I’m still confused. I did as instructed–edit, paste special, unformatted text. It pasted the one thing I just copied. I want to copy the text of links and NEVER EVER have them appear as links, only as text. FOREVER. I don’t want to go this menu route every time I paste the text of a link, which is like 4,000 times a day. (OK, I exaggerate.)
Any help with that?
Ellen Cherry, I had followed the instructions earlier and unchecked the "Internet and network paths with hyperlinks " box in Word, copied the text of the SDMB website, hit enter and I STILL got “link” format as I believe you did.
BASTARDS!!
Turns out, you also need to go to Tools->Auto Correct Options->Auto Format As You Type and UNCHECK THE SAME FRICKIN’ BOX THERE, TOO.
After I did that, I no longer get the automatic underline-y link-y thing.
Jesus Christ. Why why why do I have to uncheck this option twice???
So, uncheck the option in both places, paste special as before and see if that works.
If you still want the links to work when you click on them in the – ahem, electronic – Word document but just don’t like the formatting, modify the hyperlink style and save the change to the normal.dot template when Word nags you about it (deity-of-your-choice help you if you allow Word to update your normal.dot template or your styles automatically).
Too bad nobody pointed that out, say, in post #6, huh? Would have saved you all that grief.
Open the folder.
Set the view to Details (or whichever view you want).
Go to the Tools menu and open the “Folder Options” dialog.
Go to the “View” tab.
Click the “Apply to All Folders” button.
Confirm the change, then click OK to close the “Folder Options” dialog.
Beat me by 15 minutes!
Note that changing the default folder view also preserves all other aspects of the Explorer view, like column widths, sort preferences, etc. So if you do the “Apply to All Folders” bit when you have everything sorted in reverse chronological order, all Explorer windows will default to reverse chronological order sorting. So make sure you have your folder view set EXACTLY how you want it before setting the default, or you’ll have to do it again while muttering curses in the general direction of Redmond, WA.
Gah! :smack:
This I have done, years ago, and it did not prevent links from pasting. I still have the problem.
?
What version of Word are you using? It works in Word 2002, at least, which is what I’m using.
Word 2000. Told ya it was years.
It should still work, according to this. There are some other tips, most of which were mentioned here already, for either preventing or removing hyperlinks. So, I dunno what to tell you.
Hm. Well, the instructions say that that command works to “remove hyperlinking.” It doesn’t say that it prevents pasting as a link in the first place. That’s what I want to do: copy a “link” when all I really want is the words which form the link. Looks like I’m SOL in that department.
What I’ve been doing is pasting into Notepad first. It’s another step, but I’ve gotten pretty quick about it.
Thanks Hunter Hawk!
In this case, paste special should work for you, copy in your source, switch focus to word, and edit>Paste Special>Unformatted Unicode text. At least, it works for me.
If you’re using Firefox, you can get the “Copy As Plain Text” extension, which lets you copy unformatted text from internet websites. You can then paste normally into word without worrying about formatting or styles.
A short macro should do it. Just turn on the macro recorder, do the paste special unformatted, then stop and save the macro. You can assign it to a keyboard shortcut of your choice.
But why don’t you do it the way Word wants you to? After all, Microsoft knows what’s best for us. So there must be a good reason, even if we can’t perceive it. Have faith in them. Don’t rock the boat. Be a part of the team. 
Um. :o I don’t know what these suggestions mean:
– "you can get the “Copy As Plain Text” extension, " (I am using Firefox)
… “A short macro should do it. Just turn on the macro recorder,” 
Then go here and click the “Install Now” button. You may need to allow this website to install software; a yellow bar will appear at the top of the page indicating that the site has been blocked from installing software–click the Edit Options button at the right end, and then click the Allow button in the resulting dialog box. You’ll then have to click the Install Now button again, at which point it should properly install.
>You’re probably left-poking. Try using a different finger. With Word features like this, the middle one is often a good choice.
Nice. Very nice. Now, got any suggestions for how I get spattered turkey sub off the monitor?
Thanks Q. You’re a peach.
I want to thank the people on this forum who have helped me figure out how to stop the automatic underlining that happens when I cut and paste from an article.
Microsoft Word 2007 has been very opaque to me. I just discovered that clicking on the icon in the left top corner, I can go to the bottom of the window that appears and click on Word Options to set defaults of my own choosing.
I went into Proofing to reset some of the most aggravating Autocorrect choices.
Then I went into Advanced Options and changed the default settings for cut and paste. This worked! Yeah! I no longer get clippings stubbornly underlined. It makes it so much harder to read when it’s all underlined. Whoever thought of that option? I’m really grateful for finally taking the time and finding your forum and learning how to stop this.
In my opinion, Microsoft made this 2007 version of Word extremely user unfriendly so that people would have to pay to take courses to become proficient in it. It’s a way of blocking a number of people from easy access to it, including second English learners and older people like me.
My son has such an irritating attitude towards all this; he always says that my technological fumblings are endlessly amusing, but he did teach me to use online forums for answers when you have problems.