How to Disable ScreenTips in PowerPoint 2013

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ScreenTips are small text boxes that appear when you hover over certain elements in PowerPoint, providing extra information about that item. While ScreenTips can be helpful for some users, others may find them distracting or unnecessary. Fortunately, PowerPoint 2013 allows you to easily disable ScreenTips if you prefer not to see them.

What are ScreenTips?

Specifically, ScreenTips in PowerPoint 2013 display when you hover over:

  • Commands on the ribbon
  • Buttons and icons on the Quick Access Toolbar
  • Hyperlinks
  • Shapes and other objects inserted onto slides

The ScreenTips show the name of the command or object, and often also display:

  • A description of what the item does
  • The keyboard shortcut, if one is assigned
  • Additional tips and guidance

For example, hovering over the Bold button on the Home tab may display a ScreenTip showing the text “Bold (Ctrl+B) – Make selected text bold. Or hovering over a hyperlink may show the path it links to.

Why Disable ScreenTips?

For new PowerPoint users, ScreenTips can provide very helpful extra context about what commands do. However, for more experienced users who already know their way around PowerPoint, ScreenTips may feel unnecessary or distracting.

You may want to disable ScreenTips if:

  • You find them visually distracting
  • You already know what most tools and commands do
  • You want a cleaner look with less popping up on screen

How to Turn Off ScreenTips

PowerPoint 2013 makes it easy to toggle ScreenTips on or off. Just follow these simple steps:

  1. Click the File tab
  2. Click Options
  3. Click General on the left side
  4. Under User Interface Options, locate the ScreenTip style dropdown menu
  5. Click the dropdown and select Don’t show ScreenTips ScreenTip settings
  6. Click OK to save the changes

That’s all there is to it! Now when you hover over items in PowerPoint 2013, you will no longer see those ScreenTips popping up.

Tip: You can set ScreenTip preferences per user account on a PC. So if others use the same PowerPoint install, your ScreenTip settings won’t affect what they see.

Alternative Options

The ScreenTip style menu actually has a few different options to choose from:

  • Show feature descriptions in ScreenTips – Default setting. Shows enhanced ScreenTips.
  • Don’t show feature descriptions in ScreenTips – Shows basic ScreenTips.
  • Don’t show ScreenTips – Disables ScreenTips entirely.

So if you find the full descriptive ScreenTips distracting, you can select the middle option to show simpler, more subtle ScreenTips instead of disabling them completely.

Customize ScreenTips for Hyperlinks

While the above steps disable ScreenTips globally, you can also customize ScreenTips for individual hyperlinks in PowerPoint 2013.

To change the ScreenTip text shown when hovering over a hyperlink:

  1. Right-click the hyperlinked object
  2. Select Edit Hyperlink
  3. Click ScreenTip button
  4. Type your custom ScreenTip text
  5. Click OK

This will override the default path ScreenTip for that particular link.

Use this to display friendly hover-over text for your audience, like “Click here for recipe” instead of the full hyperlink path.

Disable ScreenTips via VBA Code

PowerPoint 2013 has a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) editor where you can run macro code to control features. This gives you another option for toggling ScreenTips.

To disable ScreenTips using VBA:

  1. Press Alt + F11 to open the VBA editor
  2. Insert this code into a module:
Sub DisableScreenTips()
    Application.CommandBars.GetEnabledMso("CellHelp") = False
End Sub
  1. Run the macro using F5 or the Play button

Now ScreenTips will be disabled until you toggle the command bar back to enabled or restart PowerPoint.

Are There Downsides?

For most users, disabling ScreenTips in PowerPoint 2013 won’t cause any issues. They are intended as optional helper text rather than critical functionality.

However, keep in mind:

  • First-time users may rely on ScreenTips to learn what commands do
  • Disabling ScreenTips removes ALL hover-over text – you can’t pick and choose
  • If you distribute slides to others, custom link ScreenTips become more important

As long as you are comfortable with the tools in PowerPoint 2013 already, disabling ScreenTips is generally safe and easy to reverse if needed.

Customize Your PowerPoint Experience

Along with ScreenTips, PowerPoint 2013 gives you many display options to control:

  • Ruler – Show/hide slide rulers
  • Gridlines – Toggle grid for positioning objects
  • Zoom – Magnification level for editing slides
  • Color scheme – Dark mode, high contrast, etc.

Take some time to explore the View and Zoom groups on the ribbon to customize your ideal editing interface.

Combined with disabling distracting ScreenTips, you can optimize PowerPoint’s look and feel to match your personal preferences.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are answers to some common questions about disabling ScreenTips in PowerPoint 2013:

Can I disable ScreenTips for just certain elements?

Unfortunately, no. The ScreenTip toggle effects all ScreenTips globally. There is no way to disable them for only certain commands or features.

What version of PowerPoint introduced the ScreenTip feature?

ScreenTips have been included in PowerPoint since the 2007 version. The feature remains in all later editions including PowerPoint 2013.

Is there a keyboard shortcut to toggle ScreenTips?

There is no single keyboard shortcut for the ScreenTip setting. You need to access the setting through the File > Options menu.

What about disabling ScreenTips in other Office programs?

The method is similar. Open the Options menu, look in General settings, and toggle the ScreenTip style off. This applies to disabling ScreenTips in Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.

Can I remove the ScreenTips from PowerPoint masters or templates?

Unfortunately the ScreenTip setting only applies to the current open presentation file. To disable them in a template, you would need to create a presentation using that template, turn off ScreenTips, then re-save the template.

Conclusion

While ScreenTips can be helpful for some, others may find them distracting or unnecessary visual clutter in PowerPoint presentations.

Luckily, PowerPoint 2013 makes it very simple to toggle ScreenTips on or off:

  1. Open File > Options > General
  2. Change ScreenTip style to Don’t show ScreenTips
  3. Click OK

This one setting will disable hover-over helper text globally, leaving just a clean, focused interface to work with.

Take a moment to explore other view and display options as well. Combined with disabling ScreenTips, you can fully optimize the PowerPoint editing and authoring environment to best suit your personal needs and preferences.

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