How to Add and Edit Links in Word Documents

Insert hyperlinks quickly

What to Know

  • Highlight text you want to hyperlink. Right-click it and choose Link. Alternatively, select Insert > Links > Link.
  • Then, enter the URL in the Address field.
  • Remove a link: Right-click the hyperlink text and choose Remove Hyperlink.

Microsoft Word is primarily used to create word processing documents, but you can also work with hyperlinks and HTML code used in websites. Learn how to insert, remove, or edit hyperlinks using Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, and Word 2010.

Insert Links

To link to other documents or web pages from a Word document, insert a hyperlink.

  1. Select the text that you want to apply the hyperlink to. This can be the text of a URL, a single word, a phrase, a sentence, or a paragraph.

    Screenshot of selected text in Word
  2. Right-click the text and select Link or Hyperlink to open the Insert Hyperlink dialog box. Or, go to the Insert tab and select Links > Link.

    Text option menu in Word with the Link option highlighted
  3. In the Address field, enter the URL address of the document or website you want to link to. For online assets, the URL must include the protocol (for example, http, https, or ftp).

    The Text to display text box defaults to the text you selected in step 1. You can change this text here if you like.

    Insert Hyperlink window in Word with the Address field highlighted
  4. Select OK.

    Insert Hyperlink window in Word with the OK button highlighted
  5. The selected text appears as a hyperlink that can be clicked to open the linked document or website.

    To make changes to the link, right-click the hyperlink and select Edit Hyperlink.

Remove Hyperlinks

When you type a URL into Word, it automatically inserts a hyperlink that connects to the website. This feature is handy if you distribute documents electronically, but it can be a nuisance when printing documents.

To remove a hyperlink, right-click the link and select Remove Hyperlink.

Option menu in Word with the Remove Hyperlink command highlighted

In Word for Mac, right-click then select Hyperlink. In the slide-out menu, select Edit Hyperlink, then choose Remove Link.

More About Editing Hyperlinks

When you work in the Insert Hyperlink dialog box and the Edit Hyperlink dialog box, several other features are available on the left side of the dialog box.

Existing File or Web Page

This tab is selected by default in the Insert Hyperlink and the Edit Hyperlink dialog boxes. This tab displays the text for the hyperlink and the URL of that hyperlink

Hyperlink window with the menu tabs highlighted

In the middle of the window, there are three tabs:

  • Current Folder displays files that are located in the same folder location as the current document. If you want the selected link to link to a document located in this folder, locate the file and choose it. The Address field changes to reflect the document location on your computer. The Text to display field also changes to the file address, so you may want to edit this field to change the text that displays in the Word document. 
  • Browsed Pages shows a list of recent documents and web pages you have accessed. Select one of these as the new link destination.
  • Recent Files displays a list of recent files you've worked on in Word. This is handy if you're working on a series of separate documents and want to create links to these files quickly.

Place in This Document

This tab displays sections and bookmarks contained in the current document. Use it to link to specific locations within the current document.

Place in This Document button in Word

Create New Document

Go to this tab to create a new document to which the link will connect. This feature is useful if you're creating a series of documents but haven't created the document you want to link to. Define the name of the new document in the labeled field. 

Create New Document tab in Word

If you don't want to edit the new document you create from here, select Edit the new document later.

Email Address

This section creates a link that will generate a new email when someone clicks it and populates several of the new email fields with the defaults you define. Enter the email address where you want the new email to be sent, and add the subject that will appear in the new email by filling in the appropriate fields.

Email address hyperlink formatting tab in Word

If you have used this feature recently for other links, any email addresses you used in those will appear in the Recently used e-mail addresses list.

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