Hyperlinks in PowerPoint Presentations

Hyperlink Anatomy

Hyperlinks, or “links” for short, allow you to quickly open a web browser at a specific address from within your presentation. When clicked during a presentation, your default browser will open and your presentation will be kept open in the background.

The concept of hyperlinking in PowerPoint comes directly from Internet pages, and apart from the fact that links from PowerPoint presentations open in a separate program — a web browser — they work in precisely the same way.

In principle, a basic hyperlink consists of two parts:

hyperlink text

The text that appears in your presentation, that, when clicked, open the associated address contained in the hypertext reference (see below).
Typically such text is underlined by default, and often appears in a different color than typical text, often blue for links that you have yet to visit, and purple for links that you have visited recently.

the hypertext reference, also called the “href”, “address”, or URL

The address of the page or file that will be opened when the hyperlink text is clicked.

This address is of the form that you might otherwise enter into the address bar of your web browser, for instance:

• http://www.google.com
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Texas
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrCx-9i0tZc

In the case of hypertext references, the complete address must be specified. “google.com” and even “www.google.com” are not enough.

Examples

In the final product — your presentation — the hypertext reference will not necessarily be immediately visible on the screen, while the hyperlink text will be.
Below, for example, you’ll find a hyperlink with the text “Google Search Engine”, and the reference “http://www.google.com”:

Google Search Engine

Clicking the above link will open the address “http://www.google.com” in your web browser, as will the following link, which has the same reference, but different text:

Another link to Google

In presentations, however, it is common for hyperlinks’ text to reflect their references.
Thus, the text and reference of a hyperlink may be the same:

http://www.google.com

Or the text may be a shortened version of the reference, often without the common “http://” or “http://www.” prefix, which is necessary for completeness in a reference, but is so common that most web browsers will assume it if it is omitted in the address bar.

google.com

Creating Hyperlinks in PowerPoint

In PowerPoint, any text that you type can be made a hyperlink to an Internet page.

1. Locate the page or resource you want to link to in your web browser (Safari is the default web browser for new Mac computers, and is used in this guide).
   

   Browse to the desired page in your favorite web browser

2. Select and copy the address in the browser’s address bar:
   

   Copying the URL of a web page by copying the contents of the address bar

3. In PowerPoint, type the text for your presentation anywhere in your presentation:
   

   Typing hyperlink Text in PowerPoint

   
4. Select the text you’ve just typed:
   

   Select the text that will become the hyperlink text

5. Select “Insert” → “Hyperlink” from the menu:
   

   Finding the “Insert Link” item in the PowerPoint menu bar

   
6. The “Insert Hyperlink” dialog box will appear. In the “Link to” field, paste or type the address from your web browser:
   

   Entering the URL in the PowerPoint “Insert Hyperlink” dialog

7. The text should now appear as a hyperlink:
   

   The hyperlink has been created

   

Editing & Removing Hyperlinks in PowerPoint

1. Select the hyperlinked text.
2. Choose “Insert” → “Hyperlink” as before.
3. Edit the address, or click the “Remove Link” button to convert the hyperlink text back into simple text:
   

   Editing a pre-existing hyperlink using the “Insert Hyperlink” dialog box

   

Special Notes on YouTube

Finding the Address of a YouTube Video

YouTube is an especially rich source of usable video content in many languages, and warrants a few additional tips. In particular, addresses of YouTube videos can often become quite complicated.

Fortunately, YouTube provides a quick way to find the appropriate link to any video. Below the video itself, you’ll find a button titled “Share”. Clicking this button will reveal a text box that includes a link to the video suitable for pasting into PowerPoint’s “Insert Hyperlink” dialog box:

Finding the share URL for a YouTube video

Note that this link is not always the same as the one that appears in your browser’s address bar, which is customized for your browsing session. I recommend using the Share address, as opposed to copying the address in your browser’s address bar, when sharing YouTube videos. YouTube as a service is far less likely to change how links provided in this way will work in the future.

Linking to a Specific Point in a YouTube Video

A little-known feature of YouTube allows direct linking to a certain minute-second offset within a YouTube video. This can be very handy if you want to present only a section of a YouTube video, and you will need to jump back and forth from your slides to the Web and back.

1. Find the minute:second position where you would like to start viewing the video.
   

   Note the time offset indicator to the right of the play and volume buttons. In this case, the offset is 8 minutes and 40 seconds.

   
2. With this minute:second offset in mind, click the “Share” button as usual to find the video’s address:
   

   Closeup of the YouTube video share panel

   
3. To specify the offset, add “#t=8m40s” to the end of the address, replacing “8” and “40” with the number of minute and seconds, respectively, of the point in the video to which you want to link to:
   

   Creating a URL for a specific point in a YouTube video

   
4. The new address can be used just as any other YouTube link might be.