The Easiest Way to Combine Your Powerpoints

Are you looking for ways to combine multiple PowerPoint presentations into one file?

This article has all the answers for you.

If you’re in sales, customer service, or even an independent consultant, there are times when you need to use the same presentation slides in different PowerPoint files.

You don’t want to create the same slides again and again, of course.

And it can be really frustrating and time-consuming if you can’t find a way to quickly combine them.

Thankfully, PowerPoint gives you more than one way to combine different presentation files and use them independently.

You can even choose to keep the formatting of your original slides as it is or change it to fit the design and theme of your destination files.

It’s all pretty easy.

Let me show you how.

Your Options for Combining Powerpoints

There are 3 different ways to combine multiple PowerPoint files into a single presentation.

Both are pretty simple to use.

But which one is better for you depends on your end goal and how you want your presentation slides to appear (I’ll explain this later).

Let’s first look at our options for combining PowerPoint files.

Option#1: Combine PowerPoint Files With “Reuse Slides”

If you want to insert new slides into your presentation or combine multiple PowerPoint presentation slides without opening another file, “Reuse Slides” is the option you need to use.

Using this option you can combine as many presentations into one file as you want.
It has another advantage as well.

Every presentation file has its own theme, slide design, formatting, text font, colors, etc. Using the “Reuse Slides” theme, you can insert the slides from another presentation and automatically change its formatting and design to match your presentation style.

However, this doesn’t include slide transitions or any other animations used in the slides. For that, you’ll need to use the “Insert Object” option in PowerPoint.

But if you only want to combine the contetn of multiple slides into one file, the “Reuse Slide” option is ideal for you.

Option#2: Copy/Paste PowerPoint Slides To Combine Different Files

You can also combine different PowerPoint files by manually copy/pasting the slides from one file to another.

It works just like you copy/paste files in Windows File Explorer.

But for this method, you’ll need to open all the presentation files from where you want to copy the slides.

Just like the first method, this approach also allows you to automatically adjust the formatting and design of the slides you’re copying from the other files or keep them in their original state.

Once you copy the slides to your presentation, any changes you make to the original files will not reflect in the presentation where you copied the files.

If you want the slides to automatically update when you make any changes to the source files, you’ll need to link the slides to your presentation.

Option#3: Combine PowerPoint Slides Using “Insert Object”

If you want to combine different PowerPoint slides while keeping their animations, transitions, and formatting intact, use the “Insert Object” option.

It is slightly more complicated than the previous two options so I only recommend using it when you need to preserve the animations of the slides you’re inserting into your presentation file.

Other than that, this option does everything else that the previous two options offer.

Let me show you how to combine PowerPoint files in Windows and Mac operating systems.

How To Combine Powerpoints on PC

If you’re a Windows user, here’s how you can combine different PowerPoint slides into one file.

Method#1: Reuse Slides

As I described earlier, the Reuse Slides option in PowerPoint is the easiest way to combine different presentation files. Just make sure all the files are saved using the same version of MS PowerPoint to avoid any problems.

Here are the steps you need to follow.

Step#1: Open the Powerpoint presentation file in which you want to combine the slides from other presentation files.

Step#2: In the thumbnail section on the left of your screen, click on the point where you want to add the new slides.

Step#3: To add one or more new slides to your presentation, click on Home→ New Slides (in the Slides group)→ Reuse Slides.

Step#4: In the Reuse Slides section, click either on the Browse button or “Open a PowerPoint file” and choose the PowerPoint file that you want to add to your presentation file.

Step#5: When you choose a presentation file from your computer, PowerPoint will show you thumbnails of all the slides from it. Below the thumbnails, you have the option to “Keep source formatting”. Select this option if you want the slides that you’re adding to your presentation to retain their original formatting and design. But if you want the imported slides to adjust to the formatting of your existing presentation, leave this option unchecked.

Step#6: Finally, click on the slides you want to add to the presentation and they’ll immediately start showing in the left section of your screen in the thumbnail section of your presentation. If you want to add all the slides to your presentation at once, press Right Click on any slide and select “Insert All Slides”

That’s it.

