Highlight links in word

Someone on one of my Facebook groups for editors wanted to highlight all instances of linked words, URLs, etc. copied from another document so she could alert the author to them. These links weren’t styled with the Hyperlink style and had no colour to distinguish them from normal text.

There are a few steps to get this right, including changing a setting. Instructions are for Word 365 for Windows, but should work the same for older versions of Word, and possibly Mac versions as well, but I can’t test Word for Mac as I don’t have it. This technique works for any hyperlinked text—URLs, email addresses, linked documents etc.

1. Press Alt+F9 to turn the ‘show field codes’ option on in the entire document. This is essential. (You can also do this by going to File> Options > Advanced > Show Document Content section, checking the Show field codes instead of their values checkbox, then clicking OK to close the Options window.)
2. Select a highlight colour from the Home tab > Font group. This is also essential.
3. Open the Find and Replace window (Ctrl+h).
4. In the Find field, type ^d hyperlink (Note: lower case ‘d’; this looks for a hyperlink field [^d]).
5. In the Replace field, type ^& (this replaces what is found with itself).
6. Click More.
7. Click Format.
8. Select Highlight.
9. Click Find Next, then Replace on the first one found. Check that the hyperlink field code is highlighted—if it isn’t go back to Step 4 and choose a highlight colour.
10. If you’re satisfied that it works, click Replace All. This will highlight all hyperlink fields.
11. Press Alt+F9 again to hide the field codes and return to normal text display. (tThis is the same as File> Options > Advanced > Show Document Content section, uncheck the Show field codes instead of their values checkbox, then click OK to close the Options window.)

For example, when you type an e-mail
[email protected]
and press space, you will see:

To change a representation of hyperlinks in a document, do the following:

   1.   On the File tab, click the
Options button:

   2.   In the Word Options dialog box, on the
Advanced tab, under Show document content, uncheck the
Show field codes instead of their values checkbox:

After clicking OK, all hyperlinks in the document will be shown as usual, as blue
hyperlinks:

See
How to turn on or turn off highlighting off fields in a Word document.

See also this tip in French:
Comment afficher les liens bleu au lieu de { HYPERLINK lien } dans Word.

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In order to create persistent links, you may need to know how to create a link in a Word document. To avoid displaying lengthy URLs when creating links, embed your links into the document title. For example,

Alias Grace

NOT

Alias Grace

https://mcgill.on.worldcat.org/oclc/43279699

To embed a hyperlink into a title,

1. Highlight the URL of your document and copy it
2. In your Word document:
3. 1. Highlight the text in which the URL should be embedded (usually the citation itself or the document title, such as Alias Grace)
   2. Go to the Insert menu (or press «Control K») to open the Insert Hyperlink dialogue box
   3. Paste the URL into the Address box
   4. Add the prefix https://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url= to the URL
   5. Press OK or hit Enter

To edit a hyperlink you have already created,

1. Place your cursor over the link and right click. (If this doesn’t generate a drop down menu, try highlighting the link and then right clicking.)
2. In the drop down menu that appears, select Edit hyperlink…
3. When the Edit Hyperlink dialogue box appears, you can make corrections to the text displayed in your document, e.g. if you typed Alas Grace instead of Alias Grace, or to the URL.

Is this article up to date?

In the article below, we will introduce you how to find, change and delete hyperlinks in your Word document.

Hyperlinks in a Word document are very convenient. We can click it to quickly jump to the corresponding web page. Moreover, Word provides a feature which can convert the text into hyperlink automatically. However, sometimes it is not desirable. In one of our article “3 Ways to Prevent Word from Auto Creating Hyperlink“, we show you how to prevent Word from auto convert text into hyperlink. Actually, there is one more way to do that task.

Use “Paste Special” Option

1. When you finish copying a text, click “Paste” in “Clipboard” group. For example, we here copy a sample text as below:     
2. Then choose “Paste Special”.
3. In “Paste Special” dialog box, choose “Unformatted Text”.
4. And click “OK”.

Now you can see all formats disappear including hyperlinks.

Now let’s see another situation. If you get a long document with thousands of hyperlinks from your colleague, you may want to change or delete some of them.

Below we will first introduce the basic two parts of a hyperlink, and then propose a method to quickly find or locate multiple hyperlinks. And finally, we will give out several methods to modify or remove the hyperlinks in your document.

