How to stop Excel following hyperlinks when I click on them?

Question

In Word I can use Ctrl+Click on the rare occasion that I want to follow a link rather than, you know, do the editing that Word is actually for.

Is there some way to get similar behaviour in Excel 2010, 2003, 2013?

I am sick of accidentally switching to IE or Outlook every time I try and select a cell that has a hyperlink attached.

Results of my prior research here on SuperUser and via popular search engines have not been very fruitful (e.g. http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-excel/archive/2011/04/12/hyperlinks-in-excel-hot-or-not.aspx) I am not interested in hearing how I can click and hold to select the cell, or run VBscript or Macros to strip all hyperlinks from a workbook. I want something that conforms with the UI I expect from a non browser application and applies to documents other people have created.

Answer 1

In Excel 2013, whitespace clicking will select the cell without following the URL, but you have to pay attention. If the icon changes to the hand icon on mouseover, it will follow the URL. If the icon changes to the big white cross, it will select the cell without following the URL. Changing row height or column width can help to increase the amount of whitespace.

Still, I wish that MS had thought to make URL clicks act the same in Excel 2013 as in Word 2013, because it is an annoyance.

"There is no such thing as a foolproof system. Someone will make a better fool, tomorrow." @LoneWolffe

Answer 2

I found that you can click the cell and hold the mouse button down for about one second. After that the cursor turns into the usual cross, as depicted below:

This works in Excel 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016. If it works in 2003 or Office 365, please update my answer. =)

Answer 3

What I have found (on Excel 2010 for Mac, at least) is that you can right click then left click the cell. That leaves you with the cell selected but does not follow the link. It becomes like a single motion and is not too annoying.

Answer 4

How I do this: Set the hyperlink with the URL in the second portion:

=HYPERLINK("","http://example.com")

In the VBA Editor make a module:

Declare Function GetKeyState Lib "User32" (ByVal vKey As Integer) As Integer
Global Const CTRL_KEY = 17

Then the worksheet code:

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
    On Error GoTo Error1
    If Left(Target.Formula, 10) = "=HYPERLINK" Then
        If GetKeyState(CTRL_KEY) < 0 Then 'Check if CTRL is held in
            Application.EnableEvents = False
            ThisWorkbook.FollowHyperlink Mid(Target.Formula, 16, Len(Target.Formula) - 17)
            Application.EnableEvents = True
        End If
    End If

    Exit Sub

Error1:
    Application.EnableEvents = True

End Sub

To make it work, click on the cell, then CTRL+Click on the cell to visit the link. You could do other things like have text in the second portion of HYPERLINK then a SELECT CASE in the code, that opens a url based on the text. Other keystrokes are available as well:

Global Const SHIFT_KEY = 16
Global Const ALT_KEY = 18

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa243025(v=vs.60).aspx

Answer 5

Just go to Excel options->"proofing"-> "autocorrect options"-> "autoformat as you type" and uncheck the check box for "internet and network paths".

An alternative for IT security teams dealing with lot of IoCs is is to use autocorrection for "http" and auto-change as you type to "hxxp".In this way Excel will not create the hyperlink.

CK

Answer 6

Refer to Microsoft's website:

• To remove a hyperlink and the text that represents it, right-click the cell that contains the hyperlink, and click Clear Contents on the shortcut menu.
• To remove a hyperlink and the graphic that represents it, hold down CTRL and click the graphic, and then press DELETE.

If you are looking to disable a hyperlink for a single cell, here is the solution:

• Right-click the hyperlink you want to deactivate, and then click Remove Hyperlink on the shortcut menu.

Answer 7

I don't know if this is a workaround or an answer, but just make the width of your hyperlink column wider than the hyperlink text.

When you want to select the cell just click anywhere in the whitespace to the right of the link.

Alternately, by increasing the height of rows and clicking in the whitespace above (or below, depending on your alignment settings) the link you get the same effect - but with a metro looking interface :-)

Checked (and working) with Excel 2010.

Answer 8

This thread opened up to me while looking for a related matter. But I solved quest cell/content hyperlink - remove link and keep the text by this steps a create a new empty collum copy the cells with hyperlinks external into notebook copy the text from the notebook page select in the created new collum an equal amount of cells paste the notebook content into the selected cells

result the hyperlink is cleared, the text before attribute to the hyperlink is now content of the cells in excell / easy as it is.

Give it a try, it did work for me in office excell 2003, maybe you will work fine / kind regards /

Answer 9

Try this:

• Select the entire sheet, copy
• Open new workbook, right click any cell, paste options, paste values

This will give you a new sheet with none of the old formatting, including all hyperlinks removed.

Answer 10

There are a few ways to do this:

• One way (which is valid but I don't recommend) is to put a ' (single quote) as the very first character of a cell. This tells Excel "do not format this cell even if it's a hyperlink or formula". I use this if I need to have a formula as a reference for documentation purposes. I don't recommend it because you want to disable the auto-link creation feature. This works on any version of Excel, even Mac.

To disable auto-link creation:

Excel versions 2003 and up

1. On the Tools menu, click Autocorrect Options.
2. On the Autoformat As You Type tab, click to clear the Internet and network paths with hyperlinks check box.

3. Click OK.

   • Note You can also gain access to the Autocorrect Options feature when you type a hyperlink and then click Stop Automatically Creating Hyperlinks on the smart tag button that appears.