Using Action Buttons to Navigate Around the Slide
Show
- Create four slides.
- Save the presentation. Buttons rely on hyperlinks, and hyperlinks require
a path. Therefore, your show must be saved so a location can be specified.
- Select Normal view (View>Normal) for slide one so the slide can be
edited. We are going to add a button in the bottom right corner of slide
one to allow us to jump to slide Two.
- Click on the AutoShapes button on the Drawing toolbar, then select Action
buttons. A list of action buttons appear to choose from.
- Select the forward/next button, then click back on the slide. While holding
down the left mouse draw out the button on the slide. After selecting an
action button, your mouse cursor turns into a crosshair shape. Move the
cursor about an inch or two from the bottom right corner of the slide. Click,
keep the mouse button depressed, drag down and to the right to draw a button.
- When you release the left mouse, the action setting dialog box will open
shown below.
- Notice the default setting of the button. It is set to go to the next
slide.
- Click OK to set the action setting to next slide.
- To change the color of your button, simply double click on the button
to open the Format AutoShape dialog box.
- Select slide Two. Repeat the procedure to create a button to the next
slide. Make this button act also on a mouse click, just like the first one
you made.
- Also create a button in the bottom left corner of slide Two to go back
to the first slide. This time you will select the Back/Previous action button.
- Notice the default setting as Previous slide. Click OK to set this action
setting.
- Select slide Three and put the same two buttons at the bottom of the slide.
After you have completed those buttons, add a third button in the middle
at the top of the slide. This will be a hyperlink to an Internet page. For
this select the information button.
- From the pull down menu in the Hyperlink to: box, select URL. A Hyperlink
to URL dialog box pops up. Paste, or type a URL into the box.
- For this example, we will create a link to the Palm Beach County School
Board homepage. The URL is listed below. Copy and past this address in the
Hypertext to URL dialog box:
http://www.palmbeach.k12.fl.us
- In some instances you will want to hyperlink to a slide other than the
default setting. To do this simply select the action button you wish to
use and at the action setting dialog box choose slide from the drop down
menu:
- This will open the hyperlink to slide dialog box that displays all the
slides presently in your presentation.
- Simply click the slide to select it and click OK.
There may be times when you want to hyperlink to a file on your hard drive.
This option is used when using large video files that PowerPoint can't handle.
An example would be large movies made with digital camcorders. To hyperlink
to a file on your hard drive:
Using a button:
- Draw out your button and at the Action Setting dialog box select Hyperlink>To
other File shown below:
- This will create a button that will open an external file on your harddrive.
If taking your presentation to show somewhere you will need to remember to
take this file with you and to relink the external file if need be.
- The trick is returning to your presentation. The only way to make a smooth
transition from the external file and back to your presentation is by simply
clicking on the presentation icon at the bottom of your status bar to reopen
the presentation where you left off.
Creating a hyperlink using text is basically the same concept but you are simply
using text to create an action. To create a text hyperlink:
