Linking to Slides in PowerPoint

The programs provided as part of the Office suite do a pretty good job of working together. Of course, trying to get them to work together well can be a challenge at times, but once you know the little tricks, life is much easier.

For instances, let's say you wanted to insert a hyperlink in a Word document and have that hyperlink reference a slide in a PowerPoint presentation. You can do this by following these steps in Word 97:

1. Highlight the text to which you want to attach the hyperlink.
2. Choose Hyperlink from the Insert menu. Word displays the Insert Hyperlink dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. In the Link to File or URL field, specify the full path and file name of the PowerPoint presentation file. (If desired, you can click on Browse to select the file.) For instance, you might enter something like C:\My Documents\Presentations\sample.ppt.
4. At the end of the file name, type a pound sign (#) followed by the slide number you want to use from the presentation. For instance, if you want to use the forty-second slide, your full entry might be C:\My Documents\Presentations\sample.ppt#42.
5. Click on OK.

In Word 2000 and Word 2002 the steps are only slightly different:

1. Highlight the text to which you want to attach the hyperlink.
2. Choose Hyperlink from the Insert menu. Word displays the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.
3. Click on the Existing File or Web Page button at the left side of the dialog box.
4. In the Type the File or Web Page Name field, specify the full path and file name of the PowerPoint presentation file. (If desired, you can click on File to select the file.) For instance, you might enter something like C:\My Documents\Presentations\sample.ppt.
5. At the end of the file name, type a pound sign (#) followed by the slide number you want to use from the presentation. For instance, if you want to use the forty-second slide, your full entry might be C:\My Documents\Presentations\sample.ppt#42.
6. Click on OK.

If you don't know the slide number that PowerPoint is using for a particular slide, you can use the following method of inserting the hyperlink. It works in either Word 97, Word 2000, or Word 2002.

1. Open your PowerPoint presentation.
2. Select the slide that will be the target of your hyperlink in Word.
3. Press CTRL+C to copy the slide.
4. Switch to Word.
5. Position the insertion point where you want your hyperlink located.
6. Choose Paste as Hyperlink from the Edit menu.
7. Edit the new hyperlink, as desired.