Stop Automatic Creation of Hyperlinks in Excel

When you type in a URL into a cell, Excel automatically creates a clickable hyperlink, which may not always be what you want. Some people find this behavior annoying. Luckily, you can easily disable it by changing Excel’s AutoCorrect settings.

Here’s how:

To Stop Automatic Creation of Hyperlinks

1. Click the File tab on the Ribbon.
2. Click Options to display the Excel Options window.
3. Click Proofing in the left pane.
   
4. Click the AutoCorrect Options button to display the AutoCorrect dialog box.
   
5. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
   
6. Under the Replace As You Type area, uncheck the checkbox next to Internet And Network Paths With Hyperlinks.
   
7. Click OK.

Now if you don’t want to turn off this feature but still want the option of entering some URLs as text and not hyperlinks, enter the URL into a cell as a label. That is to say, precede the URL with an apostrophe, such as: ‘http://microsoft.com. Excel will then recognize it as text rather than a link.

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