Common Hyperlink Problems

Posted by Boisen Ho on February 15th, 2021

Note: You may wonder what type of text Word will automatically recognize as something that should be a hyperlink. Word will “recognize” as an email address any “word” that contains the @ symbol, even if the “email address” is an expletive such as ! It will recognize text as an URL if it begins with “www.” or “http://” I have not been able to determine what it recognizes as a file path, though the presence of a colon and slashes might be assumed. On the Standard toolbar in Word 2003 and earlier there is an Insert Hyperlink button (see Figure 2). In Word 2007 and above, this button is in the Links group on the Insert tab of the Ribbon. If you select (or even just click in) a recognizable email address, URL, or file path and click this button, Word will convert the text to a hyperlink. K. In Word 2007 and above, this shortcut opens the Insert Hyperlink dialog (see below). The Insert Hyperlink dialog, however, gives you the most control over the hyperlinks you insert. When you create a hyperlink using either of the methods described above , the display text and underlying link are the same, and there is no ScreenTip. K to open the Insert Hyperlink dialog or right-click on an existing hyperlink and choose Edit Hyperlink to open an identical dialog. K or choose Insert | Hyperlink, it will be placed in the “Text to display” box. If you use Edit Hyperlink, the existing hyperlink becomes the default “Text to display,” but of course you can change it. In Word 2007 and above the Hyperlink command, which opens the Insert Hyperlink dialog, is on the Insert tab; the Edit Hyperlink dialog may be accessed by right-clicking on an existing hyperlink as in previous versions. F9 or checking the box for “Field codes” on the View tab of Tools | Options. Note that the “display text” does not have to be text. You can use an icon or picture as a hyperlink. Just select the picture in your document and open the Insert Hyperlink dialog. Word’s Help topic “Create a hyperlink” includes detailed instructions for creating hyperlinks to a variety of targets using this dialog. An understanding of the above issues should go a long way to helping you figure out what’s happening when hyperlinks don’t look or behave as you think they ought to. Although you may be used to seeing hyperlinks as blue and underlined, they can be formatted in many different ways and may even look like ordinary text. For example, TOC entries and cross-references, even when they are hyperlinks, do not have the distinctive hyperlink formatting. Underline, Font color: Blue” (see Figure 6). Like any other style in Word, this style can be modified, so the hyperlinks in your document could be, for example, red and not underlined (as on this Web page)-or any other formatting you desire. In fact, in Word 2007 and above, the formatting of the Hyperlink style varies depending on the theme applied. Underline, Font color: Violet”) that is automatically applied when a hyperlink has been followed; if you want your hyperlinks always to look the same, you will need to modify this style as well. 1. They’re not active hyperlinks (see next section). 2. The Hyperlink style has not been applied. 3. The Hyperlink style has been modified. 4. The Followed Hyperlink style is in effect instead. 5. The hyperlinks are cross-references or TOC entries. If hyperlinks look like Figure 5 above, then you are seeing the field code instead of the field result. F9 to toggle all the fields in the document or clear the “Field codes” check box on the View tab of Tools | Options. 1. It isn’t really a hyperlink. It may just be plain text with the Hyperlink character style applied. F9 to see if there is an underlying HYPERLINK field code. 2. You are viewing the field code (see Figure 5) instead of the field result. 3. You are using a version that by default requires you to press Ctrl while clicking in order to follow the link. Word 2003 and earlier: Tools | Options | View: Show: ScreenTips. Word 2007: Office Button | Word Options | Display: Show document tooltips on hover.

Word 2010 and above: File | Options | Display: Show document tooltips on hover. This safety feature, introduced in Word 2002, was intended to make it easier to edit the display text of hyperlinks. This usually means that the display text of the hyperlink doesn’t agree with the underlying link. As noted above, current Word versions make it easier to edit the display text of a hyperlink; you can do this directly in the document because, by default, clicking on or in the hyperlink doesn’t send you haring off across the Internet to the referenced URL. But changing authority backlinks doesn’t actually change the hyperlink, just the text that is displayed. This may be obvious to you if the display text is different from the underlying URL, but if they are the same, it may not occur to you. In order to change the target of the link, you need to change the HYPERLINK field code as well. You can do this either through the Edit Hyperlink dialog or directly. In the reference document that I use to keep track of frequently referenced articles at this Web site, I had to change all the links. Using Find and Replace, I could replace “mvps.org/word” with “word.mvps.org” in each link, and this worked great-for the display text. But when I hovered over the links, the ScreenTips showed that the underlying hyperlinks were unchanged. F9) and run the Replace operation again. To my surprise, even this was not effective. The ScreenTips still showed the old URLs. What? Aha! I hadn’t updated the fields. A to select the entire document) and pressing F9 to update the fields, I solved the problem. 1. Change the display text (if it is the same as the target). 2. Change the underlying HYPERLINK field code. 3. Update the field. Paul DeBrino has reminded me of another issue that causes Microsoft Word to change and perhaps break your hyperlinks, by altering the link from an absolute to relative path or vice versa, when saving your Word document. After creating a hyperlink in Word, hovering over that hyperlink displays your intended path. However, once you click Save, Word may change the link to a path that is relative to the Word document’s location, a virtual path that begins with … 1. Click Tools | Options (in Word 2007, Office Button | Word Options; in Word 2010/2013, File | Options). 2. On the General tab, click the Web Options button (in Word 2007 and above, this button is at the very bottom of the Advanced section of Word Options). 3. In the Web Options window, click the Files tab. 5. Click OK to save your preferences. Barnhill, with thanks to Daiya Mitchell for her helpful comments.

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Boisen Ho

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Boisen Ho
Joined: January 26th, 2021
Articles Posted: 14

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