Please, I just need to keep typing

January 28, 2020 11:30 AM

When I'm composing an email in Outlook, I often need to paste a web address in the body of the message. How do I make Outlook allow me to type without creating multiple extra links?

If I paste a link, then spacebar or enter after, it just copies the link and creates a gigantic useless hyperlink, like this:

https://www.metafilter.com/https://www.metafilter.com/

I really need to be able to insert an entire https:// link inside a sentence and then keep typing. It's really irritating that I have to skip my link and type the sentence, then mouse over and paste, or start with a bunch of extra returns so I have extra lines that I can mouse to and then back up to the end of the link. Is there a way to make it stop?

I am stuck with Outlook and don't have control of whether it gets updated on a global scale, but if there is a setting I can control, please let me know!

posted by blnkfrnk to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

Under "autoformat as you type" there's an option for preventing it from autoformatting a hyperlink path:

1. Click File > Options > Mail.

2. Under Compose messages, click Editor Options.

3. Click AutoCorrect Options.

4. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.

5. Uncheck the Internet and network paths with hyperlinks check box.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:36 AM on January 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

Can you clarify: Do you not want it to be hyperlinked at all, or you don't want an extra hyperlink?
posted by inexorably_forward at 11:39 AM on January 28, 2020

Response by poster: Hyperlink yes, extra hyperlink no.
posted by blnkfrnk at 11:41 AM on January 28, 2020

Response by poster: So I don't have that menu path...I do have better words for what I am trying to say when I ask IT for help though, so thank you.
posted by blnkfrnk at 11:47 AM on January 28, 2020

If you find yourself using an instance of Outlook that you haven't tweaked to suit your own preferences, it's worth knowing the general principle that unhelpful auto-corruption can usually be worked around in MS products by hitting Ctrl-Z (Undo) as soon as the corrupter does its thing.

So you type your link, hit Space, Outlook screws it up for you, you swear viciously^* and hit Ctrl-Z and keep typing. Breaks the flow a lot less badly than pausing to try to remember how to dig the proper fix out of Outlook's nest of vipers haphazardly organized preferences.

^*Swearing viciously at your Microsoft products is absolutely necessary to reinforce the correct power dynamic. MS products can sense fear, and if you show them any they will take liberties.
posted by flabdablet at 11:50 AM on January 28, 2020 [17 favorites]

How are you copying the links? Are you copying them from an address bar, or are you highlighting a link on a webpage and copying that? Or something else entirely? That can make a difference in how Outlook behaves here.
posted by Aleyn at 12:15 PM on January 28, 2020

You may want to get in the habit of right-clicking and pasting as plain text -- this removes any html-like formatting that may have tagged along with your copy.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:34 PM on January 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Maybe it's not applicable for your issue but my rule of thumb for dealing with opinionated text input fields is typing everything into a lightweight text editor (eg Notepad) then copy-pasting into the field and tweaking if necessary. Also cuts down a tiny bit on the snooping, having your keyboard presses JS-monitored is creepy.
posted by Bangaioh at 1:13 PM on January 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

mandolin conspiracy: "Under "autoformat as you type" there's an option for preventing it from autoformatting a hyperlink path"

Yeah this. Keep in mind that if you want it hyperlinked, Outlook (and essentially every other mail client in the world) will automatically treat a fully qualified hyperlink as if it were a live link when the recipient gets it, even if you didn't explicitly tell Outlook to add a hyperlink to the text.
posted by caution live frogs at 2:55 PM on January 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I always type a word, or phrase, that serves as a description for my link, highlight it, Ctrl-K, paste the link into the dialog box. That way you have a link without having to see the HTML.
posted by lhauser at 8:04 PM on January 28, 2020

Sometimes I hit the return a few times to create empty rows and type a couple of bogus letters. Then I paste the link a few rows above the bogus letters row and then backspace to where I want the rest of my text to start. Lame workaround but it works.
posted by gt2 at 9:46 PM on January 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

If I'm reading correctly, the doubled links are the problem, not the automatic hyperlinking.

The doubling appears to be a bug that's been around for years, as detailed here and here. Are you also accessing Outlook through a browser on a Mac? If that's the case, from my very extensive five minutes of internet research, it doesn't look like there's an easy fix. I would try a different browser, try a Windows computer, and talk to the IT dept about finding some other way for you to access your email (like installing the Outlook program on your computer).
posted by yeahlikethat at 10:33 PM on January 28, 2020

lhauser, one potential problem with your approach is if the recipient of the email chooses to read their email in plain text, links like you describe may become just non-clickable plain text. Also, even if the email is formatted in HTML, if it gets replied to or forwarded, formatted links may be lost.

I use gt2's approach, accompanied by swearing and cursing every time I have to do it.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 4:27 AM on January 29, 2020