This is the last part in a series describing how to use the Hyperlink tool in Microsoft Excel (see the bottom of this post for links to the first three parts). In this part, I will be showing you how to create a link to an email address in your spreadsheet.

When would this be useful? A good example where I’ve seen this used is for contact information. If you have a user working on a spreadsheet you created (say an order tracking form), and they have a question or problem, they can click on the email link and a new message window will pop-up (in their default email application) with the To address and Subject pre-populated.

Once again, I’m going to make the assumption that you know how to open the Hyperlink tool dialog (as discussed in Part I of this series). From this dialog, select the E-mail Address option in the Link to: box. The result is shown below:

Here is the breakdown of the components of this dialog (labeled by number in the screenshot above):

*Note: For an explanation of the Screen Tip button and the Text to display box, see the first article in this series (link at the bottom of this post).

1 - E-mail address - This is where you will enter the email address that will appear in the To field of the new message window. You’ll notice that once you start typing in this text box, the prefix mailto: will appear in front of your text. This is an HTML operator for links that tells the email program being used how to populate the new message fields. If you just leave mailto:(email address) in this box, then only the To field will be populated. However, you can actually use HTML in this box as well to populate the CC field, BCC field, etc. You can also put a default message in the Body of the email as well.

2 - Subject - Whatever is in this text box will become the Subject of the new email message. This can also be done through the E-mail address text box using mailto and HTML, but it is easier to do it here (as you don’t have to worry about any HTML encoding, it’s done for you).

3 - Recently used email addresses - This is a really useful feature. It will allow you to select a previously used email address string instead of having to retype anything in the E-mail address or Subject text boxes. Where this really comes in handy is if you have previously coded a more complex email address using mailto, and all you want to do is tweak it a bit without having to retype the entire thing.

When you’re done, a new link will appear in your spreadsheet in the cell you have specified. Once a user clicks on this link, a new email message window will appear using whatever is set as the user’s default email program. This email message will have the default values that you have specified when creating the link.

In conclusion, the Hyperlink tool is both very useful and easy to use. It can add a lot of new functionality to your spreadsheets, so give it a shot if you get the chance.

I hope that you found this series of articles on the Hyperlink tool useful. If you have any additional questions, you can always email me via the Contact us page on the sidebar.

Links to previous parts: Part I Part II Part III Part IV