How do I prevent Excel from changing the color of a clicked link?

Question

I'm using Excel 2010. And as most Excel users know, if a cell is also a link, once you click it it turns to this awful purple color. For me this ruins the color coding I'm using to show the status of the item to which the cell is linked.

So my question is, how do I format the cells so that the color (and lack of an underline) remain the same whether the cell has been clicked or not?

Thanks in advance,

Mike

Answer 1

Modify the theme used for a Followed hyperlink to be the same as an unfollowed hyperlink:

1. Page Layout tab of the ribbon
2. Click Colors in the Themes group
3. Click Create New Theme Colors
4. Set Followed Hyperlink color to same as Hyperlink

Answer 2

format the text black

click the underline button twice

once you give the link your own text/cell color format it should keep that format whether it is clicked or not

Answer 3

Using Excel 2010 on Windows 7 (but started on an XP system with a previous Excel version), on a 3 campus LAN, to correlate setting up collegiate science class activities for a department on the campus I work on. I made a sheet showing classes scheduled & labs for them, & associated info, but only our department personnel would use it - maybe 25 people - not persons outside our area. Not yet addressing the question of 'what if they download & save it elsewhere . . . ' question. Right now, they see & read where it is, network drive-wise.

Nothing mathematical in it - purely informational centrality for scheduling & equipment flow / usage purposes, so readability means using various colors to signify things pertinent to the scheduling of items used for class activities. Comments are used for each class cell to describe setup info for both labs & demos for teachers for each class - comments are detailed & not small. Each cell is linked to a picture of a lab setup arrangement for each week in each class - each cell has 2 or 3 colors of text in it & most cells are links. Spreadsheet is side by side with a gigabyte size folder of pictures on the same network drive, so when Excel does it's relative linking thing, links work no matter where it's ported. That, I learned the hard way. Sheet is used by teachers & staff for logistical tracking of our equipment & supplies, but we do not do active on line checkouts of items with it (yet - could, later, & then other sheets would link to this one).

Outside the 15 week (rows) by 10 different classes (columns) portion of the sheet, but still ON the sheet (& there are 4 sheets to the whole work book - 1 sheet for each sub group in our dept), are associated cells with extended info & pix for those same activities. Sheet is a nexus treasure trove of info for anyone wanting info on what is used in our classes for each week. Experienced hands or newbie hires can find something useful on the chart. Whole of largest sheet in workbook is 395 rows by 28 columns, or so (& growing as a work in progress). It's documentation that the next Tek after me can use, as well as current employees.

Yes, if each cell is individually formatted in its own colors, incl underline / bold, etc., Excel keeps the individually assigned colors when links are used - until the link is changed (edited / removed / replanted, etc) - which I did when we updated the sheet this semester & ported it to a network drive for centralized access by staff. Had to change / update the links individually - lots of links - no way around it, that I found or read about, so far. That's what got me to searching for what one can do with Excel & link colors, as well as what can be done with printing comments - lots of comments - long comments don't completely print, either.

I grew up in Excel on this project (& am not saying I'm matured in it, either), & some things would change if I did another class scheduling chart from scratch - but, others would not. Hundreds of links & comments in this thing - by hand is what it is for editing every piece of it, so far; but once set up, links stay in the colors I gave eqch cell's text - without using styles or other global factors - until a link is edited / changed, etc. Thanks to all on all the sites I read (& likely will read more of in the future) - learned a lot whether I used it or not. Lot to learn in Excel.