How to Insert Hyperlinks in PowerPoint

Hyperlinks in PowerPoint are easy to implement and can transform your everyday presentations into powerful interactive experiences. In this article, I’ll walk you through some of the basics of adding hyperlinks in PowerPoint. Then, I’ll show you how to change the default colors of your links as well as how to make any object in your slides clickable. So, if you want truly engaging presentations, all you need to do is follow this step-by-step tutorial.

How to Hyperlink in PowerPoint

For starters, PowerPoint has many options to add a hyperlink to your slides depending on your objectives. Do you want to redirect people to a website? Are you trying to create a non-linear presentation? Or maybe you want to encourage your audience to send you an e-mail? Let’s check out the main uses together:

Hyperlink to a website in PowerPoint

Select the text you want to convert to a hyperlink
Go to the Insert tab
Click on the “Link” option
In the “Insert Hyperlink” window, select “Existing File or Web Page”
Type the URL in the bar
Click “Ok”

B. Hyperlink to another slide in PowerPoint

Select the text you want to change to a hyperlink
Go to the Insert tab
Click on “Link” and a window will pop up
Select “Place in This Document”
Pick the slide you want to land on
Click “Ok”

You can leverage this type of hyperlink in a table of contents for a non-linear presentation. What’s more, if you want to link to another slide to show something and quickly return, tick off the option “Show and return”

C. Hyperlink to an e-mail address in PowerPoint

Select the text you want to add the hyperlink to.
Go to the Insert ribbon
Click on “Link”
Select the “E-mail address” option
Type the e-mail you want to link to
Finally, click “Ok”

Extra: How to Add ScreenTip in PowerPoint

To close the basics on how to hyperlink in PowerPoint, here’s an option to display descriptive texts for your links. They provide quick additional information or instructions for people that hovers over your hyperlink so they know what it is about or what to do immediately. So, once you have opened the “Insert hyperlink” dialog box, do the following:

Click on the “ScreenTip” button
Type the text you want to appear when someone hovers over your link
Click “OK” on the Screentip dialog box
Click “OK” again to close the hyperlink dialog box.

To check everything is in place, activate Presentation mode (Shift + F5) and hover your mouse over the hyperlink. You should visualize your ScreenTip text.

Now, let’s go to the fun part!

How to Change the Color of a Hyperlink

If you’re adding hyperlinks to a professional presentation, changing the default link color is something you should know. Sometimes your PowerPoint background makes the blue hyperlink barely visible, or it just doesn’t match your presentation color palette, whatever the case, here are the 5 steps you must follow:

Go to View > Slide Master
Select Colors > Customize Colors
A dialog box will open where you can change the “Hyperlink” and “Followed hyperlink” colors to suit the needs of your presentation.
Click Save
Close Master View

For a visual explanation, check this out:

How to change link color default in PowerPoint

How to Make Any Object Clickable in PowerPoint

When it comes to hyperlinks, you don’t have to limit yourself to texts. The truth is you can make any object clickable in PowerPoint, whether it’s a headline, a shape, an image, or a button.

You have the “Link” option to do so - like in the previous sections - but also the “Action” button. So in this part, I’m going to show how to use the second one:

Select the object in the slide you would like to hyperlink
Go to the Insert ribbon
Select “Action”
Click the option “Hyperlink to:” and from the drop-down menu, select where you want the action button to link to. It can be:

A specific slide within your presentation (Option “Slide…”)
A web page (Option “URL”)
Other PowerPoint presentations.

5. Finally, click “Ok”

To test it, start your PowerPoint slideshow (Shift+F5 on your keyboard) and click the object with the action button.

Get a Fully Customized Interactive Presentation!

Even if you’re new to PowerPoint, you can quickly add hyperlinks to your slides following this tutorial. But if you want to create a fully interactive presentation to show your work, you might want to learn about our presentation design solutions. At 24Slides, we take presentations from “good” to “extraordinary” saving professionals like you hours of fiddling with PowerPoint. Forget about late-night shifts doing presentations and let our design experts wow you overnight!