Excel hyperlink problem - frustrating please help!

[Richdog]

Hi guys, i'm at work at the moment doing the seemingly simple task of creating an Excel worksheet containing a map of the two floors of our office along with hyperlinks containing printer paths that theoretically the users can just click on and up pops the printer window, thereby adding it to printers and faxes.

However when the hyperlink is clicked no window opens, the hyperlink simply turns olive green, though the screen DOES flicker briefly which gives the impression that some form of activity is taking place. The same links work perfectly from Word and also within an email... the problem seems specific to Excel.

Can anyone shed any light on this... is there some obscure auto-formatting option i'm missing?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MarcLister]

What version of Office/Excel is this? So the hyperlinks point to something like '//Network_printer' or something?

Would a button with some vb code not work for this? Do you want the hyperlinks to print the worksheet or just bring up the Print dialog menu so that the user can change the print settings AND then print?

 

[Richdog]

Ok it's Excel 2003, and basically I want the hyperlink to open up the small window that accesses the printer, not printing anything. So for example if the hyperlink is: \\ukcra0700\UK-HP5-09893, when someone clicks this link then generally a small window will appear entitled "UK-HP5-09893 on ukcra0700" and the printer will then be added to their printer list.

Basically our server name is changing this weekend as we speak which will break all the current printer locations they have on their achines, and I am compling a list of printer names and paths so that they can just delete the current ones, then add the new ones under the new paths simply by clicking the hyperlinks.

That make sense?

 

[MarcLister]

Aaaah! I gets ye now. I thought you meant a map of the office to be printed off. Now I see you want a map of the office with printer locations on so that someone can work out where they are in the office, where the nearest printer is and then add that printer to their PC's list of printers?

From what you've said I'm leaning more towards using some buttons with some macros/vb code for this. How exactly are your hyperlinks set up? Do they just literally have the location of the printer in them or is there something else you've added to the link?

Edit - Just thinking that a macro would work here surely. For each printer you'd need a button with a macro attached. The macro code for each button would be identical to the others save for the actual printer name/location.

So you'd record a macro of you adding a printer. Save the macro and attach it to a button for that printer. Repeat this for each printer. Then when someone clicks a button for Printer X it runs the macro you recorded adding that printer to their Printers list.

 

[Richdog]

Aaaah! I gets ye now. I thought you meant a map of the office to be printed off. Now I see you want a map of the office with printer locations on so that someone can work out where they are in the office, where the nearest printer is and then add that printer to their PC's list of printers?

Bingo!

From what you've said I'm leaning more towards using some buttons with some macros/vb code for this. How exactly are your hyperlinks set up? Do they just literally have the location of the printer in them or is there something else you've added to the link?

Edit - Just thinking that a macro would work here surely. For each printer you'd need a button with a macro attached. The macro code for each button would be identical to the others save for the actual printer name/location.

So you'd record a macro of you adding a printer. Save the macro and attach it to a button for that printer. Repeat this for each printer. Then when someone clicks a button for Printer X it runs the macro you recorded adding that printer to their Printers list.

I've never used macros before and not sure I have the time to make one for each and every printer (if that's what you mean). If the hyperlinks work in Word/Outlook then why won't they work in Excel? Surely it's the exact same principle. Each cell simply contains the path to the printer, hyperlinked. Agh.

 

[MarcLister]

I've never used macros before and not sure I have the time to make one for each and every printer (if that's what you mean). If the hyperlinks work in Word/Outlook then why won't they work in Excel? Surely it's the exact same principle. Each cell simply contains the path to the printer, hyperlinked. Agh.

Admittedly I've no idea why this isn't working.

As for macros, just record one. Then when you've assigned it, go to edit it and copy and paste the code into other macros. And change the printer names for each one.