A hyperlink is a connection from a slide to another slide, a custom show, a Web page, or a file. The hyperlink itself can be text or an object such as a picture, graph, shape, or WordArt.

If a hyperlink is added to text, the color scheme defines two colors for the text: one that is used if you have not yet opened the target of the hyperlink, and another that is used to designate a hyperlink that has been visited. Objects used for hyperlinks do not assume any extra or special formatting. With text or object hyperlinks, you can add emphasis to the hyperlink by adding action settings, sound, or highlighting.

Hyperlinks are active only when you deliver your presentation, not while you are editing it. When you present the slide show and point to a hyperlink, the mouse pointer becomes a hand.

When you click a link during a presentation, its target is displayed. If the target is another slide in the same slide show, in a custom show, or in another presentation, the target slide is displayed within the PowerPoint presentation. If the target is a Web page or a non-PowerPoint file, the target is displayed in a Web browser or in the appropriate application.

An action button is a ready-made button that you can insert into your presentation. There are action buttons with commonly understood symbols for going to the next, previous, first, and last slides, as well as for playing movies or sounds. Action buttons are commonly used to create presentations that will run at a kiosk.

1. Select any object or text on a slide.
2. Choose the Insert hyperlink command by doing one of the following:
   • Click the Insert Hyperlink button.  
   • Choose Insert → Hyperlink.
   • Press Ctrl+K.
3. Specify the target (destination) of the hyperlink in the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.

   

   The most common options to use are Existing File or Web Page, or Place in This Document.

1. Select the text or object that you want to which you want to attach the hyperlink.
2. Choose the Insert → Hyperlink command
3. Under Link to, click Place in This Document.

   

4. Select the slide you want to link to.
5. Optionally, modify the Text to display or click ScreenTip to configure the screen tip that appears if you hover over the hyperlink.
6. Click OK.

1. Select the text or object that you want to which you want to attach the hyperlink.
2. Choose the Insert → Hyperlink command
3. Under Link to, click Existing File or Web Page.

   

4. Select the file you want to link to. Note there are two browse buttons: one connects to the Web, the other looks for files on your computer or local network.
5. Optionally, select the Bookmark in the file that you want to link to.
6. Optionally, modify the Text to display or click ScreenTip to configure the screen tip that appears if you hover over the hyperlink.
7. Click OK.

When you create a hyperlink to something other than a slide, its destination is encoded as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) such as http://www.fbntravel.com/ or file://ServerName/SharedFolder/FileName.htm. When you create a hyperlink to a page or file on a local file system, the hyperlink destination is represented by the path to the file, such as C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\filename.

You can create hyperlinks that are absolute links, which specify the entire, full path to the file, or relative links, that specify the path to the file relative to the presentation itself.

Setting a hyperlink base

When you create a presentation with links to several files, it is a good practice to put the files in a common location on a server and set a hyperlink base, which will be used as the root for all hyperlinks. Hyperlinks will then be specified with paths relative to the hyperlink base. That way, if the common location changes, you only have to change the hyperlink base, not the relative paths to the hyperlink targets.

1. Select the text or object that you want to which you want to attach the hyperlink.
2. Choose the Insert → Hyperlink command
3. Under Link to, click Place in This Document.
4. Select the custom show you want to go to.
5. Click the Show and return check box.
6. Optionally, modify the Text to display or click ScreenTip to configure the screen tip that appears if you hover over the hyperlink.
7. Click OK.

You can insert an action button as you would add other drawn shapes or AutoShapes.

• Choose Slide Show → Action Buttons.

  or

• On the Drawing toolbar, choose AutoShapes ? Action Buttons.

As soon as you add an action button to a slide, the action settings appear. Most action buttons have default action settings that you can modify by right-clicking the object and choosing Action Settings.