number of slides presentation

ATLANTA, MAY 23-24 PUBLIC SPEAKING CLASS IS ALMOST FULL! RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW

Public Speaking Classes
Corporate Presentation Training
Online Public Speaking Course
Northeast Region
Midwest Region
Southeast Region
Central Region
Western Region
Presentation Skills
101 Public Speaking Tips
Fear of Public Speaking

How Many PowerPoint Slides Should You Use in a Presentation?

Instead, you want to figure out what you want to say first . Then, after you have designed a great presentation, go back and figure out what visual aids you will need to better make your key points. The main rule of thumb is to provide only the number of slides that you absolutely need and absolutely no more than that.

So in this session, I’m going to cover a few examples for the right number of slides needed in short presentations, the long presentation, the best way to give corporate presentations.

The Max Number of Slides for a 15-Minute Presentation (or Less.)

Instead, especially for short talks, the first thing you want to do is make a list of the most important items that need to be covered in your presentation. Then, rank these items based on their list of importance. As you go down the list, you should notice that the level of importance for each item drops exponentially as you go down the list. So, instead of covering all of the items, just cover the three (or five) most important items in your presentation.

On your first slide, give an overview of all of the points. Just list them out for the audience so they can see what you will be covering. Then, create a separate slide for each of the three (or five) main points. Finally, on your last slide, just copy the content from your first slide and your introduction now becomes a nice conclusion as well.

By the way, for most business presentations, if you can deliver the important things in a 10-minute speech, you will be loved. If you require a 30-minute presentation time, the audience will like you about three times less.

For more details about how to design presentations or to use our helpful online presentation generator click here.

What If You Have an Hour-Long Talk? How Many Slides Do You Need?

How Many Slides for an Hour-Long Presentation?

Start with an introduction slide with an overview of all five bullet points. On your internal slides, just cover the single main idea for each bullet. You will have five internal slides. Then, end with your summary slide with the main concepts one more time. This repetition of the main concepts will increase the audience’s retention of the material. For the more seasoned presenter, you can use just three main bullet points but add an extra relevant story to each point. The more that you use this technique the easier you will find it to fit your content into the correct presentation length.

For instance, if you find yourself rushing at the end without enough time to finish, you can give fewer details in your stories. If you finish early, you can add more details into your examples and stories.

For a 60-minute presentation, use five bullet points and seven slides . This time insert a couple of different stories as evidence of each bullet point. I like to use the “bad example/good example” technique. On each of the internal slides, give your audience an example of yourself or someone else who did the opposite of the point. Then, follow up with a good example.

The “Bad Example/Good Example” Technique.

If I were to use the technique to prove the point that you need seven slides for an hour presentation, I could use the following…

Bad Example : A few years ago, I went to a three-day seminar where the presenter taught about how to market to universities. On the first morning, his team gave each of us a three-ring binder with hundreds of pages. I was actually pretty excited as I scanned the binder. It was full of a ton of great information. During the first hour, the speaker gave us over 50 great tips and techniques. In the next hour, he covered another 50. He did this over and over for two and a half days. Because I am a public speaking

However, a better example is…

Good Example : A few weeks ago, a long-time client asked me to design a custom workshop for his team. He had a team who were working on a project that had been discontinued. So, he wanted to help the team members have an easier time getting rehired elsewhere in the company. We created a short class for them on how to do well in a job interview. I started by making a list of the most important items they would likely want to know. Art the top of the list was how to reduce nervousness. I spent the first few minutes covering details on how to do this. Second, I gave them a simple process to help them answer questions with credibility. Finally, I gave them a list of questions they would likely be asked. I could have covered hundreds of other tips. However, these were the things that would give them the most bang-for-their-buck.

How Many Slides for a Longer Presentation

Basically, if you design a 120-minute PowerPoint presentation, start by creating two 60-minute presentations. Then, just insert a short break in between each session. When I created the two-day Fearless Presentations ® class, I didn’t start with two days of content. On the contrary, I started with an outline of the “most important” items just like what I suggested you do in your 15-minute presentation.

Here is the list that I started with:

How to Reduce Public Speaking Fear.
Designing Short Impromptu Speeches.
How to Create a Presentation that Is Easier to Deliver.
Adding Energy and Enthusiasm to Boring Topics.
Ways to Add Impact and Interactivity to a Presentation.

