Remove hyperlinks from an InDesign document

[vic_awesome]

Hi!

Is there a script command that I can use to change hyperlinks of a document to just regular text?

Thanks!

[Kasyan Servetsky · Accepted solution]

var gDoc = app.activeDocument;
RemoveHyperLinks();

function RemoveHyperLinks() {
    if (gDoc.hyperlinks.length > 0){
        for (var i = gDoc.hyperlinks.length-1; i >= 0; i--) {
            gDoc.hyperlinks.remove();
        }
    }
}

[TᴀW]

Why not just:

app.activeDocument.hyperlinks.everyItem().remove()

[vic_awesome]

Wow, it was that simple!  Thanks guys! 

[Harbs.]

IIRC, you need to remove the hyperlink source and hyperlink destination as well...

Harbs

[vic_awesome]

Hi Harbs!

It doesn't remove those as well?  Is that why when I try to turn them back to hyperlinks, it does not work?  How do I go about doing that?  Thanks.

[Harbs.]

It depends what you are trying to do.

If you used text sources and destinations and you want to remove them all, this should do the job:

app.activeDocument.hyperlinkTextDestinations.everyItem().remove()

app.activeDocument.hyperlinkTextSources.everyItem().remove()

Otherwise, you'd want to loop through the hyperlinks and remove the destinations and sources as you go...

Harbs

[vic_awesome]

Thanks Harbs!

Yes, I did use text sources and destinations. Now I can remove the hyperlinks and create them again with no problem at all!

Thanks again, guys!

[Marie_D]

Thank you, Harbs!

Your script has enabled me to strip out problematic hyperlinks imported from Word. After numerous unsuccessful attempts, I can now successfully export the document to epub.

I am most grateful.

Marie

[ajekums]

Hi Harbs,

I've encountered this issue in a document but am not familiar with scripting. How would I use these lines?

app.activeDocument.hyperlinkTextDestinations.everyItem().remove()

app.activeDocument.hyperlinkTextSources.everyItem().remove()

A thousand thank you's!

Amanda

[Kasyan Servetsky]

Simply run this script:

app.activeDocument.hyperlinks.everyItem().remove();
app.activeDocument.hyperlinkTextDestinations.everyItem().remove();
app.activeDocument.hyperlinkTextSources.everyItem().remove();

It deletes all hyperlinks, text anchors (destinations) and text sources.

— Kas

[Kals]

I realise this is an old thread, but people (like myself) stumble onto these things when Googling for answers, so I thought it worth adding to the answers here…

It's not always necessary to delete every object (hyperlink, source and destination) in order to completely remove a hyperlink. In fact, if you're trying to remove individual hyperlinks this way, you'll most likely end up trying to access non-existing objects and crash your script.

The short answer is, removing the `hyperlinkTextSource` object is, in most cases, all you need to do. For a more in-depth answer, see my answer on Stack Overflow.