libreoffice calc: formatting hyperlinks

Question

My installation of libreoffice calc 5.1.1.3 doesn't seem to alter the formatting of hyperlinks, i.e. it looks the same as any other text by default.

When doing searches for how to format said links, I seem to see two advices reappear:

1. go to options->libreoffice->appearance and change something.
2. bring up the 'styles and formatting' window and click the 'character styles' tab.

Except the appearance submenu and the character styles tab don't seem to exist anymore, and I can't find anything equivalent.

What is a current, up-to-date way of changing the automatic formatting of hyperlinks?

EDIT: here are some images showing the problem--as per settings, the black link should appear blue?

Answer 1

The solution depends on how the hyperlinks are created. There are two ways to generate a hyperlink in Calc:

1. Menu Insert -> Hyperlink
2. using the HYPERLINK() function.

In the first case, LO Calc inserts a field.

In the second case, the result is "plain text" with additional functionality if the user clicks on the hyperlink text.

Formatting a "text hyperlink"

Formatting a "text hyperlink" (created using the HYPERLINK() function) works the same way as formatting any other text content: using direct formatting - applying text style properties directly using the toolbar or Menu Format -> Text; or using cell styles.

Formatting a "field hyperlink"

Formatting a "field hyperlink" (created using Menu Insert -> Hyperlink) is somewhat more complicated, but it has the advantage that LO will apply a certain styling by default:

The actual design of "field hyperlinks" in Calc is the result of two settings: Field shading, and link color. You can't set the link color on a per-document basis, instead changes are applied application-wide (will affect hyperlinks in writer, too).

LibreOffice <= 5.0.x.x:

To modify the "field hyperlink" link color (and in calc, the link background -> field shading):

Menu Tools -> Options -> LibreOffice -> Appearance. Search for "unvisited links" or "visited links", and change the color:

For the field background in Calc, scroll down to the Text Document section (!), and change the "field shadings" setting.

LibreOffice >= 5.1.x.x:

To modify the link color (and in calc, the link background -> field shading): Menu Tools -> Options -> LibreOffice -> Application Colors. Search for "Unvisited links" or "Visited links", and change the color:

For the field background in Calc, scroll down to the Text Document section (!), and change the "Field Shadings" setting.

Important:

Take care to tick the checkboxes at the left of the setting name (in the second screenshot: marked with red rectangle).

Important, too:

Don't apply magenta to hyperlinks, as in the second screenshoot - looks extremely ugly...

^{(LO 5.1.x: Tested with both Linux x86_64 and Windows 10)}