Two Parts of a Hyperlink

Actually, hyperlink in Word document is a special text, which contains the following two parts:

1. Anchored Text: this is the visible and clickable text in a hyperlink. In the example below, the blue words “DataNumen Word Repair” is the “Anchored Text”:
2. Link: this refers to the Internet address to which the anchored text links. You cannot see it directly.

Usually, it is the “Anchored Text” that is shown on your document. To view the “Link” part, you can press “Alt + F9”. Below is an example:

Simply press “Alt + F9” again, and you can switch back to “Anchored Text”.

Find All Hyperlinks in a Document

1. First, press keyboard shortcuts “Alt+ F9”. You can see all hyperlinks turn into their “Link” parts now.
2. Press “Ctrl + H” to open the “Find and Replace” dialog box.
3. Click “Find”.
4. Then type “^d HYPERLINK” in “Find what” text box.
5. Next click “Reading Highlight”.
6. Choose “Highlight All”.

Now you can achieve the effect as below:

1. Then all the hyperlinks will be highlighted.
2. You can also click “Find Next” button to locate each hyperlink one by one.

Change Multiple Hyperlinks in Batch

Let’s say, if you want to migrate your website from http to its secure version, i.e., https. Then you need to change the following link:

https://www.datanumen.com

to its https version:

https://www.datanumen.com

It is obviously not convenient to change all links one by one manually, especially when a file contains thousands of them. Following is the solution:

Since there are two parts in a hyperlink, you need to change both of them.

To change the “Anchored Text” part of the hyperlink:

1. Press “Ctrl + H” to open the “Find and Replace” dialog box.
2. Type “http://” in “Find what” text box.
3. Then type “https://” in “Replace with” text box.
4. Click “Replace All”. Now you shall finishing replacing the “Anchored text” part.

To change the “Link” part of the hyperlink:

1. Press “Alt + F9” to switch to the “Link” part.
2. And press “Ctrl + H” to open the “Find and Replace” dialog box.
3. Type “https://www.datanumen.com” in “Find what” text box.
4. Type “https://www.datanumen.com” in “Replace with” text box.
5. Click “Replace” or “Replace All” button.

Now you have replaced both parts of the hyperlink.

Other than finding or changing hyperlinks, sometimes you may also want to remove them. Following are four methods you can use:

Remove Hyperlinks – Method 1: Right Click

1. First thing, select a hyperlink in your Word document.
2. Then right click.
3. Choose “Remove Hyperlink” option on the menu.

Now you can see the Hyperlink no more. Generally speaking, this is perhaps the most common way to carry out the performance. It’s simple. However, it’s probably not the quickest way to do so when there are thousands of hyperlinks in a document.

Method 2: Use “Format Painter”

In case you have no patience to delete hyperlinks one by one manually, you can check out the following steps.

1. First, repeat steps in method 1.
2. Next, select the row where the disabled hyperlink lies.
3. Now, double click the “Format Painter” icon in “Clipboard” group.
4. Then drag your cursor to select the content which contains the rest hyperlinks.

Check the video below:

When you finish the steps above, all hyperlinks shall be gone. Comparing with method 1, this one can be a real time saver. Meanwhile, it’s not that complicated.

Method 3: Use “Replace” Feature

1. To use this way, you have to finish all steps in “Steps to Find All Hyperlinks in a Document” first. Make sure you have pressed “Alt + F9” to change to the “Link” view.
2. Then in “Find and Replace” dialog box, click “Replace”.
3. Type “^d HYPERLINK” in “Find what” text box.
4. Finally click “Replace All”.

Method 4: Use Macro in Word

You can also realize deleting hyperlinks in batch by using macro in Word.

1. To begin with, press “Alt+ F11” to open “Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications” window.
2. Next, double click “This Document” on the left tree view.
3. Copy the following code and paste them on the right editing area:

Sub RemoveLinks()

‘ Enumerate all the hyperlinks and remove them in the document

While ThisDocument.Hyperlinks.Count > 0

ThisDocument.Hyperlinks(1).Delete

Wend

End Sub

1. Then click the green “Run Sub” button. Or you can simply press “F5”. Both operations can start running the macro.

Comparison of 4 Removal Methods

Deal with Crashed Files

Frequent switching between webpages and documents can result in Word file corruption. To recover word and bring back your files, you need to use the built-in recovery function in Word. Certainly, for better recovery experience, you can take a third-party tool to do it.

