Hyperlinks and Tooltips

File Format Support (click to show)

Traditional spreadsheet software, including Excel, support "Cell Links". The entire cell text is clickable.

Modern spreadsheet software, including Numbers, support "Span Links". Links are applied to text fragments within the cell content. This mirrors HTML semantics.

Formats	Link	Tooltip	Link Type
XLSX / XLSM	✔	✔	Cell Link
XLSB	✔	✔	Cell Link
XLS (BIFF8)	✔	✔	Cell Link
XLML	✔	✔	Cell Link
ODS / FODS / UOS	✔		Span Link
HTML	✔	✕	Span Link
NUMBERS	✔	✕	Span Link

X (✕) marks features that are not supported by the file formats. For example, the NUMBERS file format does not support custom tooltips.

For "Span Link" formats, parsers apply the first hyperlink to the entire cell and writers apply the hyperlink to the entire cell text.

Spreadsheet hyperlinks are clickable references to other locations. They serve the same role as the HTML <a> tag.

Spreadsheet applications can process "internal" (cells, ranges, and defined names) and "external" (websites, email addresses, and local files) references.

SheetJS hyperlink objects are stored in the l key of cell objects. Hyperlink objects include the following fields:

• Target (required) describes the reference.
• Tooltip is the tooltip text. Tooltips are shown when hovering over the text.

For example, the following snippet creates a link from cell A1 to https://sheetjs.com with the tip "Find us @ SheetJS.com!":

/* create worksheet with cell A1 = "https://sheetjs.com" */
var ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet([["https://sheetjs.com"]]);

/* add hyperlink */
ws["A1"].l = {
  Target: "https://sheetjs.com",
  Tooltip: "Find us @ SheetJS.com!"
};

Following traditional software, hyperlinks are applied to entire cell objects. Some formats (including HTML) attach links to text spans. The parsers apply the first link to the entire cell. Writers apply links to the entire cell text.

Excel does not automatically style hyperlinks. They will be displayed using the default cell style.

SheetJS Pro Basic includes support for general hyperlink styling.

External Hyperlinks

Spreadsheet software will typically launch other programs to handle external hyperlinks. For example, clicking a "Web Link" will open a new browser window.

Web Links

HTTP and HTTPS links can be used directly:

ws["A2"].l = { Target: "https://docs.sheetjs.com/docs/csf/features/hyperlinks#web-links" };
ws["A3"].l = { Target: "http://localhost:7262/yes_localhost_works" };

Live Example (click to hide)

/* The live editor requires this function wrapper */
function ExportSimpleLink() { return ( <button onClick={() => {
  /* Create worksheet */
  var ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet([ [ "Link", "No Link" ] ]);
  /* Add link */
  ws["A1"].l = {
    Target: "https://sheetjs.com",
    Tooltip: "Find us @ SheetJS.com!"
  };

  /* Export to file (start a download) */
  var wb = XLSX.utils.book_new();
  XLSX.utils.book_append_sheet(wb, ws, "Sheet1");
  XLSX.writeFile(wb, "SheetJSSimpleLink.xlsx");
}}><b>Export XLSX!</b></button> ); }

Mail Links

Excel also supports mailto email links with subject line:

ws["A4"].l = { Target: "mailto:ignored@dev.null" };
ws["A5"].l = { Target: "mailto:ignored@dev.null?subject=Test Subject" };

Live Example (click to show)

This demo creates a XLSX spreadsheet with a mailto email link. The email address input in the form never leaves your machine.

/* The live editor requires this function wrapper */
function ExportRemoteLink() {
  const [email, setEmail] = React.useState("ignored@dev.null");
  const set_email = React.useCallback((evt) => setEmail(evt.target.value));

  /* Callback invoked when the button is clicked */
  const xport = React.useCallback(() => {
    /* Create worksheet */
    var ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet([ [ "HTTPS", "mailto" ] ]);
    /* Add links */
    ws["A1"].l = { Target: "https://sheetjs.com" };
    ws["B1"].l = { Target: `mailto:${email}` };

    /* Export to file (start a download) */
    var wb = XLSX.utils.book_new();
    XLSX.utils.book_append_sheet(wb, ws, "Sheet1");
    XLSX.writeFile(wb, "SheetJSRemoteLink.xlsx");
  });

  return ( <>
    <b>Email: </b><input type="text" value={email} onChange={set_email} size="50"/>
    <br/><button onClick={xport}><b>Export XLSX!</b></button>
  </> );
}

Local Links

Links to absolute paths should use the file:// URI scheme:

ws["B1"].l = { Target: "file:///SheetJS/t.xlsx" }; /* Link to /SheetJS/t.xlsx */
ws["B2"].l = { Target: "file:///c:/SheetJS.xlsx" }; /* Link to c:\SheetJS.xlsx */

Links to relative paths can be specified without a scheme:

ws["B3"].l = { Target: "SheetJS.xlsb" }; /* Link to SheetJS.xlsb */
ws["B4"].l = { Target: "../SheetJS.xlsm" }; /* Link to ../SheetJS.xlsm */

Relative Paths have undefined behavior in the SpreadsheetML 2003 format. Excel 2019 will treat a ..\ parent mark as two levels up.

