Hyperlinks within file not working

  • Thread starter Thread starter shcarver
  • Start date Start date
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shcarver

In Powerpoint 2007, I've set up a "Jeopardy Game like board". There's 36
areas on the first screen each having an individual hyperlink to a different
slide (question) in the presentation. On each question slide I have an
Action button set up to hyperlink back to the first screen (the main game
board). The hyperlinks do not contain commas or anything strange. The
hyperlinks randomly break always defaulting to Slide 2.
 
Does slide 1 have "Transition On Click" ticked?
Do you see a hand cursor when you hover over the failing link?
 
You might also be able to include your links back to the "board" slide
on the "Master" slide ([View] --> [Master] --> [Slide Master]). That
way, the link would show up on each slide and you wouldn't have to
rewrite it all the time.

Hope that helps,
Kevin
 
I doubt if you are really hitting the link limit. If you are saving in 2007
format you won't be, if you are downsaving you still seem well below the
limit though as Steve says it's not a straightforward calculation.

How did you make the text on the "buttons"? If you added a text box over the
shape this is maybe your problem!
 
So what's the solution?

I have a very similar problem as shcarver. I'm using empty textboxes as the
links. Mostly one per slide going to the next slide, but some slides have 2
links so there's some branching. Slide names are typically 2 short words,
around 10 characters. Everything worked fine until I got to about 50 slides.
Then suddenly all the links quit working. The cursor no longer turns into a
hand when over the textboxes, and clicking does nothing.

I've tried splitting the file into 2 decks, one with 40 slides and one with
20. (I added additional slides after the links broke to complete my app.)
No go. Not even if I reboot in order to make sure that PowerPoint is
starting out fresh.

The truly puzzling thing is that if I open an old, early saved copy that
only has 20 slides and that used to work, even it no longer works. Not even
right after a reboot.

The only thing that does work is running the deck on PowerPoint 2003.
Unfortunately, the machines I need to run this on all have 2007. None of
them work with this deck -- I've tried 3 machines.

Any hints for getting this deck working again in PowerPoint 2007?

Many thanks!
-Terry
 
Steve Rindsberg said:
better yet, use a rectangle instead (no
outline, fill set to 99% transparent). That should be more reliable.
Click to expand...

Huge thanks to Steve!

I was skeptical at first because my empty textboxes had worked for the first
50 slides. (I stretch them manually so they have nonzero size; they don't
disappear even without text in them.) But the 99% transparent rectangles
worked in my file when the textboxes were no longer working.

It took a couple hours to replace all the dang things, but it's done and the
whole deck now works in Ppt 2007.

Many, many thanks!
-Terry
 
I have a similar problem - except that I have 117 slides (all organizational
charts) with one or two hyperlinks/slide + approx 25 links on the template
page.

I have boxes with text hyperlinked. It did not help to remove a bunch on the
slides in general. It did not help to remove the link from the textbox and
then place a rectangle (99% invisible) and try linking it. I can already tell
if it will work or not since when I am in the hyperlink dialogue box the
slide I try to link to gets no thumbnail preview - if I however try to link
to a slide with a preview it works!
That would sort of indicate that the links memory is not full.

However I have removed those slides and recreated the slides but I still
can't link to them. Irritating since this is the last links I have to fix and
the customer is urgently waiting for this presentation.
 
I have a similar problem - except that I have 117 slides (all organizational
charts) with one or two hyperlinks/slide + approx 25 links on the template
page.

I have boxes with text hyperlinked. It did not help to remove a bunch on the
slides in general. It did not help to remove the link from the textbox and
then place a rectangle (99% invisible) and try linking it. I can already tell
if it will work or not since when I am in the hyperlink dialogue box the
slide I try to link to gets no thumbnail preview - if I however try to link
to a slide with a preview it works!
That would sort of indicate that the links memory is not full.

However I have removed those slides and recreated the slides but I still
can't link to them. Irritating since this is the last links I have to fix and
the customer is urgently waiting for this presentation.
Click to expand...

You have the comma problem. The slide titles you are trying to link to have
commas in them. PowerPoint can't handle that (I won't make a derisive
comment about why this problem hasn't been resolved since being introduced
in PowerPoint 97). Remove the commas from the slide titles and then link
again. If you really want the commas there, there are ways to bring them
back (some users have reported that simply putting the commas back after
linking will work; alternatively, you can move the real slide title without
the commas off the viewable portion of the slide and put a "fake" title in
its place).
--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Associate Professor, Loyola University Maryland
 
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