How to Add Slide Numbers in PowerPoint the Easy Way?
(Note: This tutorial on how to add slide numbers in PowerPoint is suitable for PowerPoint 2013 and later versions including Office 365)
Page numbers are great visual cues for reference. When referring to a book or a document, page numbers are integral for searching through and locating a particular piece of information easily.
Even in Microsoft applications like Excel and Word, page numbers are helpful for a variety of purposes. The same is true for PowerPoint presentations, too. Here, the page numbers are called “Slide Numbers”.
When it comes to numbering slides in PowerPoint, most people use unconventional ways to add them. For example, they add a text box and enter the page number manually on every slide. This can be a little time-consuming and might not be aesthetically pleasing.
In this article, let us see how to add slide numbers in PowerPoint efficiently and conventionally. You’ll also learn how to customize the slide numbers.
You’ll Learn:
How to Add Slide Numbers in PowerPoint?
There are a variety of ways using which you can insert a slide number in PowerPoint. However, not all ways are foolproof. Some might work sometimes, and some won’t. So, let us see all the ways to add slide numbers in PowerPoint.
Using the Insert Option
This is a fairly straightforward way to insert slide numbers in PowerPoint.
- Open the PowerPoint presentation.
- Navigate to Insert. Under the Text section, click on Slide Numbers.
This opens a Header and Footer dialog box.
- Click on the Slide tab and check the checkbox for Slide number. You can check the preview in the Preview pane on the right side of the dialog box.
- Click on Apply to All. This adds the slide numbers to all the pages in the presentation.
You can see the slide number towards the bottom-right corner of each slide.
When you click on Apply, the page number will populate only on the current slide leaving the rest of the slides empty.
When you check the “Don’t show on title slide” checkbox, the slide numbers won’t be applied to all the slides which bear the title.
Note: The slide numbers only populate in the bottom-right corner of the slide. The bottom-left and the center of the slide are occupied by Date and Time and Footer data, respectively.
Customize and Format the Slide Numbers
The Slide Master option gives you in-depth customization and functionalities to your PowerPoint slides. However, you cannot find the Slide Master option from the usual main menu ribbon.
- Navigate to View. Under Master Views, click on Slide Master.
This opens the Slide Master setup. You can see a variety of customization and personalization options for each slide.
- Go to the parent slide. This can be seen as the first slide on the left preview pane.
- By default, the Footers checkbox will be checked. If not, in the Master Layout section, check the checkbox for Footers.
- To change the font style and size of the slide numbers, select the Slide Number footer on the bottom-right of the slide. Navigate to Home. Under the Font section, choose the size, color, and font of the slide number.
- In the Slide Master window, you can move or resize the slide number.
- To move or resize the slide number, click on the # symbol. Using the outline and anchor points, you can move or resize the slide number respectively. In this case, let us move the slide number to the top-right of the slide.
- After you have made customizations to the slide, go back to the Slide Master tab. To save all the settings, click on Close Master View.
- Now, add the slide numbers using the Insert main menu.
There might be some instances where you have to start numbering pages from a different number other than 1. In such cases, you can use the following method.
- To number slides from a particular number, navigate to Design.
- Under Customize, click on the dropdown from Slide Size and click on Custom Slide Size. This opens a Slide size dialog box.
- In the Number slides from the textbox, either enter the slide number or use the buttons to set the starting slide number.
- Click OK. The pages are numbered starting from the set number and increments with each page.
Related Reads:
How to Add Notes to PowerPoint? 6 Easy Steps
How to Make a Flowchart in PowerPoint? 2 Easy Methods
How to Insert PDF into PowerPoint? 3 Easy Ways
How to Remove Slide Numbers in PowerPoint?
So far, we have seen how to add slide numbers to a PowerPoint presentation. Sometimes, you might not need the slide numbers populating the slides for various reasons. In such cases, you will need to remove the slide numbers.
- First, select the slide you want to remove the page number from. You can either remove slide numbers from particular slides or for all the slides.
- Navigate to Insert. Under the Text section, click on Slide Number.
- In the Header and Footer dialog box, click on the Slide tab.
- Uncheck the checkbox for Slide number.
If you want to remove the slide number for the selected slide, click on Apply. If you want to remove the slide number for all the slides in the presentation, click on Apply to All.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will the slide numbers show up when in slideshow mode?
Yes. Once you insert the slide numbers, they will appear even in slideshow mode. Also, they will show up when you export the PowerPoint file as PDF and when you print them.
Why aren’t the slide numbers showing up in my PowerPoint slides?
When you have the Slide Number checkbox unchecked in the Header and Footer dialog box, the slide numbers will not show up in the PowerPoint slides.
Where is the Slide Master option located?
In the View main menu, under the Master Views section, you can find the Slide Master option. This option gives you additional customizations to your PowerPoint slide.
Closing Thoughts
Slide Numbers are an effective way to keep track of the slides and to refer to them. Additionally, they also help in providing visual cues and aid the presenter or listener manage their time while presenting. More importantly, slide numbers greatly help maintain the order when printing the slides onto paper.
In this article, we saw how to add slide numbers in PowerPoint. We also saw how to customize the slide numbers in PowerPoint slides and how to remove them when they’re not needed.
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Simon Calder
Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA.He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!
