Let viewers navigate your documents with useful in-line hyperlinks

What You’ll Need:

>> iWork 09 or later
>> 30 Minutes

Difficulty: Easy

When you think about a Keynote project, you generally think "slideshow", but the software can be used for more than just a presentation. By adding hyperlinks to your document you can make the normally linear experience of clicking through slides a far more engaging process.

In this tutorial we’ll be taking a look at a unique way to use hyperlinks in your Keynote document to link between pages and provide navigation. We’ll also show you how you can add hyperlinks for email and web links to further enhance the experience for your viewer.

You can include hyperlinks in a PDF document using Keynote.

Creating a Keynote document in this manner has many benefits and uses. From creating an interactive story where the user decides which direction to take, to a company briefing document with links relevant to individuals, there are endless possibilities. The finished product is a far more engaging document that helps keep its viewers interested where they may normally miss information as they casually click from slide to slide. Creating a document this way enables them to head to the areas that interest them immediately.

You can also export your finished document as a PDF that retains all of the links you have included, so almost any user on any computer can access and interact with your project. Exporting as a PDF also means that the file can be made small enough to email or download instead of you having to spend time giving a presentation.

To begin, you will need a blank Keynote project. You can apply this technique to an existing project as well, but it’s often simpler to start from scratch in order to keep track of your links. If you want to use an existing project, try copying and pasting your slides in one at a time.

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How to Use Hyperlinks in Keynote

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  1. Start it Up

  Launch Keynote and pick a template for your slideshow. The first slide will be the launch pad that takes viewers to your other pages. Start by entering a name or topic to link to in a text box on your first slide, and position it where you want it to appear.

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  2. Slide in

  Now create the slide that you want the text box you just created to link to. This will appear next to your first slide, but you can rearrange the order as you add more slides if you wish. Now head back to your first slide and highlight the text you added in Step 1.

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  3. Enable the Link

  Click the Inspector button to show the Inspector pane if it’s not already visible, and click on the Hyperlinks tab (second from the right). Making sure your text is still highlighted, click on the Enable as hyperlink button to turn the text into a clickable link.

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  4. Destination Unknown

  You now have a number of options available to link to, but we want the hyperlink to move to the slide we just created. Select Slide from the drop-down menu, then check the Slide option from the list below. Add the number of the slide you just created in the text box.

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  5. Check it Out

  Once you’ve enabled the hyperlink, the text will be underlined to show it is a link. Now create similar text boxes and new slides for all the topics you want to add to your slideshow and link them in the same way, setting the hyperlink to point to the relevant slide number.

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  6. Alternate Links

  You can also create links to web pages and email addresses. This can be a handy way to add your contact details to a slideshow or reference a topic on one of your slides with a web link. Do this by selecting the corresponding option from the Inspector’s Hyperlinks tab.

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  7. Ready to Share

  When your slideshow is complete you can share it in a variety of ways. Head to the Share menu and select Export. The easiest way to share with your hyperlinks intact is as a PDF. Select the PDF tab then click Next to choose a save location for your document.

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  8. Test Run

  Your new PDF document will now be saved in the location you specified. Locate it in the Finder and then launch it with Preview, Adobe Reader or whichever PDF application you have handy. Now click each of the links in turn to make sure that they work correctly.

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  Quick Tip

  If you rearrange slides, Keynote updates the existing hyperlinks for you. For example, if you link to slide two but then move that slide to make it the fourth slide, Keynote will update the hyperlink to move to slide number four.

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