Use the Slide Sorter in PowerPoint

When you first open your PowerPoint presentation, all the slides are listed as thumbnails on the left side of the PowerPoint window. Drag slides up and down on this list to reorder them. If you have a long PowerPoint presentation, however, it’s easier to use the Slide Sorter to reorder them.

To access the Slide Sorter, select View > Slide Sorter. Or, select Slide Sorter on the Task Bar in the bottom-right corner of the PowerPoint window.

Drag Your Slides to Reorganize Them

In Slide Sorter view, PowerPoint slides display as a series thumbnails. Each slide displays a number under the bottom-left corner to show which order they’re in. To reorder a slide, drag it into a new location.

Break a Presentation into Sections

If you have different people creating or presenting different parts of the presentation, or if you have different topics within your presentation, organize your presentation into sections using the Slide Sorter view. Grouping your slides into sections is like using folders to organize your files in File Explorer.

To create a section, right-click between the two slides where you want to split the presentation and select Add Section.

Each section starts on a new line in the Slide Sorter view. You can create as many sections as you like.

Rename a Section

When you create a new section, the Rename Section dialog box opens. In the Section name text box, enter a new name for the section and select Rename.

To change the section name later, right-click the section name in Slide Sorter view and select Rename Section.

In the Rename Section dialog box, enter a name in the Section name box and select Rename.

Move or Remove Sections

To reorder the sections in your presentation, move the sections. To move a section, right-click on the section name and select either Move Section Up or Move Section Down.

If it’s the first section, Move Section Up is grayed out and not available. If you right-click on the last section, Move Section Down is grayed out.

Return to the Normal View

When you’re finished reordering your slides, creating sections, and arranging your sections, select View > Normal.

In Normal view, slides display in the new order in the list of thumbnails on the left side of the PowerPoint window. If you added sections, you’ll see your section headings, as well.