How to Merge Two PowerPoint Presentations Together and Maintain the Format
By Anni Martin
Awkward transitions between Microsoft PowerPoint presentations can be a deal breaker. After your own presentation finishes and you sit down, your client can lose interest in what your company has to offer while your colleague’s presentation loads. By combining two presentations into one seamless whole, the transition is smooth and you both look professional. In PowerPoint, you pull together individual presentations using the Reuse Slides feature and maintain original formatting for each presentation. You can also use the Merge feature to compare two presentations and choose what to keep or discard.
Reuse Slides
Open PowerPoint and one of the presentations. In the Slides pane, scroll through your slides and then click where to add the slides from the second presentation.
Click the “Home” tab, click the “New Slide" down arrow and then click “Reuse Slides” to open the Reuse Slides pane.
Click “Open a PowerPoint File” in the Reuse Slides pane.
Browse and select the presentation you want to add to the first presentation and then click “Open.” The slides from the presentation open in the Reuse Slides pane.
Select the “Keep Source Formatting” check box at the bottom of the Reuse Slides pane. Right-click on any of the slides in the Reuse Slides pane. Click “Insert All Slides” to combine slides from the second presentation with the first and maintain the formatting from each presentation. You can also add individual slides by clicking on the slide to add it to the presentation.
Save the combined slides by clicking the “File” tab and then “Save.” If you want to give the combined presentations a different name, click the “File” tab and “Save As.” Type a new filename in the File Name box and click “Save.”
Merge the Documents
Open PowerPoint and one of the presentations. Click the “Review” tab.
Click the “Compare” button in the Compare group. Browse and select the second presentation to combine. Click “Merge.” The presentations merge and the Revisions pane opens to the right of the merged presentations. The Revisions pane shows the differences between the two documents and allows you to accept or reject changes.
Scroll through the Presentation Changes section in the Revisions pane. This area shows slides from the second presentation to add to the first presentation. Click a slide title to display a revision check box. Select the revision check box to accept the proposed revision.
Scroll through the Slide Changes section in the Revisions pane. This area shows the differences between the two slide presentations. Click a slide change in the Slide Changes section to display a revision check box. Select the revision check box to accept the proposed revision.
Click “File” and then click “Save As” to save the presentation once you are done with changes to the two documents. Type a filename and then click “Save” to save the merged documents.
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Writer Bio
Translating technical jargon into everyday English is one of Anni Martin’s specialties. She is an educator and writer who spent over 13 years teaching and creating documentation at the University of Missouri. She holds a Master’s Degree in educational technology as well as Bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Missouri.