when I burn a PowerPoint CD the hyperlinks do not work

[Guest]

I am creating a moderate size presentation in Power Point 2003 with a menu
slide that gives 5 choices, each choice has 5 slides. The last slide is
hyperlinked to the menu slide. Everything works fine until I burn a CD and
the hyperlinks do not work on the CD. What am I doing wrong? The first CD I
made as a test was fine. Then when I had finished the presentation and
burned a CD...I had a problem. So how do I solve this?

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

This should work fine. What do you mean by "moderate size"? Do you have
other hyperlinks besides the 10 you mention (5 on the menu slide and 5 at
the end of each section)? What are the specific steps you are taking to
create the hyperlinks? Are you running the show from the CD on the same
machine? Are you running the show in the regular version of PowerPoint or
in the Viewer?
--David

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

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I am creating a moderate size presentation in Power Point 2003 with a menu
slide that gives 5 choices, each choice has 5 slides. The last slide is
hyperlinked to the menu slide.

That's not usually the best way of doing it. You end up with lots of slideshows
open at the end; eats memory, confuses the naive, annoys the sophisticates. <g>

Instead, link from your main presentation to the sub presentations and at the
end of each of those, add an End Show button. That'll end the subpresentation
and there, behind it, is the menu you left behind when you started the sub pres.

Everything works fine until I burn a CD and
the hyperlinks do not work on the CD. What am I doing wrong? The first CD I
made as a test was fine. Then when I had finished the presentation and
burned a CD...I had a problem. So how do I solve this?

Hard to say w/o more information. What changed between the first test that
worked and the later one that didn't?

You might want to download the free FixLinks Demo at http://get.pptools.com

Use it to run a links report on the version of the PPT file on the CD that works
and on the one that doesn't. The difference between the two reports might tell
you what you need to know.

There's no obligation to purchase the software. If you find the link report
portion useful, enjoy. It's our little diagnostic gift to the PPT world.<g>

 

[Rob]

I am creating a moderate size presentation in Power Point 2003 with a menu
slide that gives 5 choices, each choice has 5 slides. The last slide is
hyperlinked to the menu slide. Everything works fine until I burn a CD
and
the hyperlinks do not work on the CD. What am I doing wrong? The first
CD I
made as a test was fine. Then when I had finished the presentation and
burned a CD...I had a problem. So how do I solve this?

Are the hyperlinks to other slide presentation on the CD? Can the problem
be as simple as a file address problem...

Instead of linking to an absolute file path: ( C:\MyFiles\My
Presentations\Menus\MainMenu.ppt)

You can link to the relative file path: (.\Menus\MainMenu.ppt)

Could this be part of the problem?

Rob F

 

[Guest]

It consists of 30 slides and 35 hyperlinks. I have tried using the object
(photo) and creating a hyperlink and I have tried drawing an action button
over the photo and hyperlinking. All of this involves clicking on the correct
choice as the info pops up. I'm not doing anything creative.

It doesn't matter where I run the CD, the hyperlinks do not work. My goal
is distribution so I use the 'package for CD' method.

The show is run according to how the recepient computer opens it
automatically. In other words, if that doesn't answer your question...I must
not know the difference. That's not much help. I'll try to ask someone to
see if I can find the answer.

Thanks for helping!

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

Are these hyperlinks WITHIN your presentation, or are they hyperlinks
OUTSIDE your presentation. I was assuming they were within your
presentation which means that your problem doesn't make sense to me (that
is, it should work just fine). If they are outside your presentation
(i.e., linking to other presentations or other media), then there are
lots of fixable reasons why the links wouldn't work. Check out
"Troubleshooting Link Problems: links that break, sounds/movies that
don't play, etc." from the PPT FAQ:

http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00668.htm

If they are within your presentation, as I had assumed, then I am
stumped. You should be able to link a picture just as well as a button,
and it should consistently work.

--David

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

 

[Guest]

I asked that question myself and in analysing my actions the only thing that
I did any differently was to change the destination of one hyperlink. Could
that result in this problem?

 

[Guest]

All the hyperlinks are within the one slide presentation. All of the CDs
involved were burnt in the same manner. I really appreciate all of your
input. 2003 PP is my first venture into PP, so I am very new at this.

 

[Guest]

I tried the sub presentation way and ended up with a black screen at the end
of the fifth slide. The user wasn't led back to anything, it was just over.
What did I omit? Afterall, it is almost always a given of user error not the
computer!

 

[Guest]

They are within my presentation. Thanks for all your input. Every
possibility helps find the solution even if it is only be the process of
elimination. Thanks!

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I asked that question myself and in analysing my actions the only thing that
I did any differently was to change the destination of one hyperlink. Could
that result in this problem?

Changed how? Working out what makes links breaks requires painfully specific
information.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I tried the sub presentation way and ended up with a black screen at the end
of the fifth slide. The user wasn't led back to anything, it was just over.
What did I omit? Afterall, it is almost always a given of user error not the
computer!

The fifth slide of which presentation? The sub presentation? You'll want the
presentations in Kiosk mode so that users have to use the buttons/links YOU supply to
navigate; on the last slide of each sub presentation, include an End Show button.
That'll close the presentation, leaving the original menu presentation visible.

 

[Sonia]

I understood that there was only one presentation involved. Did that change?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I understood that there was only one presentation involved. Did that change?

This:

"I tried the sub presentation way ..."

makes it sound so. ;-)

But on re-read, it does sorta sound like the original wasn't done that way.
Have we managed to confuse everybody or does anyone still need more attention?
Please step forward if so. Glen will speak to you in 'strine until you cry uncle.

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

The original questioner specifically said that the links are within the
presentation, so we are dealing with one presenation:

They are within my presentation. Thanks for all your input. Every
possibility helps find the solution even if it is only be the process
of elimination. Thanks!

--David

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

 

[Mike Painter]

You need to make sure your hyperlinks are relative and not absolute.

They should look like "\someDirectory" rather than
D:\ThisDirectory\ThatDirectory
or (even worse) C:\This\that

In the first case if you move the CD from drive D to a drive E, the program
will still try to find drive D and will not work.

The second example is worse only because it will work fine on your computer
which has the information on drive C but not on anybody elses machine.

 

[Guest]

I changed the return destination of a slide from one slide to another. As an
follows: The menu slide allows you to hyperlink into five different
catagories. Upon entering catagory one I realized that the end slide
hyperlinked to the wrong slide. I went into the hyperlink information and on
the list I changed the destination of the hyperlink. After I found I had a
problem, I thought there might be the possibility that I should have removed
the link and then created a new one. This thought process is because
changing the destination on that one slide is the only single action that I
had done prior to the problem. All of the others things I did had also been
done prior to the problem. The logical conclusion is that the single action
resulted in the problem. The problem with the logic is that with computers
the logical thought process is not that of the user but that which the
programmer assumes to be the user's. Thank you for putting so much effort
into this problem.

 

[Guest]

No, it has not changed.

I understood that there was only one presentation involved. Did that change?

 

[Guest]

Being a professional in some fields I entirely understand and appreciate the
patience you are showing in dealing with this problem. Reality is I am very
much an amateur in PP. That established....I do not know the difference
between relative and absolute in relationship to hyperlinks. However, I am
aware of the problem addressed by the possibility of changing machines or
drives. This problem exists on one machine (mine) and while it is created on
C drive and burnt on E drive I am consistently repeating the same steps of
usage.

 

[Sonia]

And if you are just linking to slides within a single presentation you don't
need to worry about "relative" and "absolute". When you start linking to media
files, other presentations, etc., then you may want to learn more.