Link to Excel Cells and Ranges in PowerPoint 365 for Windows

Would you like to link an Excel file to your PowerPoint presentation? You can follow the steps in our Linking to Any File in PowerPoint tutorial. However, clicking on the link will open the Excel file at its last viewed state. For example, you would open with the last-accessed cell and sheet. However, what if you want to link to a specific cell or range of cells in Excel? This option, though possible, is not commonly documented.

To get started, ensure that both the Excel file you want to link to and the PowerPoint presentation you wish to link from are located within the same folder on your computer, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Excel and PowerPoint located within the same folder

We will look at how you can link to a particular cell or a named range in Excel.

1. Link to an Excel Cell
2. Link to a Named Range in Excel

1. Link to an Excel Cell

Follow these steps to link to a particular cell in Excel from within PowerPoint 365 for Windows:

1. Launch Excel and open the file you want to link to, as shown in Figure 2, below.
2. 
   Figure 2: Excel cell to link to
3. Make a note of the cell that you want to link to, with the following information:
1. Name of the sheet within the Excel file, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2. Do note that the sheet name should have no spaces. In our example, the original sheet name was Loan Schedule, so we renamed it to LoanSchedule. If you rather not change the sheet name to not have any spaces, you can use our second technique of linking to a named range instead.
2. Cell location within the Excel file, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 2. In our example, this cell location is D14. The actual cell is highlighted in green.
4. Save your Excel file and shut down Excel altogether.
2. Now, open your PowerPoint presentation and navigate to the slide where you want to add a link.
3. Select an anchor on any slide. An anchor is any slide object that you can select, as explained in our Anatomy of a Link tutorial. As you can see in Figure 3, below, we selected a basic rectangle shape, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3.
4. 
   Figure 3: Select your anchor
5. While we selected a shape, you can select any slide object as an anchor. Other suitable anchors are pictures, text boxes, SmartArt, charts, and tables.
4. With your shape selected, access the Insert tab of the Ribbon. Then, click the Link button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4, below.
5. 
   Figure 4: The Link button
6. You can also press the Ctrl + K keyboard shortcut instead of clicking the Link button.


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5. Doing so will bring up the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, as shown in Figure 5, below. Make sure you select the Existing File or Web Page option in the sidebar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 5.
6. 
   Figure 5: Link to an Excel cell
6. Next, choose the Current Folder option within the Look in area, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 5, above. Select the Excel file within the same folder. Then, within the Address area, suffix the file name with a # sign, and the column and row numbers of the cell you want to link to, as shown highlighted in orange within Figure 5. The format you will use is:
7. < FileName >#< SheetName >!$< ColumnNumber >$< RowNumber >
8. In our case, we used Amortization.xlsx#LoanSchedule!$D$14
7. Finally, click the OK button, as shown highlighted in green within Figure 5, previously on this page.
8. Now play the presentation in Slide Show view. Click the anchor to test the hyperlink. When Excel opens, your view will directly show the cell location you typed in previously. When you are done working with Excel, you can shut down the program and you will be immediately returned to your PowerPoint presentation at the slide where you clicked the anchor. You can now proceed with the remaining slides.

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2. Link to a Named Range in Excel

Now that we explored how you can create a link to a particular cell in Excel from PowerPoint, you may discover that this technique doesn’t work for you all the time. Perhaps you have spaces in your Sheet names, or you prefer not to link to an absolute cell reference. In either case, you can use this more efficient approach of linking to a named range in Excel from PowerPoint. This process does involve an extra step of creating a range to link to from within PowerPoint 365 for Windows:

1. Launch Excel and open the file you want to link to. Make sure you select one cell or even a range of contiguous cells area, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 6, below. Note that the top left cell within the range (or an individual cell) you selected is mentioned in the cell address area, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 6.
2. 
   Figure 6: Select a cell or a range of cells

What is a Range?

A range spans contiguous cells in Excel. The range address uses the syntax top-left cell:bottom-right cell, as in A1:D4. Such a range would encompass all cells from A1 until D4, including any empty cells, as shown in Figure 7, below. However, there’s no reason why your range cannot contain just one cell or even one chart!


Figure 7: A range in Excel
2. Now, with your cells selected, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 8, below, type a name for your range within the Name Box area, overwriting any existing cell address, as shown highlighted in green within Figure 8. Then, press the Enter key immediately. If you click anywhere else and not press the Enter key, your range name will not be saved. Remember this name. Save your Excel file. It’s also a good idea to shut down Excel altogether.
3. 
   Figure 8: Your named range

Range Naming Limitations

There are some limitations for a name you can provide for a range in Microsoft Excel. Here are some of them:

• You cannot use spaces in your range names.
• Range names need to start with either a letter, an underscore (_) or a back slash (\).
• Although you can use numbers in range names, you cannot start a range name with a number.
• If you need to separate words, you can use the underscore (_) but dashes are not permitted.
• You cannot use several special characters, such as /, ^.
• You cannot use names that appear like cell addresses, such as D15 or A2$33.
• Names for ranges are case insensitive. So, LETTER, Letter, and letter are treated the same.

Forgotten the Range Name?

So, what if you want to link to a named range that already exists within your Excel sheet, but you can no longer remember the name or location of the range? Follow these steps to resolve this issue:

1. Within Excel, access the Formulas tab of the Ribbon and click on the Name Manager command as shown highlighted in red within Figure 9, below.
2. 
   Figure 9: Access the Name Manager
3. Alternatively, you can also use the Ctrl + F3 keyboard shortcut in Excel.
2. Doing so brings up the Name Manager window, shown in Figure 10, below.
3. 
   Figure 10: Name Manager in Excel
3. You can see a list of named ranges here. To find the location of a range, select the range in Name Manager and you will see the location as shown highlighted in red within Figure 10, above. To go to the exact range, click the Up Arrow button, highlighted in blue within Figure 10. To get back to the Name Manager window, hit the Enter key without making any changes.
3. Now, open your PowerPoint presentation and navigate to the slide where you want to add a link.
4. Select an anchor on your PowerPoint slide. An anchor is any slide object that you can select, as explained in our Anatomy of a Link tutorial. As you can see in Figure 3, shown previously on this page, we selected a basic rectangle shape.
5. With your shape still selected, you can now access the Insert tab of the Ribbon. Here, click the Link button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4, previously on this page. Alternatively, press the Ctrl + K keyboard shortcut.
6. This action will bring up the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, as shown in Figure 9, below. Make sure you select the Existing File or Web Page option in the sidebar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 9.
7. 
   Figure 11: Link to an Excel range
7. Next, choose the Current Folder option within the Look in area, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 11, above. Select the Excel file within the same folder that already has a named range added. Then, within the Address area, suffix the file name with a # sign, and the name of the Range that you want to link to, as shown highlighted in orange within Figure 11. The format you will use is:
8. < FileName >#< RangeName >
9. Finally, click the OK button, as shown highlighted in green within Figure 9, previously on this page.
8. To play the presentation, switch to Slide Show view. Test the hyperlink by clicking on the anchor. It's worth noting that you can link to multiple ranges within the same Excel file. For example, one anchor in your PowerPoint may link to a range on Sheet 1 of your Excel file, while another anchor could link to a different range on the same sheet or any other worksheet, range, or cell.

So, as you learned, you can link to an Excel cell or a named range. Choose the option that works best for you.

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