MS Excel inserts a hyperlink when you enter an email address, file location, or website address in a cell. Sometimes these hyperlinks are helpful and sometimes not. Microsoft Excel provides various methods to remove unwanted hyperlinks. We will explain how you can remove all the hyperlinks or groups of hyperlinks.
4 Methods to remove hyperlinks in Microsoft Excel
- Menu Options
- Turn Off Automatic Hyperlink Conversion
- Clear Option
- Select One or More Cells to Remove Hyperlinks
We will also explain how to edit existing hyperlinks.
Let us begin.
Method #1: Use Menu Options
This method is ideal to remove all the hyperlinks in your spreadsheet with a few clicks.
Step #1: Open MS Excel and create test data
Open Microsoft Excel and create a new blank spreadsheet.
Create a table with email addresses and websites, as our example below illustrates.
Step #2: Select the entire spreadsheet
Select the entire spreadsheet by pressing CTRL + A.
Or
Click on the triangle icon at the top left corner of the spreadsheet as illustrated below.
The entire spreadsheet turns gray after selection.
Step #3: Select the menu options
Right-click anywhere on the spreadsheet.
From the pop-up menu, select Remove Hyperlinks.
Excel removes all the hyperlinks and the cell formatting with the links.
Or
Click the Home tab in the main menu bar.
In the Editing group on the Home ribbon, click the Clear icon.
From the drop-down list, click Remove Hyperlinks.
Excel removes the hyperlinks and the cell formatting.
In our example, you will see the cell borders have been removed from the selected columns. The format in the other column – Name is intact.
Method #2: Turn Off Automatic Hyperlink Conversion
Use this option to turn off the auto hyperlink conversion feature.
Step #1: Open MS Excel
Open a new spreadsheet.
Go to the File tab in the main menu bar and click on Options.
Step #2: Turn off auto hyperlink conversion
The Excel Options dialog box opens.
In the left panel of the dialog box, click Proofing.
On the right, click on AutoCorrect Options.
In the AutoCorrect dialog box, click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
Uncheck the option Internet and network paths with hyperlinks.
Click the OK button to save the changes made.
Click the next OK button to save the changes and exit the Excel Options dialog box.
Type an email address, URL, or file location in the cell. Excel will treat the content as regular text instead of converting it to hyperlinks.
Step #3: Selectively use a hyperlink (optional)
At any given time, you can convert the contents of a cell to a hyperlink.
Once you have entered the text in a cell, right-click it.
Select Link from the pop-up menu.
Note: Depending on the Excel version that you are using, the pop-up menu option may differ. It could be Link or Hyperlink.
In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, enter the Address you want to link to.
Click the OK button to save the changes made and exit the dialog box.
Excel inserts a hyperlink to the selected email address.
Method #3: Use the Home tab’s Clear Option
This method will remove the hyperlinks but keep the cell formatting intact.
Step #1: Open MS Excel
Open the spreadsheet with the source data.
Step #2: Select the cells or the entire spreadsheet
Select one or more cells with the hyperlinks or you can select the entire spreadsheet by pressing CTRL + A.
Step #3: Clear the hyperlinks and keep the formats
Click the Home tab in the main menu.
In the Editing group on the Home ribbon, click Clear.
From the dropdown menu, click Clear Hyperlinks.
When selecting a group of cells, a pink eraser icon displays at the bottom right corner of your selection.
When selecting the entire spreadsheet, the pink eraser icon displays at the top right corner of the spreadsheet.
Click the down arrow on the eraser icon.
From the dropdown menu, select Clear Hyperlinks only to remove only the hyperlinks.
To clear hyperlinks and the formatting, select Clear Hyperlinks and Formats.
This option does not clear the formatting, including the blue underline and text. The text may seem like hyperlinks, but it is the formatting.
Method #4: Select One or More Cells to Remove the Hyperlinks
Use this method to remove the hyperlinks from a single cell or selection of cells.
Step #1: Open MS Excel
Create a new source data or enter the example data from Method #1 in your spreadsheet.
Step #2: Select the cell or cells with Hyperlinks
Right-click the cell with the hyperlink.
From the pop-up menu, select Remove Hyperlink.
Excel removes the hyperlink and the cell format. The cell with text converts to a regular cell.
You can use this method to remove a group of cells with hyperlinks.
Method #5: Editing Hyperlinks
You can also edit hyperlinks to update the URL, email addresses, file locations, or typos, if any.
Step #1: Select the cell
Right-click the cell with the hyperlink that you want to edit.
Step #2: Change the hyperlink
From the pop-up menu click Edit Hyperlink as illustrated above.
In our example, we will change Sandy@onlychoco.com to Sandy@onlychocos.com.
In the Text to display field, you can change the text or keep it the same.
In the E-mail address field, you can change it to the correct email address.
Click the OK button to save the changes made.
The email address updates simultaneously, as illustrated below.
Conclusion
Removing hyperlinks manually from an Excel spreadsheet can be time-consuming. You can use the method that best matches your needs covered in this tutorial. All four methods work for all versions of Excel.