If I wanted to, I could deliver the entire content of this speech in an hour-long keynote. I’d just need to insert a few examples for each point. That is pretty easy. However, if I want to turn the list into a 2-day seminar, that is pretty easy as well. I’d start with the first point, “How to Reduce Public Speaking Fear.” This becomes the topic of a new one-hour presentation. I use the same technique. “What is the most important thing I can teach the audience about reducing nervousness? What is the second most important thing? And the third thing?”

Basically, the entire two-day class is just a collection of five shorter presentations. In my entire slide deck, I use about 30 different slides in two full days.

The Guy Kawasaki 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint

Guy Kawasaki created an interesting PowerPoint rule for entrepreneurs coming to him for venture capital. He calls it his 10/20/30 PowerPoint Rule . This general rule is what he requires presenters to use when they come to him for help. Basically, he noticed that presenters spend too much time blathering about unimportant things. So, he gave them a guide and set time limits for each presenter.

10 PowerPoint Slides
20-Minute Presentation
30 Point Font

Obviously, he created these criteria for a certain type of presentation. However, his logic is sound. In fact, the only thing I might argue with him about is the 10 slides rule. Kawasaki says, “Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting.”

Let me reiterate that. A normal human being cannot comprehend. He doesn’t say retain. The average person can comprehend more information than he or she can retain. For instance, if I read an entire book on accounting, I might comprehend all of the content. However, because the book covers so many concepts, I’m likely to retain only a few. Knowing this, reduce your number of slides and you will increase retention of your important points.

Podcasts , presentation skills

How Many Slides to Use in a Presentation? 5 Tips

There’s nothing worse than a presentation that goes over time or poorly-designed slides that cram too much information onto the screen at once.

While there are a lot of things that can dictate how many slides to use in a presentation, key factors include how long you have to speak, what content you are presenting, and the visual nature of the content. (Some speakers don’t need slides at all to keep audiences engaged!)

Here, we’re breaking down common presentation times with a guide for how not to overload slides, and use them well—no matter what type of talk you are giving.

How Does Unlimited PowerPoint Templates Sound?

Download thousands of PowerPoint templates, and many other design elements, with a monthly Envato Elements membership. It starts at $16 per month, and gives you unlimited access to a growing library of over 2,000,000 presentation templates, fonts, photos, graphics, and more.

Maximus Template

Business PPT Templates

Corporate & pro.

Explore PowerPoint Templates

How Many Slides for a 5 Minute Presentation?

When it comes to short presentations, you probably want to keep the number of slides to a minimum. Think about the venue here in particular. How many people are you presenting for?

Often short presentations might be for a small group or on a small screen. That’s a major consideration when it comes to how many slides you need for a 5-minute presentation.

For most speakers that comes down to 5 to 10 slides, up to 2 per minute of speaking time .

Design for screen size. If you’ll be presenting on a desktop or laptop screen, ensure that text is large enough to read for people standing or sitting a few feet away.
Practice your timing. Five minutes might seem like a long time until you start talking.
Put one point on each slide. (That’s probably all you’ll have time for.)
Include a call to action at the end for the audience. This might include anything from an email address to answer a question or provide feedback to taking a survey or visiting a website.
Don’t include a questions slide unless you will actually have time to take questions at the end of a short presentation.

How Many Slides for a 10 Minute Presentation?

With a 10-minute you have a little more flexibility in terms of slide count.

With more time, you can vary pacing and might have time to take questions at the end of the talk. (Your slide count will be less if you cut time from your presentation to answer questions.)

For a 10-minute presentation, you’ll probably end up creating 10 to 20 slides, but don’t feel like you have to move through two slides per minute. It really depends on the complexity of the information you are talking about.

Record your presentation as you run through it. Did you finish on time? And were you able to see each slide long enough to understand it during the natural flow of the presentation before moving on to the next one?

Include plenty of white space for an organized, easy to read design.
Use a mix of images and text to keep the visual flow moving.
Use legible fonts that are consistent from slide to slide.
If a slide looks cluttered, break the content into multiple slides.
Don’t go crazy with bullets. The goal of each slide is to present an idea, not serve as notes for you.

How Many Slides for a 15 Minute Presentation?

There’s a fairly logical relationship between the time you have to present information and how complicated the content is. The number of slides you need for a 15-minute presentation might not be that much different than at 10 minutes.

