Differences in Behavior of Links

Fay has two documents linked to each other—a form linked to an information document. On her work PC when she hovers the mouse pointer over the link it shows as a "pointer hand." On her PC at home she doesn't get the hand, but can right-click and select to open the link. Fay is wondering why the behavior is different on the two systems and what she can do to fix her home PC.

The behavior difference that Fay notes is actually controlled by a configuration setting within Word. If you are using a version of Word earlier than Word 2007, you need to display the Edit tab of the Options dialog box (click Tools | Options | Edit tab). If you are using Word 2007 you need to click the Office button and then choose Word Options. Click Advanced and display the Editing Options portion of the options. (Click here to see a related figure.)

Regardless of your version you want to pay attention to the setting named Use CTRL+Click to Follow Hyperlink. If this check box is selected then Word requires the use of the Ctrl key to activate the link. (Or, as Fay did, right-clicking the link and selecting to open it.) If the check box is unselected then you'll get the "pointer hand" and be able to simply click on a link to follow it.