Is there a way to save all hyperlinked documents in excel? - vba

Question

I know this question has been answered before, but the problem I'm facing is a bit different, and this is why I'm asking for your help :)
So, I'm working with multiple excel files that contain multiple hyperlinks that lead to documents such as Excel files, PDFs, DOCs and sometimes even images. The problem with these hyperlinks is that they are not leading to a "normal" website, but to a special internal software, that in its turn links to a local address on my computer that contatins the desired file. That means that there is no direct link that could be grabbed with a simple VBA code.
Let's have an example, assuming the internal software name is "John":
I see in the Excel documents this link: John://3434545345/345345345
When I click on it, it opens the file, which is located, for example, in: C:/local/Cutekitten.pdf
After this long intro, my question is: Is there a way to automate the process of saving each document, instead of manually opening it and saving it? Could it be solved with a VBA code? Or does is require a different approach? I was actually thinking to bypass this problem by finding a way to open all hyperlinks at once with VBA, and then maybe find some code (not VBA?) that saves all open documents.
P.S Please keep in mind that I can't download EXE files or any other "suspicious" files due to workplace restrictions.
Any help will be much appreciated,
Thanks! :)

Answer 1

You may try this
'''
Input: test.xlsx
name link
1 location/file1.jpg
2 location/file2.xlsx
3 location/file3.pdf
4 location/file4.mp4
'''
from openpyxl import load_workbook
wb = load_workbook('test.xlsx')
print wb.get_sheet_names()
# ['Sheet 1', 'Sheet 2', 'Sheet 3']
ws1 = wb['Sheet 1']
## alternate -> worksheet2 = wb2.get_sheet_by_name('Sheet2')
import urllib
import os
## Result directory
directory = 'result'
if not os.path.exists(directory):
os.makedirs(directory)
for row in ws1:
if '.exe' in row[1].value:
continue
print row[0].value, '\t', row[1].value
urllib.urlretrieve (row[1].value, directory+'/'+row[1].value)
'''
Output:
Table 1 None
None None
name link
1 location/file1.jpg
2 location/file2.xlsx
3 location/file3.pdf
4 location/file4.mp4
'''

Answer 2

Sub PathsText()
Dim List(), Path As String
Dim i, x As Integer
Dim s As InlineShape
Dim fso As FileSystemObject, ts As TextStream
Set fso = New FileSystemObject
Set ts = fso.OpenTextFile("C:\MyFolder\List.txt", 8, True)
With ts
.WriteLine (ActiveDocument.InlineShapes.Count)
End With
For Each s In ActiveDocument.InlineShapes
Path = s.LinkFormat.SourcePath & "\" _
& s.LinkFormat.SourceName
With ts
.WriteLine (Path)
End With
Next s
End Sub
I guess the important part is if "Path = s.LinkFormat.SourcePath" works.
If so, if you have a ton of excel files to do it for, I'd put those (the ones with the links) in one folder. I'd make a new empty workbook with one button on a single sheet to call code. The button would "For Each workbook in directory, For Each sheet in workbook, For Each link on sheet" add source path to a text file.
Once you had a list of paths the next step would be obvious. I wish I had demo code, but I migrated to c# years ago. My monstrously slow cell-by-cell search, modify and graph inventions threatened to bury me.