That’s because what’s on each slide might need to sit with the audience a little longer. You need to leave a chart on the screen long enough for the audience to understand it. A photo, on the other hand, can flash up and go away quickly and still be understood.

Carefully consider your presentation topic and then use this recommendation as needed: Allow for 20-30 slides for a 15-minute presentation .

Pick a theme for each slide: Image or text? Don’t expect the audience to “read” both on every slide.
Use image based slides to connect a short text point (or no text at all) to an idea the audience can see.
Use text-based slides without images for more complex information or to show bullet points, charts or numbers.
You don’t have to have a new photo and image for each slide. Use the same image and change the text if you need to. Or don’t use an image at all. Nice typography is pretty awesome.
Include more detailed information in the notes area for you as you are giving the presentation or to the audience to download and print later.

How Many Slides for a 30 Minute Presentation?

Once you get into the territory of longer presentations, you might want to use slides of varying types – some that are super quick and others that stay visible longer – to get different points across and fit the conversational flow.

This varying approach can be interesting for the audience but might require a little math and planning on your part to determine the exact right number of slides.

Start with this formula for a 30-minute presentation :

4 minutes: Amount of time for opening and closing (1 slide each)
2 minutes: Time for each point in your presentation (1 slide per point)
1 minute: Time for each sub-point in your presentation (1 slide per sub-point)
3 minutes: Deep dive for one or two key takeways (1-2 slides)
Flash slide (quick on and off the screen): For transitions between large topic areas or polling the audience to keep them engaged

Now you can look at your content and do a few quick calculations to get a rough idea of how many slides you might need. For a 30-minute presentation with 5 points with two subpoints each and a takeaway, that’s in the neighborhood of 20 slides.

How Many Slides for a 45 Minute Presentation?

For longer presentations, pace and energy are key. Some presenters can go through an exceptional number of slides because of the way they speak.

Seasoned speakers, often giving a presentation that they’ve done a lot of times, can average 5 slides per minute. These are fast-paced quick hit images that really keep the audience thinking and engaged. It’s a fun style but can be difficult to pull off.

A more moderate estimate is 1 to 2 slides per minute at a varying pace. That’s what you commonly see in corporate presentations and talks. (The content is often complex as well.)

Consider location with longer presentations. Will the slides be projected on a large screen? Design for that environment.
Include mixed media clips if appropriate in longer presentations. Varying formats can keep the audience interested.
Use a design theme for a consistent look and feel for the entire presentation.
Don’t let slides sit on the screen for too long. Mix it up with a new photo even if the content theme hasn’t changed much. Once you set an expectation for the audience with visuals, you don’t want them to check out.
Make the most of the top half of the slides. If you are in a big room, sometimes the lower portion is obscured for some audience members. Even if you need to use more slides to keep content toward the top, do it.

Email Newsletter

Newsletter signup, recent posts from zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance series.

The importance of using the right tools (Nov 26, 2023)
Bleeding my brakes (ZAMM series) (Nov 26, 2023)
Main takeaway: How to incorporate intuitive thinking (ZAMM series) (Dec 1, 2023)
Why I decided to reread Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM series) (Nov 26, 2023)

Recent blog posts

Get Better at Using Prompts With Deliberate Practice: One technical writer's little experiment — guest post by Diana Cheung (Apr 23, 2024)
Prompt engineering series: Creating scripts to automate doc build processes (Apr 21, 2024)
What should your documentation metrics look like? Q&A with Zoomin about their 2024 Technical Content Benchmark Report (Apr 14, 2024)
AI is accelerating my technical writing output, and other observations (Apr 14, 2024)
Upcoming conference: AI the API docs (Apr 3, 2024)
Prompt engineering series: Gathering source input (Mar 20, 2024)
Prompt engineering series: Error checking the output (Mar 20, 2024)
Integrating AI with your content delivery platform and documentation: Zoomin Q&A with Keren Brown (Mar 18, 2024)
Showcasing your API technical writer portfolio and projects — guest post by Peter Gustafson (Mar 12, 2024)
Prompt engineering series: Reverse engineering the recipe for excellent documentation (Mar 4, 2024)

Popular series

Reflections on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Journey away from smartphones
Trends to follow or forget
Simplifying complexity
Value arguments for docs and tech comm
See all series

Search results

The ideal number of slides for an hour-long presentation, and other thoughts on preparing slides, comparing two recent presentations, the right number of slides, font size and bulleted lists, avoiding laundry lists, argument overview slide, a good essay makes for a good presentation.

