Microsoft this week confirmed that it is killing off the Windows desktop application of a free productivity app called Sway. The app was released more than ten years ago and has been part of the Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 suite.

While that is probably a bummer for those who found the desktop app useful as part of your workflow, the company is doing something else too that can win your heart over, especially if you use Word fairly often, which the majority of people likely do. That is because Microsoft has confirrmed that it is improving hyperlinking as it is currently testing out a new way to make it quicker, more convenient.

Until now, users had to navigate the “Insert Link” dialog or rely on auto-conversion of typed URLs. The new feature however is meant to eliminate those extra steps. These traditional ways have included typing a web address followed by the spacebar or Enter which automatically turned it into a clickable link. Users could also select text, right-click, and choose “Link” to open a dialog box for entering URLs, email addresses, or file paths. Word for the web has had provided similar functionality with options to link to headings, bookmarks, or external sites.

The new upgrade wiill be allowing users to paste links directly onto selected text across Word for the web, Windows, and Mac. Hyperlinking is undoubtedly one of the most routine actions in Word that is used often, whether citing sources in reports like we often do here at Neowin, embedding references in academic papers, or sharing resources in work documents, among other things. The update is to help reduce clicks and streamline such a common document-editing task.

Microsoft's Jenny Ye, a product manager of the Word team, has explained: “We believe that tasks you do every day in Word, like hyperlink text, should feel effortless – which is why we’ve made the whole process a lot quicker. Now, you can simply highlight a word or phrase and paste the link directly onto it, and this will automatically add a hyperlink. Whether you’re sharing resources with your team or citing articles in a report, this feature helps you stay in the flow by reducing clicks and letting you focus on your words instead of formatting.”