XL97: Unusual Behavior When You Use the HYPERLINK Function

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel 97, if a formula in a cell contains the HYPERLINK worksheet function, the following behavior may occur:

• When the hyperlink that the formula references is not available, and you use the mouse to point to the cell that contains the formula, the pointer becomes a pointing hand.

      -and-
  

• When the hyperlink is not available, and you click the cell that contains the formula, you receive the error message "Cannot open the specified file."

      -and-
  

• When the hyperlink is available, it is not underlined like other hyperlinks.

CAUSE

This problem occurs if you nest the HYPERLINK function in an IF function. For example, the problem occurs when you type the following formula into a cell:

   =IF(A1<10,HYPERLINK("http://msnbc.com","Welcome to MSNBC!"),
      "No link!")

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

In Microsoft Excel 97, the HYPERLINK worksheet function allows you to create a hyperlink to a World Wide Web page or other Internet resource. The function accepts two arguments, a reference to a location, that is, either a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or a document name; and the text string that appears in the cell.

REFERENCES

For more information about the HYPERLINK function, click the Index tab in Microsoft Excel Help, type the following text

   hyperlink