These past two weeks, I gave two presentations — a keynote at an internal writers conference at SAP, and a keynote at an internal writers conference at Amazon. (Sorry that I can’t post the recordings.) Both presentations filled an hour time slot. Because I’ve been in presentation mode this past month, especially preparing slides, I’d like to share some thoughts I have about how to create slides for presentations.

Hands-down, the best advice for creating slides is Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 rule of PowerPoint , which says you should have just 10 slides , your presentation should last no more than 20 minutes , and your font should be no less than 30 points .

I have aspired to follow Kawasaki’s slide rule for a number of years, but one fear always gets in the way: if I have just 10 slides, what if I run out of things to say after 20 minutes? I mean, usually I have to fill an hour presentation slot, right? In order to guard against running out of time, I have a tendency to add more and more slides, helping me remember points I want to make and ensuring I don’t end early.

With my first keynote presentation, I unfortunately had 50 slides (and got through about 40 of them during the presentation). (Granted, many were “sub-slides,” but they were still slides.) For my second presentation, I had only 14 slides (and got through them all). I felt the second presentation went better than the first.

Here’s the problem with having too many slides: the slides lock you into a fixed, rigid presentation order. The more slides you have, the more locked in you are to a fixed set of topics in a predefined order — which may or may not be the right order you want while presenting. With 50+ slides, you won’t have the freedom and flexibility to flow in a more natural way. The more slides you have, the more fixed the order becomes. Instead of a crutch, these slides become a cast that restricts your movement.

The absolute best presentation I’ve ever attended was by David Crystal at UA Europe , and he had no slides at all. He simply had a stool where he occasionally sat, and he spoke for about an hour and a half. It was the most mesmerizing presentation I’ve ever attended, and much of it focused on grammar (and stories about the origins of language). Crystal is the author of some 100+ books on language , and after the presentation, it was clear to me that he was a complete language genius.

I once gave a 20-minute presentation with no slides at all (at a WordPress conference), and I felt a bit naked. It wasn’t a great presentation, but it didn’t tank either. At some point, I’d like to develop the ability to present with just a few slides. I think such a presentation would resemble that of a stand-up comedian or other performer (like the Moth). I don’t have stage performer skills, so I doubt the slide-less presentation will ever be something I pull off. Still, I think as a general rule, the fewer slides one has, the more knowledge and experience the presenter has. Lots of slides is a red flag that the presenter isn’t an expert.

Until I can go slide-less, I have compromised at what I feel is the ideal number of slides for an hour-long presentation: about 15 slides (including the title and conclusion slides). Kawasaki says to limit the number of slides to 10 because no one can retain any more than 10 ideas in an hour, and though I don’t know what data supports this, I generally agree. I bumped my estimate up from 10 to 15 because Kawasaki’s ideal time of 20 minutes seems too short for the hour-long time slot.

Limiting the number of slides to 15 provides the perfect balance between flexibility and structure. You can pursue your ideas in a more freeform, natural way without being locked into a fixed, rigid order that might not fit the idea journey of your presentation.

You might object and say that if you practice your presentation enough, the slides can exactly match the idea journey you want to tell. Hence, you wouldn’t be locked into a structure you don’t want — instead, the slides would help you follow that desired structure.

Well, maybe. But I’ve given about 90 presentations, and it never seems to work out that way for me. Consider the analogy of a conversation. You want to have talking points that allow you to move about in a more freeform way, not necessarily a rigid order in which each topic must be spoken. If you imagine yourself having a conversation with the audience (rather than presenting a presentation), the talking points idea has more merit.

Another Kawasaki principle is to limit the font to no less than 30 points. This is also key. When I see slides with extensive bulleted lists, I cringe. While these bulleted lists might prompt the presenter with details to say, what ends up happening is the presenter more or less reads the slides and presents the presentation rather than telling a story.

Whenever you present a slide with text, the first thing the audience does is tune you out and start reading the text. As an audience member, it’s impossible not to — the screen is huge and directly in front of you.

If you reveal the bulleted list point by point, it has the same effect as flashing multiple, separate slides on the screen: It locks the presenter into a fixed order that potentially interrupts the natural flow of the story.

