In another tip, “Hyperlink to a specific slide in another presentation, or specific location in another file,” one of the topics I cover is how to create a hyperlink in PowerPoint that links to a specific location in Word or Excel. I also explain that you can link to a specific slide in another PowerPoint presentation by adding the # symbol, the slide number, a period, a space and the slide’s title.
Here’s an example.
As I note in that earlier tip, hyperlinking to another file is a great way to connect content that exists in more than 1 file. You might want to put a hyperlink in a report created in Word or a spreadsheet created in Excel that sends readers to a specific slide in a PowerPoint presentation.
Link from Word or Excel to PowerPoint
Suppose you want to link from Word or Excel to Slide 2 in a PowerPoint 2003, 2007 or 2010 presentation. If you try to create such a link, Word and Excel open the presentation in Normal view, not Slide Show view.
But if you create a Slide Show file and link to that, the hyperlink works; it opens the PowerPoint file in slide show view at the desired slide. A Slide Show is just a PowerPoint file that opens in Slide Show view.
Create a Slide Show
To create a Slide Show file, follow these steps:
- Choose File (or Application button)> Save As.
- From the Save as Type drop-down list, choose PowerPoint Show (*.ppsx or *.pps).
- Specify the location at the top of the dialog box. I recommend that the presentation and the Word or Excel file be in the same folder, in case you need to move the files to another computer; then, the link should continue to work.
- Click Save.
Add the hyperlink in Word or Excel
Now you’re ready to create the hyperlink in Word or Excel. Here are the steps:
- Open the PowerPoint file and note the slide number to which you want to link. If you want to include the slide title in the hyperlink for your reference, note that too. Close the file.
- In Word or Excel, add a hyperlink to some text or a shape by selecting it and choosing Insert> Hyperlink.
- In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, click the Existing File or Web Page button.
- Navigate to the PowerPoint Show file and select it. You’ll see it in the dialog box’s Address text box. If there are spaces in the file name, you may see %20 in place of the spaces. %20 is HTML code for a space, so just leave it.
- At the end of the file name in the Address box, add a # symbol, then the slide number. An example: sample%20makeovers.ppsx#2
- If you want to add the slide title, add a period, space and the slide title. Tip: In the PowerPoint file, you can click the Outline tab in the left-hand pane and copy and paste the slide title from there. My link now looks like this: sample%20makeovers.ppsx#2. Tell ‘n’ showSM
- Click OK.
- Test your hyperlink. PowerPoint should open in Slide Show view to the slide you specified.
Nice, yes?
Thanks to a reader for asking the question in the older tip that lead to this technique. How will you find it useful?
I tried this both with and without the title, but it still opens to the first slide of the presentation. Any ideas?
I don’t know what might be different in your situation that could cause that. It worked in my tests. Check that there’s no space before the # symbol. I can’t think of anything else.
I wonder if you can help – I have to use PowerPoint 2003 with excel 2010 ( I know – don’t ask why – its a long story) – I am doing a power point presentation where I need to link an excel 2010 chart to PowerPoint 2003 slide. I manage to create a dynamic link but then when I try to use animation to build chart in powerpoint it does not offer me the chart animation option ie build the data bars one at a time – only basic build. Can you help please.
It would take me too long to try testing this, but here are some ideas:
Insert the chart in PowerPoint using the data from Excel rather than using the Excel chart (in essence, you’re copying and pasting the data from Excel to PowerPoint)
Save the Excel file as an XLS file (2003 format) and try again
Forget about animating the chart itself; instead animate arrows to point to each section as you discuss it
I managed to get the word document to link to the specific slide in the slide show, however I want to be able to link the word documen to a regular powerpoint slide not a slide show.
Can you advise? Thanks
Do you mean that you want the link to open PowerPoint in Normal view? As I explain in the post, if you link to a PPT or PPTX file, that’s what happens.
Just checked it because we wanted to link to a specific slide. If the PowerPoint was saved as PPT or PPTX, it opens the Office application and shows the file in edit mode starting from slide 1. But if you saved it as PPS or PPSX and, then the link works starting the slideshow at the given number after #.
Thanks, this works great! Is it possible to the reference link to autoupdate? If the link is attached to slide 2, and the PowerPoint slide moves to slide 4, can the link automatically adjust itself to slide 4?
I don’t think so, but see if you can get the link to work by referring just to the slide title, rather than the number. Then try moving it and see if it still works. Let us know!
