Hyperlinks in a Protected Form in Microsoft Word

Bottom line: Can't be done. Here's a couple workarounds:

Unprotect the Hyperlink area.

Protecting only portions of a document requires that you insert section breaks above and below the area that you do not want protected. The below graphic shows a continuous section break, the hyperlink area, and another continuous section break. We then protect only the first and third sections of the document.

Use a MacroButton Field.

Make sure your document is not protected, and record a macro that opens the document you're hyperlinking to. Save the macro in your document (not in normal.dot).

Tip: To open the Visual Basic Editor in any Office file, hit Alt+F11, or Tools Macro Visual Basic Editor. Just like Windows Explorer or My Computer, browse to the appropriate file at the top-left of the screen in the Project Explorer. The code window for the appropriate item appears on the right.

Edit the macro in the Visual Basic Editor (VBE). Just before "End Sub", add a line that says:

Selection.Collapse

Close the VBE. With your cursor at the location of the desired hyperlink, choose InsertField and from the Category list, choose All. From the Field list, choose MacroButton. Type Something in the Text to display box and hit OK. Then, hit Alt+F9 to see your field code, and change it to read as follows:

MacroButton MacroName Text to Display

Where "MacroName" is the name of your macro (probably Macro1 unless you renamed it) and "Text to Display" is what you want the hyperlink to show in your document.

Select your field area in the document and format the style to be Hyperlink so it looks like a hyperlink.