I have had similar problems. For some reason, the "file://..." seems to be
added to the URL whenever the link cannnot be established. ie. it seems to
look for the file in the local directory.

When de-bugging a website problem, watch out for old files existing in the
buffer on client machines. As you mention, they can make problems seem to be
inconsistent - but they are not.

I my case, Excel was corrupting existing (working) links each time I saved
the file as a web page (having fixed some previously non-functioning link).
The non-functioning link then worked, but others (that I had not touched) no
longer functioned - giving the impression that the fault was random!!! You
won't believe the "solution"...

Open your Spreadsheet, refresh all hyperlinks (repeat "all" hyperlinks),
save and then publish as a web page. Everything works fine. Only problem
is... If you make a singe change on your spreadsheet you have to go through
the whole process again. Kinda sucks but at least it works. Hope this
helps...

"Tab" wrote:

A business unit has published a web site on our Intranet that includes an
Excel spreadsheet containing URLs. We've made Internet Explorer available on
our Terminal Services system so their employees can access the content that
way. Sometimes the URLs work properly. Other times they don't; even though
in both cases the user is looking at the same file with the same links to the
same page.

For example, as I follow the links, if the final link in the spreadsheet is
"http://intranet/..." it will work OK.
But sometimes, that same link will report being "file:///W:\Documents and
Settings\..."; in that case it will fail.

How can one link report being "http://" in some cases, and "file://" in
other cases?

I asked this is the IIS General forum and they suggested I route this
question to the Excel newgroup.

This is an excerpt from the thread in the IIS forum:
Kristofer,

"Do you say that the same link sometimes uses http:// and sometimes
file://. That is, it is randomly changing?"

YES, that is exactly what I'm saying. I can't explain it either. That's
why I'm on this newsgroup.

The links are in an ordinary Excel spreadsheet; as hyperlinks in cells. We
do that stuff all the time with no issues.

Thanks.

Tab