Create a New File with a Hyperlink in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

We’ve learnt about how hyperlinks let you do excellent stuff such as linking between slides or even linking to files outside PowerPoint. However, did you know that you can create a hyperlink that links to a file that does not even exist! Click that hyperlink, and a new file gets instantly created. If you are intrigued by how something so strange can happen, read further.

Follow these steps:

1. Open a presentation with a few slides. Since we will be making changes to your slides, make sure you work with a presentation you no longer need. Or even better, you can create and use a duplicated copy of your presentation. Now select an anchor on any slide. An “anchor” is any slide object that you can select, as explained in our Anatomy of a Link tutorial. As you can see in Figure 1, we selected a basic Rectangle Shape.
   
   
   Figure 1: Select your anchor
2. With your shape selected, access the Insert tab of the Ribbon. Then click the Hyperlink button as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, below.
   
   
   Figure 2: The Hyperlink button
3. You can also press the Ctrl + K keyboard shortcut instead of clicking the Hyperlink button. Want more keyboard shortcuts? Get a copy of our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts and Sequences e-book.
   
   This will bring up the Insert Hyperlink dialog box that you can see in Figure 3. Make sure you select the Create New Document option in the sidebar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3.
   
   
   Figure 3: Link to another presentation
   
4. Next, type in a new name for your document in the box highlighted in blue within Figure 3, above. Do note that you will type in a name here, and a document of the same name will be created within the same folder as the open presentation. This folder path is mentioned in the area highlighted in green within Figure 3. You can change the path by clicking the Change button located next to the green highlighted area.
5. By default, any document name that you type within the Name box (highlighted in blue within Figure 4, below) will be suffixed by the PPTX file extension (in the path location you choose). In other words, you are creating a new PowerPoint presentation.
   
   
   Figure 4: Provide a name for the new document
   
   Do note also that the When to edit area, highlighted in red within Figure 4 has two options:
   
   Edit the new document later will create the new document, and only open it when you click the hyperlink.
   Edit the new document now will create the new document right-away. It will also open the new document now.
   
   

   Create Non-PowerPoint Files

   What if you want to create a non-PowerPoint file with the hyperlink? That’s easy – just type in the file extension of the document you want to create within the Name box. For example, you could type “Banana Pie Recipe.xlsx” without the quotes to create an Excel file of that name.