How to Make a Table of Contents in PowerPoint

  • PowerPoint allows you to create tables of contents that organize the content of a presentation clearly and effectively.
  • An index makes it easy to locate specific sections without wasting time searching for slides.
  • Including links in the table of contents improves navigation between presentation slides.
  • It is recommended to have a 'Back to Table of Contents' link on each linked slide for convenience.

powerpoint index

Power point It is one of the most used tools in the Microsoft Office package, both by students and professionals from different fields. It is the best way to prepare quality presentations in a simple and efficient way. In this post we will focus on a specific aspect of this program: how to make a table of contents in powerpoint, an orderly presentation of its content.

In any job, both academic and professional, the index is of key importance. It is a necessary synthesis of what is going to be shown next and at the same time a method of order presentation. It is also very useful if we want to address a specific topic or aspect of it, ignoring the parts that do not interest us.

The PowerPoint table of contents works exactly like the table of contents of a paper book. In it we consult the content of each part of the document and then go to the corresponding page. In this case, to the slide that starts each section. Thus we save having to go slide by slide until we find what we are looking for, that is, resort to the manual method. In especially long documents, this can be quite a cumbersome task.

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But it is not only a question of comfort, it is also a image issue. When creating a more or less long document, it is essential to order its content in a clear and attractive index, which facilitates the understanding and organization of what is to be transmitted in a single glance. In the business world, where time is money and access to information is essential, it is an almost essential element.

How do you make a PowerPoint index? The good news is that the method is very simple. We explain it step by step below:

How to Create a Table of Contents in PowerPoint

Even if it is the first time you handle this program, it is very easy to become familiar with how PowerPoint works. Entering the index can be the last step when making the presentation. This is logical: only when we know the exact content of the document will we be able to create the corresponding index.

The first step is simply to create a slide like any other of those that are part of the presentation. It could, for example, be preceded by another one that contains a brief summary of what we are going to show in the presentation, or include this presentation on the same index slide, although this can be somewhat confusing. Don't forget that an index should always be clear and clean. So the best thing is that this appears in the second slide.

Step 1: Add a new slide

Having clarified the question of the numeral order, to start designing our index in PowerPoint, the first thing to do is place the mouse on the first slide and, using the right button, click on the “New slide” option.

Step 2: Select the slides from the list

The fastest way to design an index is to go to the top bar of the document options and select the one for "Outline View". This is a type of view that shows the name of all the slides that are part of the presentation. The only thing we have to do is select the ones that we want to be part of the index and then, using the right mouse button, press the button "Copy".

Step 3: Paste the index slides

Next, we open the slide that should host the index and use the button "Paste" (with the right mouse button) so that the previously selected slides appear on it.

Step 4: Insert the index links

This is an essential step. Consists in create a link from our newly created index to the selected slides. That is the idea: that by clicking on the text of a slide we can jump directly to it. To achieve this, you have to add a link to the text that titles the slide like this:

  1. First, we select the text.
  2. Then we choose the "Insert" option in the top bar.
  3. We go to the “Link” option and then to “Insert link”.
  4. Finally, click on "OK"

This is how we must proceed with each of the slides that we have included in the index. The text will be marked with a blue underline, which indicates the existence of a link. Once that link is used, the color of the underline will change to purple, as it happens in almost all browsers.

Important: To make it easier to navigate through the PowerPoint document, it is very important include a "Back to Index" link in each of the slides that are included in this one. This can be easily done by following the same steps explained here, although not in the index, but in each of the slides to which it is linked.


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