You’ve now successfully combined two different PowerPoint presentations into one file. Using this same process you can combine as many presentation files as you want.

Method#2: Copy and Paste Slides To Your Presentation

You can also combine multiple PowerPoint presentations into one file by copying the slides manually to your presentation.

Here are the steps you need to follow

Step#1: Open the presentation file in which you want to add new slides.

Step#2: Open the presentation files from which you want to copy slides. Make sure both files are saved using the same MS PowerPoint version.

Step#3: In the thumbnail section of the PowerPoint file on the left of your screen, click on the slide you want to copy. If you want to copy multiple slides, press the SHIFT button, and click on all the relevant slides to select them.

Step#4: Now press Right Click and select Copy.

Step#5: Go to the presentation in which you want to paste the slides.

Step#6: In the thumbnail section of your presentation on the left of your screen, click on the slide after which you want to paste the copied slides.

Step#7: Now take your mouse point just below the slide you’ve selected, press Right Click and select Paste.

Step#8: At this point, MS PowerPoint will give you two options. To adjust the copied themes automatically to the formatting and design of your presentation, choose “Use Destination Theme” while pasting the slides. If you want the copied slides to retain their formatting, choose “Keep Source Formatting”.

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That’s it, you’ve successfully combined two different presentation files by copying the relevant slides manually. Using this same process, you can combine as many presentation files as you want.

Method#3: Combine PowerPoint Presentations Using “Insert Object”

The third method to combine PowerPoint presentations for PC/Windows users through the “Insert Object” option.

As I said earlier, this is a slightly longer method and you should only use it if you want to merge your presentations while keeping their animations and slide transitions in their original form.

Here are the steps you need to follow to use this method.

Step#1: Open your main PowerPoint presentation file in which you want to merge other presentations.
Step#2: In the thumbnail section of the presentation on the left of your screen, click on the slide after which you want to insert the other presentations.

Step#4: Delete the text boxes in this slide so that it is completely blank
Step#5: In the main menu, click on Insert→ Object (in the Text group)

Step#6: Before clicking the Browse button, select the option “Create from file”.

Step#7: Click on the “Link” option next to the Browse button if you want to insert a PowerPoint file in your presentation in a way that it’s still linked with the source file. If you choose this option, any changes you make to the inserted file will also reflect in your main presentation. But if you want the inserted presentation to become a part of your main PowerPoint file, leave the Link option unchecked.

Step#8: Now click Browse and choose the file you want to add to your presentation, then click Ok.

Step#9: The file has been added to your presentation but right now you can only see its first slide. Don’t’ worry, all the slides are there, you just can’t see them right now.

Step#10: Click on the inserted presentation and adjust its size according to your main presentation slides.

Step#11: Now click on the inserted presentation again, go to the main menu and click on Animations→ Add Animation→ OLE Action Verbs

Step#12: This opens up a dialog box. Just select “Show” and click Ok.

Step#13: Go to the main menu and click Animations→ Animation Pane. This opens up a section on the right of your screen which shows the inserted object (presentation).

Step#14: Click on the arrow next to the object in this list and choose “Start With Previous”.

Step#15: Now click on the same arrow again and choose “Effect Options”. This opens up a new dialogue box.

Step#16: Here, go to the “After Animation” dropdown list, choose “Hide After Animation”, and click Ok.

Step#17: Now click on Insert→ Text Box and click anywhere on the object slide to add a text box.

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Step#18: Right-click on the text box and click “Send to back”.

That’s it, you have now successfully merged two different PowerPoint presentations while preserving their original animations and slide transitions. You can combine as many presentations as you want using the same process.

How to Merge Powerpoints on Mac

Merging different PowerPoint presentations into one file is easy on Mac.

Here’s how you can do it.

Step#1: Open the PowerPoint presentation in which you want to insert other files.

Step#2: Click on the slide after which you want to insert new slides from other presentation files.

Step#3: Now go to the main menu and click Insert→ Slides From→ Other Presentations.

