Create and Manage Slides in Microsoft PowerPoint 2016

Rearrange slides and sections

After you have added several slides to a presentation, you might want to rearrange their order so that they more effectively communicate your message.

You can rearrange a presentation by moving individual slides or entire sections of slides.

To move a slide within a presentation

1. In Normal view or Slide Sorter view, drag the slide thumbnail to its new position. Notice as you drag that the other thumbnails move to indicate where the selected slide will appear when you release the mouse button.

Or

1. Select the slide thumbnail, and then press Ctrl+X or on the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Cut.

2. Do either of the following:

   • Click the slide thumbnail that you want to insert the cut slide after, and then press Ctrl+V or, in the Clipboard group, click Paste.
   • Click between the other slide thumbnails to insert a thin red marker (horizontal in Normal view or vertical in Slide Sorter view) where you want to move the slide. Then press Ctrl+V or, in the Clipboard group, click Paste.

Or

1. Right-click the slide thumbnail, and then click Cut.

2. Right-click between the other slide thumbnails where you want to move the slide.

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   The thin red destination marker appears only when you click between thumbnails, not when you right-click between thumbnails.

3. In the Paste Options section of the shortcut menu, click the Use Destination Theme button or the Keep Source Formatting button.

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   When PowerPoint displays the paste options, press H to use the destination style or K to use the source style.

To move a section within a presentation

1. Click the title of the section of slides you want to move, to select all the slides in the section.
2. Drag the section to its new location.

Or

1. Right-click the section title, and then click Move Section Up or Move Section Down to move the section and all its slides before the preceding section or after the following section.

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The Move Section commands aren’t available on the Section menu; they are available only on the shortcut menu that appears when you right-click a section title.

To merge a section into the preceding section by removing the section divider

1. Click the title of the section of slides you want to ungroup.
2. On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the Section button, and then click Remove Section.

Or

1. Right-click the section title, and then click Remove Section.

To merge all sections by removing all section dividers

1. On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the Section button, and then click Remove All Sections.

To delete a section of slides

1. Click the title of the section of slides you want to delete, to select all the slides in the section.
2. Press the Delete key.

Or

1. Right-click the section title, and then click Remove Section & Slides.

   

   If the selected section is collapsed, PowerPoint prompts you to confirm the deletion

2. If PowerPoint prompts you to confirm the deletion, click Yes to delete the section title and all the slides in the section.

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The Remove Section & Slides command isn’t available on the Section menu; it is available only on the shortcut menu that appears when you right-click a section title.