Dividing up a Presentation with Sections

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About this lesson

We will learn how to divide up a presentation into manageable chunks to assist with editing, navigation and organization.

Exercise files

Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ PowerPoint presentations from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

4.09-organizing-with-sections - Exercise.docx
1.3 MB 4.09-organizing-with-sections- Exercise Solution.docx
533.7 KB 4.09-organizing-slides- Course File Complete.pptx
13.6 MB

Quick reference

Dividing up a Presentation with Sections

So far, we have added divider slides to our presentation to separate one subject from the next and provide visual markers for readers. We can also break up our presentation in to sections. Sections assist you by physically splitting up the slides into groups. Each group can be expanded or collapsed to help with editing and navigation. 

When to use

Use sections whenever you want to break up a long presentation and manage each independently. 

Instructions

Split a Presentation in to Sections

  1. Select all of the slides to include in the section in the Slides Pane. 
  2. From the Home tab, in the Slides group, click Section. 
  3. Click Add Section. 
  4. Give the section a name and click OK. 
  5. Repeat steps 1-4 to add more sections. 

Collapse and Expand Sections

Sections can be collapsed up so only the explanded sections are visible. This can help greatly when editing a presentation as you can focus on just the section that needs to be modified. 

  1. Click the small arrow next to the section name in the Slides Pane to collapse the section. 
  2. Click the small arrow next to the section name in the Slides Pane to expand a collpased section. 

Section Options

You can remove a section, remove all sections, rename a section, collapse or expand or add a section from the section options menu. 

  1. Right-click on a section to see the contextual menu. 
  2. Or, from the Home tab, in the Slides group, select Section. 
  3. Choose the desired option from the menu. 

Re-arranging sections

Sections can be re-arranged and re-organized in the same way as individual slides. 

  1. Drag and drop a section header in the Slides Pane to move the entire section and the slides contained within. 
  2. Or, from the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, select Slide Sorter. 
  3. Drag and drop a section header in Slide Sorter to move the entire section and the slides contained within. 

Hints & tips

  • Slides will be organized by section in Slide Sorter view. 
  • Select the section to select all slides contained within that section. 
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  • 00:04 It's time to switch gears briefly and talk about organizing slides.
  • 00:08 Because so far, we've just been going on our merry way adding different slides in.
  • 00:14 And our presentation isn't particularly large at the moment,
  • 00:18 you'll find that when you start to add more and more slides,
  • 00:21 organizing them logically becomes very important.
  • 00:25 And one way you can do that is by using sections in your presentation.
  • 00:28 Now currently, if you take a look at my presentation,
  • 00:31 I just have all of my slides running in a very linear fashion.
  • 00:35 So I want to start adding some structure into this presentation,
  • 00:39 which is not only going to make it easier for me to navigate.
  • 00:43 It's also going to make it easier for people who are reading this presentation.
  • 00:47 If you have little signpost along the way, particularly in a very long presentation,
  • 00:52 it helps your reader understand exactly where about they are.
  • 00:56 Sections are also very useful if you want to maybe focus on one specific section and
  • 01:01 do some editing, it just means you're not having to scroll up and
  • 01:05 down through lots and lots of different slides.
  • 01:08 So let me show you how they work.
  • 01:10 So if I want to add sections into this presentation, all I need to do is
  • 01:14 select the slide or slides that I want to be part of the first section.
  • 01:19 Now for me, my presentation isn't particularly large.
  • 01:22 So I'm just going to have this first slide in the first section.
  • 01:26 So I select it, go up to the home tab into the slides group,
  • 01:30 click the drop down next to section and select add section.
  • 01:35 So now I need to give my section a name.
  • 01:38 So this first one, I'm just going to call, Introduction and click on rename.
  • 01:45 And what you'll notice now, if you take a look at the slides pane
  • 01:48 on the left-hand side, I now have a little section at the top called introduction.
  • 01:53 And currently all of my slides belong to this section because I haven't added in
  • 01:58 any other sections.
  • 02:00 What you'll also notice is that I have a little collapsible and
  • 02:03 expandable button next to that heading.
  • 02:06 So if I click this little arrow, it's going to collapse up all of the slides
  • 02:10 that belong to that section, which currently is pretty much everything.
  • 02:15 Click again to expand those slides back out.
  • 02:18 Let's add in another section.
  • 02:21 So I'm going to click on slide number 2, up to section, add section.
  • 02:28 And this one is going to be called, About Us, and rename.
  • 02:32 So now I have two sections.
  • 02:34 All of the sides below belong to About Us, I can collapse and expand, and
  • 02:38 I just have one slide in my Introduction section.
  • 02:41 Slide 3 is also part of that, About Us section.
  • 02:45 So I'm going to jump straight down to slide 4.
  • 02:48 Let's add another section called.
  • 02:53 Our Services, and click on rename.
  • 02:56 And then this final section at the bottom is going to be called
  • 03:04 Our Success, and rename.
  • 03:08 So now, I've basically divided up my presentation into four different sections.
  • 03:13 And if I want to focus on just one specific section,
  • 03:15 I can collapse up all of the others.
  • 03:18 Make my changes without having to scroll up and down through lots and
  • 03:22 lots of slides.
  • 03:23 And as I said, you'll see this become more apparent and
  • 03:26 more useful as our presentation gets longer and longer.
  • 03:29 And throughout the rest of this course, as we add in more slides,
  • 03:33 we're going to create more sections as well.
  • 03:35 It was also worth noting that if you right click on any of these sections,
  • 03:39 you do get a contextual menu, so you can rename your section.
  • 03:43 You can remove the section and all of the slides contained within it.
  • 03:48 You can remove all sections and you can also do things like reorder your sections,
  • 03:52 so move them up and move them down.
  • 03:55 Another way that you can reorder sections is simply by dragging and dropping them.
  • 04:04 So very simple to use.
  • 04:06 The other options in that drop down under a section are pretty much the same options
  • 04:10 that you get in the right click contextual menu.
  • 04:13 So that is it, fairly straightforward.
  • 04:14 That's all I have for you on sections.
  • 04:16 So I will see you in the next lesson.

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