Step#4: Choose the presentation file that you want to add to your main presentation and click ok.

Step#5: You can now see the new slides in your main presentation. You can delete any slides that you don’t want to keep selecting it and pressing the Delete key on your keyboard.

That’s it, you’ve successfully merged two different PowerPoint files. Using this method you can merge as many presentations as you want.

How to Merge Powerpoints Online

Both PC and Mac users can merge multiple PowerPoint presentations into one file using different online services.

For this method, you don’t even need to have PowerPoint on your computer.

I’ll use GroupDocs to merge PowerPoint files in this article but there are many other free online services you can use as well.

Step#1: Go to GroupDocs free PPTX merger

Step#2: Drag & drop or Browse and select all the PPT files you want to merge.

Step#3: Put the files in the right order so that the file listed on the top comes first.

Step#4: Click Merge Now to combine the files.

Step#5: Once the files have been merged, click on Download Now to download them immediately or enter your email address to get the download link.

Are You Ready To Combine Your PowerPoint Presentations?

As I’ve shown you in this article, merging multiple PowerPoint files is easy no matter what device you’re using. Plus, PowerPoint gives you multiple methods to merge files so that you can use the one that suits you the best. And in case you don’t want to merge your presentations using PowerPoint, you can do it with a free online tool as well.

Let me know if you have any questions.

— Update: 11-03-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article How to merge multiple PowerPoint presentations. from the website buffalo7.co.uk for the keyword merge multiple powerpoint presentations.

Turn any jumble of slides into one seamless, beautiful presentation. This is how to merge PowerPoint presentations together in just a few simple steps.

Planning and running an event with multiple speakers requires lengthy checklists, a degree in plate spinning and a lot of caffeine. Between finding a venue that is easily accessible by public transport and within spitting distance of the nearest bar, executing an agenda that the Swiss would be envious of, and ensuring the guest list is more impressive than a royal wedding, you have little energy or time left to reformat and redesign everyone’s slides.

Getting your hands on all the presentations before the deadline is challenging enough and when you come to create your master file, you could do with merging them quickly and easily. So, why does PowerPoint have other ideas? What should be a simple copy and paste leads to previously beautiful slides looking like something even Mary Shelley couldn’t dream up.

Don’t panic: you just need to make a small adjustment, and you’ll be one step closer to perfectly merged PowerPoint presentations and a seamless event in no time at all.

How to merge PowerPoint presentations

  1. Start by opening the two (or more) presentations that you need to combine.
  2. In any one of the decks, select all the slides that you want to transfer across.
  3. Right click and select Copy.
  4. Moving across into the other presentation, right-click where the copied slides need to go and select Paste.

So far, this is exactly what you were doing anyway, right?

I’m not here to teach your grandmother how to suck eggs. Here’s the magic ingredient.

The Paste options icon.

It’s small, and it’s really easy to miss, but every time you paste an object in PowerPoint, it appears.

  1. Now all you need to do is select Keep Source Formatting from the options and voilà! Your slides will magically reformat and look like their old selves again.
  2. Repeat until you’ve combined all your presentations and all that is left to do is sit back, have a glass of wine and enjoy the event rather than nervously watching the slides.

Sizing up the problem

Hold that thought for just a moment. Are some of your slides still looking more stretched than Mr Fantastic after a hot yoga class?

Think back – did you tell the speakers to build their slides in 16:9 ratio? Uh oh.

Even though PowerPoint itself doesn’t recognise this technological evolution and still considers 4:3 to be ‘standard’, the only modern use for this archaic slide size is to present on iPad.

Do you want your speakers to present their slides to a concert hall by holding up an iPad? No? Your slides should probably be 16:9 then.

You can fix the problem, but it’s not going to be easy – unless you have a time machine?

If not, settle back down at your computer. You can still have that glass of wine though.

When PowerPoint scales 4:3 to 16:9, images become stretched to fit, while content remains stuck in the centre of the slide. All in all, not a good look.

The first thing to do is turn on your guides: right click on your slide and tick Guides.