Ideally, I think good slides should be idea diagrams or visual sketch notes that demonstrate your ideas. Some presenters just put photos from Flickr on their slides to generally depict an idea, but I like more purposeful concept diagrams that might have multiple ideas going on. For example, like this:

Or like this:

Granted, some font on these slides is less than 30 points, but you don’t see extensive bulleted lists here.

For my second presentation slides , I tried to include about 3 stories per slide depicting concept diagrams like this. My thought was that I could glance at the pictures, and each picture would trigger 3 points to cover for the topic. I could cover the 3 stories/points in whatever order I wanted, so I wasn’t locked into a fixed outline. It more or less worked.

I also had slide notes in the presenter view that I could fall back on, but these presenter notes are challenging to read while speaking, and I think most presenters end up ignoring them. Pictures that trigger thought without interfering with one’s language-speaking functions work much better (for me anyway).

I use The Noun Project and Illustrator to create my concept diagrams, as it allows me to more easily manipulate different objects into the slides I want. The images aren’t spectacular, and they’re mostly black and white, but they aren’t embarrassing either, and I have fun making them. I end up exporting these artboards into my presentation. Each artboard is basically a slide in my presentation.

I use RevealJS for my presentations (and have been for the past several years). RevealJS is an HTML/CSS/JS framework that lets you code your slides with simple HTML syntax. For my second presentation, I put the SVGs as slide backgrounds , leaving ample room on the sides to allow for visibility even when the slide show is not in full screen. This worked quite well.

I also put each RevealJS slide presentation into its own GitHub repo. This makes it easy to update the slides. Kawasaki doesn’t say anything about RevealJS, PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote. It really doesn’t matter which tool you use. (I just added some tool-related details here in case you were curious.)

I’ve given many presentations that turn out to be laundry lists of points — a format I regret. This was the problem with my first keynote presentation. After highlighting a trend, I started listing a number of points that could provide solutions to the challenge. These “laundry list” topics tend to be on a lower-level than topics that provide a fuller, richer argument throughout.

Here’s an example of what I mean by a laundry list. In my first presentation, my argument overview was this:

Technology is getting simpler on the front-end for end-users But the code underneath is becoming increasingly specialized/complex Tech writers are generalists, not specialists To provide value in specialist contexts, tech writers must exploit the gaps These gaps are (1) doc tools/processes, (2) understanding user feedback/experiences, and (3) information usability

Then within the “(3) information usability” section, I covered these points:

Give users a map Make information discoverable as needed Ensure harmony across all docs Reduce and distill to its essence Confirm to genre expectations Reduce language complexity Iterative design of docs

Can you see how the presentation just devolved into a laundry list of points rather than focusing on a more focused idea journey? The laundry list comes into focus with the “(1)”, “(2)”, “(3)” points in the last bullet, followed by the 7 bullets later. When I was a composition teacher, I docked student essays for presenting similar laundry lists of ideas rather than going in depth with one point.

For my second presentation, I decided to chop out this laundry list of ideas and instead focus more singularly on my trends argument. So my argument overview was as follows:

Technology is getting more specialized/complex. This complexity drives up the value of technical knowledge, making it more prized than writing skills. To handle the complexity, technical writers must play increasingly collaborative roles with engineers to create documentation

And that’s it. No laundry list at all. I instead spent much more time developing, supporting, and exploring each of these parts of my argument.

Speaking of arguments, I also recommend putting up an “Argument Overview” slide right after your intro hook slide (which usually comes after your title slide). In other words, after you introduce the relevance of your topic, present the audience with your overall argument, so they know where you’re going and what you’re arguing for.

Many presentations will omit this argument overview. When they do, I find myself wondering what the presenter’s overall point is, if they even have one, or if they just have a collage of lots of little ideas. People can often take 10-15 minutes working their way up to some point, which they articulate in fuzzy ways.

I think a good presentation mirrors the elements of an essay:

relevance hook
argument/thesis

Many other essay elements might be reflected as well.

Kawasaki says to limit your presentation to 20 minutes. His main scenario isn’t presenters at a conference but rather presentations from startups to venture capitalists (VCs), and he doesn’t really give much reason here for the 20-minute length except to sarcastically say that if you have a Windows machine, it will take 40 minutes to troubleshoot the display. My guess is that VCs are executive types who have a lot of questions and don’t want to be lectured at extensively.