This is great info for linking from Word to a specific PPT slide (THANK YOU!), but when I do I get a box that says “Microsoft has identified a potential security concern… Do you want to continue?” Since I’m the one who designed the PPT presentation, I am certain it is safe. Any thoughts about how to stop that from popping up?
Many thanks,Ellen!
Debby Gilden
Here is an update. I found what looked like the answer, but alas, it did not work. As instructed, I cleared the “Check Office documents that are from or link to suspicious Web sites check box,” but still I am getting the security warning. Linking from PPT to Word is a breeze, but linking from Word to PPT always brings up that security warning. Any suggestions?
Debby, go into the Options dialog box (I’m not sure which version you’re using, but click File, then find Options) and look for Trust Center, then Trust Center Settings. Try going through the settings to see if you can lower the security to not get that warning. After you use the presentation, I’d recommend returning them to their former levels, just in case. I don’t know why it happens only in 1 direction.
Hi Ellen,
I finally have a solution. In Word 2010 I went to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Trusted Locations, then put in the location of the PPT file. Now all works great!
Thanks again for the info on how to link to a specific PPT slide.
Hi Ellen, I have a problem when trying to link excel worksheets to a powerpoint slide. On my powerpoint slide I have 5 topics which relate to 5 different worksheets in an excel document. I click on a cell in the worksheet I want a hyperlink to, go to my powerpoint, click on the topic which corresponds, click paste as hyperlink and all is well. (The hyperlink address is correct) However when I save and close the powerpoint and then re-open it, the hyperlink address has changed and will now only direct me to the excel document’s first worksheet….. This… Read more »
I don’t know why the end is being stripped out. I’m wondering if the apostrophes are the problem. I’ve never tried linking to a specific worksheet in an Excel document. What happens if the link is to the first worksheet or if there’s only one worksheet?
If there is only one worksheet then it will work, as it simply opens the document on whatever worksheet you last saved it on.
Likewise you can only link it to the first worksheet if that was the worksheet you were looking at when you last saved the document…
Whats frustrating is the fact that these lniks work perfectly until you close the powerpoint :/
You might do some research on the Microsoft Excel discussion groups about regular HTML hyperlinks to specific worksheets. I discovered the # trick because I knew a little HTML. Maybe someone has worked something out. I just found this, http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/word-and-excel/excelhyperlinks.html, about linking from Word to Excel. It uses a method unique to Word (fields), but one point that was made was enclosing a sheet name with a space in single quotes. If you find something that works, please let us know here!
I have tried multiple ways to have the individual slides link to the excel sheet and every attempt has failed. Any suggestions or walk throughs?
Hello Ellen,
This has been very helpful for me. Thank you very much!
All the best,
ST
When I want to link a specific PPT slide into a Word document, I copy the slide from PPT, Paste Special into Word, and then choose the Paste Link radio button in the Past Special dialog. I leave the default Microsofty PowerPoint Slide object on and click OK. Then, when I need to make edits, I edit in PPT only. When I open Word again, it automatically updates the slides I edited in PPT. Does anyone else do this?
Yes I just tried your way karen it’s so clever !
awesome 🙂 thanks!
it is useful,great.Thanks a lot.
Thanks for the tips to hyperlink the specific power point slide from excel…
Regards,
Raju
What method do i need to use if i want to show the data in a sheet of an excel in the a powerpoint slide?
Thank you
Yes this is a useful thread I got it to work fine when I saved the PP in slide show format…trouble is when you get the animation up it leaves it hanging, if you come out I want it to go back to my word document automatically…oh well I suppose we can’t have everything or can we.
I want slide reference/ silde number in hyperlink. I know how to do hyperlink but no reference/ slide number shown. I need to do it manually every time. Can anyone help me on this issue
Did this actually work on anyone’s computer?
My friend and I tested on two different computers but every time it starts from the FIRST slide somehow…
Really need a solution!!!
Thank you very much!
Thanks…
thanks …
you were a great help
Thanks Ellen, Helpful indeed!
Thanks Ellen, this is just what I needed!
Thanks. Fine. It is very useful.
Hello Hellen!
That’s really useful! Is there a way to link to a specific page by using the slide title or some kind of label? If I adjust the order of the presentation or add new pages, I need to update all the #number endings.
Thank you!
Tim, I tried some variations but without the slide number, the hyperlink always opened on slide 1.
can i choose specific slides from excel to create a small edited .ppt?