how to share excel file with accessible (to others) embedded pdf links

Hi MFaulhaber2465,

Couple of things, in order to link to a pdf in Excel (or any other file) right click on the cell you want the link in and select Link. Then navigate to the file itself and click OK. You can customize the text to display line in the example attached.

That being said, the file pdf file does need to be somehow accessible by the recipients computer. So yes a shared network drive is probably best. If the address link points to "C:\..." that is your local computer and it won't work well as the recipient computer won't know anything about your local computer.  If the link looks like "\\servername\sharedFolder" and both your and the recipient computer can access that folder, you're in business.

To your other question, I don't believe you can merge a pdf in an Excel file. I like your thinking here though.