In this tutorial I will go through how you can link a Pivot Table in Excel to a PowerPoint presentation. I suggest you read a post I did earlier which is a good 101 on linking between Excel and PowerPoint.

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Step 1 - Setup and format your PivotTable

The number one rule when it comes to linking is to make sure you do all your formatting (sizing, colours, font size etc.) before you link. If you don’t, you will have problems with sizing your objects in PowerPoint and the object will end up stretched and distorted.

So I have built my Pivot Table - formatted and sized it appropriately. The first step is to highlight the area which my Pivot Table encompasses, this can be done by selecting any cell within the Pivot Table and pressing CTRL+A (Select All). Once you have selected these cells press CTRL+C (Copy), you have just copied your Pivot Table.

Step 1 - Format and Copy your Worksheet

Step 2 - Let the linking begin!

Switch to your PowerPoint presentation and click Edit > Paste Special… option to open up the Paste Special dialog box.

Step 2 - Paste Special As...

In the Paste Special dialog box you will need to first click the Paste Link radio button, from there you will have two options to paste as:

  • Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet Object
  • Attach Hyperlink

Step 3 - Paste Link Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object

Linking as a Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet Object

If you choose to Paste Link As Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet Object, select that option (seen above) and click the OK button. Your Pivot Table should now be linked to your PowerPoint presentation.

Step 4 - Complete

Any changes you make to your Pivot Table will now flow to your PowerPoint presentation.

A flaw of this method is that if you change the size of the Pivot Table in Excel (more columns, rows, page fields) it will not increase or decrease the size of the linked object in your PowerPoint presentation, the linked object will always stay the same size.

Linking as a Hyperlink

If you choose to Paste Link As Attach Hyperlink, a hyperlink will be created, when clicked, this will open up the Excel worksheet which contains the Pivot Table.

As you can see in the screen shot below the first cell of the area I copied in Excel has now become the title of the hyperlink.

Step 5 - Setting up a Hyperlink

If you want to change what the hyperlink looks like, right click on it and choose the Edit Hyperlink… option.

Step 6 - Hyperlink Menu

This will open up the Edit Hyperlink dialog box.

Step 6 - Edit Hyperlink Menu

From this dialog box you can change a number of options:

  • Text to display : Change what the text of your hyperlink is (i.e Click here to open up the Pivot Table)
  • ScreenTip… : This will let you edit the pop up box that appears when you hover over the link
  • Address : The document’s location which the hyperlink is linked to

I decided to change the Text to display and ScreenTip… options, now my hyperlink looks like this:

Hyperlink Changed

To see the full effect of hyperlinks please view the PowerPoint presentation in full screen or presentation mode (SHIFT+F5).

There you go!

Make sure you read my post on the basics of linking between Excel and PowerPoint as there is an overview on how to update the links we just added.

If you have any questions or problems please comment!

Enjoy!