Author Introduction:

Vera Chen is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including excel recovery and pdf repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com

Here you are, scratching your head and trying to figure out how to make a hyperlink.

Maybe you want to link to authoritative content from your new blog. Or perhaps you need a quick reminder on how to make a clickable link in HTML. Or, maybe you need to add a link to an Instagram Story or YouTube video.

Either way, we have you covered.

Let’s jump in.

What Is a Hyperlink?

Hyperlinks are clickable words or images that navigate to other web content. They can connect with almost any resource on the web.

When clicked, they’ll either take you to a web address immediately or, for certain types of files, give you the option to open a document with an app (like Adobe Reader to open a PDF).

Hyperlinks navigate to:

• Another web address (URL)
• Images
• Audio files
• Videos
• HTML files
• Text files or other documents (PDFs, for example)
• A location within the same web page

Let’s look at a couple insert hyperlink methods.

How To Make a Hyperlink

Hyperlinks are fundamental to web navigation, and using them is second nature for most of us.

They show up in blog posts, word documents, PDFs, and emails.

Only when it’s time to embed a link in text do we give them any thought.

There are two ways to embed hyperlinks:

1. Using a visual editor
2. Using HTML

How Do I Make a Clickable Link in WordPress?

Let’s look at how to embed a link in text using the visual editor on your website:

1. Highlight the anchor text you want to link.

1. Click the Add Link icon within the text editing bar, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+K. This opens a field where you’ll enter the location you want to create a link to.

1. Enter the full address (including HTTPS) or existing file location you want the link to navigate to in the field, and press Enter.

Now you have a hyperlinked text.

How to insert links in images:

1. Select the image by clicking on it.

1. Now click the Add Link icon in the bar (or Ctrl+K) to open the field. Enter the location you want to link to (like our previous example).

In this example, I’ve linked to a PDF document stored on my Google Drive. Readers can open or download the page using an app of their choice.

The same process applies whether you’re editing a Post or a Page within WordPress.

How to Make a Link Clickable in Email

Here is how you create a email link in Gmail:

1. Highlight the text you want to link.

1. Click on the Add Link icon in the text editing bar (or Ctrl+K).

1. Paste or type the URL you want to link to in the field and click ok.

Now you have your hyperlink.

The process is similar in Microsoft Outlook and other email clients.

How To Create a Hyperlink in Word

1. To embed a link in text within a Microsoft Word document, start by highlighting the text.

1. Then click Insert on the upper menu bar.

1. Now click: Links → Link → Insert Link (a window will appear).

You can then add a URL to the Address field or link to:

• Another Microsoft Word document
• Another place on the same document
• Or an Email address

If you’re using another Microsoft Office program or Google Doc, the process is very similar. Highlight the text you’d like to turn into a hyperlink, go to Insert in the menu bar, and choose Link.

Then simply copy and paste the URL.

How Do You Make a Clickable Link with HTML?

When building a link in HTML, use the <a> and </a> elements to designate the beginning and end of the link.

Designate the target you’re linking to by using the href attribute:

 <a href=“enter target URL here”>

As an example, let’s say you wanted to create the following:

Smart Blogger has a popular post about blogging.

This is what the HTML code would look like in the WordPress text editor:

For adding a hyperlink to an image, the basic snippet is:

To learn more about adding hyperlinks to images using HTML, check out this post.

How to Add a Link to an Instagram Story?

1. On your mobile device, open the Instagram app.
2. Tap the plus (+) icon at the top and select “Story”.
3. Upload an image or video.
4. Tap the sticker icon and select “Link”.
5. Enter the URL you’d like the link in your Instagram Story to point to.

How to Add a Link to a YouTube Video Description?

1. In YouTube Studio, go to the “Video details” for your video.
2. In the “Description”, add your copy along with any hyperlinks you’d like viewers to be able to see.

And that’s it.

Happy Hyperlinking

Now you know how to create multiple hyperlinks.

Most of the time you won’t need HTML and can simply link text by clicking the icon in the text editing toolbar.

Whether you’re creating a hyperlink on a web page to someone else’s blog or linking to a PDF or a podcast recording on your own site, now you have the information to create this fundamental element of web navigation.

Have fun with your new superpower!