VBA - Excel create a hyperlink using the sheets command and cells method - vba

Question

Q1: The routine below does not work.
Sub test()
TXT = Sheets("INDEX").Cells(2, 1).Value
AKO = Sheets("TOBESEEN").Cells(1, 1).Address
Sheets("INDEX").Hyperlinks.Add Anchor:=Sheets("INDEX").Cells(1, 2), Address:="",
SubAddress:=AKO, TextToDisplay:=TXT
End Sub
Q2. Is there a place where I can see ALL the properties of the cell? When I type the "dot" after cells, VBA DOES NOT GIVE any options.
Like
sheet1.cell(1,2).VALUE
sheet1.cell(1,2).ADDRESS
sheet1.cell(1,2).?
I suspect my problem is related to the definition of AKO, but I am not sure what the correct property is (if not ADDRESS)
Thank you

Answer 1

Q1: Try to use this code:
Sub test()
TXT = CStr(Sheets("INDEX").Cells(2, 1).Value)
AKO = Sheets("TOBESEEN").Cells(1, 1).Address
Sheets("INDEX").Hyperlinks.Add _
Anchor:=Sheets("INDEX").Cells(1, 2), _
Address:="", _
SubAddress:=Sheets("TOBESEEN").Name & "!" & AKO, _
TextToDisplay:=TXT
End Sub
Q2: you can use F2 help. There you can see a list of properties and methods of any object.

Answer 2

When you create a hyperlink in a document, you need to give the "full" address of the cell you are linking to (sheet name and cell address), not just the .Address (which is the absolute address on a given sheet, but doesn't include the sheet information). To get the full address (including the sheet) of a cell, you need to add an additional parameter to the Address():
.Address(External:=True)
which will give you the full address, including workbook and sheet name. Unfortunately, if you create this link and then change the name of the workbook (maybe because you had not saved it up to this point), the link will break.
It is therefore (slightly) more robust to create a link that doesn't include the workbook name. The following routine does this for you. Note that is usually a good idea to split your code into small self-contained functions that do one thing particularly well - you can re-use your code more easily, and the main program becomes easier to read and maintain. I suggest therefore that you create the following function:
Sub addLink(target As Range, location As Range, text As String)
' create a hyperlink with text "text"
' in the cell "location"
' pointing to the range "target"
Dim linkAddress As String
linkAddress = target.Address(external:=True) ' this is the "full" address
'remove everything between brackets - this is the workbook name:
bLeft = InStr(1, linkAddress, "[") ' location of left bracket
bRight = InStr(bLeft, linkAddress, "]") ' location of right bracket
linkAddress = Left(linkAddress, bLeft - 1) + Mid(linkAddress, bRight + 1)
' now create the link:
location.Parent.Hyperlinks.Add _
anchor:=location, _
Address:="", _
SubAddress:=linkAddress, _
TextToDisplay:=text
End Sub
You can call this from your code above as follows:
Dim TXT As String, AKO As Range, LOC As Range ' define types when possible
TXT = Sheets("INDEX").Cells(2, 1).Value ' I called this text
Set AKO = Sheets("TOBESEEN").Cells(1, 1) ' I called this target (note - need Set)
Set LOC = Sheets("INDEX").Cells(1, 2) ' I called this location
addLink AKO, LOC, TXT
As for the second part of your question - "I can't see the properties of Cells()". Yes, that is annoying. It happens that Cells() is a lot like a Range object; you can see in the above that I was able to do Set AKO = Sheets("TOBESEEN").Cells(1,1) which demonstrates this. You can declare a variable as being of the type Range, and then tooltips will work for you:
Dim r As Range
r.
and as you type r. you will see a list of the properties of Range (which are also the properties of Cells):
It is annoying that Cells doesn't just do this by itself. It is annoying that Address() doesn't have an option to include the sheet name and not the workbook name. Excel is full of annoyances. In fact, there is even a book called "Excel Annoyances". And more could be written, I'm sure…
At least there are usually VBA tricks to work around these things and get the job done.