Stop Google Sheets from creating link automatically

Question

I am trying to write some text in Google Sheets, specifically some URLs. I need that because I am trying to explain to an agency the new tracking we are implementing. I have the URL in a cell, and I went to have some caracters in red to highlight the changes, and leave the rest in black. However, as soon as I modified my stuff in the formula bar, if I press enter or try to save the edit, Sheets automatically detects a link so it put everything in light blue and underlined, which is exactly what I don't want him to do. I know there is a "stop detecting links automatically" thing in Microsoft Word and Google Doc but I can't find it in Sheets settings. Any solution?

Answer 1

immediately after typing the link after its been cast to a hyperlink, if you then press backspace a single time the conversion to link will be undone

Answer 2

I've double checked the behavior of URLs in Google Sheets and I can see that even when you remove the hyperlink of a URL in a cell (via Remove link option), it will still automatically reappear once you edit the cell of that URL.

Recommendation:

According to an answer from this post How do I stop automatic hyperlinks in google sheets?, one of the community member have recommended to use a different format to the URLs to stop the cell from automatically creating hyperlinks. And this recommendation worked on my testing.

With that being said, I have crated a workaround using a custom bound script, where it will automatically format all URLs (it'll add "//" at the beginning of each URLs) on a sheet and then it will visually hide the format for a cleaner look for your convenience. After that, the hyperlinks will no longer be auto-created on the URLs. The catch on this method is that users will need to remove the "//" at the beginning of the URLs to access them.

Sample

Sample sheet with URLs on Column A:

Custom Bound Script:

function onOpen() { //Creates a custom menu called "Hyperlink" at the top right of your spreadsheet file where you can run this script
  var ui = SpreadsheetApp.getUi();
  ui.createMenu('Hyperlink')
      .addItem('Remove Hyperlink', 'addFormat')
      .addToUi();
}

function addFormat() {
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveSheet();
var range = sheet.getRange("A1:A").getValues(); //CHANGE THIS RANGE IF YOUR URLS ARE IN A DIFFERENT COLUMN
var text = "//";
  for(var x=1; x<=range.length;x++){ 
    if(range[x-1]=="" || x==1){ //If it is cell 1 (the title of the column) or if it is an empty cell, it will be skipped for formatting
    }else{
      if(range[x-1][0][0] == "/"){ //If a cell has been already formatted (//), it will be skipped
      }else{ //Formats new URL on the cell of Column (e.g. A)
        sheet.getRange(x,1).clearContent().setValue(text+range[x-1]).setFontColor("black");
        Logger.log("Done with "+text+range[x-1]+" on row"+ x);
        hideFormat(x); //function to visually hide the "//" on each URLs
      }
    }
  }
}

function hideFormat(row){ //Function to visually hide the "//" format at the beginning by coloring it to white font color
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
  var range = sheet.getRange("A"+row); //CHANGE THIS COLUMN IF YOUR URLS ARE IN A DIFFERENT COLUMN
  var hide = SpreadsheetApp.newTextStyle()
      .setForegroundColor('white')
      .build();
  var richText = SpreadsheetApp.newRichTextValue()
      .setText(sheet.getRange("A"+row).getValue()) //CHANGE THIS COLUMN IF YOUR URLS ARE IN A DIFFERENT COLUMN
      .setTextStyle(0, 2, hide)
      .build();
  range.setRichTextValue(richText);
}

After saving & running the script, click the Hyperlink > Remove Hyperlink on your Spreadsheet:

Here's the result:

Then, you can make any changes on the URL cells without hyperlinks being auto-created: