Clickable emails and links in Word 2013

I hope the above information helps. If you have further questions related to this issue, please let me know.

Thank you.

As Daniel says, what you're seeing is the field code rather than the field result. Alt+F9 will toggle between them.

But while you're viewing the field code, note whether it includes "mailto." For example, if I enter an email address in my copy of Word and convert it to a hyperlink, what I get is { HYPERLINK "someone at somewhere dot com" } (as you'll have seen, this forum doesn't permit actual email addresses). If I Ctrl+click on it, I get an error message that "The address of this site is not valid. Check the address and try again."

If I change this to { HYPERLINK mailto:someone at somewhere dot com } then when I Ctrl+click on it, an Outlook message opens. I'm not sure why Word is not rendering email addresses correctly, but at least that's the answer. As for what happens in an email (presumably in Outlook), you'd need to ask in the Outlook forum about that; it should certainly work there.

OK, the alt F9 seemed to work.

How do I set that as the default? I also want to change the default font and font size, and set the default line-spacing to zero. In other words, when I tell word to open a blank document, I want it, every time, to open with:

Links are real links

Times New Roman 12 for the font

Line spacing zero.

How do I do this?

Also, maybe I'm not fully awake yet, but I didn't understand the "ctrl click" stuff.

So, my question remains: If I get an email link embedded in either a document or another email, how do I click on it and get it to open a new message in Outlook, with the address I just clicked in the To: field?

Thx,

TCS

Generally speaking, Word remembers the settings that prevail when you close it and uses the same settings when you open it again. If field codes are not displayed in the last document you have open, then they should not be displayed when you start Word and open a new document. As for changing default font and font size and other such settings, you can do this through the Style Manager:

1. Press Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S to open the Styles task pane.
2. In the bottom left corner are three buttons; click the third, Manage Styles.
3. In the Manage Styles dialog, select the Set Defaults tab.
4. Change the settings on that tab as desired, select the radio button for "New documents based on this template," and click OK.

There is also a Set As Default button in many dialogs (e.g., Font, Paragraph, Page Setup). When you click that button, you get a choice of setting the default for the current document or the attached template.

By default, clicking on a hyperlink in Word will do nothing because the default Options setting requires you to press Ctrl while clicking. This is shown in the ScreenTip when you mouse over the link:

If you have "Internet and network paths with hyperlinks" enabled under "Replace as you type" in Word's AutoFormat As You Type settings, then you should get a properly formatted mailto: link, as shown above. If you just type an email address and then click Ctrl+K to convert it to a hyperlink, it will not include "mailto:" and will not work.

None of this affects email links in documents or messages you receive from others. If they are not properly formatted, they won't work.

Some progress…sort of…

Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S ? Really?

I was able to get the font default set. It looks like the link/email is now working correctly as well, although I haven’t fully tested that.

I have been completely unable, however, to get it to save “zero spacing” as the default. Even in the “manage styles” box, I tell it to put zero spacing, and there’s no set of keystrokes that I can find that will make it save “zero spacing” as the default.

What next?

Thx,

Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S is the keyboard shortcut and the easiest way to tell users to open the Styles pane. But you can also open it with the dialog launcher in the Styles group on the Home tab or with a button added to the QAT.

In the Manage Styles dialog, did you set Spacing Before/After to 0 and line spacing to single?

Yes.

But it doesn't STICK. There's no "Apply" or "OK" or "Make Default" button. Or if there is, it's well hidden.

When I close the document where I make the change, and then open a new one, the change has gone away.

TCS

Yes, it should. But it isn't.

I think I've found a workaround. There's a single spaced option in the set of templates displayed when you go to open a new document. I set the default font on that to Times New Roman (I don't know why anybody would like Calibri!), and so far it seems to have saved fine. Of course, I haven't turned off the computer yet, so we'll see.

Is there anyway I can move that template to be the top left selection among the templates selected?

Another common problem I have (probably not fixable) is the fixed size, immobile windows used in Word and elsewhere. My "laptop" never touches my lap. I put it on a tray about 4 feet away from me, and to get things to be comfortably readable, I set the magnification at 250%. Normally it works great, but with those fixed, immobile windows, the "OK" or "Apply" buttons are at the bottom of those windows...invisible, and inaccessible. I have to change the magnification, log off, log back on, do whatever I need to do, change the magnification again, log off again, and then log back on again.

Anyway, thanks for your help. I think my original problem is mostly solved now.

TCS