How to organize PowerPoint Presentations with PowerPoint Sections

What are PowerPoint Sections?

PowerPoint sections are section breaks which you can use to group slides within PowerPoint presentations. Sections can make organizing, navigating, and managing your slides easier - particularly when working with very large presentations.

Why use PowerPoint Sections?

You can use Sections in PowerPoint as a way to organize your slides into meaningful groups. These groups can then be used to outline your presentation, or to assign to other team members when collaborating.

Adding PowerPoint Sections to your presentations also makes creating Agenda and Table of Contents Slides with the PPT Productivity Agenda Wizard super easy. Read on to learn how to use PowerPoint Sections, including tips about how to use sections along with the PPT Productivity Agenda Wizard for PowerPoint feature.

How do I add a Section in PowerPoint?

You can add PowerPoint Sections to a PowerPoint document either in Slide Sorter view or in Normal View

To insert a PowerPoint section in Slide Sorter View:

1. Right-click the PowerPoint slide you want to use as the starting slide in a section, or right-click between two slides where you want to add a section. Alternatively you can click Sections in the Slides group on the Home tab on the Ribbon. You can also use keyboard shortcut Shift + F10. A drop-down menu will then appear.

2. Select Add Section. Your slides after the Section will move to a new line in slide sorter view. PowerPoint will also create a default section at the beginning of the presentation. A dialog box will appear.

3. Enter a name for the section and click Rename.

4. Repeat the above steps to create additional sections.

To insert PowerPoint Sections in Normal View

1. Right-click the slide you want to use as the starting slide in a section or right-click between two slides where you want to add a section. Or click Sections in the Slides group on the Home tab in the Ribbon. You can also use keyboard shortcut Shift + F10. A drop-down menu appears.

2. Select Add Section. PowerPoint will create a default section at the beginning of the presentation. A dialog box will also appear.

3. Enter a name for the section and click Rename.

4. Repeat to create other sections.

How do PowerPoint Sections work?

PowerPoint Sections insert a Section break between groups of slides. Each Section has a name or Section Header/Title. Any slide after the section header is grouped into that section, until the next section break. This means you can effectively group the slides for treatment - when you select the Section Header/Title you can delete a whole section of slides or move or whole section to a different location in your presentation at the same time.

In the below image, the PowerPoint section name has been selected, so all slides in that that group have also been selected. Right mouse click on the section name to reveal the Sections dropdown menu

From the Sections dropdown menu, you can choose to collapse or expand the slide group, move the slide group in the document, remove all Sections, remove all Sections and their slides, remove the selected Section or rename the Section.

Can I rename PowerPoint Sections?

Yes, you can change the name of your Sections easily. To rename a Section in Slide Sorter or Normal View:

1. Right-click the Section Header/Title. You can also click Sections in the Slides group on the Home tab in the Ribbon or press Shift + F10. The Sections drop-down menu will appear.
2. Select Rename.

3. The Rename dialog box will appear. Enter a name for the Section and click 'Rename'

4. Your Section name will now update to the name entered in the dialogue box.

How can I move or reorder PowerPoint Sections

To move a section in Slide Sorter or Normal View:

1. Click the arrow to the left of the Section Header/Title to collapse the Section.

2. The number off slides in the selected Section will appear in parenthesis next to the Section Header/Title. For example in the image about the number 3 indicates that there are 3 slides in the Section/group.
3. Drag the Section marker up or down in your document to move the Section. You can also right-click the Section marker and select Move Section Up or Move Section Down (or use Keyboard shortcut Shift + F10)

4. Once the Section is in it's new position in the deck, click the arrow to the left of the Section marker to expand the Section.

Can I remove PowerPoint Sections from document?

You can remove Sections from PowerPoint presentations. There are 3 methods for removing PowerPoint Sections;

1. Remove Section break so slides merge with the previous Section
2. Remove Section & Slides. This will remove not only the Section break but all slides within the group
3. Remove All Sections. Removing all Sections will remove all Section breaks from the document. All slides will remain intact and in the current order

Method 1 - Remove Section break and merge slides with previous Section

To remove a PowerPoint Section and leave slides intact, in Slide Sorter or Normal View:

1. Right-click the Section Header/Title. You can also click Sections in the Slides group on the Home tab in the Ribbon or use Keyboard shortcut Shift + F10. A drop-down menu will appear
2. Select Remove Section.

