Anything that you can select within a PowerPoint slide can serve as an anchor. While all slide objects can function as anchors, text does have some characteristics that make it work as a “visible” anchor. Unlike other anchors, hyperlinked text in PowerPoint is underlined automatically – and thus visible as an anchor. We will explore the different aspects of text anchors in PowerPoint 2013 within this tutorial.
Follow these steps to learn more:
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Create a new presentation, or open an existing one. Again, you can use an existing slide or create a new one. Whatever you do, do work on a presentation that’s not important. If you are working on an important presentation, save the file with a new name and then proceed further.
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Add a text box, or type in some text within your Title or Text placeholders, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Type some text
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Select some text, or all of the text you typed. Now 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
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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. Link to whatever you want – you can create hyperlinks to within the presentation, outside the presentation, and to web pages. Then, click the OK button, highlighted in blue within Figure 3.
Figure 3: Link as you like
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You will now see that the text you selected has been underlined, as shown in Figure 4, below.
Figure 4: Underlined text may denote a link
Text Links Without Visible Hyperlink
If you want to add a hyperlink to text, and not show it as underlined, you have two options:
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You can select the text box, and add a hyperlink to the whole text box rather than just some selected text. To do that, click on the edge of the text box, and then add the hyperlink. However, be aware that this approach will add the hyperlink to the entire text box.
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If you want to add a hyperlink to just some text, and also don’t want it show as a hyperlink, you will have to add a transparent hyperlink overlay above your text. This is explained in our Transparent Hyperlinks in PowerPoint 2013 tutorial.