Word find links in document

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

I really found the answer of @user228546 helpful, as I could not get my version of Microsoft Word (2013) to show me the options in the accepted answer. However, it’s a little brief, and it requires a good knowledge of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to get everything to work.

Here’s a slightly modified answer that could help some people who don’t know so much about VBA.

You’ll need to get to the VBA editor using Alt+F11. Use «Insert» -> «Module» up at the top, which will get you an editor window.

Get the Link Addresses in a New Document

I’m actually going to save the extracted hyperlinks into a new document, which I’ll then save.

Type (or copy/paste) the following into the editor window.

Sub GetLinksInNewDoc()
'
' Finds all hyperlinks (even with strange formats,
' as long as they're active)
' and displays them in a new document.
'
    ' Declare the types of our variables
    Dim doc As Document
    Dim newDoc As Document
    Dim hlink As Hyperlink

    ' Use the script on the current document
    Set doc = ActiveDocument
    ' Open a new document to put the link addresses into
    Set newDoc = Documents.Add

    ' Loop through all the hyperlinks using the iterable hlink variable
    With doc
        For Each hlink In .Hyperlinks
            ' Switch into the new document
            newDoc.Activate

            ' Put the Hyperlink Address in the new document
            With Selection
                .InsertAfter hlink.Address & " " & hlink.SubAddress
                .InsertAfter vbNewLine
            End With
        Next hlink
    End With

    Set doc = Nothing
    Set newDoc = Nothing
End Sub

Make sure that your Document with the hyperlinks is the last Microsoft Word document you had highlighted. Save your code. Either click on the green arrow to run, or from the upper toolbar select «Run» -> «Run Sub/UserForm», or press F5

Note that you might get a «grey ghost» of the text that will eventually be in the document — something like

Get the Link Addresses in a TXT File

Now, if you actually wanted to save the URLs to a TXT file, which is what got me to this question, you can use the same procedure, except your code should be

Sub GetLinksInTxtFile()
'
' Finds all hyperlinks (even with strange formats,
' as long as they're active)
' and outputs them to a TXT file.
' The TXT file will be written in the same directory
' as the original document
'
    ' Declare the types of our variables
    Dim doc As Document
    Dim hlink As Hyperlink

    ' Use the script on the current document
    Set doc = ActiveDocument

    ' Get a text file ready to which you will write the URLs
    ' Some old-school BASIC
    Open doc.Path & "the_urls.txt" For Output As #1

    ' Loop through all the hyperlinks using the iterable hlink variable
    With doc
        For Each hlink In .Hyperlinks
            Print #1, hlink.Address & " " & hlink.SubAddress
        Next hlink
    End With

    Close #1
    Set doc = Nothing
End Sub

I hope it helps.

Source for my understanding, outline of copying into new document.

Another related source

Source for writing to a text file (which is what I originally came searching for)