read ='/Users/jnewton/Dropbox/ etc.  Then when another user accesses or changes the data in the master document it doesnt update as they are not user 'jnewton' for example. Is there any way around this so all users who have access to the dropbox folder could update the master doc and the other spreadsheet will auto update?

Thank you in advance,

Joe

[Fiona]

Hey Joe @jnewton! Welcome to our Community and your first group discussion. 

I moved your question here. I believe you will find all the answers you are looking for in page 1. 

If not, let me know and I will be back to continue our discussion. 

Thank you! 

[SecretaryBJS]

I had this same issue and looked up MS Office help for the solution - the wild card solution didn't work for me as we have many Dropbox users who have different folder structures, etc.  I simply use the 'copy Dropbox link' from either File Explorer or the web Dropbox, paste into the cell of Excel that I want another user to use to obtain/view the file (either PDF or Word/Excel/etc) and then press 'tab' to make the hyperlink 'live' and the link then takes the user to the Dropbox website version of the file or folder (which ever link is required).  I have found you cannot create a hyperlink using the dialog box of Office/insert link/insert hyperlink because it takes you to the path used by your own system, ie Drive D in my case, even if you point it to 'existing file or webpage' within this dialog box.

[JasonCES]

I'm having this same issue, I think my solution is in this discussion but need help!

The users at our company are using the same spreadsheet but it is synced to their individual computers.  So when I create a hyperlink it looks like this - file:///C:\Users\CES - Jason\Dropbox (CES, LLC)\CES Business Management\ACCOUNTING\CS JOB SUMMARY.xlsx - Summary!A1.  When another user trys to open it after it has synced they can not open it.  If they create a hyperlink it looks like this - file:///C:\Users\CES - Tasa\Dropbox (CES, LLC)\CES Business Management\ACCOUNTING\CS JOB SUMMARY.xlsx - Summary!A1.  And I can't open it after it syncs.  I'm thinking the %HOMEPATH% option would work but i don't know how or where to put it.  BTW - we are on Office 365 and I don't think this happened before we went to it???  HELP!!  THANKS!!

[SecretaryBJS]

I have done some more research and the attached works for me and my team.  Believe me, we are all inexperienced when using Dropbox, especially some members of my team.