How do I paste text without formatting or hyperlink?
Asked by David Tyler:

Whenever I paste URLs into a Confluence page I am editing, they are hyperlinked. I work in cybersecurity and sometimes the URLs are potentially malicious. I \*NEVER\* want them to be hyperlinked. However, even if I defang them (e.g., domain\[.\]com) AND choose "Paste as plain text" from the right-click menu (since Ctrl+Shift+V doesn't work), Confluence still hyperlinks them.

I appreciate any help you can provide.


Answers:
author: Benjamin
body: HI [@David Tyler](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5184030) ,

When in the editor, you can right click and there's should be an option for unlink. This will remove the hyperlink.

This should work similar whether you are using on-prem or cloud platform.

Hope this helps.

comments: author: David Tyler
body: Thank you. Yes, that is what I have to do, but it's painful when I have a long list which requires clicking on each one individually and then clicking on unlink. Is there a setting that permits me to make paste-without-hyperlink (and any formatting at all) the default?


author: Benjamin
body: You welcome. I haven't come across a way. A workaround is place prepend or append a character to the URL.

For example,

.[www.google.com](http://www.google.com)

[www.google.com-](http://www.google.com-)

As long as it doesn't meet the parameter rules of a website URL, confluence will not convert it.


author: David Tyler
body: Thanks again Benjamin. Bummer. Sounds like it'll take work on the front end or the back end for each URL no matter what I do. Ugh.

Any ideas how to request a new feature like paste without formatting? Sounds silly even asking for it. :-)


author: Benjamin
body: No problem. First check with Atlassian Support. There maybe some thing coming or a tip they are aware of.

<https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/>

Here's where to raise or vote on a suggestion:

<https://jira.atlassian.com/secure/Dashboard.jspa>

The more votes and comments...generally would get the most attention. :)


author: David Tyler
body: Wow, that was painful, but it finally let me create a ticket. Thanks again for your assistance. Have a good weekend.


author: Aron Gombas _Midori_
body: [@David Tyler](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5184030) Actually, you can configure if links should auto-converted or not under *Link Preferences*.

See: <https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/insert-links-and-anchors/#Link-preferences>

comments: author: David Tyler
body: Hi Aron,

*Link Preferences* doesn't allow me to turn off auto-hyperlinking. It only allows me to 1) change how a URL is displayed and 2) set exceptions for specific domains.

All I want to do is paste a URL in plain text without a hyperlink. Any ideas?

Thanks!


author: Aron Gombas _Midori_
body: OK, I mis-understood it.

What I usually do is that after pasting something that is converted to hyperlink, you can hit CTRL+Z (on PC) immediately and it will "unlink" it. On Mac, there is an analogue key combo exist.

It works, at least for for single links, and it isn't very inconvenient.


author: David Tyler
body: I appreciate the suggestion, but CTRL+Z doesn't undo the hyperlink either. I wish I knew why these keyboard shortcuts don't work in Confluence for me. It's almost like Windows and Windows browsers have good shortcuts for pasting as text or undoing formatting, but then Confluence breaks them. :-(

But I do appreciate the time and effort to help me diagnose this.