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Barry MacDonnell's
Toolbox for WordPerfect

Macros, tips, and templates for Corel® WordPerfect® for Windows®
© Copyright 1996-2024 by Barry MacDonnell. All Rights Reserved.

 Page updated Apr 13, 2021

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Do you want to remove blue underlines in email addresses, web site URLs, or hyperlinks from your printouts?

And how to change the Hypertext style to remove or revise the color and/or underline codes.

 First, you can prevent them from automatically appearing in newly typed text by turning off the appropriate program option:

 •  Click Tools, QuickCorrect.

•  Choose the SpeedLinks tab, and un-tick the option, "Format words as hyperlinks as you type them".

 For more on QuickCorrect, including some useful tips, see here (and more here).

Here are 3 methods to get rid of them when they appear in e-mail addresses, web site URLs, etc., on labels or business cards

Method 1. How to remove them before they are created.
You can click Tools, Settings, Environment, and uncheck "Activate hyperlinks on open."

Be sure to also click on Tools, QuickCorrect, SpeedLinks (tab) and uncheck the box "Format words as hyperlinks when you type them".

You will get rid of the blue underlines in future documents, but you will also inactivate their hypertext links. If this is okay then you have solved your problem; if this is not okay see Method 3.
(Note that sometimes you'll still see them when creating cards or labels. The cause is unknown, at least to me. Use the LABLCOPY macro mentioned above.)

Method 2. How to remove them after they have been created.
If you find that these underlines sometimes appear when you create copies of business cards or Avery labels, you may want to use my macro, LABLCOPY. It will simply strip out all hypertext codes as it duplicates (copies) the master card or label. No WordPerfect settings are affected.
Note:

The LABLCOPY macro uses a Find and Replace method to remove the beginning Hypertext code (the first part of a code pair). When a macro removes the first part of a paired code removes the second part automatically.

You can do the same thing manually with Edit, Find and Replace. With the cursor in the "Find:" field, click Match, Codes, and in the Codes dialog that pops up, select [HyperLink Begin], then click Close. In the "Replace with:" field, be sure then <Nothing> is used. Then click Replace or Replace All.

LABLCOPY contains the following bit of code, should you wish to automate the above Find and Replace procedure with a macro -
// Macro begins here
PosDocVeryTop
OnNotFound (End@)

// IMPORTANT: In the next command enter the actual code [HyperLink Begin] using the Codes button on the Macros Toolbar (retain the quote marks):
SearchString ("[HyperLink Begin]")
SearchNext
 ReplaceString ("") // (i.e., "nothing")
 ReplaceForward

Label (End@)
 Quit
// Macro ends
Just copy this code into WordPerfect (click here for help).
Method 3. How to remove them after they have been created -- and also keep the links active.
If you want to get rid of blue underlines in hypertext but you want to keep the hypertext links "active" in case you want to use them, use the method below to change the Hypertext style and delete the [Color] and [Und] codes from the style itself.

Test the change by entering an e-mail address or URL. The blue underlines should be gone, but in the Reveal Codes window you should see the text still bracketed (surrounded) by two [Hypertext] codes. When you pass your mouse over the text the insertion point should change to a finger pointing hand, indicating the link is active. (The Tips below show how to use, for example, highlighting instead of a color and/or underlining.)

How to change hyperlink styles in a document from the default blue-text-with-underlines (or completely remove the color, etc.)

You can apply a new, custom format to all hyperlinks (a.k.a. hypertext) in the current document by simply editing the [Hyperlink] style.

This is done by editing the document's Hypertext style, which is what does the job of formatting the hyperlink in the document with color, underlines, font, etc.

Notes

This method changes all hyperlink styles in the current document, even those that are used in Cross references and those that link the page numbers in a Table of Contents, Table of authorities, List, or Index. (It's an all-or-nothing situation.)
If hyperlinks were active they will still be active since you are just modifying the hyperlink's format style, not the hyperlink itself. (See here for more on activating hyperlinks.)

Here's how.
In a document that has one or more [Hyperlink] codes, make a backup of the document.

 Then:

1. Click Format, Styles to bring up the Styles Editor dialog.
2. Choose the Hypertext style in the Styles Editor, then click Edit. (Note: If no Hypertext style is present in the document, the style name will not appear.) (In some earlier versions of WordPerfect you might need to click Options, then Setup, and choose to display all System styles.)
3. At the bottom of the Styles Editor dialog, be sure to enable (i.e., check) the two boxes, "Reveal Codes" and "Show 'off codes'".
4. In the Contents pane of the Styles Editor you can remove the [Color] and/or [Und] codes (drag them from the pane or use the Delete or Backspace key. DO NOT delete the long [Codes to the left are ON - Codes to the right are OFF] code [screen shot]. Use Cancel if you make a mistake or you want to abort your changes.
At this point the blue color and/or underlines are removed. If this is all you wish to do, stop here and click OK, then Close. Otherwise, continue with the next steps to add new formatting.
5. Select the [Codes to the left are ON - Codes to the right are OFF] code. (This is often easier using the Shift+arrow keys than with a mouse.) Once it is selected you will see [Select] adjacent to the code.
6. Apply your new formatting to this selected code.

For example, you could apply a new font with the Styles Editor's menu (e.g., Format, Font) or from the Styles Editor's toolbar.

Or you could use a different underline (assuming you removed the existing [Und] codes in step 4) such as the dotted underline, with Format, Font, Underline tab, Line style on the Styles Editor's menu.

7. Click OK, then Close, to return to your document.

Tips
☼  If you want to make the new style available in all new documents based on the default template, you can choose the Hypertext style in the Styles Editor's Available Styles list, click Options, then Copy ... to Default template. It might be wise to make a backup of the default template first.
☼  If you want to apply highlighting to the Hypertext style, you will first have to add the Highlight On/Off button tool to the regular "Selected Text" property bar so that it also shows up on the Styles Editor's toolbar. [See the footnote on the Hyperlinks page here for a method to do this.]

However, note that due to a small bug in WPX4 through WPX8 (perhaps in other versions), adding highlighting to a hyperlink will hide the underlinebelow the linked text when you Publish to PDF. If the hyperlink was active it will remain active in the PDF, but the linked text will not be underlined. Still, highlighting might be useful in PDF documents, especially where the highlighting is subdued — perhaps a light gray color — and the highlighted text is a complementary color.