Create and Format Links

In a presentation, you can create an internal link, from one slide to another slide, or an external link to a location outside of the presentation.

Create an Internal Link

To create a link from one slide to another slide, append an object of the mlreportgen.ppt.InternalLink class to a paragraph in the source slide. Use the InternalLink object properties to specify the target slide and the link text. You can specify the target slide by using the target slide name or index.

Link to Slide Using the Target Slide Name

This example links to a slide using an mlreportgen.ppt.InternalLink object that specifies the target slide name.

Create the presentation.

import mlreportgen.ppt.*
ppt = Presentation("myPresentation1.pptx");
open(ppt);

Add a slide to the presentation.

slide1 = add(ppt,"Title and Content");

Choose a name to identify the target slide.

targetSlideName = "myTargetSlide";

Create a paragraph. Create an InternalLink object that specifies the target slide by name and append it to the paragraph.

p = Paragraph("This is a link to the slide with the name ");
linkObj = InternalLink(targetSlideName,targetSlideName);
append(p,linkObj);

Add the title and content to the slide.

replace(slide1,"Title","First slide");
replace(slide1,"Content",p);

Add a second slide to the presentation.

slide2 = add(ppt,"Title and Content");
replace(slide2,"Title","Second slide");

Add the target slide to the presentation. Set the Name property of the slide to the name specified in the InternalLink object.

slide3 = add(ppt,"Title and Content");
slide3.Name = targetSlideName;
replace(slide3,"Title","Third slide");
content = strcat("This is the target slide with the name ",targetSlideName);
replace(slide3,"Content",content);

Close and view the presentation.

close(ppt);
rptview(ppt);

Here are the generated slides:

Link to a Slide Using the Target Slide Index

This example links to a slide using an mlreportgen.ppt.InternalLink object that specifies the target slide number.

Create the presentation.

import mlreportgen.ppt.*
ppt = Presentation("myPresentation2.pptx");
open(ppt);

Add a slide to the presentation.

slide1 = add(ppt,"Title and Content");

Create a paragraph. Create an InternalLink object that specifies the target slide by its index and append the object to the paragraph.

p = Paragraph("This is a link to ");
link = InternalLink(3,"slide 3");
append(p,link);

Add the title and content to the slide.

replace(slide1,"Title","First slide");
replace(slide1,"Content",p);

Add a slide 2 to the presentation.

slide2 = add(ppt,"Title and Content");
replace(slide2,"Title","Second slide");

Add the target slide, slide 3, to the presentation.

slide3 = add(ppt,"Title and Content");
replace(slide3,"Title","Third slide");
replace(slide3,"Content","This is the target slide");

Close and view the presentation.

close(ppt);
rptview(ppt);

Here are the generated slides:

Create an External Link

To create a link to a location outside of a presentation, append an object of the mlreportgen.ppt.ExternalLink class to a paragraph in a slide. Use the ExternalLink object properties to specify the link text, and the full URL of the link target.

Link from a Slide to a Website

This example uses an mlreportgen.ppt.ExternalLink object to link from a slide to a website.

import mlreportgen.ppt.*

ppt = Presentation("myPresentation3.pptx");
open(ppt);

add(ppt,"Title and Content");

p = Paragraph("This is a link to the ");
link = ExternalLink("https://www.mathworks.com","MathWorks site");

append(p,link);
replace(ppt,"Content",p);

close(ppt);
rptview(ppt);

Here is the generated slide:

Format an Internal or External Link

You can customize the appearance of the link text by using the format properties of an mlreportgen.ppt.InternalLink or mlreportgen.ppt.ExternalLink object or by adding format objects to the Style property of an InternalLink or ExternalLink object. See mlreportgen.ppt.InternalLink and mlreportgen.ppt.ExternalLink for the properties that specify the link text appearance.

Customize the Appearance of the Link Text

This example specifies italic link text for a link from a slide to a website.

import mlreportgen.ppt.*
ppt = Presentation("myPresentation4.pptx");
open(ppt);
add(ppt,"Title and Content");
p = Paragraph("This is a link to the ");
link = ExternalLink("https://www.mathworks.com","MathWorks site");
link.Italic = true;
append(p,link);
replace(ppt,"Content",p);
close(ppt);
rptview(ppt);

Here is the generated slide: