How to Number Slides in MS PowerPoint

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How to Number Slides in MS PowerPoint – Guide

On the surface, adding slide numbers in PowerPoint appears to be simple. In fact, PowerPoint has a plethora of options for adding page numbers to your slides; however, some of these options are not always effective. So if you’re at your wit’s end and can’t show these annoying numbers up on your slides, here is a way to add slide numbers in PowerPoint.

Navigate to the master slide

Regardless of which version of PowerPoint you are using (you can check the latest version, Office 365 here), page numbers are managed in the slide master view in PowerPoint.

To navigate to the Slide Master view in PowerPoint, simply:

1. Navigate to the View tab on your Ribbon
2. Select the Slide Master command

If you need to use the slide master often, you can use the Shift + Normal icon shortcut to jump to the master slide. To learn this Slide Master jump shortcut (and more), read our shortcut guide here.

Navigate to parent slide

In Slide Master view, navigate to the parent slide in the upper left corner. This will be the first and largest slide listed on the left side of the screen.

Open the Master Layout dialog

1. On the Slide Master tab, select the Layout Master command
2. To open the Master Layout dialog in PowerPoint, simply:
3. Navigate to the Slide Master tab on your Ribbon
4. Click Layout Master to open the dialog box

The Master Layout dialog is where you set the title, text, date, slide number, and footer for your PowerPoint presentation. To expand your knowledge and learn how to create a template in PowerPoint.

NOTE: The Slide Master tab only shows up on the ribbon in slide master view. If you don’t see the Slide Master tab, it means you’re not in Slide Master view.

Select slide number

In the Master Layout dialog, make sure you have a checkmark next to the slide number. You can also add the Title, Text, Date and/or Footer here if you wish. Once you’ve selected which elements you want to appear on your slides, click OK.

Place and format your slide number

With the slide number added to your slide master, you can now format it and/or place it wherever you want. In this case, I placed mine in the upper right corner of the slide. Where you place it on the parent slide determines where the numbers appear up (by default) on all your child slides. In the image below, you can see that I put my slide number in the top right corner of my slide.

Note: By default, slide numbers will be populated on all child slides (the small slides in the slide master view) in the same position as the main slide layout. Otherwise, you’ll need to cycle through the child slide layouts and delete the page numbers individually, then click the Footers icon on the ribbon.

Ending the Slide Master view

To return to normal view, on the Slide Master tab, click the Close Master View command at the far right of the ribbon. With the slide number set and formatted correctly, you can close the slide master view. To do this, simply select the Close Master View command from the Slide Master tab on your ribbon.

Open the Slide Number dialog box

1. On the Insert tab, select the slide number command to open the header and footer dialog box
2. Back to the normal view of your PowerPoint presentation, you are now ready to insert slide numbers into your presentation.
3. Navigate to the Insert tab
4. Select the Slide Number command
5. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt + Shift + D to open the Header and Footer dialog. Regardless of how you get here, this is the right place to manage your presentation’s date and time, slide numbers, and footers.

Request your slide number

In the Header and Footer dialog, make sure there is a checkmark next to the Slide number. With it selected, you get a preview of where the slide numbers will appear in the upper-right corner of the dialog. After that select:

Assuming you want to apply the change to all of your slides, click Apply to All and you’re done. As you can see in the image below, my slides now have page numbers (exactly where I placed them on my slide master).

Final note

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