Internal Hyperlinks

Links where the target is a cell or range or defined name in the same workbook ("Internal Links") are marked with a leading hash character:

ws["C1"].l = { Target: "#E2" }; /* Link to cell E2 */
ws["C2"].l = { Target: "#Sheet2!E2" }; /* Link to cell E2 in sheet Sheet2 */
ws["C3"].l = { Target: "#SheetJSDName" }; /* Link to Defined Name */

Live Example (click to show)

This demo creates a workbook with two worksheets. In the first worksheet:

• Cell A1 ("Same") will link to the range B2:D4 in the first sheet
• Cell B1 ("Cross") will link to the range B2:D4 in the second sheet
• Cell C1 ("Name") will link to the range in the defined name SheetJSDN

The defined name SheetJSDN points to the range A1:B2 in the second sheet.

/* The live editor requires this function wrapper */
function ExportInternalLink() { return ( <button onClick={() => {
  /* Create empty workbook */
  var wb = XLSX.utils.book_new();

  /* Create worksheet */
  var ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet([ [ "Same", "Cross", "Name" ] ]);
  XLSX.utils.book_append_sheet(wb, ws, "Sheet1");

  /* Create links */
  ws["A1"].l = { Target: "#B2:D4", Tooltip: "Same-Sheet" };
  ws["B1"].l = { Target: "#Sheet2!B2:D4", Tooltip: "Cross-Sheet" };
  ws["C1"].l = { Target: "#SheetJSDN", Tooltip: "Defined Name" };

  /* Create stub Sheet2 */
  var ws2 = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet([["This is Sheet2"]]);
  XLSX.utils.book_append_sheet(wb, ws2, "Sheet2");

  /* Create defined name */
  wb.Workbook = {
    Names: [{Name: "SheetJSDN", Ref:"Sheet2!A1:B2"}]
  }

  /* Export to file (start a download) */
  XLSX.writeFile(wb, "SheetJSInternalLink.xlsx");
}}><b>Export XLSX!</b></button> ); }

Some third-party tools like Google Sheets do not correctly parse hyperlinks in XLSX documents. A workaround was added in library version 0.18.12.

Tooltips

Tooltips are attached to hyperlink information. There is no way to specify a tooltip without assigning a cell link.

Excel has an undocumented tooltip length limit of 255 characters.

Writing longer tooltips is currently permitted by the library but the generated files will not open in Excel.

HTML

The HTML DOM parser¹ will process <a> links in the table.

Live Example (click to hide)

This example uses table_to_book to generate a SheetJS workbook object from a HTML table. The hyperlink in the second row will be parsed as a cell-level link.

/* The live editor requires this function wrapper */
function ExportHyperlink() {

  /* Callback invoked when the button is clicked */
  const xport = React.useCallback(() => {
    /* Create worksheet from HTML DOM TABLE */
    const table = document.getElementById("TableLink");
    const wb = XLSX.utils.table_to_book(table);

    /* Export to file (start a download) */
    XLSX.writeFile(wb, "SheetJSHTMLHyperlink.xlsx");
  });

  return ( <>
    <button onClick={xport}><b>Export XLSX!</b></button>
    <table id="TableLink"><tbody><tr><td>
      Do not click here, for it is link-less.
    </td></tr><tr><td>
      <a href="https://sheetjs.com">Click here for more info</a>
    </td></tr></tbody></table>
  </> );
}

The HTML writer² will generate <a> links.

Live Example (click to hide)

This example creates a worksheet where A1 has a link and B1 does not. The sheet_to_html function generates an HTML table where the topleft table cell has a standard HTML link.

/* The live editor requires this function wrapper */
function ExportALinks() {
  const [ __html, setHTML ] = React.useState("");
  React.useEffect(() => {
    /* Create worksheet */
    var ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet([ [ "Link", "No Link" ] ]);
    /* Add link */
    ws["A1"].l = {
      Target: "https://sheetjs.com",
      Tooltip: "Find us @ SheetJS.com!"
    };

    /* Generate HTML */
    setHTML(XLSX.utils.sheet_to_html(ws));
  }, []);

  return ( <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{__html}}/> );
}

Miscellany

Extract all links from a file (click to show)

The following example iterates through each worksheet and each cell to find all links. The table shows sheet name, cell address, and target for each link.

function SheetJSParseLinks() {
  const [rows, setRows] = React.useState([]);

  return ( <>
    <input type="file" onChange={async(e) => {
      let rows = [];
      /* parse workbook */
      const file = e.target.files[0];
      const data = await file.arrayBuffer();
      const wb = XLSX.read(data);

      const html = [];
      wb.SheetNames.forEach(n => {
        var ws = wb.Sheets[n]; if(!ws) return;
        var ref = XLSX.utils.decode_range(ws["!ref"]);
        for(var R = 0; R <= ref.e.r; ++R) for(var C = 0; C <= ref.e.c; ++C) {
          var addr = XLSX.utils.encode_cell({r:R,c:C});
          if(!ws[addr] || !ws[addr].l) continue;
          var link = ws[addr].l;
          rows.push({ws:n, addr, Target: link.Target});
        }
      });
      setRows(rows);
    }}/>
    <table><tr><th>Sheet</th><th>Address</th><th>Link Target</th></tr>
    {rows.map(r => (<tr><td>{r.ws}</td><td>{r.addr}</td><td>{r.Target}</td></tr>))}
    </table>
  </> );
}

Footnotes

1. The primary SheetJS DOM parsing methods are table_to_book, table_to_sheet, and sheet_add_dom ↩

2. HTML strings can be written using bookType: "html" in the write or writeFile methods or by using the dedicated sheet_to_html utility function ↩