In Word 97, by default, if you click on a hyperlink to a web page, the
web page loads in the same window as Word. The status bar will say
something like, "Word is preparing to load this page ... " and the
whole thing takes a while. I've created my own macros on the shortcut
menu that will load the page in a separate Internet Explorer Window. (I
have IE 6.)

My question is, is there a way to turn off the default behavior, so that
when I click with the mouse on a hyperlink, it will simply open a new IE
window without involving Word?

Thanks.
Larry