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copying and pasting linked text from Excel into Airtable - any solutions?

  • March 19, 2024
  • 5 replies
  • 130 views
M
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Hello,

I am trying to move all my content from my Microsoft Excel into Airtable.

In my excel sheet, I have a column of hyperlinked titles linked to the 2100 of my articles.

I tried to copy and paste the hyperlinked title from Excel into Airtable and the link didn’t transfer over.

I am trying to figure out how to get those hyperlinks from Excel into Airtable without having to manually click on each of them and then copy and paste the URL into a cell in Airtable.

1) I saw this thread here about using FORMULA TEXT to extract the links from the hyperlinks, but like the guy in the thread experienced, I too am getting N/A.

2) I also saw this thread here and the last entry was Oct 9, 2023.  There was mention of a script but i dont' quite understand it and apparently it only works for 50 records.. and i have about 2100 records.

Is there any recent solution to this? 

thank you,
Matt

5 replies

ScottWorld
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  • ScottWorld
  • Genius
  • 9808 replies
  • March 19, 2024

Airtable only allows hyperlinked text in a long text field, and the “rich text” option must be turned on for that field.

So you may want to try pasting into a rich text field and see if it works.

I just tested it on my end, and it worked great for me!

However, if it doesn’t work for you, it may be because Airtable’s rich text fields use markdown instead of HTML, so it might not recognize the hyperlinked text when you paste it in.

If that’s the case, you might have some success converting the HTML to markdown by using an online HTML to markdown converter, or an automation tool like Make’s HTML to markdown module.

p.s. If your company has a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld 

TheTimeSavingCo
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Could you share some of the cell values from your Excel that are resulting in the "NA"?  It appears to work fine for me and I'm curious what might be happening for yours


With reference to the screenshot above, would you want your final result in Airtable to be "Google" or "www.google.com"?

Adam, Airtable Consultant - thetimesaving.company
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  • mattster
  • Author
  • Inspiring
  • 6 replies
  • March 19, 2024

Hello, here's an example of me using =FORMULATEXT(A15) and getting a #N/A

 

​​The right way to do ‘try before you buy’ shopping online2/2/2022#N/A
M
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  • mattster
  • Author
  • Inspiring
  • 6 replies
  • March 19, 2024

Airtable only allows hyperlinked text in a long text field, and the “rich text” option must be turned on for that field.

So you may want to try pasting into a rich text field and see if it works.

I just tested it on my end, and it worked great for me!

However, if it doesn’t work for you, it may be because Airtable’s rich text fields use markdown instead of HTML, so it might not recognize the hyperlinked text when you paste it in.

If that’s the case, you might have some success converting the HTML to markdown by using an online HTML to markdown converter, or an automation tool like Make’s HTML to markdown module.

p.s. If your company has a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld 


Thanks for the tip. I tried the airtable rich text field approach, but when i pasted it in, it still didn't contain the link.

As for the HTML to markdown module, I'm using https://codebeautify.org/html-to-markdown and didn't quite know how it works.  seems like i need to somehow turn the link into HTML code ..and then get markdown code from it.. and then insert it where/how?

TheTimeSavingCo
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Hello, here's an example of me using =FORMULATEXT(A15) and getting a #N/A

 

​​The right way to do ‘try before you buy’ shopping online2/2/2022#N/A

Thanks!  It seems like you're not using "=HYPERLINK" to create the hyperlinks, and might be inserting the link instead.  Here's an example where the first row's link is inserted and the second one is done via "=HYPERLINK"



If so, you should be able to create your own function with VBA that'll extract the link for you, and here's a guide:
https://www.excel-university.com/extract-url-from-hyperlink-with-an-excel-formula/

After that I think you're going to need to use an automation / script to create the hyperlinks in Airtable

Adam, Airtable Consultant - thetimesaving.company


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