Menu:

Links:

Use these links to navigate the FAQ:

Next:
Buy FixLinks! Where and how much?

Previous:
What does the free FixLinks demo do?

All about FixLinks index page

Updated
7/25/2016

Microsoft MVP Logo

How to use FixLinks -- the basics

Using FixLinks
To run FixLinks, you'll use either the FixLinks toolbar:

the FixLinks toolbar

or the PPTools item on the main PowerPoint menu bar:

the PPTools, FixLinks menu

To begin with, copy your presentation to a "staging folder" (this is the folder you'll eventually burn to CD or send to another PowerPoint user, etc.)

Click the first button on the FixLinks toolbar or choose PPTools, RnR_FixLinks, FixLinks from the menu bar. This dialog box appears:

the Handle OLE Links dialog box

OLE links are links to Excel, Word and other application data that you've copy/pasted into PowerPoint using the Paste Special, Links option. PowerPoint treats these differently from ordinary links to images, sounds and movies, so FixLinks needs to know how you want it to handle the OLE links. Your options are:

Why doesn't FixLiknks just fix OLE links like it fixes other types of links?
It can't. Windows won't allow it.

Windows insists that OLE links include the full path to the linked file, so FixLinks can't create a "pathless" link to the file.

Luckily, PowerPoint generally looks in the folder with the PowerPoint presentation for OLE linked files if it can't find them where they're supposed to be, so in most cases the Repair option will work. Or you can click Ignore and then manually copy the needed linked files into the staging folder.

In any case, when you click any option but Cancel, FixLinks goes to work.

What does FixLinks do?

If it can't find a linked file where it's supposed to be, it asks you to locate the file using a standard Windows file dialog box. You browse to the file and select it, FixLinks copies it to the staging folder and resets the links.

Once it's done, FixLinks shows you a report listing the links it found and tells you whether it was able to repair the link or not.

[Previous] [Home] [Next]