30. Prevent Word Turning Web Addresses into Links

Here’s a tip from the ‘Daft Features of Microsoft Word’ department (and a busy department that is!). When you type a web or email address into a Word document, you’ll find that Word turns it into a hyperlink. In other words, the address turns blue and gains an underline. It also behaves like a hyperlink, more or less: if you hold down the Ctrl key and click that link, you’ll be whisked to the web page in question (or, for an email address, a blank email window will open).

What’s daft about this? Well, I suppose daftness is in the eye of the beholder, but since Word is mainly used for writing documents that will be printed, and you can’t click a hyperlink on paper, those addresses might as well be left as you typed them.

If you find this behaviour as daft as I do, there are three ways to prevent those addresses being turned into links:

Method 1: Undo the change
When you type the address, and then type a space or punctuation symbol or press the Enter key to start a new paragraph, that’s when Word converts the address to a link. As soon as it does that, press Ctrl+Z to undo the change and revert to ordinary text.

Method 2: Convert to plain text
If Word has already created a hyperlink in one of your documents, right-click that link and choose Remove Hyperlink from the context menu that appears.

Method 3: Turn off the feature entirely
This is what I always do in Word, because I never want blue hyperlinks in documents. Follow the appropriate steps for your version of Word:

Word 2010/2007: In Word 2010, click the blue File tab followed by Options; in Word 2007, click the circular Office button and then Word Options. Click the Proofing item on the left, then the AutoCorrect Options button, and select the AutoFormat As You Type tab. Remove the tick beside Internet and network paths with hyperlinks, then click OK in both windows.

Word 2003/2002: Go to Tools > AutoCorrect Options, switch to the AutoFormat As You Type tab and remove the tick beside Internet and network paths with hyperlinks, then click OK.

(With thanks to PC Tips for Seniors)

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