Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. 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: Pop-up Windows in Word.

Pop-up Windows in Word

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 29, 2018)
This tip applies to Word 2007 and 2010

Word does not provide any intrinsic "pop-up" feature that results in a small window containing information when you click on a word or a link. The closest that can be found in Word is the ScreenTip feature, which displays a small ToolTip-like "hint" when you hover the mouse pointer over a hyperlink. ScreenTips can be created as follows:

Display the Insert tab of the ribbon.
Click the Hyperlink tool within the Links group. Word displays the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.
Click on the ScreenTip button. Word displays the Set Hyperlink ScreenTip dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Set Hyperlink ScreenTip dialog box.

In the ScreenTip Text box, enter the text you want to use for your ScreenTip.
Click your mouse on OK to close the dialog box.
Set any other hyperlink values, as desired.
When completed, click on OK.

Other than the ScreenTips, there is nothing else close to a "pop-up" feature in Word. One could be easily created, however, if you create a macro that displays information using the MsgBox function, and then you associate that macro with a MACROBUTTON field. When the user clicks on the button created by the field, the message in the macro is displayed in a dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11255) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Pop-up Windows in Word.

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. Learn more about Allen...

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What is two more than 7?

2015-02-16 13:10:18

These instructions do not work on Word 2010. Do you have to highlight the words you want the pop-up associated with first? It would be nice to know how it is supposed to look once you follow the instructions. The instructions are not complete. What other hyperlink values could you be referring to? I didn't add any because I don't know what I don't know. Could that be why it didn't work?

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