Make links and action settings visible

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Problem

If you apply action settings or hyperlinks to text, PowerPoint reformats the text so it's obvious that the text is a link.
If you apply action settings or hyperlinks to text boxes or other shapes, there's no visible "cue" that there's a link (other than the hand cursor and tooltip when you move the cursor over the linked shape).

Solution

Run this macro on your presentation to give all shapes with action settings/hyperlinks an outline (edit the code to change the outline color and weight to suit your own requirements)

Sub OutlineLinks()

    Dim oSh As Shape
    Dim oSl As Slide

    For Each oSl In ActivePresentation.Slides
        For Each oSh In oSl.Shapes
            If oSh.ActionSettings(ppMouseClick).Action <> ppActionNone Then
                ' Change this to get different colors:
                ' eg RGB(0,255,0) would be green
                oSh.Line.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(255, 0, 0)
                ' Change this to get different line weights
                oSh.Line.Weight = 2
            End If
            If oSh.ActionSettings(ppMouseOver).Action <> ppActionNone Then
                ' Change this to get different colors:
                ' eg RGB(0,255,0) would be green
                oSh.Line.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(255, 0, 0)
                ' Change this to get different line weights
                oSh.Line.Weight = 2
            End If
        Next oSh
    Next oSl

End Sub

See How do I use VBA code in PowerPoint? to learn how to use this example code.

Search terms:visible,link,hyperlink,action,setting

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