Guest Author - Chris Curtis

You’ve worked hard on your last PowerPoint presentation and were thrilled at the feed back you got from your audience. You are about to begin a new presentation and realize a couple of the slides in the last presentation are valid for your new topic. Rather than recreating the slides again, you want to borrow the existing slides and incorporate them into your new presentation. No problem when you know how. Remember, however, that PowerPoint uses the existing design template in the file for all slides added; therefore, when you copy the previous slide it will assume the design of the new presentation. You may have to tweak the color scheme of the fonts and graphics on the copied slide to make them compatible with the new design template.

Here’s how:

· Choose a design template for your new presentation
· Save your new File with an appropriate file name
· Open the previous presentation file with the slide(s) you want to use
· Close any other open presentation
· Choose Arrange All from the Window menu on the Standard Toolbar – PowerPoint will arrange the two open files vertically on your screen
· Put each presentation in the slide sorter view by clicking on the Slide Sorter view button in the lower left hand corner of the work area

You can move or copy the slide from the existing presentation to the new presentation. Three techniques are as follows:

Drag and Drop Copy
· Select the slide you want to copy to the new presentation
· Hold your Ctrl key down on your keyboard
· Drag the slide by holding your left mouse key down to the new presentation. Position it in between the two slides where you want it to appear. Watch for the bold vertical line that indicates where the slide will appear. Let up on the mouse key when it’s placed where you want it.

Drag and Drop Move
· Select the slide you want to move to the new presentation
· Drag the slide by holding your left mouse key down to the new presentation. Position it between the two slides where you want it to appear. Watch for the bold vertical line that indicates where the slide will appear. Let up on the mouse key when it’s placed where you want it.

Copy and Paste
· Select the slide you to copy to the new presentation
· Right click on the slide and select Copy from the shortcut menu
· Click in between the two slides where you want it to appear. You will see a bold vertical line displayed.
· Right click on the bold vertical line and select paste from the shortcut menu.

You can use the same technique to move the slide by selecting the cut command instead of the copy command from the short cut menu. You can also use the cut, copy and paste buttons found on the Standard Toolbar instead of using the shortcut menu. Choose the methodology most comfortable for you.

Please contact your host with any questions. Please also feel free to make any suggestions or contribute a “Unique Technique” Suggestions should be accompanied by your name and title so that I may give the contributor credit.

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