If you use PowerPoint on a regular basis you will likely find yourself wanting to reuse slides in PowerPoint presentations over and over. Many users end up using the copy & paste feature to copy a slide from one presentation to another, when in fact you can reuse slides in PowerPoint with a few clicks of the mouse.
When you use the reuse slides feature, it allows you to choose if you want to keep the original formatting of the slide(s) or apply the formatting used in the new presentation. I use this technique quite often when I’m preparing a presentation for training sessions. PowerPoint will even give you a preview of each slide from your original presentation and allow you to insert one, two or all previous slides into the new presentation.
When you import the slides using the reuse slides feature you are essentially making a copy of the original so don’t be concerned that the original slide will be removed from it’s original location.
Why not just copy and paste the slide(s)?
I am often asked in training sessions what the advantage of using the Reuse slides feature is versus a standard copy and paste of the slide(s). The main advantage is the fact you do not have to open the presentation containing the original slides, you simply select the presentation file and PowerPoint will show you the slide content allowing you to then choose the slides to reuse.
The other added advantage is the easy ability to choose which set of formatting you want to use on the reused slides; either keep the original formatting of the slide, or use the formatting of the new destination presentation.
Why reuse slides in PowerPoint?
A great reason to reuse your slides is to improve your productivity and ensure consistency in the delivery of information. Rather than ‘reinvent the wheel’, you can make use of previous slide layouts, images, headings and content. Not only can you reuse your own slides but you can share content across your organisation allowing staff to maintain continuity and messaging across the organisation.
To reuse slides in PowerPoint, follow these steps:
- Open the new presentation where you would like to insert the existing slides to
- From the Home tab click the bottom half of the New Slide button to display the drop-down menu
- Select Reuse Slides from the bottom of the menu
- The Reuse Slides pane will appear:
- Click the Browse button and choose Browse File
- Navigate to the location of the existing presentation which contains the slides you wish to reuse
- Once you have located the presentation, select it and click Open
- The slides will now be displayed in the pane:
- If you are unsure or cannot read the content of each slide, simply hover your mouse over the thumbnail and a larger preview will be displayed
- To insert a slide into your presentation, click on the slide once with the left mouse button
- If you wish to retain the original source formatting, tick the box at the bottom of the pane for Keep source formatting, if not then the slides will be inserted into your presentation and will be formatted the same as your new presentation’s slides
This method provides a quick and efficient way of reusing slide content within multiple slides and allowing you to reduce the need to reformat slide information.