How to Style Hyperlinks So They Don’t Stand Out

Reading Time: 2 minutes
| Author: Tom Becker

Hyperlinks are great for sourcing online material and videos during a presentation. The downside is, they can be a bit of an eyesore. The blue underlined font tends to stand out and can ruin the overall aesthetic of your slides.

Fortunately, there are a couple of ways to create subtle hyperlinks that don’t interfere with your presentation’s design.


Method #1: Hyperlink a Text Box

  • Enter the text you want to use as a link into a text box.
  • Click on the border of the text box. Make sure you aren’t selecting the text, but the entire box.
  • Press Ctrl + K to open the hyperlink menu.
  • The text formatting won’t change because the text box is linked and not the text.
  • Another advantage is that a text box is easy to click.

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Method #2: Use Invisible Surfaces

  • This is the method to use if your linked text is part of a longer text passage.
  • Draw a rectangle over the text you want to hyperlink.
  • Make the rectangle invisible by choosing white as the fill and outline color, and selecting 100% transparency.
  • Now add your hyperlink to the rectangle.

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To make sure you don’t forget where the link is and to give it some visual impact, choose between either a bold or italic font. This makes the link visible, but not distracting.

Customize the Hyperlink Address Display

You can create a custom text to replace the hyperlink address which will appear every time you move your mouse cursor over the hyperlink. To do this, click ScreenTip in the hyperlink menu.


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In the Set Hyperlink ScreenTip box, enter your text. Now your specified text will appear every time you move your mouse over the hyperlink.

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