Why do some hyperlinks break when exporting to MS Word?

[Matthew Hawley]

Hello, I'm very new to Confluence so hopefully this question even makes sense... Recently I ran into a problem when exporting a page to MS Word. For some reason, when I export the page, some of the hyperlinks break and when I click on them in the word doc it just defaults me to the top of the page. Does anyone know why it does this? 

Thanks!

Matt

[Andy Gladstone · Accepted solution]

@Matthew Hawley Welcome to Confluence!

Are the links you are referring to hyperlinks to internal Confluence pages, or external web pages? 

[Matthew Hawley]

Internal Confluence pages

[Andy Gladstone]

I suspected as much. Since internal page hyperlinks are not formatted the same as a World Wide Web URL, when you export them to a Word document they become local links. If you hover over one in the document you will see it is not a www. URL, but a local file link.

I just tested this in my instance and have the same results as you. All Confluence links become a local file link - but since those files don't exist on the local file system the link takes you nowhere.

[Matthew Hawley]

Thanks for breaking it down for me! Is there any way to fix it though? Or any work arounds?

[Andy Gladstone]

Not really. When you think about it, export to PDF and Word are intended to be standalone external documents, not live docs with hyperlinks as gateways back in to the Confluence system.

[Matthew Hawley]

Got it, thanks for your help!