One of the most instantly recognizable features of Microsoft Word is its “AutoFormat As You Type” system. Whenever you type a web address (like www.google.com) or an email address and hit the spacebar or Enter key, Word instantly transforms that text into a blue, underlined, clickable hyperlink. While this is incredibly helpful if you are drafting a digital document meant to be read on a screen, it can be a significant annoyance if you are writing a document that is strictly meant to be printed, or if you simply prefer a uniform text style.
If you find yourself constantly right-clicking on these blue links and selecting “Remove Hyperlink,” you are wasting valuable time. You can completely disable this specific auto-formatting feature so that web addresses remain as standard, unformatted text.
Disabling Automatic Hyperlinks
You can turn off this feature by diving into the core AutoCorrect options menu.
- Open the Microsoft Word desktop application on your computer.
- Look at the main menu ribbon at the top of the screen and click on File (in the top-left corner).
- Scroll all the way down the blue sidebar on the left and click on Options (it is usually the very last item).
- A new “Word Options” window will appear. In the left-hand menu of this window, click on Proofing.
- Look for the section labelled “AutoCorrect options” and click the large button that says AutoCorrect Options….
- A smaller window will pop up with several tabs. Click on the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
- Under the section titled “Replace as you type,” locate the checkbox labelled Internet and network paths with hyperlinks.
- Click the checkbox to uncheck it.
- Click OK to close the small window, and then click OK again to close the main Word Options window.
From now on, whenever you type a URL or an email address and press the spacebar, Microsoft Word will leave the text exactly as you typed it, maintaining your document’s clean, uniform formatting.