When using hyperlink base URL I can't hyperlink to slides

[Guest]

I have a presentation with a master slide with hyperlinks to other material
(Office documents) on my website. I use hyperlink base to set the base part
of the URL. This allows me to easily create other versions of the
presentation to link to the same material on my own PC; for use when offline
or in development. I also need to use hyperlinks to aid navigation between
slides in this presentation. The base hyperlink seems to override the
pointer to the required slide and sends me to the root directory of my
website. I can override the hyperlink base by explicity giving the full URL
of material on other websites - but I don't see how to do this for hyperlinks
pointing to slides. Slide navigation hyperlinks work if I switch the
hypelink base to null.

I'd be very grateful for suggestions please

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Graham,

That's the clearest, most lucid explanation of PowerPoint's Hyperlink Base
feature I've ever seen. Thanks. And thanks also for the best description of
the bug that makes it hazardous to your hair.

Short of writing a search and replace routine to reset links (rather than using
hyperlink base) I don't know of a way around this.

But what version of PPT do you use? Perhaps the problem's been fixed in a later
version. I'd be happy to test.

 

[Guest]

A message to you Steve - for understanding the problem - and your kind words.
I have found a way round the original problem. I explicitly construct
hyperlinks using tthe bookmark function to point back to slides within the
same presentation using the full URL (well not the full URL but the bit after
the hyperlink base). Caching seems to mean that I he doesn't try to reload
the whole presentation from the web site each time - provided I am viewing in
IE6 - it doesn't work that way if I have linked to the web based .ppt from
within another .ppt on my machine (but that's tomorrow's challenge!). So I
have dispensed for the time being with using the direct jump to slide #nn
feature (found in action buttons).
You mention being able to change hyperlinks using find and replace - I never
found out how to do that and would like to for other reasons. Find and
replace only seems to work with plain text within the slides themselves - any
clues for me?
I am using powerpoint 2002 (SP3) - supplied by my employer...

Many thanks for your help

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi Graham,

A message to you Steve - for understanding the problem - and your kind words.
I have found a way round the original problem. I explicitly construct
hyperlinks using tthe bookmark function to point back to slides within the
same presentation using the full URL (well not the full URL but the bit after
the hyperlink base). Caching seems to mean that I he doesn't try to reload
the whole presentation from the web site each time - provided I am viewing in
IE6 - it doesn't work that way if I have linked to the web based .ppt from
within another .ppt on my machine (but that's tomorrow's challenge!). So I
have dispensed for the time being with using the direct jump to slide #nn
feature (found in action buttons).

So I'm clear on this (I can be a bit thick):

If you have your Hyperlink Base set to, e.g.: http://www.mydomain.com/thing/

then your hyperlinks would be specified as: myslide.ppt#42 or similar?

You mention being able to change hyperlinks using find and replace - I never
found out how to do that and would like to for other reasons. Find and
replace only seems to work with plain text within the slides themselves - any
clues for me?

The built-in Search/Replace feature won't do it. You'd have to code up
something in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) .. PPT macros, in other words.

This is something I'll probably add eventually to our FixLinks add-in but as
yet, no.

Have a look at this, though:

http://skp.mvps.org/toolbox/index.htm

Shyam's toolbox has a change links feature that might help.

 

[Guest]

Steve,

Thanks for the link to the toolbox you sent. I think it doesn't quite do
what I want. If I have a presentation with a hyperlink base in operation
then I am jumping back and forth in the presentation using links lilke
"Filename of this presentation.ppt#nn. Title of the slide to jump to". I
have exactly the same presentation structure to cover a number of different
technical subjects. What I want to do is to perform a global change of the
"Filename of this presentation". The toolbox doesn't seem to be able to do
that - the nearest I got was to concatenate the old file name with a new file
name. I'd ideally like a search and replace function

Any ideas for me please?

Many thanks for your help so far

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi Graham,

Thanks for the link to the toolbox you sent. I think it doesn't quite do
what I want. If I have a presentation with a hyperlink base in operation
then I am jumping back and forth in the presentation using links lilke
"Filename of this presentation.ppt#nn. Title of the slide to jump to". I
have exactly the same presentation structure to cover a number of different
technical subjects. What I want to do is to perform a global change of the
"Filename of this presentation". The toolbox doesn't seem to be able to do
that - the nearest I got was to concatenate the old file name with a new file
name. I'd ideally like a search and replace function

Any ideas for me please?

One more. I've cobbled up a little S&R macro that only works on the address and
subaddress of all hyperlinks in a presentation. It doesn't do specifically what
you ask, but as a more general S&R tool, I think it'll let you get there just
the same, and may help with other related problems.

As with all macros, I'd use it ONLY on a copy of your presentation.

Search and Replace for Hyperlinks
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00773.htm

Many thanks for your help so far

My pleasure!

 

[Guest]

Steve,

That is perfect. Worked first time and does exactly what I want. And
thanks for the warning about working on a copy. I'm obsessive about
versioning, version control, and making a new copy, with a new versioned name
everytime I make a major change (makes the market in disk drives). This is
probably boring - but ever since I dropped a deck of punch cards with no line
numbers and no interpretation back in the early 70's - of 1000 lines of
assembler source, backup copies are - well you learn the hard way don't you -
essential!

Once I have cracked the erratic behaviour of different browsers (my other
post on this forum) on other machines and the inconsistent way they behave
when opening hyperlinked MS office documents the project will be really
motoring.

Many thanks indeed

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Steve,

That is perfect. Worked first time and does exactly what I want.

Now THAT is scary. But satisfying just same.

Thanks for letting me know.

thanks for the warning about working on a copy. I'm obsessive about
versioning, version control, and making a new copy, with a new versioned name
everytime I make a major change (makes the market in disk drives). This is
probably boring - but ever since I dropped a deck of punch cards with no line
numbers and no interpretation back in the early 70's - of 1000 lines of
assembler source, backup copies are - well you learn the hard way don't you -
essential!

I never wrote anything on punch cards that was long enough to worry about, but
on the way to Commune with the High Priests of 360, I saw enough grad students
weeping over spilt cards to learn.