How To Remove Hyperlinks From A Word Document

Old Hack · Dec 8, 2008

I've copied all my blog posts into one long Word document. It's chock-full o' hyperlinks, and they're driving me mad.

I know how to remove them one at a time, by right-clicking on them, but is there any way to remove them all at once? I want the text to remain, but the linky bits to go.

(You can tell from my careful wording of the question that I'm not very techie-minded, so simple language, please, in your replies or I might have to run around and act like a girl.)

smoothseas · Dec 8, 2008

Sorry, can't help with your tekkie question.

But that cat in your avatar sure doesn't look happy. Why'd ya make him wear that silly hat?

Clair Dickson · Dec 8, 2008

I'm still looking, but I don't see a way to remove all the hyperlinks at once.

What bothers you-- the blue underlined text or the tool tip when you mouse around? If it's the text, you can highlight the whole document, make it all blue underlined, then make it all black no underline. No more blue underlined.

As for the Tooltips that pop up... I can't help ya there.

Calla Lily · Dec 8, 2008

This is for 2000, because I'm at work. If you need the 2007 version, I can tell you tonight at home.

Go to the top bar and click on "Tools."
Click "Auto Correct."
Click the "Auto Format as You Type" tab.
In the middle section, "Replace as you type", unclick the box for "Internet and network paths with hyperlinks".
Hit "OK".
Close and reopen Word just to make sure.

maestrowork · Dec 8, 2008

The auto-format only affects future links, though. To globally reverse hyperlink... I am not aware of that function.

If everything else fails, turn off auto-hyperlink, then copy and paste the entire document to a new doc. That should fix it, I think.

Clair Dickson · Dec 8, 2008

Just copying the text didn't work in my test doc.

But if you want to get rid of the hyperlinks, you can save the doc as plain text. You'll lose any formatting, but that may or may not be an issue with your copies of blog posts. Then you can reopen and resave as a Word doc if you want.

Priene · Dec 8, 2008

1) Take a backup copy of your file.

2) Use replace to change all < and > characters to something unique. I'd probably use strange letter combinations like, say, 'XYZZYX' for '<' and 'ACBBDA' for '>'

3) As described here, use wildcard replaces. Put XYZZYX*ACBBDA in the Find What box and nothing in the Replace With box.

4) Advance through the replaces one at a time, because funny things can happen when you do global replaces.

Julie Worth · Dec 8, 2008

Old Hack said:
I've copied all my blog posts into one long Word document. It's chock-full o' hyperlinks, and they're driving me mad.

I know how to remove them one at a time, by right-clicking on them, but is there any way to remove them all at once? I want the text to remain, but the linky bits to go.

Select all, then press Ctrl+Shift+F9. This will remove all field codes, including hyperlinks.

spiros · Dec 9, 2008

If you're on a Mac, use DEVON's Word Service.

It's FREE, works in most applications and it has about 30 batch job "things" you can do to text, one of which is "Remove Links".

It also has a bunch of other cool things like "reformat" "remove style", "Speak text" etc.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10523/wordservice

If you're on Windows, I don't know. Sorry.

EDIT - Oops, my goof, just saw the post from Julie Worth. That seems to work.

benbradley · Dec 9, 2008

I'd do something crude that I KNOW would remove ALL formatting, such as:
"Save As..." and save in plain text format (.txt)
Load in the plain text file.
But if Word sees the http://duh thing and turns it into a hyperlink (like this message board does in posts!), then there's something else that also needs to be turned off, presuming it can be turned off.

FennelGiraffe · Dec 9, 2008

benbradley said:
But if Word sees the http://duh thing and turns it into a hyperlink (like this message board does in posts!), then there's something else that also needs to be turned off, presuming it can be turned off.

See callalily's post upthread.

Old Hack · Dec 9, 2008

smoothseas said:
Sorry, can't help with your tekkie question.

But that cat in your avatar sure doesn't look happy. Why'd ya make him wear that silly hat?

She's not wearing a silly hat, she's balancing a beer bottle on her head. It's an essential skill for a cat in my house, which she does very well. And she's not unhappy, she always looks like that. Although sometimes, without the accompanying beer bottle.

Now we've cleared that up, many thanks to you all for your helpful suggestions regarding the hyperlinks: I shall open my document now and see if that sorts it all out. I love AW: all my questions are answered here!

How To Remove Hyperlinks From A Word Document

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

smoothseas

Life sucks... Then ya die...

Clair Dickson

A dark core to every cloud

Calla Lily

On hiatus

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

Clair Dickson

A dark core to every cloud

Priene

Out to lunch

Julie Worth

What? I have a title?

spiros

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

FennelGiraffe

It's green they say

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman