About hyperlinks and action buttons

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.