Stop Excel Active Hyperlinks

Problem:  Excel displays email and web URL addresses as hot hyperlinks.  Clicking the cell launches the browser or email client.  This article discusses how to stop this behavior.


Disable the Hyperlink Feature in Excel

Stop the original data entry from constructing a hyperlink
Steps (Excel 2013) and probably older versions


1.  From any Excel sheet, select File, Options

2.  Select left-nav [Proofing]
     In the Proofing menu, select button [AutoCorrect Options]

3.  In [Autoformat As You Type]
     [  ] Uncheck Internet and network paths with hyperlinks

4.  OK, OK, to close the File options menu

Results:  Newly-entered cells will not activate hyperlinks.  Cells that were previously formatted with hyperlinks remain hot.  This change takes effect on this sheet and all subsequent sheets, but does not affect previously-built sheets or cells that were previously formatted with hyperlinks.  See below.

I recommend this setting for all Excel users.



UnFormat Existing Hyperlink Cells

A.  Highlight the cells or columns.

B.  "other-mouse-click" (context menu click), chose "Remove Hyperlinks"



Manually Create Hyperlink, Overriding  the AutoCorrect Bypass from above

A.  In the normal, non-formatted cell, type the web or email address into the cell as normal text.
      Press ENTER to accept.
      e.g.  www.keylinercsharp.com

B.  Copy the text (copy the address)

C.  Re-highlight the cell. 
     With the context menu (other-mouse-click), choose "Hyperlink"
     Paste the copied address

Click for Larger View

Avoid Hyperlinks on Existing Formatted Cells

To avoid hyperlinks on an existing cell, but to leave the hyperlink active, click in the white area on the right-side of the text.  This allows you to select the cell, but not activate the link.  This annoying.

Similarly annoying:  Click and hold on the cell to select the cell without activating.



Opening an Address when a Hyperlink is not formatted

I do not know a direct way to do this.  Once the hyperlink format is removed, excel does not give a way to manually re-engage the link unless the cell is re-formatted.  Too bad a ctrl-click does not work.


Vaguely Related articles:
Stop Excel 2013, 2016 Cursor and Screen Animations
Keyliner - Excel User-Defined Functions

Vista Print Business Cards

Keyliner is now a repeat customer with Vistaprint. Three years ago, I logged in to their website, designed a business card, accepted the proof, and the order a few days later. 250 two-sided cards with graphics on both sides. They specialize in real offset printing with small production runs and fast turn-arounds. I was pleased.

With this batch, I wanted cards with Keyliner's new branding and I wanted a QR code ($0). As before, it is a blast designing cards. It took about an hour dinking around with graphics, fiddling with fonts and what-not - with most of this time playing.  

You should do this for no other reason than it is fun handing people a card.

It beats telling them your phone number or email address.

I wanted to correct three mistakes from the first batch of cards. Always order heavier card-stock, adding about $2. Secondly, I switched from matte to glossy paper, mostly because of the photograph ($0). Finally, a QR code seems like a good idea ($0). 

Compared to three years ago, the price is roughly the same: $35 (including shipping).  However, in early January, 2016, they had an online promo code "NewYear", which pops-up on the site -- bringing the price down to $24.  

(There almost always seems to be a promotion of some type or other, or there is free shipping.  I think this makes the real normal price for 250 front-side cards about $24 - $30, depending on paper stock, etc. Doubling the order to 500 cards is $3 more - makes sense because they already have the press running.) 

Here were the cards from 2012:

The only issue I had was at checkout. It is a full-court-press, offering everything from branded pens to tee-shirts, coffee mugs, magnets, websites, scratchpads, dogfood -- you get the idea.

The gauntlet is easy to navigate, but there are four or five screens to skip before you can complete the order. On the plus-side, it was interesting at how quickly the graphics were generated, all using my artwork. But my art did not include text (which was over-layed using the site's design tools) and this made for humorous product placements. I'm sure this is all fixable. For example, you can see my graphic wrapped around a pen.

Final opinion:
Fun. Easy-to-use. Reasonably priced. Quality product. Recommended.



Related article: 
Keyliner - Generate your own QR code (not needed, nor required by Vistaprint)