You’ve set up your PowerPoint presentation and you’ve incorporated citations. Every link is supposed to send the viewer – or you – to a resource that proves what you’re saying. Unfortunately, you’ve discovered hyperlinks not working in PowerPoint and you don’t know what to do. These fixes can help.
Fix 1 – Choose the Proper View
Your hyperlinks may look like clickable links in the PowerPoint editing view, but they’re not. You can’t click them in that view. You need to be in “Slide Show Mode” or “Presenter View” to check your links, so your links may actually be working and you’re just in the wrong place to check.
For “Slide Show Mode,” do the following:
Step 1: Hit the “Slide Show” tab at the top of the screen and select “From Beginning.”
Step 2: Click your hyperlink in the appropriate slide to see if it’s working.
And for “Presenter View,” the steps are pretty similar.
Step 1: Select “Slide Show” from the ribbon and make sure the box next to “Use Presenter View” is checked.
Step 2: Press “Alt + F5” on your keyboard to open “Presenter View” and click on your hyperlink to check if it works there.
Fix 2 – Update PowerPoint
Microsoft loves its updates, even when they mess around with how the non-updated version of one of its apps works. That could be your problem when you see hyperlinks not working in PowerPoint – there’s an update you missed and it’s creating compatibility issues that you need to fix.
Step 1: Open PowerPoint and head to “File,” followed by “Account.”
Step 2: Hit the “Update Options” icon, which you’ll find in the “Product Information” on the right side of the screen.
Step 3: Choose “Update Now” from the drop-down box that appears. PowerPoint will check for updates (you should see a checking bar appear on the screen) and install said update if it finds one. After you get the notification that PowerPoint is up to date, head back to your presentation and try your hyperlink again.
Fix 3 – Check Your Hyperlink Address
Sometimes, a hyperlink not working in PowerPoint is as simple as you inserting the wrong – or a broken – URL when you created the hyperlink in the first place. Fixing this problem is simple.
Step 1: Navigate to the slide that contains the offending hyperlink, right-click, and choose “Edit Link” from the menu.
Step 2: There’s not much to say here – check the link in the “Address” text box. If it’s correct, then you have nothing to worry about. If it isn’t, change the link to the correct address and hit the “OK” button. Then, try your link again inside the presentation.
Fix 4 – Check Your File Still Exists
You don’t always have to hyperlink to websites. You may have a file – such as a PDF or additional documentation – that you link to inside PowerPoint.
Does that file still exist? If you’ve deleted it or moved it to a different folder, that may be the reason why your hyperlink isn’t working in your PowerPoint presentation. Either change the link so it’s correct (see Fix 3) or restore the file to its original location.
Was this helpful?
Last updated on 14 February, 2025
Read Next
Four Ways to Use Structured References in Microsoft Excel
Working in Excel typically revolves around finding connections between various data points.
Four Cool Things You Can Do with Windows Phone Link
You’ve installed Phone Link on your PC or laptop and hooked your phone up to the app.
6 Ways to Fix Hyperlinks Not Working in Microsoft Word for Windows
Fix 1: Check the Link for Typos Your first course of action is to check the hyperlink for any typos.
6 Ways to Fix Hyperlinks Not Working in Microsoft Excel for Windows
Fix 1: Double Check the Link Path It is possible that the file path mentioned in the hyperlink is no longer accessible or that the web page link is misspelled.
3 Ways to Extract a URL From Hyperlinks in Microsoft Excel
Method 1: From the Edit Hyperlink Dialog The context menu has a series of shortcuts for performing actions.
How to Add Hyperlinks in Google Slides
How to Add Hyperlinks to Google Slides on Computer Method 1 Step 1: To hyperlink text or image, select it > Click on Insert link.
5 Fixes for Designer Not Working in Microsoft PowerPoint on Windows
Try Basic Fixes Check your Microsoft 365 subscription status: The Designer feature in PowerPoint is exclusive to Microsoft 365 subscribers.
7 Fixes for Animations Not Working in PowerPoint on Windows
Fix 1: Check Animation Order and Triggers Before you try anything else, it’s a good idea to check the set animation effects and triggers in your PowerPoint presentation.
The article above may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. The content remains unbiased and authentic and will never affect our editorial integrity.
