This article shows you how to convert PowerPoint presentations to PDF or save PPT as PDF while preserving the hyperlinks, as well as the original formatting.
When saving a PowerPoint presentation as a PDF, hyperlinks may sometimes stop working due to an incorrect exporting method.
On this page, you’ll learn how to effectively convert PPT to PDF with hyperlinks still working (like this one).
PDFgear is a free and powerful PPT to PDF converter that allows you to convert PowerPoint presentations into PDF files online for free.
With it, you can convert PPT to PDF with a simple click, with hyperlinks intact, and without formatting issues.
PDFgear is free to use, there’s no watermark, and there’s no signup.
Step 1. Go to the PDFgear PPT to PDF online converter. Click Select PPT File to open the .ppt or .pptx file you need to convert.
Step 2. Wait a few seconds for the conversion to be done.
Step 3. Click the Download File button to get the PDF with hyperlinks.
Step 4. As you can see, the hyperlink in the output PDF is working without a click.

PDF Link Working
Microsoft PowerPoint has an inbuilt option to export your presentations in .pdf format.
However, if you do that incorrectly, the hyperlinks will become non-interactive.
Learn how to save PPT presentations as PDF with hyperlinks intact.
Step 1. Open a slide with PowerPoint, go to the File menu, and select Save As.

Save as
Step 2. Click Browse in Other Locations.

Click Browse
Step 2. Click This PC, choose a location to save the file, choose PDF from the Save as type list, name the PDF file, then check the Minimum Size(publishing online) box, and click Save.

Minimum Size
When saving a presentation as a PDF file, certain hyperlinks and notes may be lost. To prevent this issue, you can use PDFgear to convert PPT to PDF while preserving the hyperlinks.
Compatible with Windows and Mac, PDFgear is a full toolkit for all your PDF conversion needs. It seamlessly supports converting between PDFs and other formats, including converting PDF to images, Word to PDF, and PPT to PDF without changing fonts.
Additionally, PDFgear offers various editing tools allowing you to edit text in a PDF, add comments to a PDF, add links to a PDF, and more.
Using PDFgear to turn PPT into a .pdf file while maintaining the hyperlinks is straightforward, and both links in text and images will be preserved.
Get PDFgear on your Windows or Mac, and install and run the converter. Navigate to the PPT to PDF tool.

Run PDFgear on Your Computer
Hit Add Files, select a presentation with hyperlinks, and hit Convert. No extra action needs to be taken, the hyperlinks in the text and pictures can be automatically exported in PDFgear.

Convert PPT to PDF with Hyperlinks in PDFgear
After the conversion, you can open the PDF with PDFgear, click on the text or image with the link, and a confirmation window will appear, click Yes and you can access the content of the hyperlink.

Check the Hyperlinks in the PDF
Similar to PowerPoint, Google Slides provides a convenient way to download a slide as a .pdf document with great ease.
If you have registered a Google Drive, follow the steps below to easily alter slides to PDFs.
Step 1. Go to your Google Drive, click New, and upload a slide with hyperlinks to open it with Google Slides.
Step 2. Move to the File button, choose Download, and select PDF Document(.pdf). The program will automatically download the file in PDF format while maintaining hyperlinks in the PPT.

Download a Slide as a PDF with Links in Google Slides
If you use “Print to PDF” instead of “Save As PDF,” hyperlinks may not be preserved. The “Print to PDF” method treats the document as a static image, removing interactive elements like hyperlinks.
Hyperlinks in PowerPoint must be properly formatted (e.g., inserted using the hyperlink tool). If they are just text that looks like a hyperlink (e.g., blue underlined text), they won’t function as links when exported.
If hyperlinks are applied to shapes or text boxes instead of text, they may not work properly in the PDF.
Hyperlinks added to complex objects (e.g., grouped shapes, SmartArt, or images) sometimes fail in the PDF. Try hyperlinking text boxes or simple shapes instead. Avoid grouping multiple items with a single link.
Some PDF converters do not support changing PPT to PDF with hyperlinks preserved. To address this issue, you may try PDFgear software. It allows for easy conversion from slides to PDF while keeping the hyperlinks intact.
Creating an interactive PDF from a PPT means saving the .pptx file as a PDF with hyperlinks working in PDF. You can use any mentioned solution in this article to address the issue.
If you haven’t installed PowerPoint, PDFgear is the ideal choice. It’s free to use and allows for bulk conversion of PPT to PDF. The online PPT to PDF tool also allows you to save PPT as PDF without email sign-up.