Eradicate unwanted imported hyperlink boxes (CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

An annoying occurrence that often confuses new InDesign users is imported text displaying with a box around it. Intuitively, you should be able to select and delete the box -- but you can’t. There is, however, an easy way to remove it. Here’s how:

Choose > Window > Interactive > Hyperlinks to display the Hyperlinks panel. You’ll see a hyperlink listed in the panel for each boxed text segment in your InDesign document. Click on a hyperlink and drag it to the Trash icon at the base of the Hyperlinks panel to remove it. Click Yes in the resulting warning box asking if you’re sure you want to remove it. Repeat this step for each hyperlink present.

You may also notice a new hyperlink style in the Character Style panel. To delete that, simply click on the character style and drag it to the Trash icon located at the base of the Character Style panel.

But if you want to keep the hyperlink and remove the box outline, double-click on the hyperlink in the Hyperlink panel and in the Appearance section choose Invisible Rectangle from the Type pop-up menu.