Maintaining Proper Hyperlinks in Word 2000 and Later

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 10, 2018)
This tip applies to Word 2000, 2002, and 2003

We keep a set of Word 2000 documents that are cross-hyperlinked, all in the same folder. All links are relative, using just the file name as a pointer with no path information. That way we can easily relocate this set of documents to other folders, networks, or servers without having to change the links.

When updating these documents, we first did a Save As to a temporary folder. When done updating, we copied the file back to the original folder. Without telling you, Word 2000 adjusts all the relative hyperlinks to point back to the original folder from the temporary folder when the Save As is performed. (In other words, the hyperlinks are transformed from relative to absolute, automatically.) Needless to say, the hyperlinks are then incorrect when the file is copied back to the original folder.

After much fruitless research with the Help system, the Microsoft Web site, Usenet, etc., I discovered accidentally that there is an option within Word that prevents automatically changing hyperlinks. Simply follow these steps:

Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
Make sure the General tab is selected.
Click on the Web Options button. Word displays the Web Options dialog box.
Make sure the Files tab is selected.
Clear the Update Links on Save check box.
Click on OK to close the Web Options dialog box.
Click on OK to close the Options dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1527) applies to Microsoft Word 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Turning Off Line Numbering

Need to have line numbering turned off for a paragraph or two? You can accomplish the task by following these steps.

Discover More

Printing Multiple Envelopes

Need to print envelopes quite often? An easy way to do it is to create an envelope template, as described in this tip.

Discover More

Printing Portions of Mail Merged Documents

When you use a data source to create a bunch of documents in a mail merge, you might not want to print all the documents ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Associating a Name with a Position

Wouldn't it be great if Word allowed you to have a small pop-up that showed you some information associated with a ...

Discover More

Getting Rid of the Ctrl+Click Message

When you add a hyperlink to a document, you can later click that link to display whatever is linked to. Beginning in Word ...

Discover More

Controlling the Program Used with Hyperlinked Images

How to tell Windows which program to use for graphics with hyperlinks.

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 0 + 7?

2018-03-10 17:36:11

Richard Ong

I have a related problem.

I have a hyperlink in a document that opens (in WIndows Explorer) the subdirectory in which that document is saved. In other words, document "X" is in subdirectory "Content." When Explorer displays what's in "Content" I see a list of prior version of "X" that I can explore for previous work.

When the link behaves correctly it shows as "../Content" in the "Address" line of the "Edit Hyperlink" window.

The link will work ok for a period of time but then it won't. At which point the "Address" line shows this:

../../../../../../Computer%20-%20misc/Content

The "Computer - misc" subdirectory is one level down from the parent directory "Parent". (There is no "Content" subdirectory under "Computer - misc".)

The "Content" subdirectory is four levels down from "Parent".

In short, the corrupted file path goes to a different tree entirely, at the bottom of which is a nonexistent subdirectory "Content."

I am using Word 2003.

This MS page suggests the same solution, namely, make hyperlink addresses absolute:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/903163/how-to-create-absolute-hyperlinks-and-relative-hyperlinks-in-word-docu

Making the links use absolute addresses still displays a relative link: "../Content", but the text in the box when I hover over the link with my mouse pointer shows the long, absolute address.

Well, it's odd. I hope the tip solves this problem of the wandering relative hyperlink address.

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.