When: 7pm on the 3rd Thursday of each month
Where: dBug Resource Center
The Office Applications SIG meets each month to discuss business productivity applications.
The dBug Office Applications SIG session for April included demonstrations on how to get Word and Excel 2004 to stop following hyperlinks out to the Internet.
To get Word 2004 to stop automatically creating hyperlinks
- From the Tools menu, choose AutoCorrect...
- Click AutoFormat As You Type.
- Clear the checkbox next to Internet paths with hyperlinks (it's in the Replace as you type section in the middle of the AutoFormat As You Type window).
- Next, click the AutoFormat tab at the upper right corner of the window.
- Clear the checkbox next to Internet paths with hyperlinks again. For some reason, Word makes you do this twice, both in Mac and in Windows (prior to 2007).
- Click OK.
To "disconnect" an existing Word 2004 hyperlink
- Hold the Control key down while selecting the offending hyperlink with your mouse. This will help prevent Word from automatically sending you to the Internet. You can also right-click it with a 2-button mouse.
- A drop-down menu will appear. Click Hyperlink.
- A sub-menu will open. Click Edit Hyperlink...
- Click the Remove Link button at the lower left corner of the Edit Hyperlink... window. This will remove the HTML a/ref tag without removing the text.
- The windows and drop down menus will disappear as if by magic when you click that button.
To "disconnect" an existing Excel 2004 hyperlink
- Hold the Control key down while selecting the offending hyperlink with your mouse. This will help prevent Word from automatically sending you to the Internet. You can also right-click it with a 2-button mouse.
- A drop-down menu will appear. Click Hyperlink. Unlike Word, Excel takes you right to an Edit Hyperlink window.
- Click the Remove Link button at the lower left corner of the Edit Hyperlink... window. This removes the hyperlink and closes the window, but !!! the formatting of the text may change.
- If the text formatting changes, restore it to the desired font and size.
:-( Excel 2004 does not give you the option of turning off automatic hyperlinks in its AutoCorrect... section. Some people, including your SIG leader, need to keep Excel spreadsheets with lists of hyperlinks (I keep an Index of Online Advertisers for one of my clients, and I know genealogy people who also keep lists). If you need to copy one of the hyperlinks to another worksheet or another application, it's a real pain when all of a sudden, your e-mail client launches or your web browser opens.
To work with "live" Hyperlink text in Excel 2004 without launching your web or e-mail browser
- From the View menu, choose Formula Bar and make sure it shows.
- Click a cell in your worksheet that DOESN'T contain a hyperlink.
- Use your keyboard's arrow keys, NOT your mouse, to navigate to a cell that DOES contain a hyperlink.
- The hyperlink text will appear in the Formula Bar, as well as being highlighted in the worksheet. See illustration.
- If you need to copy the hyperlink, move your mouse to the Formula Bar and select the text there instead of in the actual worksheet. You will save yourself a lot of aggravation this way.
John I. Livingston, SIG Leader
All are welcome, non-members included.
Click here for directions to the dBug Resource Center.
