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pdrandall's avatar
pdrandall
Copper Contributor
May 26, 2023

Making concatenated links clickable

I have a column of digital object identifiers (DOIs) that are not themselves links. In order to make them links, I used a concatenate function (e.g., =CONCAT("https://doi.org/", F2) in the adjacent column to add "https://doi.org/" to each one. Now I have unique links for each DOI, but they're not clickable. I have to copy the text in the cell and paste it into the browser. How do I make the links clickable directly in Excel? 

 

  • NikolinoDE's avatar
    NikolinoDE
    Gold Contributor

    pdrandall 

    To make the concatenated links clickable in Excel, you can use the Hyperlink function.

    Here is how you can achieve this:

    1. Assuming your original DOIs are in column F and the concatenated links are in column G, select the cells in column G where the links are located.
    2. Right-click on the selected cells and choose "Hyperlink" from the context menu. This will open the Edit Hyperlink dialog box.
    3. In the Edit Hyperlink dialog box, you'll see two sections:
      • "Text to display": This should already show the concatenated link text.
      • "Link": This is where you'll specify the actual link destination.
    4. In the "Link" section, remove any existing link (if any) and enter the formula              =HYPERLINK(F2, "") (assuming F2 is the cell containing the original DOI).                                 Replace F2 with the appropriate cell reference if your DOIs are located in a different column.
    5. Click on the "OK" button to apply the hyperlink to the selected cells.

    Now, the concatenated links in column G will be clickable. When you click on any of the links, Excel will open the default web browser and navigate to the corresponding DOI webpage.

    Note: Keep in mind that the links will be clickable in Excel, but the actual hyperlink functionality will depend on the default web browser and its configuration on your computer.

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