How to combine multiple PowerPoints into one

It could be for archiving purposes or to combine related training modules into one presentation. Or you might need to put the same boilerplate disclaimer in all your presentations. There are quite a few situations where combining multiple PowerPoints into one would serve the application or meeting better. It’s easily done. Even if you only want to copy a slide or two into another PowerPoint, the process is straightforward. This feature is available on all versions of PowerPoint: desktop, web-based, and mobile.

Combining multiple PowerPoints into one can help with storage, organization, and distribution. And remember, you can split them apart again whenever you want. We’ll walk you through it, so you can present your PowerPoint presentations in the way that works best for you and your organization.

How to combine PowerPoint presentations

There are a couple of ways to combine one entire PowerPoint presentation with another, as opposed to just copying a slide or two. We’ll go over each of them.

Using Insert Object

First, open PowerPoint and the presentation you want to paste another presentation into. In the slide gallery on the left, click between two slides where you would want the content to be inserted to go. Then click on New slide in the upper left.

The new slide may have some pre-populated empty text boxes. Delete them. Then, with the blank new slide selected, in the Insert menu, click on Object.

In the dialogue box that comes up, select Create from file and then Browse to choose the presentation you want to insert. Then click on OK.

The slide you inserted will now be populated with the presentation you inserted. All animations and transitions in the inserted file will still be there. You can only see the first slide of the inserted file in the gallery. When you run the slide show, you will see that the whole presentation is there.

Using the Compare Feature

Open one of the PowerPoint presentations you want to combine. If you want one of the two presentations to play first in the slide show, make sure you open the other one. The merged file will come in at the beginning of the presentation, no matter where you click before merging. In the Review menu, click on Compare. The Compare function is not really intended to merge files together, but we can make it perform this function. Choose the file you want to merge with your current file and click on OK.

There will now be two revision windows on the right of the screen. One is for changes to slides, and the other is for changes to the presentation.

As you click on each individual revision, there will be a checkmark in the slide gallery on the left for you to check (accept the revision) or leave it unchecked (reject the revision).

If you want the merged slides to take on the headers and footers of the original file, check the box that says Title slide headers and footers.

Accept the revision that inserts the slides of the merged file. Leave unchecked the revisions that delete the slides of the original file. In this way, you will have both presentations in one file. Remember to save your work.

How to copy slides from one PowerPoint presentation to another

Reuse slides

The Reuse Slides command lets you reach into any PowerPoint presentation on your computer or network and copy any number of slides from it into your current presentation. To use it, click in the slide gallery on the left between two existing slides where you want to insert a reused slide.

In the Insert menu, click on the lower half of the New Slide button to bring up your options. Select Reuse Slides.

Use the dialogue box on the right to browse to the presentation where the slides you want to reuse are.

Click on the slide you want to reuse. It will be inserted in your presentation at the place you indicated in the first step.

Note that the reused slide has had its style changed to match the presentation into which it is being pasted.

Drag and drop

The old, tried-and-true method of dragging a file from one window and dropping it into another is an option when copying slides from one PowerPoint presentation to another. To do it, you start by opening both the donor file (that you want to borrow from) and the destination file. Resize them and position them side by side.

Scroll through the donor file until you see the slide or slides you want to copy.

Click on the slide (or any one of multiple slides) and drag it across to a space between two slides in the slide gallery of the destination file.

Where the copied slides will be placed is indicated by a red line between two slides wherever you place your mouse.

The donor file and the destination file are side by side. Notice how the table from the donor file has adopted the style of the destination file for a consistent look.

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