For greater flexibility when you present, you can create a main presentation that contains a menu and link the items in the menu to other presentations. When you decide to cover a topic, you click on its menu item to go to the presentation on that topic.
When you’re done covering that topic, you click on a button to return to the menu in the main presentation. From there you can go to another topic.
You may find this method simpler than using custom shows or a Web-style presentation, which I explain in another tip.
First, create your main presentation. You can use Action Buttons for your menu, or any other PowerPoint object. Here’s my menu, which links to six presentations containing various categories of images that can be used as backgrounds:
action buttons in main menu
subsidiary presentations
On the last slide of each subsidiary presentation, you’ll create a hyperlink that goes back to the menu presentation. In fact, if you want, you can link from every slide. To create the link, you can use an action button or an existing object. I don’t like to use the slide’s title (which is at the bottom in these presentations) because the text is underlined when you hyperlink it. So I created an invisible rectangle (no line, no fill) and placed it on top of the title. Then I linked that rectangle. You seem to be clicking the title, but you’re really clicking the invisible, hyperlinked rectangle.
Right-click the selected object that you want to link and choose Hyperlink to open the Action Settings dialog box. (In PowerPoint 2007 & 2010, choose Insert tab> Links> Action.) Choose the Hyperlink To option and choose End Show from the drop-down list. Click OK.
When you use the End Show option, PowerPoint automatically returns to the place where you left off in the presentation that brought you to the current presentation. Therefore, the hyperlink returns you to the menu of the main presentation.
In this example, you could also link directly to the menu’s slide, but if your main presentation has buttons on several slides, using End Show ensures that you return to the slide you left.
Finally, go back to the main menu presentation and add hyperlinks to the subsidiary presentations.
Can a remote clicker be used to access a hyperlink in a PowerPoint presentation?
Thank you.
You can buy a gyration mouse that can control the cursor on the slide. Here’s an example: http://reviews.cnet.com/mice/gyration-air-mouse/4505-3148_7-33326139.html#reviewPage1. But I’ve never used one myself.
It also depends where the hyperlink is going. If you’re hyperlinking to another presentation, you can do the following:
Insert> Object and click Create From File. Then browse to the presentation.
Then select the icon and move it off the slide.
Open the Animation pane. With the icon still selected, choose Add Animation (which version are you using? This is 2010, but it’s similar in 2007)> OLE Action Verbs> Show.
Then, clicking with the remote activates the next animation.
Hi
When I hyperlink to another Powerpoint presentation I am getting a warning about hyperlinks being potentially harmful to the computer. I am sure that I can switch this off, but where?
Thanks
Ronnie
thanks a ton it worked 🙂 god bless u for ur useful information
This very helpful but I’d like to take it one step further. I have a standard sized Power Point presentation that I’ll call P1. In the middle of that presentation I’d like to show an 11×17 slide that is in a separate presentation (it’s an org chart that is too large for the standard slide size) then continue my original presentation. Basically I’d like the 11×17 slide to look like it’s part of my original presentation. The 11×17 presentation contains just the one slide – I’ll call it P2. I have linked from P1 to P2. From P2 I’d like to link back to the NEXT slide in P1, not return to the slide I just left. I can do that but then it doesn’t continue on to the rest of the slides in P1. It goes to the linked slide in P1, ends the P1 show, then shows the org chart again and ends the P2 show. If I use your method of linking back to end show I don’t get the loop but the flow of the presentation looks unprofessional. Any suggestions? I’ve been linking all over and cursing Microsoft for the last 2 hours!
Jessica, Try Insert> Object and choose the P2 presentation. Then set animation to link to P2 and set a trigger on clicking the Object icon. But it will go back to the last slide, not the next slide. But you can quickly go off that slide to the next one.
Also, have you seen this? http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/insert-a-live-excel-spreadsheet-onto-a-slide/. You might be able to adapt it and the advantage is on a slide within your presentation.
Another option is to make the 2nd half of P1 a 3rd presentation; then you could go from P1 to P2 to P3 pretty seamlessly.
Troy Chollar, another PowerPoint MVP has recommended SlideDog (http://www.slidedog.com) as a way to set up playlists and this might work for you.
Hi !
I often have to mix existing slides for different presentations, and I loose time to update everything.
Is there a way to insert a slide in a presentation with automatic update ?
For instance I update presentation P1 and P2 separately ; they are included in another larger presentation and I dont want to update this one too…
What can I do ?
Thanks a lot
Nice help for Hyperlinking Powerpoint Slides… thanks a lot
Hi,
We create course content with different modules using the same technique described here. One problem I am running into is that if, after the initial linking to the subsidiary slides are created, and you then add or delete a slide before the target slide the link still goes to the same slide number. Is there a way to make the link point to the content of a slide rather than a specific slide number so that when adding or deleting slides the link will move to follow the content.
Thanks a lot
Paul
I’m not sure if this will help, but give it a try: http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/hyperlink-to-a-specific-slide-in-another-presentation-or-specific-location-in-another-file/
Thɑnks very interesting blog!
I have several video clips in a powerpoint presentation. I want to hyperlink to another slide and then return to the original slide and continue watching the video clip where I left off. At the moment when I return to the original slide it starts playing the video clip from the start.
I have hyperlinks in my PPT to Word and Excel Docs. I then have hyperlinks in the Word and Excel back to the original PPSX (so it stays in presentation mode). But for some reason the hyperlinks are opening another version of the presentation in Read Only. If I click on 6 links the presentation is open 6 times. Eventually it’s going to crash.
Any thoughts on why? I’m using Office 365 on a Mac with IOS X Yosemite.
Thanks
Using PP 2010, I am preparing a kiosk show for a memorial exhibition. It comprises several linked shows. When I run it, it seems to work fine for 3 hours, then stops. I then have to press ESC innumerable times, while the link slides are displayed in repeated sequences. Can you explain this and can I overcome it?
Is there any way to have the clicked links on an agenda or TOC or map slide actually change in a way that indicates they’ve been used once in a given presentation?
Text links change color after they’re clicked. A theme has a separate color for followed hyperlinks.
I can’t think of any other way.
hello
I’ve downloaded ppt template from slidemodel.com, but when I want to make action from one slide to another it goes to slidemodel.com. and action doesn’t work. what should I do? tnx
I found solution-> from file tab-> properties-> hyperlink base I deleted the link 🙂
Hi…when I use Hyperlink from a set of bullet points to goto a set of 5 or 6 photos on slides which I click through to advance, when i return to original slide, the animation has moved with the amount of clicks i used in viewing the photos…any thoughts