Hyperlink Problems

[Guest]

My problem is similar to that of many others. I have a 40 slide PP and
wanted to hyperlink the individual slide titles in the T of C to the
appropriate slide in the presentation. I also placed a “return†link on each
slide that would take the user back to the T of C. All but about 4 of the
links worked along with all the return links. When I look at links that do
work in the hyperlink set up/edit window there is a preview of the slide but
not for the 4 bad ones. They are identified as being part of the
presestation but no preview is visible. Moreover the return link back to the
T of C from the bad slides works; just not to them from the T of C.

Some of the fixes in this forum have talked about removing commas but these
do not have any. There are other symbols such as “(“, “)â€, “:†but I took
all that out and still no luck (and I have those symbols in other links that
do work.
This is not a large presentation (490kb) so I would not think that is the
issue.

There are about 35 or so links but I wouldn’t think that would be the issue.
I am using Windows XP with PowerPoint 2003.

Any ideas/suggestions?

 

[Guest]

Try copying one of the buttons used for another link to replace one that
doesn't work. Then change the link to go to the right slide.

 

[Guest]

There are no buttons. I established the link directly on each tables' title
in the T of C. When you click on the title in the T of C you jump directly
to the corresponding table in the report in all cases except the four I
mentioned. I know what you mean by a button and have done that before to
link to a file outside of the PP but in this case all the links are within
the PP doc.

 

[Guest]

The button concept works within the ppt, too. But sorry I misunderstood...

So now try this:

Highlight the text that should currently be linked (but doesn't work). Right
click on the highligted text then select "remove hyperlink) - if that is an
option.

Now add a fresh link (is there such a thing?). Highlight the text again
then right click. Give it an Action Setting or Hyperlink.

 

[Guest]

No luck. When I click on “Action Setting†it defaults to “no link†because
I previously removed all of links (I can’t use the feature with four not
working. This is a market research report for a client and it’s all or
nothing.) When I click on the link option the places I can link to do not
include pages within the doc I am working in. Again, I am only trying to
establish links within the PP doc itself and the options in the Action
Setting option all point to other docs, URL’s, etc. Then when I attempt to
set up a link using the “Hyperlink†option I can see the doc within a listing
of all the individual slides in the PP however I cannot see the preview
picture for the four problem slides, and as a result cannot make the links
for them work. Moreover, when I establish the link there without seeing the
picture, and then go back into Action Settings it does say a link is
established with the page I want. The problem is it does not work.

It’s all related to the fact that I cannot see a preview picture of those
four slides when establishing the hyperlink. All the others show a picture
of the slide I am linking to whereas the four do not and nothing I have tried
fixes the problem. Very strange.

I appreciate your attempts to help Sandy.

 

[Guest]

I'm stumped. When I try to recreate the problem on my computer, I don't run
into the same problem. Have you tried inserting new slides and recreating
the ones that don't show up in your preview?

 

[Guest]

I have tried inserting new slides and linking works. It is bizarre. I can’t
see any common issues with the four that don’t work other than the fact that
they don’t work. In perusing these posts and MS discussion regarding
hyperlinks it appears to me that MS says there is a problem but has not
created a fix. Possibly something to do with the amount of memory devoted to
hyperlinks not being enough. But this is only 45 slides with maybe 40 links,
all contained within one doc so I find it hard to believe memory would be the
issue.

I have used hyperlinks in PP before, generally linking a video file on my
laptop within a PP presentation and never had a problem. This time I got to
thinking about how useful it would be to create links from the T of C to the
individual slides and back again. The user could then simply click on
whatever interested them and then click back again. Great idea except for
the four. So I have deleted all the links and will simply send the client a
static report.

Thanks again for your help Sandy. Are you just an experience PP user or do
you have a professional connection to it?

 

[Guest]

OK - have you read this?

Lost hyperlinks, hyperlinks link to wrong place, hyperlinks stop ...Because
the Document Summary storage is used by different aspects of the
presentation, there is a finite number of hyperlinks that can be stored in ...
www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00401.htm

To answer your question - I run a PowerPoint designing and consulting
business in Minnesota.

 

[Guest]

I did. That is where I got the notion that it may be an issue with storage
but having just scanned it again, it appears to be talking about links to web
pages. If space to store the link is the issue it may not matter if it is a
url or a page in PP doc but in either case it looks like I have exhausted my
options.

Bill

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I did. That is where I got the notion that it may be an issue with storage
but having just scanned it again, it appears to be talking about links to web
pages.

No, all links. In fact, links within a presentation can eat up space faster than most
others, since the link includes the entire title text on the slide.

I don't understand your earlier statement about not being able to use action setttings.
You can link to other slides within a presentation using these ...