Using the original 4:3 design as a reference, move the guides as to where titles, subtitles, footers, and any other repeated elements should sit on your (now larger) canvas. Now all there is to do is apply a little artistic flair and start rearranging everything.

I said it wasn’t going to be easy.

Anything that holds the same position throughout, such as company logos, can be copied and pasted for ease, but most elements will need to be reformatted manually.

If your speakers have used ‘Format Background’ to add background images, you will need to ask them to send over the original imagery, so that you can reinsert these to no longer look like a reflection in a funhouse mirror.

If this wasn’t the answer you were hoping for, the simple solution is to provide technical specifications to your speakers before they begin. Sorry.

Your slides are now looking good, but there are a few more things to consider to ensure there are no hiccups on the night.

Lighten up

Large PowerPoint files can end up running at a snail’s pace, and potentially even crash. When you’re merging multiple PowerPoint presentations into one file, the MBs can quickly add up. You don’t want to start dictating the type of content people can have in their presentations, but when they use full-length videos for just a short clip or high-resolution imagery but crop it down to a few centimetres, the presentation is still carrying all the weight of the original file.

PowerPoint can trim all this excess for you. There is an easy-to-use compression tool within PowerPoint. You don’t have to pay or learn to use expert software such as Photoshop to achieve this. Simply select Compress Pictures and adjust your compression options based on your specific needs.

Setting the resolution at 150ppi will create the perfect look with none of the excess file size.

As if that wasn’t helpful enough, PowerPoint has another tool for compressing video, which can be found by clicking into File and then Info.

Under Media Size and Performance, select Compress Media.

As with imagery resolution, we find that compressing media to Internet Quality works perfectly for presentations.

If you want to know how to make your PowerPoint files even smaller, you can get more tips from our in-depth post on reducing file size.

If you’re still finding that your file is lagging, it might be time to take a coffee break.

Using scheduled intervals to break up the file, as well as the day, can be a seamless way to separate the presentation into smaller files without anyone noticing you’re making the switch.

If you’ve done everything above and PowerPoint is still crashing, try reading our nine helpful tips to combat this frustration.

Provide a framework

But what if you don’t want a hodgepodge presentation, jumbled with different brands, fonts and colours? After all, you planned this event. It was your late nights and lengthy email chains that went into its creation. Shouldn’t it be your branding on the slides?

Having a template created in advance can put the control back in your hands.

You could set the styling rules so that every slide strictly adheres to your branding, or you could create a loose framework where the speakers can be free to add their branded elements, but your mark is still on every slide.

Adding a placeholder for a composite logo can be an efficient method for creating cohesion between partnering brands, without adding extra work.

By providing all your speakers with a template, you can ensure consistency across all the presentations – no titles jumping around from slide to slide or fonts mysteriously getting bigger as you progress through.

You will also be able to rest easy knowing the template has been built at the correct slide size for the screen, the default text size is big enough to read from the back of the room and you won’t have to merge PowerPoint presentations together at the end.

And if they do manage to get a little ‘creative’ with their formatting?

A quick reset of the slides will put them all perfectly back in place.

As with any aspect of event planning, the smoothest presentations require a little advanced preparation. By adding these few items to your checklist, you’ll reduce last-minute panics and swiftly end up with a full set of slides that look great and run to perfection.

— Update: 19-03-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article How to Merge PowerPoint Files into a Single File from the website www.alphr.com for the keyword merge multiple powerpoint presentations.

PowerPoint presentations are commonplace for many lines of work, and often times there’s a need to combine slides and files. If you need to use slides from two or more PowerPoint presentations for your school assignment or an office presentation, there are several ways to go about it. You can insert individual slides, import whole presentations, or simply merge two presentations.

We’ll cover everything you need to know about merging PowerPoint files in this article.

Reuse PowerPoint Slides

Reusing slides is the easiest way to include slides from one presentation in another presentation. With this method, you can control what slides you are adding and choose where to insert them. Here is how the reuse slides method works.

