Question

I have a spreadsheet with thousands of rows. Each row contains a hyperlink with a path.

The path is not valid, however easily fixable by replacing first part of it with correct value.

Example: current hyperlink: F:\Help\index.html

Needed: P:\SystemHelp\index.html

The problem is that standard Find/Replace does not “see” content of hyperlinks.

Is the only way to write a macro or is there another way to do it?

Answer 1

I don’t know of another way besides a macro. But looks like somebody already wrote one to do it.

Public Sub ReplaceHyperlinkURL(FindString As String, ReplaceString As String) Dim LinkURL As String Dim PreStr As String Dim PostStr As String Dim NewURL As String Dim FindPos As Integer Dim ReplaceLen As Integer Dim URLLen As Integer Dim MyDoc As Worksheet Dim MyCell As Range On Error GoTo ErrHandler Set MyDoc = ActiveSheet For Each MyCell In MyDoc.UsedRange If MyCell.Hyperlinks.Count > 0 Then LinkURL = MyCell(1).Hyperlinks(1).Address FindPos = InStr(1, LinkURL, FindString) If FindPos > 0 Then 'If FindString is found ReplaceLen = Len(FindString) URLLen = Len(LinkURL) PreStr = Mid(LinkURL, 1, FindPos - 1) PostStr = Mid(LinkURL, FindPos + ReplaceLen, URLLen) NewURL = PreStr & ReplaceString & PostStr MyCell(1).Hyperlinks(1).Address = NewURL 'Change the URL End If End If Next MyCell Exit Sub ErrHandler: MsgBox ("ReplaceHyperlinkURL error") End Sub Public Sub WBReplaceHyperlinkURL(FindString As String, ReplaceString As String) 'For all sheets in the workbook Dim LinkURL As String Dim PreStr As String Dim PostStr As String Dim NewURL As String Dim FindPos As Integer Dim ReplaceLen As Integer Dim URLLen As Integer Dim MyDoc As Worksheet Dim MyCell As Range On Error GoTo ErrHandler For Each WS In Worksheets WS.Activate Set MyDoc = ActiveSheet For Each MyCell In MyDoc.UsedRange If MyCell.Hyperlinks.Count > 0 Then LinkURL = MyCell(1).Hyperlinks(1).Address FindPos = InStr(1, LinkURL, FindString) If FindPos > 0 Then 'If FindString is found ReplaceLen = Len(FindString) URLLen = Len(LinkURL) PreStr = Mid(LinkURL, 1, FindPos - 1) PostStr = Mid(LinkURL, FindPos + ReplaceLen, URLLen) NewURL = PreStr & ReplaceString & PostStr MyCell(1).Hyperlinks(1).Address = NewURL 'Change the URL End If End If Next MyCell Next WS MsgBox ("Hyperlink Replacement Complete") Exit Sub ErrHandler: MsgBox ("ReplaceHyperlinkURL error") End Sub

The code must be placed in a VBA code module. From a spreadsheet, open
the VBA Editor in the developer ribbon. The developer ribbon can be
turned on in the popular tab of Excel Options. Then select Insert –
Module from the menu. Copy the code and paste it into the module. Then
save the module.

In order to run the procedure, create a macro that contains following
line and run the macro in Excel. Be sure to replace the FindText with
the portion of the address you want to find and ReplaceText with the
text you want to replace it with.

Call ReplaceHyperlinkURL("FindText", "ReplaceText")

Please be sure to make a backup copy of your spreadsheet before
running the macro just in case an error is made in the FindText or
ReplaceText. If you want to perform the search and replace on all
sheets in the workbook, use the WBReplaceHyperlinkURL routine rather
than ReplaceHyperlinkURL.