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What is a link template?
A link template is a set of links that are created and defined by you. Link templates can be assigned across multiple slides in your presentation. They help to maintain link consistency with recurring links in your presentation, for example, a brand logo, or a menu that appears throughout your presentation. More importantly though, they save you a lot of time when creating links. Any type of link can be included in a link template, for example a normal link, a web link or a back link.
Good to know!
You can add multiple link templates to a slide easily and quickly, jump to this section of the article to find out more.
You can use a link template instead of creating links one by one, and assign it to several slides. This way a link or a set of links will be added to each slide you select with the same destination and position.
Link template types
You assign a link template to slides, which may include multiple states. Setting the link template type, you control how the link template is applied:
ALL: apply the link template to all multi states of the slide
FIRST: only apply the link template to first state (main state)
ALL EXCEPT FIRST: apply to all slides except the first state (main state), useful for pop-ups or references
You can control this per assigned slide. Check out this part of the article for more information.
How to create a link template?
Create a new template
Go to a presentation, and click the green edit pen icon on one of the slides where you want to create the link template. Click the “Link templates” icon above the presentation canvas and select the option to “Create new template”.
You will be asked to enter a name for your link template. We recommend you give a brief descriptive name such as Menu 1, or main menu, top menu, button menu, etc. This will help you when working with multiple link templates and when you are assigning the link templates to your slides. Once you have entered a name for the link template, click “Save”.
A gold banner will appear on the screen, this notifies you that you are editing links from inside a link template. From here, links can be added, edited and removed from your link template.
Add links to the template
To add a link that navigates to another slide in the same presentation, open the slide where you want to add the link. Then go to “Add” and select “Link”.
1. Draw a clickable area around a text or an image
Click on the point on the slide where you want to add your link. Whilst continuing to click your mouse button, draw the clickable area of the link over your chosen text, image or other call to action. Once you are happy with the link, you can release your mouse button.
2. Set up the destination slide
Now we need to decide the destination of this link. Move your cursor into the link area and press the “Edit” (green pencil) icon in the left upper corner. Now you can select the destination slide from the overview of slides in your presentation.
Once you have selected the slide, you will notice the small warning triangle in the link box disappears. This means you have successfully created a link. For more details on how to create links, you can take a look at this article here.
You should repeat this process until you have added all the links needed in your link template.
3. Save the template when done
Once you have finished, click done from the gold link template banner at the top of your screen.
Good to know!
If you have existing links on the slide you are working on (for example, a standard link, web link, back link or email link), you can create a link template on the same slide without the existing links being converted into the link template.
The links will remain in grey with a padlock in the corner while you work on the link template. The padlock icon means that the existing links on your slide will be temporarily "locked", meaning that they can not be edited. Once you have finished working on the link template, and clicked "Done", the links will revert back to their standard green colour, and will be editable once again.
Assigning your link template to slides
Assigning a link template slide by slide
It is now possible to assign link templates to your slides whilst in the slide view. Simply click the "Link templates" icon at the top of the slide.
You will then see the link template menu appear on the right hand side of your screen.
From here, you can simply click the small box next to the link template you wish to select. As you click the box to the corresponding link template, you will see the link template appear on your slide.
Once you have finished selecting the link templates to be added, click the "Done” in the top right corner of the link template menu.
To unassign a link template from the slide view, you can just untick the box in the link template menu.
Good to know!
Next to each link template in the link template menu, there are three small dots in the "Action" section. By clicking here you can access the options:
Rename: Click here to change the name of the link template
Assign to states: If you are working in a multistate group, you can choose to assign the slides to:
All
Exclude first multistate
First multistate
Edit interaction: Click here to update any links created in the link template
Delete: Click here if you wish to delete a link template
Mass assign: Click here to assign the link template across multiple slides.
Mass assign a link template
After clicking the three small dots in the "Action" section next to the link template you wish to assign, select the option "Mass assign".
You will be directed to a page “Assign link template” where you will view all the slides in your presentation. You can assign the link template selected by clicking the thumbnail of a slide to select it.
Good to know!
You can now select to add a link template to a multistate group with one of the following options:
All: apply to all states
First: apply to first (main state)
All except first: apply to all slides except the first (main state), useful for pop-ups or references
If you are not working with multi state slides, you can simply leave the "All" option enabled.
You can assign the link template to all slides in a chapter by hovering over the space at the top of chapter to reveal the same three options “All”, “First” or “Ex First”. Simply click to assign this type of link template to all slides in a chapter.
Once you have selected all the necessary slides, click “Done”.
If you go back to your presentation, you will see that all the slides you selected to have the link template assigned will now show the link template links.
Top tip!
You can even test that the links are working in "preview" mode.
Editing a link template
Next to each link template in the link template menu, there are three small dots in the "Action" section. By clicking here you can access the options to configure the settings of your link template. To edit the links in a link template, select “Edit interaction”.
Simply click this option to begin editing the links within a link template.
A gold banner with “Edit link template: the name of the link template” will appear on your screen. The interactions on the slide can be edited as before (by clicking the green edit button, or deleting and recreating any of the links or interaction elements).
When you have finished editing the link template, click “Done” to return to the presentation.
Deleting a link template
Next to each link template in the link template menu, there are three small dots in the "Action" section. By clicking here you can access the options to configure the settings of your link template. To delete the links in a link template, select “Delete”.
Top tip!
Once you have deleted a template, you can not undo this action. If you are not sure whether you will need the link template, you can un-assign it from all the slides, rather than deleting it.