Transparent Hyperlinks in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

Why would you add a hyperlink to any slide object within PowerPoint? There may be many answers to that question, but if we had to choose one answer that would be true all the time, it would be to add value to your slides and enhance their capabilities. However, these hyperlinks are two-edged swords because when you create a hyperlink, you may be telling your audience that it is a link! Look at Figure 1, where the underlined text clearly represents a hyperlink.

Figure 1: A conspicuous hyperlink

The purpose of this tutorial is to make this link transparent, as in “invisible”. However, it should still be a link!

Follow these steps to create transparent links in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows:

1. First of all, insert a rectangle shape that covers the text you want to use as a hyperlink, as shown in Figure 2, below.
2. 
   Figure 2: A rectangle shape covers text to be hyperlinked
2. Now add a hyperlink to this rectangle shape. You can create hyperlinks to within the presentation, outside the presentation, and to web pages. Test your link in Slide Show view.
3. We now need to make the rectangle invisible while still making the link work. To do so, right click the shape and choose the Format Shape option from the resultant contextual menu, as shown in Figure 3, below.
4. 
   Figure 3: Format Shape
4. Doing so will open the Format Shape Task pane, as shown in Figure 4, below. You essentially need to change your fill to 99% transparent and your line to invisible. To do so, make sure you select the Solid fill radio button, as shown highlighted in red, set its Transparency to 99%, as shown highlighted in blue, and choose the No line radio button, as shown highlighted in green.
5. 
   Figure 4: Change fill and line attributes
5. Your text will also now be visible behind the transparent rectangle, as shown in Figure 4, above. Test your link in Slide Show view.

To learn more about Transparency, No Fill, and No Outline attributes, you can refer to these tutorials:
Transparency for Shape Fills in PowerPoint 2013
No Fill for Shapes in PowerPoint 2013
No Outline for Shapes in PowerPoint 2013