Add an action setting, choose Hyperlink to:, pick Slide ... from the list and pick the
slide you want to link to.

 

[Guest]

Hi Steve, thanks for trying to help.

When I said I couldn’t use Action Settings I meant not until I had
established a Hyperlink as you and Sandy have suggested. Here’s what is
happening. When I highlight one of the four problem slides in the T of C and
click Hyperlink, the box where I establish the link opens. I then click on
“Place in this document†and on the left see a list of all the slides in the
PP including the four problem slides. When I select any other than one of
those four, it highlights and I see a thumbnail picture of that slide to the
right. In the case of the four all that happens excluding the thumbnail
picture which does not appear. If I then click on Action Setting, I will see
the link to the slide and it will appear in the T of C as do all the other
links which work (highlighted a different color than non linked text). The
difference is nothing happens when clicking the four problem slides.

Bill

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

I just scanned briefly through this long thread so this might have
already been suggested, but look at the titles of the slides to which you
can't hyperlink. Is there any punctuation? Commas a particular problem.
Remove the commas from the slide titles, and your links should work.
--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/

 

[Guest]

Hi David,

Yes that was suggested and I did go in and remove anything other than text
with no luck. Moreover what I removed was in other titles that did work.

Bill

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

Sorry, the behavior you describe is exactly the comma behavior. I still
think there is something funky about the slide title because this is the
exact behavior I would expect from that. How about re-creating the slides
and typing something simple into the title? Don't just duplicate the
slides because whatever the problem is will get copied over.
--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/

 

[Kathy Jacobs]

A very strange thought, but... Is it possible that the problem titles start
with spaces?

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft MVP PowerPoint and OneNote
Author of Kathy Jacobs on PowerPoint - Available now from Holy Macro! Books
Get PowerPoint and OneNote information at www.onppt.com

I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi Steve, thanks for trying to help.

I can't help myself.
So I may as well help others.

(Would that be a great sig line or what?)

When I said I couldn’t use Action Settings I meant not until I had
established a Hyperlink as you and Sandy have suggested. Here’s what is
happening. When I highlight one of the four problem slides in the T of C and
click Hyperlink, the box where I establish the link opens. I then click on
“Place in this document†and on the left see a list of all the slides in the
PP including the four problem slides. When I select any other than one of
those four, it highlights and I see a thumbnail picture of that slide to the
right. In the case of the four all that happens excluding the thumbnail
picture which does not appear. If I then click on Action Setting, I will see
the link to the slide and it will appear in the T of C as do all the other
links which work (highlighted a different color than non linked text). The
difference is nothing happens when clicking the four problem slides.

Interesting. If I create a slide with a comma in the title, I can reproduce the
first part of this perfectly, but if I select the text and apply an Action setting
rather than Insert Hyperlink, the link still works.

This is using the most recent service pack to Office 2003, by the way. If you
haven't installed that, I would.

Sometimes PPT can get its undies knotted up if a lot of slides have been copy/pasted
here and there. Round-tripping to HTML and back might sort that out if so. I'd give
that a try.

Instrux here:

HTML "Round-tripping" to repair corruption
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00526.htm

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi David,

Yes that was suggested and I did go in and remove anything other than text
with no luck. Moreover what I removed was in other titles that did work.

Another thought: when everyone here's been talking about titles, they mean it in a
*very* specific sense: title text is text in a title placeholder, the text that
appears in Outline view next to each slide's icon, the text that appears in link
dialog boxes too.

If you have a separate text box on the slide that *looks* like a title but doesn't
match the above criteria, then it's not a title for linking purposes. And if it
doesn't have a comma in it but the text in the outline view does .... well, that's
the problem.

Something to check ...

 

[Guest]

Success, sort of.

I previously removed all the punctuation which included a comma and
parenthesis with no success. And other slides with commas did work so I was
fairly certain that was not the problem. Nonetheless I was about to try the
suggestion made by a couple of you having to do with starting from the
beginning and redoing the slide (no cutting and pasting) but before I did I
removed just the comma (before I took out the comma and the parenthesis) and
guess what? It worked.

This presentation template format was sent to me by the client so we would
use the graphics they wanted. I have no idea how much they had flogged it
prior to sending it to me and on top of that I did duplicate a few slides
along with some cutting and pasting so any or all of that may have activated
the PP voodoo.

Thanks to you all who have taken time to work through this with me. It
eased the frustration and ultimately led me to where I need to be. Still,
while PP is an incredible program on days like these I do find myself
contemplating a return to overhead presentations.

Bill

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I can sympathize with a return to overheads. So much cheaper than making holes in the pavement
twenty stories down with your computer.