Web conventions have established a strong association between underlined text and hyperlinks. Underlining content that is not a link risks causing user confusion and frustrating, unnecessary clicks. This rule does not mandate that all links must be underlined, but rather ensures that underlining is not misused for non-interactive text.

Objectives

• Prevent frustrated clicks on underlined content mistaken for hyperlinks.
• Improve the identification and clarity of interactive elements.

Implementation

• Do not use underlining for plain text or any elements that are not hyperlinks.

Control

• Identify all underlined text within each file of the ebook.
• Verify that each underlined element functions as a link (e.g., by being clickable or triggering an action) to confirm it is a genuine hyperlink.