We recently created hyperlinks in Microsoft Word to external files, websites, and email addresses. In today’s tutorial, we are going to change the style of hyperlinks in Microsoft Word. Style includes the font, font size, font color, and emphasis (i.e., bold font, italics, and underlining).
The style settings for followed and unfollowed hyperlinks are different, so we will cover the steps to change each separately.
Quick Links:
Important Note: These steps apply to all the hyperlinks in your Word document. If you want to change the style of an individual hyperlink, select it, and then use the options in the Font group in the Home tab to change the style as you would regular text.
This tutorial is also available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.
Watch more than 100 other videos about Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat on my YouTube channel.
The images below are from Word for Microsoft 365. The steps are the same for Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, and Word 2010. However, your interface may look slightly different in those older versions of the software.
How to Change the Style of Unfollowed Hyperlinks in Microsoft Word
Unfollowed hyperlinks are links that haven’t been selected (or clicked) by the reader. Word’s default style for unfollowed hyperlinks is normally blue with underlining. The default font will match the surrounding text. Your default may be different if you are using a custom template.
- Select the Home tab.
- Place your cursor inside an existing unfollowed hyperlink.
- Select the dialog box launcher in the Styles group.
- Select the Hyperlink menu arrow in the Styles pane.
- Select Modify from the drop-down menu.
- Select new choices from the formatting section in the Modify Style dialog box: (1) font, (2) font size, (3) emphasis (bold, italic, and underlining), and (4) font color.
- Select the OK button to close the Modify Style dialog box.
- Select the X to close the Styles pane.
Your unfollowed hyperlinks should be formatted with your new style choices.
How to Change the Style of Followed Hyperlinks in Microsoft Word
Followed hyperlinks are links that have been selected (or clicked) by the reader. Word’s default style for followed hyperlinks is normally purple with underlining. The default font will match the surrounding text. Your default may be different if you are using a custom template.
Pro Tip: To follow a hyperlink in Word, press the Ctrl key on your keyboard while selecting the hyperlink.
- Select the Home tab in the ribbon (see figure 1).
- Select the dialog box launcher in the Styles group (see figure 3).
- Select the Manage Styles button in the Styles pane.
- Select Alphabetical from the Sort order menu in the Manage Styles dialog box.
- Select FollowedHyperlink from the Select a style to edit menu.
- Select the Modify button.
- Select new choices from the formatting section in the Modify Style dialog box (see figure 6).
- Select the OK button to close the Modify Style dialog box (see figure 7).
- Select the OK button to close the Manage Styles dialog box.
- Select the X to close the Styles pane (see figure 8).
Your followed hyperlinks should be formatted with your new style choices.
Related Resources
How to Create and Update a Table of Contents in Microsoft Word
THANK YOU!!!!!! This took so long to find because thanks to google I kept only coming across articles that were discussing how to change a hyperlink color (but not followed hyperlink) OR were outdated and dealing with an older version of Word.
I’m glad it worked for you. Thank you for visiting!
~Erin