March 26, 2009 @ 3:33 pm
URLs in InDesign: Losing the boxes
Praise the lord and sound the trumpets…I finally got around to googling one of my most consistent vexations in InDesign: the dreaded “WTF black box around the placed URL from the client’s Word document.” An Example:

Without having done any research, I assumed this was just an artifact of placed text and tried to ignore it to the extent I could ignore something so glaringly wrong. Turns out, this is an indication of hypertext as far as InDesign is concerned. To lose these boxes you need to use the “Hyperlinks” panel (Window>Interactive>Hyperlinks). Highlight the text with the box around it and drag the corresponding hyperlink item in the Hyperlinks Window to the trash. It’s easy as that.

This post answered this question for me. So J.J., whoever and wherever you are, a tip of that hat and a beer in your honor. Thanks.
-oAk-

November 3, 2009
Bruce Colthart (@bccreative)
It stinks that each hyperlink needs to be highlighted first. Can’t simply go through the list and turn box off or you’ll get a message asking for URL :[