  1. Launch PowerPoint on your computer, then open the document to which you want to add slides.
  2. Find the place where you want to add a slide or slides. Then, click between two existing slides.
  3. Click the Insert tab of the Main Menu.
  4. After that, click on the New Slide icon on the left side of the menu.
  5. Then, click Reuse Slides.
  6. The Reuse Slides dialog box will open; click the Browse button. If you check the box next to Keep source formatting, the newly inserted slides will remain as they were in the original presentation. If you uncheck the box, their formatting will be adjusted to the one in the main presentation.
  7. Insert your slide. Browse the presentations and click the one you want to add the slides from and click Open.
  8. You will see the thumbnails of the available slides. Browse and select the ones you would like to insert into your main document. You can click Insert All Slides to import all slides from the external presentation.
  9. If you want to discard the theme of your main presentation in favor of the theme in the external presentation, you should select the Apply Theme to All Slides option when selecting the slides you want to insert.

This method is great if you want to add a slide or two to your main presentation. Also, if you want to add bits and pieces from various presentations to your main presentation, this is the way to go. Though you can insert all slides from an external presentation via this method, it is better to take the Insert Object route for that.

Use Insert Object to Merge PowerPoint Files

The insert object method is your best option if you want to insert all slides from an external presentation and keep the animations and transitions between them.

Keep in mind that once you insert the slides into your new presentation, they won’t be linked to the original file. As such, any changes you make to the original file will not affect the slides you inserted into your main presentation. Conversely, if you edit the slides in your main presentation, the external file from which you copied those slides will remain unchanged.

With that out of the way, let us see how the insert object method works.

  1. Launch PowerPoint and open the main presentation.
  2. Insert a new slide. Delete the text boxes, as they should be completely blank.
  3. Click the Insert tab in the Main Menu.
  4. Click the Object icon.
  5. You will see the Insert Object dialog box. There, you should pick the Create from file option. You can enter the address of the document into the text box and press Enter or click the Browse button.
  6. Browse for the external presentation you would like to insert into your main one and double-click on it.
  7. Next, you will see only the first slide of the imported presentation. Though you cannot see them at the moment, the remaining slides are below.
  8. Stretch the inserted object to fit the size of the slide of your main presentation to avoid changes in the size of the slides once you play the presentation.

 After you have successfully inserted the entire object into your main presentation, you can adjust and tweak it to make sure it runs smoothly.

Merge PowerPoint Documents

Finally, you can opt to completely merge two PowerPoint presentations into one. Here’s how this method works:

  1. Open PowerPoint and open the main presentation.
  2. Click the Review section of the Main Menu.
  3. Click the Compare button; you will find it in the Compare section.
  4. Browse for the presentation you want to merge with your main presentation and select it by double-clicking on it.
  5. Once the merging is complete, you will see the Revisions pane right of the merged presentations.
  6. In the Presentation Changes portion, you will see the differences between the presentations and choose which changes you want to keep and which you want to discard.
  7. The Slide Changes portion displays the differences between the individual slides of the two presentations. Choose the settings you want to keep for the final version.

Drag and Drop PowerPoint Slides

One of the simpler ways to merge two presentations is using a drag-and-drop method. If you have two separate presentations and would like to make them into one, or if you are working on a group project, you can merge them using this function.

  1. Open both presentations on your PC or Mac, and make sure you minimize the PowerPoint program so that you can see both at the same time.
  2. Using your mouse, long-press the slide you need to move and drop the slide into its proper place. You might need to do this for each slide; thankfully, you can also click the first slide you want, hold down the Shift key, and then click on the last slide to select them all and move accordingly.
  3. The location of the slide will highlight with a red line.

To make things even simpler, your final presentation will automatically update to the design of the receiving document. Of course, you can always update the design of the entire document by using the Design function at the top of your presentation.

Final Thoughts

The methods explained in this article will help you take your PowerPoint skills to the next level. You will be able to combine and merge your presentations like a pro in mere minutes. Now that you know these PowerPoint tricks, you can better spend your time elsewhere.

Source: https://nira.com/how-to-combine-powerpoints/

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