Action buttons are a lot like hyperlinks in PowerPoint.
They can be used to connect to another slide, file, email address, or web page, except they
give you a button to click instead of a link.
The buttons are actually built-in shapes that can be found on the Insert tab... on the same
menu as the rest of the Shapes.
You'll find them at the very bottom in a section of their own.
Because action buttons are so easy to understand, they're especially useful for self-running
presentations.
I plan to leave this presentation up for an entire afternoon, so new employees can re-watch
if they need to, or go back to review a specific slide.
A few of the action buttons should be familiar to you from browsing the internet, like Home,
Back, and Next.
To insert one, click to select it... then draw the shape where you want it on your slide.
Now we can define the settings for the action button.
I'm going to leave this one as is, which means it'll hyperlink to the next slide when the
user clicks it, basically starting the presentation.
Click OK to save and close the window.
To go back and edit the button, all you have to do is click the Action command.
Why don't we go to the Mouse Over tab this time, and add a sound that'll play as soon
as the user mouses over the button, before they even click it.
You can also customize the way the action button looks by going to the Format tab.
Remember, it's just a shape, so you can change everything from the color and style to the
shape itself.
You don't even have to use one of the predefined action buttons.
I have something else in mind for the rest of my presentation.
It involves this list of topics (sort of like a home page), and an action button that users
can click to come back here any time, no matter what slide they're on.
To add this special button to every slide, we're going to go to the View tab first, where
we can switch to Slide Master.
Now select the first one on the list, and continue to the Insert tab to follow the same
steps as before.
Why don't we use the Home button this time?
Instead of hyperlinking to the first slide, which is the title slide, I want to link to
the Topics slide.
Click OK, and go back to the Slide Master tab to Close the Master View...
Now our little action button to return Home appears on every slide.
Let's check it out in Slide Show View to see how it all comes together.
There's that drum roll, triggered when I mouse over the button.
It takes us to the next slide like it's supposed to... and the Home button appears to be working
too.
Adding Action Buttons to your slides is a fantastic way to make your presentation fun
and easy to navigate.