How to Quickly Remove All Hyperlinks in a Word Document at Once

When you copy and paste text from the internet or another document into Microsoft Word, it often carries over dozens of unwanted hyperlinks. Going through a lengthy document and right-clicking every single blue, underlined word to select “Remove Hyperlink” is a massive waste of time. Fortunately, Microsoft Word includes a hidden keyboard shortcut that allows you to instantly strip every hyperlink from your entire document simultaneously, converting them all into plain text.

How to Remove All Hyperlinks at Once Using a Keyboard Shortcut

This is the fastest and most efficient method for cleaning up a document, as it requires no diving into complex menus.

1. Open the document in Microsoft Word.
2. Press Ctrl + A (or Command + A on a Mac) to highlight all the text in the entire document. If you only want to remove hyperlinks from a specific paragraph, highlight just that section instead.
3. With the text highlighted, press Ctrl + Shift + F9 (or Command + 6 on a Mac).

Immediately, every hyperlink within the selected text will be destroyed, leaving only the plain text behind. The blue underlining will vanish. It is important to note that this action does not just hide the links; it completely unlinks the fields. If you save the document, the links cannot be recovered without pressing Undo (Ctrl + Z) immediately after performing the action.

Why Did the Shortcut Not Work on My Laptop?

If you pressed Ctrl + Shift + F9 on a Windows laptop and nothing happened, or it triggered a media control like muting your volume, it is because your laptop manufacturer has reversed the function key row.

On many modern laptops (such as HPs, Dells, and Lenovos), the F-keys default to hardware controls. To send a true “F9” command to Microsoft Word, you must also hold down the Fn (Function) key located near your spacebar.

Try pressing the combination again like this: Ctrl + Shift + Fn + F9.

How to Prevent Word from Automatically Creating Hyperlinks

If you frequently type web addresses (like www.example.com) into Word and find it annoying that Word automatically converts them into clickable blue links the moment you press the spacebar, you can turn off AutoFormat.

1. Click File and select Options.
2. Click on Proofing in the left sidebar.
3. Click the AutoCorrect Options… button.
4. Select the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
5. Uncheck the box labelled Internet and network paths with hyperlinks.
6. Click OK twice to save your settings.