For too many presentations I’ve given, I’ve filled the entire time slot, without leaving any time for questions. This has been a mistake, in part due to having too many slides in the first place. For my second keynote, I spoke for only about 40 minutes and then let Q&A dominate the remaining 20 minutes. Although as an audience member I sometimes dislike listening to other audience members ask questions, I do like to ask my own questions.

Further, very few people can sit patiently listening to a lecture for an hour without engaging with more interactive dialogue. My brain isn’t wired to listen to lectures this long, and neither are many other people’s. You have to be pretty interesting to retain my attention for a full hour in an engaging way.

Probably the biggest reason, though, is that the purpose of a conference is not to present lectures — it’s to confer . You come together to confer with other people, and so you need this space to allow time to discuss your ideas.

What if no one has any questions, and you’re done 20 minutes early? Won’t that feel like you didn’t fill the time, that you short-changed what you promised?

If no one asks questions, it might mean you didn’t make a real argument in your presentation, but instead focused on something everyone already agrees on.

Coming back to the essay comparison, a good presentation focuses on an argument. And an argument must be something that people can take different sides on. If everyone already agrees on the position you’re taking, why bother making it in the first place? Are you already telling people something they already know?

I realize that many presentations at conferences are more information-based rather than argument-based, and people come to “learn” rather than to “debate,” but I’d counter that almost every topic has areas of controversy or uncertainty, and I like to see someone taking a position and defending it with evidence. This shows my bias towards the essay format, as I think good essays reflect this focus as well.

At any rate, if you’ve focused on some argument that people can disagree about, then ending 20 minutes early for Q&A should be ideal, as you will have set the stage for a lively discussion — which is one draw to these gatherings in the first place. You’re setting up the discussion and then allowing for the audience to engage in critical thinking.

Additionally, note that as a presenter, you can also be the one to ask questions. A good teacher doesn’t just lecture to students for 20 minutes and then ask them what questions they have. The teacher asks challenging questions to students and invites them to engage. Why can’t presenters at conferences do the same?

A good essay and a good presentation share many similarities. For many presentations I give, I’ll often write out the content as a blog post or essay before hand. For example, for my second keynote presentation, my Tech comm trends - take two post was the essay form of the post. The essay was about 8,000 words, which is about right for an hour-long presentation. For my first keynote, the essay was an earlier version of the same trends topic .

If the essay doesn’t have a good shape and focus (no idea journey, no story arc, no argument, no evidence, no analysis of opposing views, no interesting questions, etc.), then the presentation will probably lack life as well.

The absolute best advice for any presentation is to structure the idea journey as a story. I don’t mean to pepper in anecdotes everywhere (though that is actually great advice). I mean presentations should follow the general story arc. You have some sort of goal, and you encounter challenges to that goal. The bulk of your work is in getting through these challenges, until you finally come to some realization or conclusion. This flow aligns perfectly with the essay format.

Although I’m not a professional presenter and I lack more training and polish, in the presentations I’ve given over the years, fewer slides work better than more slides. Overall, if I can shape the essay right in the first place, it usually eliminates most of the problems with presentations. That’s why I spend about 90% of the time writing the essay first, and then in the last couple of weeks create the slides.

About Tom Johnson

I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.

If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the tech comm, be sure to subscribe to email updates below. You can also learn more about me or contact me . Finally, note that the opinions I express on my blog are my own points of view, not that of my employer.

How Many Slides Does Your Presentation Need, Anyway: A No-Nonsense Guide

Hrideep barot.

Presentation

It doesn’t matter whether it’s your first time giving a presentation or fortieth, a quintessential question that always pops up in a presenter’s mind is: how many slides should my presentation include?

Well, this straightforward question doesn’t have a straightforward answer.

What I mean by saying this is that there is no magical number of slides that will guarantee you pocketing an outstanding presentation. Your decision on how many slides your presentation has shouldn’t be based on some rigid rule plucked from an instruction manual or the internet.

Rather, decide the number of slides in your presentation based on your individualized requirements, as well as that of the presentation that you plan on delivering.

However, this doesn’t mean that your presentation should drag on for hours, backed by an abysmal corpus of slides that fly past before the viewer has had the chance to fully comprehend the previous slide.

While it’s important to be flexible in organizing your presentation, it is equally important to ensure that this flexibility doesn’t transmute into redundancy.

Or vice versa: You don’t want to be tarrying over the same five slides throughout an hour-long presentation. The dearth of visual cues will not only make the reader bored but might also make it difficult for the viewer to follow what you’re saying.

