How to Change the Style of Hyperlinks in Microsoft Word

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:

How to Change the Style of Unfollowed Hyperlinks
How to Change the Style of Followed Hyperlinks

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 available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than 100 other writing-related software tutorials on my YouTube channel.

The images below are from Word for Microsoft 365. The steps are the same for Word 2021, 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.

Home tab in Word 365 — Figure 1. Home tab

Place your cursor inside an existing unfollowed hyperlink.

Example of unfollowed link in Word 365 — Figure 2. Example of unfollowed hyperlink

Select the dialog box launcher in the Styles group.

Style group dialog box launcher in Word 365 — Figure 3. Style group dialog box launcher

Select the Hyperlink menu arrow in the Styles pane.

Hyperlink menu arrow in the Styles pane in Word 365 — Figure 4. Hyperlink menu arrow

Select Modify from the drop-down menu.

Modify option in the Hyperlink drop-down menu in the Styles pane in Word 365 — Figure 5. Modify option

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.

Formatting section in the Modify Style dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 6. Font, font size, emphasis, and font color options

Select the OK button to close the Modify Style dialog box.

Modify Style dialog box OK button in Word 365 — Figure 7. Modify Style OK button

Select the X to close the Styles pane.

Style pane closing X in Word 365 — Figure 8. Closing X

Your unfollowed hyperlinks should be formatted with your new style choices.

Example of unfollowed hyperlink with custom style in Word 365 — Figure 9. Example of unfollowed hyperlink with custom style

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.

Example of followed hyperlink in Word 365 with default style — Figure 10. Example of followed hyperlink with default style

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.

Manage Styles button in the Styles pane in Word 365 — Figure 11. Manage Styles button

Select Alphabetical from the Sort order menu in the Manage Styles dialog box.

Sort Order menu in the Manage Styles dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 12. Sort order menu

Select FollowedHyperlink from the Select a style to edit menu.

"Select a style to edit" menu in the Manage Styles dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 13. Select a style to edit menu

Select the Modify button.

Modify button in the Manage Styles dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 14. 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.