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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Applications > How to stop auto email in EXCEL?

How to stop auto email in EXCEL?
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Spoffo
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Dec 24, 2008, 02:48 PM
 
I've been using Excel since v1.0 on a Mac Plus, so I thought I knew my way around it, but this one has me stumped.

In Excel, when you type text into a cell in the format of an e-mail address, the program automatically turn that cell into a Mailto: hyperlink. Very useful for a lot of things.

But, there are time when you don't want a hot link. You just want a plan old text entry that just happens to be in e-mail address format. I can't for the life of me find a way to set preferences so that this is the default behavior. All I can do is go back and remove the hyperlinks after the fact.

Can someone pleas tell me how to turn off this particular autoformat so that e-mail addresses are handled as plain text from the get-go?

Thanks
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turtle777
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Dec 24, 2008, 03:02 PM
 
Type 'mailto:[email protected] - note the preceeding --> ' <--

Works also with formulas, dates etc. Anything that otherwise would be auto-formatted.

-t
     
Spoffo  (op)
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Dec 24, 2008, 03:38 PM
 
Neat workaround. Thanks.

BUT, one of my main uses is to sort and clean long lists of e-mail addresses before uploading them to Constant Contact. I would have to remove the little ' before each one after uploading or they wouldn't work as addresses when I want them to. It would be quicker to do what I do now, which is to remove all the links just before uploading via "autoformat - none"

Isn't there some way to just turn the autoformatting off to from the get-ho?

REBOOT - I just checked it, and this workaround is better than I thought. While the ' shows in the edit bar window. It does not display in the cell itself, so when you copy & paste from the cell or upload a block, the addresses come in clean without the '.

Way cool.

(I still think there should be a simple prefs item to just turn off the auto formatting of linjks, the same way you can in Word.)
( Last edited by Spoffo; Dec 24, 2008 at 03:45 PM. )
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Chuckit
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Dec 24, 2008, 04:14 PM
 
If I recall, there is an option in the Windows version of Excel, but it was left out on the Mac. Oops!
Chuck
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turtle777
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Dec 24, 2008, 04:49 PM
 
Originally Posted by Chuckit View Post
If I recall, there is an option in the Windows version of Excel, but it was left out on the Mac. Oops!
You are probably right. I was looking for some preferences for that in Excel for Mac, and couldn't find it. I thought I had seen those before. It must have been in the Windows version.

-t
     
turtle777
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Dec 24, 2008, 04:54 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spoffo View Post
REBOOT - I just checked it, and this workaround is better than I thought. While the ' shows in the edit bar window. It does not display in the cell itself, so when you copy & paste from the cell or upload a block, the addresses come in clean without the '.

Way cool.
Yes, the ' acts as a formatting instruction and will not become part of copy & paste.

Even if you export the sheet in TXT (tab delimited), the ' will not be exported.

-t
     
Spoffo  (op)
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Dec 24, 2008, 05:54 PM
 
Originally Posted by Chuckit View Post
If I recall, there is an option in the Windows version of Excel, but it was left out on the Mac. Oops!
You're right, I just checked my Windows Excel and it's right where you'd expect it to be; < TOOLS/Autocorrect options/Autoformat as you type>

Auto-formatting internet and network addresses is the default choice, but you can simply uncheck it to turn it off.

Is this part of some plot by Microsoft? Why else would they leave this off the Mac version?
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egsray
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Dec 11, 2012, 09:04 AM
 
I know this question was posed four years ago - but this may help anyone stumbling across this thread as I have just done.

Type the email address; hit Enter so it presents as a hyperlink; type cmd Z and it reverts to the text formatting.

Found this by chance and it seems to work.
     
hab
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Dec 11, 2012, 11:37 AM
 
Re: "Type the email address; hit Enter so it presents as a hyperlink; type cmd Z and it reverts to the text formatting."

FYI, this trick works for both email and web address hyperlinks in both Word and Excel.
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