Subject: | Microsoft's HYPERLINK function |
Date: | Mon, 21 Mar 2016 09:46:57 -0700 |
To: | <bug-Spreadsheet-XLSX [...] rt.cpan.org> |
From: | "William Barrett" <wbarrett1076 [...] comcast.net> |
I love your spreadsheet program, and am using it on some large databases.
But - I spent several days tracking down a mysterious crash. Finally traced
it to the HYPERLINK function in Excel.
This takes an email address - when enabled - apparently anything containing
one @ - then constructs a HYPERLINK function.
That in turn will open an email handler - Microsoft's, of course - and its
windows.
Obviously impossible to support through Spreadsheet.
So - not a bug - but a complaint that your tool fails to provide a
reasonable report on a problem like this. The complaint comes out as a
crash with several lines of mystery function reports. Not even a clue about
the sheet and cell causing the problem.
HYPERLINK is generated automatically when enabled. It can be enabled or
disabled by going into the Excel options menu, Proofing, autocorrect
Options, Autoformat as you type, Replace as you type Internet and network
paths with hyperlinks.
It took me several Google searches to discover this problem. Setting or
clearing this hyperlink feature once apparently covers any Excel session. I
probably set it long ago for another reason, then forgot about it.
Also, once set, most hyperlink functions can be unwound through a visual
Basic operation - look it up in Google. However, 'most' is my finding -
this fixes most of a batch on a spreadsheet, but leaves many unchanged.
Those can only be changed manually by retyping the entry to leave only the
email address.