So how to ensure that you hit the sweet spot every time?

That’s what this article is all about!

Here is a quick overview of how many slides your presentation should include:

SO, HOW MANY SLIDES SHOULD I USE ANYWAY?

To answer your question, I’ve listed out some guidelines below. However, remember that these are only guidelines.

As I mentioned before, there is no fixed rule of thumb for the number of slides that are exactly right for any and every single presentation that you’re going to deliver over the course of your life.

Keep that in mind as you go through the rest of the article.

1 . So, what are you trying to say, anyway?

Is your purpose to show the audience X number of slides in X minutes? No!

Your purpose is to convince them. To persuade them. To make them listen and understand your message—whatever it may be.

So, the first and the most important point to determine how many slides your presentation should contain is to decide what message you’re trying to get across. If there is a particular topic that you have to speak on, stick to it.

If not, then ask yourself the following questions:

What is the purpose of my presentation or what is the main underlying message that I am trying to get across?

Who am I trying to get it across to & what is the best way to get it across to my target audience?

Once you’ve determined what you’re trying to say, move on to how you’re going to say it. Ask yourself:

Is there a time limit that I must stick to?

Is there a range or limit of slides that I have been asked to follow?

Is there a particular theme that I have been asked to follow?

What is the setting where the presentation is to be delivered?

The questions listed above contain few of the most important factors to consider before deciding upon the number of slides in your presentation.

Once you’ve determined what your main message is and if there are any guidelines that you must follow/have been asked to follow while delivering it, move on to the second guiding principle:

2 . Quality Over Quantity

As with most other things in life, when it comes to the number of slides in your presentation, quality trumps quantity.

The quality of the information included in your slide is a more appropriate determinant of its utility to your presentation than a random goal number of slides that you’re trying to hit.

Don’t just add a new slide for the sake of increasing your total number of slides or because you’re trying to meet a random number that you saw on the internet or heard an ‘expert’ on YouTube declare is the perfect number of slides to include in a presentation .

Rather, decide whether you want to include a particular slide in your presentation or not based on what value it adds to the latter.

A rich corpus of information may impress your viewer, but might actually do nothing to expand their understanding of your presentation.

On the contrary, it might leave them confused about the actual message you’re attempting to get across, or straight up bore them and make them lose interest in the rest of your presentation.

An effective presentation should include only the key points or augment what you’re saying with the help of audio-visual stimuli.

You don’t need to list out every single thing that you’re saying in the presentation. You want the audience’s eyes to be on you and not on the screen behind you. Remember that the audience is there to see you present, and not to read what you’re trying to present.

3 . Space It Out

Imagine stepping into an over-crowded bus after a long day of hard work. The sweaty bodies brushing against you, the longing side-glances that you throw at seats that were unoccupied just yesterday but are swarming today, the arm that jostles you every time the bus slows down or lurches forward.

Now imagine stepping into the same bus the following day, only this time it is occupied by only five people instead of fifty, leaving you with an extensive array of empty seats to pick for day-dreaming upon on your way back home.

How do you imagine yourself feeling in both of the scenarios?

Most likely, the way you imagine yourself feeling in the first situation is drastically different than how you imagine yourself feeling in the second scenario.

The first scenario probably made you feel befuddled, irritated, and overwhelmed. If you were on the bus in the second scenario, however, you would feel relaxed, comfortable, and maybe even pleasantly surprised.

Similarly, if your viewer is greeted with a presentation with a scanty number of overcrowded slides, most likely by the second or the third slide, they will find themselves annoyed, overwhelmed and unreceptive, or downright resistant to the message you’re delivering.

On the other hand, a spaced-out, attractive presentation will not only engage your reader’s attention but also make it easier for them to comprehend and retain your message.

So, make sure to space out your presentation and have appropriate ‘breathing room’ in individual slides, even if it means you have to add more of them.

For example, if there are eight comprehensive points under one topic of your presentation, instead of cramming all of them into a single slide, use one slide for one point.

Not only will this make your presentation look more physically attractive, but it will also allow you to add more visual stimuli like videos and pictures for a single point, thus helping to give a boost to your audience’s overall understanding of the material.

4 . Time Matters

Before the big day, make sure to practice delivering your presentation a couple of times. Again, there is no set rule for how many times you should practice.

Simply do it as many times as it takes for you to grow comfortable with what you’re saying and remember your topic well enough that you don’t have to keep re-checking the slides over your shoulder over and over again.

