Create a fake screentip (text that appears when you mouse over a shape)

Problem

You'd like to have some sort of helpful text appear when a user mouses over a shape in your presentation.

Solution

PowerPoint has no direct way of doing this.

Using VBA would be one way to accomplish the goal, but what if the presentation cannot contain VBA (ie, if you're going to show it in the free Viewer or distribute it to users whose security settings may not permit VBA to run)?

There's another way that requires a bit more work but no VBA at all. Just a nod of thanks to Bill Dilworth, who showed me this trick.

• Start with the slide where you want your "pseudo-screentip" to appear.
• Make a duplicate of the slide and add it to the end of your presentation. Note the slide number.
• Go back to the original slide, select the shape you want to add the tip to and add a Mouse Over Action Setting of Hyperlink to: Slide (the slide you just added as a duplicate)
• Now go to the duplicate slide.
• Add another shape where you want the tip to appear and add any text you like to it.
• Add another shape of the same type but slightly larger than the "tip" shape.
• Give this shape a Mouse Over Action Setting of Hyperlink to: Previously Viewed Slide.
• Finally, use the Order command to send this shape backward so that it's immediately behind your "tip" shape.

Now here's what'll happen during a slide show when the user moves the mouse over the "magic" shape on the first slide you worked with:

• The Mouse Over action takes them to the duplicate slide that also has a tip shape on it. To the user, it seems that the tip shape has simply appeared over the original slide. If you don't tell them the truth, neither will I. It'll be our little secret.
• When they move the mouse OFF the tip shape on the duplicate slide, they'll move it ONTO the invisible shape briefly. The invisible shape's Mouse Over Action Setting returns them to the slide they just came from ... your original. And again, it looks to them like there was no slide change ... the tip just disappeared.

Have a look at this example file. It's a highly simplified example that contains the bare miniumum needed to demonstrate the effect.

You'll certainly want to expand on it a bit. You might want to make the "tip" slide (or slides ... there's no reason you can't have lots of them) hidden so users don't accidentally navigate there during a show.

You could even add another slide just before the hidden slide or slides. Make it as simple as you like but add a shape that covers the entire slide and give it an End Show Mouse Over action. As soon as the user reaches this slide and moves their mouse, the show ends before they can possibly get to the hidden "tip" slide(s).

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