The power to create hyperlinks in Microsoft Word is, in my opinion, one of the greatest strides ever made in word processing technology. I use hyperlinks almost daily, and I’m still coming up with new ways they can make my documents more dynamic and reduce the amount of repetitive work I do.

But hyperlinks aren’t all fun and games. In fact, some of Word’s default hyperlink settings can yield downright annoying results. Here are some ways to tame those wild hyperlinks and show them who’s boss.

Turn off automatic hyperlinking of Web addresses in documents. Yes, it is super cool that Word underlines anything with a “www” in front of it, turns it that pretty shade of light blue, and makes it clickable. But, in a world where most letters are still sent by either surface mail or fax, what good does it do for a letter to contain active hyperlinks? To the contrary, that light blue text comes out pale gray when printed or faxed, which can be difficult to read. You can keep those Web addresses nice and black by selecting Tools | AutoCorrect Options | AutoFormat tab, and unchecking the “Internet and network paths with hyperlinks” box under “Replace.”

Remove hyperlinks from a table of contents. That hyperlinked table of contents driving your lawyers batty as they try to edit a brief? (Well, they shouldn’t be clicking there at all, but you know they’re gonna do it.) Highlight the table of contents, then click Insert | Reference | Index and Tables, Table of Contents tab, and uncheck the “Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers” box. Click OK, then click “Yes” when asked “Do you want to replace the selected table of contents?”

Remove all the hyperlinks from a document with four deft keystrokes. Ctrl-A to select all, and then Ctrl-6 to clear all hyperlinks. I don’t recommend this method for removing hyperlinks from a table of contents. It gave me weird results when I tried it.

Okay. So now you know how to tame wild hyperlinks. Now for some ways to slip that bit into a hyperlink’s mouth and make it take you where you want to go.

Create a hyperlink where, when, and how you want it:

• Right click where you want your hyperlink and select Hyperlink (or select Insert | Hyperlink from the menu bar)

• The “Insert Hyperlink” dialogue box opens.

• In the “Text to display” box, type the text you want to appear as a hyperlink. (Alternatively, you can type your text into the document and then select it before opening the hyperlink dialogue.)

• On the left side of the dialogue box are buttons for four different types of hyperlinks you can create. By default, “Existing File or Web Page” is selected.

• Type (or cut and paste) a Web address or the complete path to a file on your computer. (Remember that a link to a file on your computer won’t be useful unless the document is opened on your computer.)

• Click OK.

Your hyperlink now appears in the document in all its clickable glory. One of my favorite things about having this kind of control over hyperlink creation is that those foot-long Web addresses can be shortened to a manageable length as well as given a descriptive, easily-read name.

There are other powerful tools in the Insert Hyperlink dialogue. You can create a link that moves the cursor to a place in the current document, starts a new e-mail, or creates a new document with a name you specify.

Change an existing hyperlink. Right-click anywhere on the hyperlink, and a context menu displays, offering several choices: Edit (opens the hyperlink dialogue), Select (selects the full hyperlink), Open, Copy, or Remove.

Create hyperlinked cross-references. Create a clickable, self-updating link to a place in the current document — a numbered item, a bookmark, or one of a handful of other options. Cross references are great where, for instance, an agreement includes a reference to another paragraph of the same agreement. Use a cross-reference to the paragraph number, and you needn’t worry about manually updating references when paragraphs are added or deleted and numbers change. Hyperlinked cross-references are also handy for providing one-click access to a specific place in a lengthy document.

First, open a document that contains heading styles or some other type of automatic numbering. Then place your cursor where you want to insert a cross-reference, and:

• From the menu bar, select Insert | Reference | Cross-reference

• The Cross-reference dialogue box opens.

• From the “Reference type” dropdown, select either “Numbered item” or “Heading” — whichever you’re using.

• When you’ve made your selection, the white box in the bottom half of the dialogue box will populate with an outline-like list of every heading or numbered item in the document. Select the desired item, and then use the “Insert reference to” dropdown to specify a type of reference — page number, paragraph number, or heading text.

• Click Insert.

Your clickable cross-reference now appears in the document. If you don’t want the cross-reference to be an active link, simply uncheck the “Insert as hyperlink” box in the Cross-reference dialogue.

My current pet hyperlink project is a client/matter contact list template with a row of hyperlinks at the top to provide quick access to bookmarked sections on attorneys, court information, party lists, etc. Now, to find the time to work on it!