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How to find hyperlinks in Word (every link, fast)

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Office & Outlook Desk

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Person typing on a laptop while checking a Word document for hyperlinks

Quick answer: Word’s normal search can’t look for “links”, but there’s a simple trick. Press Alt + F9 to show field codes, so every link appears as { HYPERLINK "https://..." }. Then press Ctrl + H, open the Find tab, search for HYPERLINK and use Reading Highlight > Highlight All or Find Next. Press Alt + F9 again to switch back. To get a full list of links and their addresses, use the short macro in Method 4.

Applies to: Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2024, 2021, 2019 and 2016 on Windows. Mac differences are noted where they matter; Word for the web doesn’t show field codes or run macros.

In this guide

  1. Which method should you use?
  2. Method 1: Show field codes and search for HYPERLINK
  3. Method 2: Jump from link to link with Go To
  4. Method 3: Find text with the Hyperlink style
  5. Method 4: List every hyperlink with a short macro
  6. Check where a link points
  7. Remove or turn off hyperlinks
  8. Related guides
  9. Frequently asked questions
Person typing on a laptop while checking a Word document for hyperlinks

Which method should you use?

You want to…Best method
See and step through every link, including ones that don’t look like linksField codes + Find
Jump from one link to the next without changing the viewGo To > Field
Find blue underlined link text quicklyFind by Hyperlink style
Get a list of all links and their web addresses, for checking or a reportMacro
Get rid of the linksRemove hyperlinks

Method 1: Show field codes and search for HYPERLINK

Behind the scenes, every Word hyperlink is a HYPERLINK field. Showing field codes reveals them all, even links on plain-looking text, images or table of contents entries.

  1. Press Alt + F9. Links turn into codes such as { HYPERLINK "https://example.com" }. (Other fields, like page numbers and dates, also change to codes; that’s normal.)
  2. Press Ctrl + H and select the Find tab.
  3. Type HYPERLINK in Find what.
  4. Select Find Next to go through the links one by one, or Reading Highlight > Highlight All to mark them all in yellow. Find In > Main Document selects all of them at once.
  5. Press Alt + F9 again to return to the normal view. Clear the highlight with Reading Highlight > Clear Highlighting.

Table of contents entries and cross-references use HYPERLINK or PAGEREF/REF fields with internal bookmarks (such as _Toc...), so you’ll see those too. Links to web pages start with http or https; links to email addresses start with mailto:.

On a Mac: toggle field codes with Option + F9 (on many Mac keyboards, Fn + Option + F9), or right-click a link and choose Toggle Field Codes.

Close-up of hands on a laptop keyboard, showing field codes to find every hyperlink in Word

Method 2: Jump from link to link with Go To

  1. Press Ctrl + G (or F5) to open the Go To tab of Find and Replace.
  2. Under Go to what, select Field.
  3. In Enter field name, type HYPERLINK.
  4. Select Next to jump to each link in turn, and Previous to go back.

This works without showing field codes, so the document keeps its normal look while you move around.

Method 3: Find text with the Hyperlink style

Word normally formats links with a character style called Hyperlink (the familiar blue underline). You can search for that style:

  1. Press Ctrl + H, select the Find tab and leave Find what empty.
  2. Select More >>, then Format > Style.
  3. Choose Hyperlink from the list and select OK.
  4. Select Find Next or Find In > Main Document.

This is quick, but it can miss links. Text pasted from a web page or another program may keep its own formatting instead of the Hyperlink style, and some people restyle their links. It can also find text that has the style but no longer has a link. For a complete check, use Method 1 or 4. Remember to select No Formatting afterwards so your next search isn’t limited to that style.

Method 4: List every hyperlink with a short macro

If you need a list of every link and where it goes, for example to check for broken links before publishing or sending a document, a few lines of VBA will produce it in a new document. You don’t need to save your file as a macro-enabled document to run it.

  1. Open the document and press Alt + F11 to open the Visual Basic editor.
  2. Select Insert > Module and paste the code below.
  3. Click inside the code and press F5 to run it. Close the editor afterwards.
Sub ListHyperlinks()
    Dim h As Hyperlink, txt As String
    For Each h In ActiveDocument.Hyperlinks
        txt = txt & h.TextToDisplay & vbTab & h.Address
        If h.SubAddress <> "" Then txt = txt & "#" & h.SubAddress
        txt = txt & vbCr
    Next h
    Documents.Add.Content.Text = "Hyperlinks found: " & ActiveDocument.Hyperlinks.Count & vbCr & txt
End Sub

A new document opens with the number of links followed by one line per link: the text shown, a tab, then the address. Internal links to bookmarks or headings show as #bookmark. The macro reads the main document text; links inside headers, footers, text boxes or footnotes aren’t included.

If macros are blocked by your organisation, use Method 1 instead. Only run macros you understand; this one only reads links and creates a new document, it doesn’t change the original.

Check where a link points

  • Hover the mouse over a link to see its address in a tooltip.
  • Hold Ctrl and click to open it. If a single click opens links instead, the option Use CTRL + Click to follow hyperlink is turned off under File > Options > Advanced.
  • Right-click a link and choose Edit Hyperlink to see or change the address and the text.
Person at a desk with a laptop and clipboard, reviewing a list of hyperlinks from a Word document

Remove or turn off hyperlinks

  • One link: right-click it and choose Remove Hyperlink. The text stays; only the link is removed.
  • All links: press Ctrl + A to select everything, then Ctrl + Shift + F9. Careful: this converts every selected field to plain text, not just links, so a table of contents, page references and date fields stop updating. If your document has those, remove links one by one, or select only the part of the text that contains them.
  • Stop Word creating links as you type: File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options, open the AutoFormat As You Type tab and clear Internet and network paths with hyperlinks.

For more Word shortcuts like these, see MS Word tips and tricks.

Official sources: for more detail, see Microsoft’s own documentation:

Frequently asked questions

Can I search for hyperlinks with Ctrl+F?

Not directly, because the Navigation pane searches the visible text. Show field codes first with Alt + F9, then search for HYPERLINK in the Find and Replace dialog (Ctrl + H).

How do I count the hyperlinks in a Word document?

Use Method 1 and select Find In > Main Document: Word reports how many items it found. The macro in Method 4 also prints the total at the top of its list.

Why don’t some links look blue?

A link can be applied to any text or picture, and its formatting can be changed. Field codes (Method 1) and Go To (Method 2) find links regardless of how they look.

How do I find broken hyperlinks in Word?

Word has no built-in broken link checker. Create the list with the Method 4 macro, then open each address, or paste the list into a link-checking tool.

Office & Outlook Desk

The Office & Outlook Desk covers Microsoft 365, Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams. Every guide says which version it applies to (classic Outlook, new Outlook or the web) and marks steps that need an administrator.

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