Unmerge Records

September 16, 2012 3:38 PM

How do I kill the links to an outside source in a Word document?

Office 2007

I've been using an Excel/Word setup that someone else created (who is no longer there) at my job to merge data from excel fields into a word document. After some trial and error, I've got that up and running fine, but now I'd like to be able to save a final copy of the word document that kills the links and just treats the input as regular text (because now when I try to open the document on another computer it wants access to the original spreadsheet that the inputted data comes from).

Sorry if I'm not being ultra clear- should be obvious that I'm not terribly fluent in this stuff. I managed to google my way into getting the setup to work generally (using Mail Merge), but this last piece is going to be important and I'm having trouble sorting it out alone.

TIA

posted by jimmysmits to computers & internet (7 answers total)

on a Mac, Command K amd click remove link.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 3:58 PM on September 16, 2012

You should be able to right click on the link and select "Remove Hyperlink".
posted by foxhat10 at 4:02 PM on September 16, 2012

Try "Normal word document" under mailings-->start mail merge
posted by prenominal at 4:08 PM on September 16, 2012

If it's ALL hyperlinks in a Word document, howtogeek.com says:

If you’re a Keyboard Ninja, an easy way to remove all hyperlinks is to use “Ctrl+A” to select everything, then use the key combination “Ctrl+Shift+F9”…We tested this key combination and it works in Word 2003-2010.
posted by ersatzkat at 4:10 PM on September 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

Are these hyperlinks (look for the blue lines) or data links? If it's data links (ie: an embedded excel object in a word doc) you want the Ctrl-Shift-F9 approach. More info here.
posted by pompomtom at 4:22 PM on September 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

It sounds to me like you haven't actually finished the merge, so you are working directly with the merge-template document in Word, with the data fields inserted rather than the text. You just have to finish the actual mail merge, which will create a brand new document with the text inserted and no links back to the spreadsheet.

Click on the tab for "mailing" and find the button that completes the merge (don't have Word at home, so I don't remember exactly what its' called, it's one of the last commands on the right). You are looking for a merge that allows you to "Edit individual documents." Complete that merge, which opens a brand new document with all the text inserted. Make sure to save it with a different name, so you don't overwrite the original template document that includes the merge fields.
posted by gemmy at 4:53 PM on September 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

This might be helpful too:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291473
posted by Dansaman at 9:07 AM on September 17, 2012