Adding the Navigation Buttons

The next step is to add a navigation button on slide 3 that accesses the hidden material. Activate slide 3 and add a shape to its slide pane (Figure 5). Right-click that shape and select Hyperlink. Next, click the Place in this document tab so that the three slides available in this show are visible in the Insert Hyperlink dialog box (Figure 6). Click the slide 2 name, and then click OK to close the dialog box. Great! You just linked the shape on slide 3 to the hidden slide (slide 2).

We’ll conduct a similar process on slide 2, with a slight twist. Add a shape to its slide pane. Then give it a special kind of hyperlink called an Action Setting. Click the shape to activate it and, on the Ribbon’s Insert tab, click the Action button. Toggle the Hyperlink to option in the Action Settings dialog box, and then select Last Slide Viewed (Figure 7).

You are done. Go back to slide1, start the show, and scroll to the yellow slide. PowerPoint skips the blue slide, of course, but now you have an active link on the yellow slide that accesses the blue slide if needed. You can ignore that link and continue scrolling through the show if desired, or click the link to display the hidden material. If you do decide to show the optional content, click the link on that slide to return to the yellow slide and continue with the rest of the show as usual.

You can set up as many hidden slides as desired, and those hidden slides, themselves, can even access other hidden slides. Note that the shapes used for the hyperlinks can have any desired appearance. You might make them invisible, in fact. Or, use a picture as the hyperlink source instead of a shape.

Here’s another useful tip. Let’s say you add 20 more slides to this show. Copy the shape appearing on the yellow slide and paste it onto all the new slides. Doing so allows you to access the hidden material at any time, from any of those additional slides. And because the link on the hidden slide is set to Last Slide Viewed, clicking it returns you to the originating slide, regardless of the one used. Once you feel comfortable with interactive presentation, try making the hidden slide a switchboard that displays custom shows or separate slide shows. The possibilities are endless.