3. The Section break will be removed from the document. The slides that were previously grouped in the selected Section will be merged with the previous Section

Method 2 - Remove Section including slides contained in Section group.

To remove a PowerPoint Section including all slides within the Section group, in Slide Sorter or Normal View;

1. Right-click the Section Header/Title. You can also click Sections in the Slides group on the Home tab in the Ribbon or use Keyboard shortcut Shift + F10. A drop-down menu will appear
2. Select Remove Section & Slides

3. The Section break, along with any slides within the group will be removed/deleted from the PowerPoint document. Any Sections & Slides following the Section that has been removed will be moved 'up' in the presentation.

Method 3 - Remove All Sections, Only Sections removed. Slides within Section groups remain intact

To remove all PowerPoint Sections from a presentation without deleting or changing the order of slides, in Slide Sorter or Normal View;

1. Right-click the Section Header/Title. You can also click Sections in the Slides group on the Home tab in the Ribbon or use Keyboard shortcut Shift + F10. A drop-down menu will appear
2. Select Remove All Sections

3. All Section breaks will be removed from the presentation. Slides will be unaffected. (Image below shows the same document with all Sections removed, Slides remain intact)

Creating PowerPoint Table of Contents and Meeting Agenda's using PowerPoint Sections

The PPT Productivity Agenda Wizard allows you to quickly create PowerPoint Table of Contents and Agenda Slides with ease. In addition to typing the individual Agenda items, Agenda content can be imported from mulitple sources including;

• Section names
• Selected slide titles
• All slide titles
• Slide content
• Clipboard content

In this article we will explain how to create PowerPoint Agenda and Table of Contents slides using PowerPoint Sections

To create a Table of Contents or Agenda from PowerPoint Sections,

1. Open the PPT Productivity Agenda Wizard. You'll find the Agenda Wizard in the Insert Group on the PPT Productivity Format Toolbar

2. The Agenda Wizard dialogue box will open. Here you can add your Agenda contents manually or select 'Import Agenda Items' to import content for the Agenda/ToC from PowerPoint Sections

4. The Import Agenda items window will open. Select 'Load section names'. You will see a preview of the section names that will become the items listed in the Table of Contents/Agenda

5. Click OK. The Generate Agenda window will reopen with Agenda items populated according to the Sections contained in the PowerPoint presentation.

6. While on the 'Edit Agenda Items' tab in the 'Generate Agenda' window you can set your Agenda preferences. Update the Title, or deselect 'Show' to create Agenda's without a Title. Set the purpose of the Agenda - either a Meeting Agenda or Table of Contents. (For this example I have selected Table of Contents). Decide whether to include item numbers and/page numbers on the Agenda/Table of Contents slide.
7. Once you have happy with your preference, select 'Next'
8. Selecting Next will take you to the 'Format Agenda' tab in the 'Generate Agenda' window. Here you can select preferences for your Cover Slide and Divider Slides. PPT Productivity will automatically select a slide layout and colors that are based on your Master theme so in general you will not have to do anything except decide whether you require Divider Slides to be generated along with the Agenda/Table of Contents slide. However you can make alternative formatting selections via the dropdown menus linked to Slide Layout, Agenda Style, Primary Color and Secondar Color if desired.

9. Once you have set your preferences click 'Create' (Note, if you want to set these same preferences as your default for Agenda/ToC slides select 'Save Settings' before creating your Agenda)
10. Your new Agenda/ToC slide, along with Divider slides will be inserted directly into your PowerPoint presentation. Dividers slides will be inserted at each Section break, at the beginning of the Slide group.

11. If you reorder the PowerPoint Sections in the document, simply open the Agenda Wizard and hit 'Update' to Sync the Agenda/ToC and Dividers Slides based on the new order of the Sections in the presentation.