Hyperlinks: relative and absolute hyperlinks; creating and editing hyperlinks

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. You click a blue underlined word on a website, and a new page opens. You can do the same inside a spreadsheet. But why does a link that works on your computer break on your friend's pen drive? Today we will learn hyperlinks, relative and absolute links, and how to create and edit them in LibreOffice Calc.

First, what is a hyperlink? A hyperlink is clickable text or a button that takes you somewhere else. It can open a website, another file, a cell in another sheet, or a new email. It usually looks blue and underlined. In Calc, you hold Ctrl and click it to open the link.

The Hyperlink dialog in Calc has four types on the left. Internet links open a web page, such as a school website. Mail links open a new email to an address you give. Document links open another file, or jump to a cell or sheet in this file. New Document links create a new file and link to it.

Now, absolute and relative links. An absolute hyperlink stores the full address, starting from the very beginning. For a website, that means the whole address, starting with https. For a file, it starts from the drive, like C colon, School, Marks, term1 dot ods. If that file moves to another folder or computer, the link breaks.

Now the other kind. A relative hyperlink stores only the path starting from where the current file is saved. If both files are in the same folder, the link is just term1 dot ods. Two dots and a slash mean go up to the folder above. Copy the whole project folder to a pen drive, and a relative link still works.

Let us compare them side by side. An absolute link starts from the drive or from https, while a relative link starts from the current file's folder. An absolute link is long, and a relative link is short. If you move the whole folder, an absolute link breaks but a relative link keeps working. So use absolute links for websites, and relative links for your own project files.

Calc lets you choose how links are saved. Open Tools, then Options, then Load and Save, then General. Save URLs relative to file system makes links to files relative. Save URLs relative to internet does the same for web links. When a box is ticked, Calc stores those links as relative paths.

Now let us create a hyperlink. Select the cell where the link should appear. Open the Insert menu and choose Hyperlink, or press Ctrl and K. Pick the type on the left, such as Internet or Document. Type the address in URL, and the words to show in Text. Click OK, and the link appears in the cell.

You can also link to a place inside the same file. Choose Document as the type. Next to Target in document, click the small target button. Choose a sheet, or type a hash sign and the sheet and cell, like Result dot A1. This is useful for an index sheet whose links jump to every other sheet.

Links sometimes need changes. Right-click the cell with the link and choose Edit Hyperlink, which opens the same dialog. Change the address, the text or the type, then click OK. To remove only the link and keep the words, right-click and choose Remove Hyperlink.

Pause and predict. Your link is saved as C colon, Project, data dot ods. You copy the whole Project folder to a pen drive. On your friend's computer, the pen drive is drive E. Does the link work? No, because it is absolute and still looks on drive C, but a relative link would have worked.

Let us revise what we learned today. A hyperlink lets you click to jump to a web page, a file, a cell or an email. An absolute link stores the full path and breaks if the file moves. A relative link starts from the current file's folder, so it travels well with the folder. Create a link from Insert, Hyperlink, or with Ctrl and K. To change it, right-click and choose Edit Hyperlink.