Copying and pasting hyperlinks across documents

[Lost linker]

Hello,

I have two different documents that have extensive hyperlinking to other
articles and PDFs on my computer, which uses Microsoft Word 2003. These links
work very well as long as I do not move them from the document in which I
created them. When I copy and paste them to a new document, however (such as
when merging the two documents), the links no longer work. The error message
I receive is "Cannot open the specified file."

The only way I have found to copy and paste links such that the links work
in the new document is through "Paste Special." I then click the "paste link"
button and the "HTML Format." When I do this, the links work, but the
formatting looks completely different from the original, and the text is
highlighted in gray. (Which I also cannot get to go away.)This option doesn't
work, either.

Does anyone know how to copy and paste links across documents without
significantly skewing the formatting? I have about three hundred pages and
about twice that many links to move, so I would be so appreciative if someone
could solve this conundrum for me.

Thanks so much!

 

[Stefan Blom]

I'm guessing that these links are relative, and moving them to another
document (possibly in a different folder) means that the targets can no
longer be found.

That would also explain why pasting as a link works; this actually creates
OLE links from one document to the next.

If you right-click a link in the source document, and choose Edit Hyperlink,
what is displayed in the "Address" field in the dialog box?