Create and Manage Slides in Microsoft PowerPoint 2016

Divide presentations into sections

To make it easier to organize and format a longer presentation, you can divide it into sections. In both Normal view and Slide Sorter view, sections are designated by titles above their slides. They do not appear in other views, and they do not create slides or otherwise interrupt the flow of the presentation.

Click to view larger image

You can rename, remove, move, collapse, and expand sections

Because you can collapse entire sections to leave only the section titles visible, the sections make it easier to focus on one part of a presentation at a time.

You can collapse sections to provide an “outline” of long presentations, with the number of slides in each section displayed in parentheses

TIP

If you’re collaborating with other people on the development of a presentation, sections are a convenient way of assigning slides to different people.

Some templates include a slide layout, similar to the title slide layout, that is specifically designed for section divider slides. If you divide a long presentation into sections based on topic, you might want to transfer your section titles to these slides to provide guidance to the audience or to mark logical points in the presentation to take breaks or answer questions.

To create a section

1. In Normal view or Slide Sorter view, select the slide that you want to be first in the new section.
2. On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the Section button, and then click Add Section to insert a section title named Untitled Section before the selected slide.

To rename a section

1. In Normal view or Slide Sorter view, do either of the following to open the Rename Section dialog box:

   • Right-click the section title you want to change, and then click Rename Section.

   • On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the Section button, and then click Rename Section.

     

     The current section name is selected so that you can easily replace it

2. In the Section name box, replace or edit the existing section name, and then click the Rename button.

To collapse or expand one slide section

1. In Normal view or Slide Sorter view, click the arrow that precedes the section title.

TIP

A right-pointing arrow indicates a collapsed section, an arrow that points to the lower-right corner indicates an expanded section.

To collapse or expand all slide sections

1. Do either of the following:

   • On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the Section button, and then click Collapse All or Expand All.
   • Right-click any section name, and then click Expand All or Collapse All.