Systems and methods are provided for supporting the use of hypertext links in documents such as word processor documents. A given word processor document is scanned for link representations to sources that are external to the word processor document. These identified link representations are then checked for validity and functionality, and the external sources are also checked for content and accessibility. In order to facilitate checking the content of the external sources, the word processor document is appended to include all or part of the content of each linked external source. The appended information is then used for subsequent content comparisons. Checking of the link representations and external sources is used to produce a current validity status for each link representations. The validity status of the links within a given document are indicated to an author or reader using visual queues by modifying non-link aspects of the word processor document, by modifying the appearance of a file name or file folder associated with the word processor document or by modifying the appearance of a cursor used in conjunction with the word processor document.