LinkSheet for Microsoft 365

LinkSheet turns cells into hyperlinks to the matching files in a OneDrive folder. A cell that reads 36426 becomes a link to 36426.pdf. Point it at a folder, press Link Files, and the cells on the active worksheet that name a file in that folder are linked to it. Cells that already carry a link, and cells holding formulas, are left as they are. With exact matching nothing is guessed: when two files share a name (the same name in two folders, or Report.pdf beside Report.docx) the first one found is linked and the report names the one it did not use. Exact matching is always tried first. Partial match, which is off by default, is the fallback and works differently — it scores the candidates and links the best one, so it resolves competition rather than refusing it; on a score tie it takes a name only if it is at most half the length of the runner-up, and otherwise reports the cell as ambiguous.

WHAT IT DOES

• Link Files — links the cells on the active worksheet to the files in the OneDrive folder you choose. Cells that hold formulas are never overwritten. The report gives the total and lists up to 200 of the linked cells by address. Where exact matching found more than one file with the same name, it names up to 50 of those cells and up to four unused files for each. Partial match reports the cells it could not decide as ambiguous. Where it does decide, it names only the file it linked — it does not list the candidates it scored and passed over, which the exact-match report does.
• Repair Broken Links — when a workbook moves to OneDrive, links that still point at a PC folder, a network share, or a path relative to where the workbook used to live cannot open in Excel on the web, and open for a colleague only if that colleague can reach the same folder or share. Repair finds the file by its full name, extension included, in your OneDrive folder and re-points the link. It does not test whether a given link still works first, so in Excel for Windows — where a local path can still open — it will convert those links too. The cell's displayed text is kept and only the destination changes. An ordinary link is also given the standard blue underlined styling and, if it had none, a tooltip naming the file; a =HYPERLINK formula keeps its own formatting. Links with a web address or another scheme (https, mailto and the like) are left alone; LinkSheet reads the link text and never opens it.
• Clear Hyperlinks — removes hyperlinks from every sheet in the workbook. Cell values are not changed. Cells whose link is a =HYPERLINK formula keep their formula.

WHAT IT NEVER DOES

• It never opens or downloads your files. It reads their names and the details OneDrive returns with them, such as the folder they are in, their id and their link; in the workbook it reads cell values, displayed text, formulas and the links already there.
• It never writes to OneDrive.
• It never sends your workbook, or anything in it, anywhere. Its own network calls go only to Microsoft's sign-in and Graph services, directly from Excel; Office itself loads the add-in from our web host and Office.js from Microsoft, as it does for every add-in. CropSettle runs no server.

FREE AND PRO

The add-in is free to install and the free tier is not a trial. Free: exact-name matching (a cell matches a file whose name, without its extension, is the same), Clear, Link Files in the folder you choose, and three Repair runs (a run only counts if it actually repaired something). Pro, a one-time $14.99 key bought from CropSettle (an additional purchase, outside Microsoft): partial matching, the Include subfolders choice, and unlimited Repair. Note that free Repair always includes subfolders; with Pro, the Include subfolders checkbox controls both Link Files and Repair.

GOOD TO KNOW

• Link Files works on the active worksheet. Repair and Clear work on the whole workbook.
• Clear resets the font colour of the cells that carried a link (that is how the blue underline is removed).
• A browser add-in cannot see files on your hard drive, so the files you link to have to be in OneDrive or SharePoint.
• Works in Excel on the web, Excel for Windows and Excel for Mac (Excel API 1.9 or later).

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