Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Non-Printing Hyperlinks.

Non-Printing Hyperlinks

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 14, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016


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Karen reported a problem she was having getting hyperlinks in a document to print on her home computer. The document would print, but the hyperlinks would simply not be there. The same document would print fine on her system at work, but not on her home system. Both her home and work systems use the same version of Word.

There are two possible answers to this problem. First, there may be a difference between the printers at work and home. If the home computer uses a color printer, then the hyperlinks may not print because of something as simple as being out of the proper ink color to print the hyperlinks. The same thing may actually print at work because the printer is not out of ink, or the color output is being translated to black and white.

If the ink is OK on the home computer, then check to make sure that the print settings are the same on the home computer as they are on the work computer. You get to the print settings in this manner:

  1. Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 and later versions display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
  2. Click Display at the left side of the dialog box.
  3. Examine the Print section.

If the settings are the same on the home system as they are on the work system, then Word should be creating the print job in a consistent manner across both systems.

Finally, check your printer-specific settings to make sure there is nothing there that would affect the printing of either hyperlinks or text that is formatted the same color as your hyperlinks. Display the Print dialog box or printing options (press Ctrl+P) and, with your printer selected at the top of the dialog box, click on the Properties button. You may have to do some exploring in the dialog box, but this is where you control the nitty-gritty of how your printer actually prints what it receives from Word.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11778) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Non-Printing Hyperlinks.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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2021-01-14 07:28:39

Peter Stern

I would also check to see if the hyperlinks are for some reason formatted as non-printing characters. It may be difficult to see the tell-tale squiggle (technical term) underneath the text as it may be obscured by the hyperlink's underlining.


2017-08-29 09:49:29

Steve

I have a document that contains hyperlinks to other documents. The other documents might be edited from time to time so the hyperlinks should always have the most up-to-date information. When I print my document, I'd like the hyperlinked documents to print as well, not the hyperlinks themselves. Some of the hyperlinks reference Excel spreadsheets and I'd like these to print with my document as well. Is there a way to make this happen?


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