Forum Discussion
How to stop users adding links to other workbooks
Block or unblock external content in Office documents
To help protect your security and privacy, Microsoft Office is configured by default to block external content—such as images, linked media, hyperlinks, and data connections—in workbooks and presentations. Blocking external content helps to prevent Web beacons and other intrusive methods that hackers use to invade your privacy and lure you into running malicious code without your knowledge or consent.
Thank you for your understanding and patience
Nikolino
I know I don't know anything (Socrates)
Question: The problem is not breaking external links. I just wanna prevent my users from using external links.
You could also do it with the Protection Worksheet.
First:
First you have to select the cells with the hyperlinks,
then right mouse button, format cells, click on Protection above, clicked the Locked box, OK.
After that:
By going to Review, protect sheet. New window opens. Protect worksheet and contents of locked cells check the box.
Select locked cells, check box Empty.
So nobody can press on the hyperlink, see yes, press on it no. At least that's how it is in Excel 2016.
Additional Info:
Description of link management
Thank you for you all understanding and patience
Nikolino
I know I don't know anything (Socrates)
As per original query. We are trying to PREVENT links to other workbooks to OCCUR to begin with
NOT TRYING TO
– fix links on a document
– Remove links
– Manage some areas or cells of a document.
– Find procedure for a single operation
WE WANT To
- Find the GLOBAL setting that that prevents copying data from one workbook to another and creating a link to the ordinal document when pasting to another. ALWAYS.
In years of using Excel, the "link to other spreadsheet feature" has never been useful. I understand how that could be nice, but it's the exception, not the what's needed by default. Surely there is a way to just turn it OFF somewhere?.
Where?
Thanks.
So far, I can understand, you are seeking a way to prevent Excel from automatically creating links to other workbooks when copying data from one workbook to another. This feature can indeed be inconvenient in certain situations.
To prevent Excel from creating links to other workbooks by default, you can adjust the settings in Excel to disable this behavior.
Here is how you can do it:
- Open Excel: Launch Microsoft Excel on your computer.
- Go to Options: Click on the "File" menu in the top-left corner of the Excel window, then select "Options" from the menu. This will open the Excel Options dialog box.
- Navigate to Advanced Options: In the Excel Options dialog box, click on the "Advanced" tab on the left-hand side.
- Find Cut, copy, and paste options: Scroll down until you find the "Cut, copy, and paste" section.
- Adjust settings: Within the "Cut, copy, and paste" section, you should see various options related to copying and pasting. Look for the option that says "Cut, copy, and sort inserted objects with their parent cells" or similar.
- Disable linking: Uncheck the box next to the option that mentions linking or pasting objects with their parent cells. This option may be named differently depending on your version of Excel, but it will typically refer to pasting objects or data with links.
- Apply changes: After unchecking the appropriate box, click "OK" to apply the changes and close the Excel Options dialog box.
By disabling this option, Excel should no longer create links to other workbooks by default when copying and pasting data. Keep in mind that this change will apply globally to all Excel workbooks on your computer, so you will not need to adjust settings for each individual workbook.
Thanks NikolinoDE, yes, the idea is to have a global setting that stop linking workbooks. I can totally see how one can use that feature, but for many users, it just seems to add a level of frustration when links they don't know exist get broken and formulas suddenly stop working.
I would never have found that setting on my own: the labelling just does not seem to be related, so thanks for pointing to the right direction, I'll see if that does the trick.
That said for those on mac (Excel 16.82 on macOS Sonoma), here where to find it.
1 - In the top bar menu, on the left, roll down the Excel menu > Preferences
2 - Click the Edit icon (Top center)
3 - In Second row section (Cut and Paste Options), uncheck the first option: Cut, copy and sort inserted objects with related cells
