PowerPoint Tips & Tutorials

Hyperlink to a specific slide in another presentation, or specific location in another file

If you would like to hyperlink to another presentation, you might not want to link to the first slide. Suppose you want to start with slide 3?

Remember that hyperlinks only work in Slide Show view.

Caution: If you'll be travelling, first put the second presentation in the same folder as the current presentation. Then be sure to take the second presentation with you -- for example, if you'll copy your main presentation to a laptop, be sure to copy the presentation that you're linking to as well.

You can easily link to a specific slide in another presentation. Follow these steps:

1. Select the object on the slide that you want to use for the hyperlink.
2. Choose Insert > Hyperlink or press Ctrl-K.
3. In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, choose Existing File or Web Page from the Link To bar at the left.
4. Click the Bookmark button.
5. The Select a Place in Document dialog box opens, listing all the slides in the presentation to which you're linking.

6. Choose the slide you want and click OK.

Note: If your object is an Action Button, the Action Settings dialog box opens. Choose the Hyperlink To option. From the drop-down list, choose Other PowerPoint Presentation. Navigate to the presentation and click OK. The Hyperlink to Slide dialog box opens, which is just like the Select Place in Document dialog box, listing the slides. Choose the one you want and click OK twice.

In Slide Show view, click the object and the other PowerPoint presentation opens, displaying the slide you selected. You can continue to show the following slides of the other presentation if you want. Press Esc to close the other presentation and return to your original location in the first presentation.

Hyperlink to a specific location in another file

Suppose that you want to link to a specific location in a Word or Excel file? You can do this as well.

Note: In Word, to create a bookmark, you choose Insert > Bookmark. Enter the bookmark name (no spaces; it can't start with a number), and click Add. In Excel, select a cell or range of cells. In the Name box (on the left, above the top-left cell), enter a name and press Enter.

Follow these steps:

1. Create the bookmark or named range and remember the name.
2. Select the object on the slide that you want to use for the hyperlink.
3. Choose Insert > Hyperlink or press Ctrl-K.
4. In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, choose Existing File or Web Page from the Link To bar at the left.
5. Click the Bookmark button. Well, this is what you're supposed to do, but you'll get an error message! Here you see it after I've clicked the Show Help button.

6. Click OK to get out of that! You're back in the Insert Hyperlink dialog box and you can see your document in the Address text box. Here's the trick: at the end of the address enter # (the pound sign) and the name of the bookmark or named range, as you see here.

Note: In fact, you can use this technique for PowerPoint presentations: add # and the slide title, which is the slide number, a period, and the slide title (spaces are OK). You can see an example here. If you edit the hyperlink, you'll see that PowerPoint has put %20 in each space. That's HTML code for a space and you can leave it as is.

7. Click OK and you're done.

Note: Check each hyperlink after you create it.

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