Hyperlinks and Email Addresses in Excel

[Guest]

Why is the formatting of email addresses in Excel so problematic? When I
enter an email address into a cell it automatically creates a hyperlink. I
don't want it to do that, I just want it to be text. Furthermore, when it
creates the email address as a hyperlink, it also changes the font. I don't
want it to do that, either. Third, when I manually remove the hyperlink, it
changes the font again. I also don't want it to do that. Fourth, why can't
you highlight an entire column (or row) and remove all hyperlinks from email
addresses.

I think these are serious flaws, and although I'm using Excel on Mac, it
doesn't appear to be an MS punishment for using their software on the Mac for
these same issues exist in Excel for Windows.

What gives?

 

[krcowen]

Robert

1. If you don't want something that looks like an e-mal address to be
a hyperlink, you can start it with an apostrophe. 2. If you do that,
it won't be a hyperlink and it won't change color. I am not sure
about number 3. If you did not want the font to change when it became
a hyperlink, it seems like you should have been pleased to have it
change back when you removed the hyperlink. 4. If you highlight a
column of hyperlinks and delete the column they will all be removed.
If you want the text to stay, but, you want a column of hyperlinks to
become text, you can make another column with a formula that
concatenates an apostophe with the column of hyperlinks (e.g. ="'" &
a1), then convert that column to values, then delete the original
column.

Ken

 

[Stan Brown]

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:32:06 -0700 from Robert

Why is the formatting of email addresses in Excel so problematic? When I
enter an email address into a cell it automatically creates a hyperlink. I
don't want it to do that, I just want it to be text.

Tools | Autocorrect Options | AutoFormat as You Type
and uncheck "Internet and network paths with hyperlinks".

Sure, the default is annoying, but it's easy enough to change.