How to Add a Hyperlink in a Microsoft Word Document

We like books. But one thing that you can’t do on paper is link to another book. On that level at least, electronic media has a distinct advantage. And with Microsoft Word, it’s easy to add a hyperlink in a document.

But how does this work? In this post, we look at how to add a hyperlink in Microsoft Word, as well as how to edit and remove hyperlinks in a document.

How to Embed a Hyperlink in a Document

Whether you’re writing website copy, where hyperlinks enable navigation, or simply adding links to useful internet resources in a document, Microsoft Word makes it simple. For instance, if you type a web address and hit space or return, MS Word will automatically format it as a link.

However, most of the time, you’ll want to embed a link in the text. To do this:

• Highlight the text you want to use as a link
• Go to Insert > Links > Link (or right click the text and select Link)
• Type the URL for the link destination into the Address field
• Click OK to create your hyperlink

The highlighted text will then become a hyperlink.

To test the link, hold CTRL and left click (or right click and select Open Hyperlink). This will open the destination in your default web browser.

You can use this same process to link to another file on your computer.

To link to a file, simply select it via the Insert Hyperlink menu and click OK. Keep in mind, though, that this link will only work on your computer/network, since this is where the destination file is stored.

How to Edit Hyperlinks

You can edit a hyperlink in the same way as you would any text in a document: simply place the cursor in the hyperlinked text and type.

Alternatively, if you right click the link you can select Edit Hyperlink. In the window that opens, you can then change both:

• The text that will be used for the hyperlink
• The destination of the link (i.e. file path or URL)

If you then click OK when you’re done, the link will be updated automatically.

How to Format Hyperlinks

By default, Microsoft Word formats links with blue, underlined text. However, you can edit hyperlinks with the standard formatting options, so you can use these to change the appearance of any links in a document.

And if you want to change the default hyperlink style, simply:

• Open the Styles menu
• Find the style named ‘Hyperlink’
• Right click the style name and select Modify…
• Apply any formatting options as required and click OK

This will update the default hyperlink formatting, including any links you had added to the document previously. And if you then add more new links while editing, they will all use your updated hyperlink formatting.

How to Remove a Hyperlink in Microsoft Word

To remove a hyperlink from document, you can simply delete it. But this will also remove the text you’d formatted as a link.

To remove a link and keep the text, though, you have two options.

1. Go to Insert > Links > Link and select Remove Link in the menu
2. Right click the link and select Remove Hyperlink from the menu

MS Word will then remove the link and any formatting from the selected text.

Proofreading Hyperlinks

If you have a document containing hyperlinks, why not submit it for proofreading? As well as checking your spelling, grammar and punctuation, we can make sure your links work properly, saving you from encountering any unfortunate ‘404 Error – Page Not Found’ messages when it counts.