As you practice, keep a lookout for how much time it’s taking for you to reach the end of the presentation.

Are you finishing it well before your time limit? Doesn’t matter whether it’s been provided to you by someone else or is simply a target that you’ve set for yourself.

If that’s the case, then increase the number of slides in the presentation. Alternatively, if you feel like adding more slides is redundant, you could also increase the amount of time you spend explaining each slide.

Is your presentation transgressing your time limit?

In that case, you might want to go the opposite way and either decrease the number of slides in your presentation or the amount of time you spend on each slide.

If you find that you’re still struggling with timing your presentation, check out our article on 11 Steps To Help You Keep Time During Your Presentation for some killer tips on timing your presentation!

What is the speed at which you speak? Are you someone who speaks slowly, using eloquent words and slotting in substantial pauses between sentences for added impact? Or do you tend to breeze through your words, keeping your sentences brusque and the tempo of your speech swift?

What is the capacity of your target audience? Are they experts on the topic or novices—this is an important determinant of how much time you’re going to need to spend on each topic/slide.

If your audience is a complete newbie to the topic, you might be required to spend more time describing terms and topics that might have been otherwise familiar to a person who is already well-versed with what you’re saying. This will come into play for you to determine how many slides to include.

You could also ask a mentor or a family member to provide feedback on your presentation. Ask them if they feel you’ve spent too long lingering over a particular slide or if you’ve breezed through a topic so quickly that they’re left confused.

Try incorporating their feedback in your presentation. However, remember that at the end of the day, you know your topic best and you’re the one who’s going to be delivering it. Don’t take their feedback as gospel, but as guiding principles.

5 . So, who are you presenting it to, anyway?

Everybody expert has a different idea about how many slides is the “correct” number of slides to have in a presentation. Some people believe that five slides are enough for a twenty-minute presentation, others believe that twenty slides are the best bet for a presentation of the same length.

However, as I’ve mentioned before, there is no set formula for the perfect presentation length.

An array of different factors, and not a single rule, should be kept in mind while determining the length of an individual presentation.

One of the most important factors, besides the audience and the subject matter, is the venue of your presentation. Are you going to deliver your presentation in a workplace or for a school project?

Are you going to be delivering it to a large audience on a big screen or is the setting more intimate, with just a couple of important people as viewers?

If you’re going to deliver a presentation to a big audience, it’s better to minimize the importance of the presentation and focus more on the speech part of your delivery. If the setting is more intimate (eg: if you’re delivering it to your colleagues), you could get away with utilizing a larger number of slides.

6 . The Battle Of Slides: Low Count vs. Medium Count vs. High Count

All three types of slide use have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Low Slide Count :

If you’re using a low number of slides (ranging from 1-10 slides, depending on the total duration of the presentation), then the focus of the audience will naturally be directed towards yourself.

This will increase the relative importance of not only what you’re saying, but also how you’re saying it, as the audience will be able to focus more on your gestures, your body language, and your expressions, all of which are important modes of communication.

However, if you’re someone who’s not very comfortable with public speaking, this might turn out to be a disadvantage instead of an advantage, as too many eyes might make you feel self-conscious. If you like this type of approach but are afraid of having too many people looking at you , check out our article on Public Speaking For Introverts: The Why, What & Who (An A-Z Guide) , for some tips and tricks to deliver an awesome presentation!

Medium Slide Count:

If there is a lot of important information that you must include in the presentation, don’t cram it all in a few slides just to cut the length of your presentation.

Instead, you could go with a more moderate amount of slides. Here, you’re looking at a range of about 1-2 slides per minute, which leaves you with about 30-60 slides for an hour-long presentation.

This is the average length of most types of presentations. This number of slides will allow you to spread out your topics and not force you to cram a lot of information in a handful of slides.

On the other hand, if you’ve not practiced enough, you might end up losing track of time and spend too long on a particular slide, thus disrupting your time limit. Also, if you add slides just for the sake of increasing your slide count, your audience might pick up on this and you may end up losing their attention, which is crucial to delivering a successful presentation.

High Slide Count:

Many people also prefer using a high number of slides, firing through upwards of 5 slides per minute. This rapid-fire style keeps the audience riveted and engaged, as they have to keep be attentive and stay on the lookout for every new slide.

However, if you’re not well-versed or don’t have enough experience with delivering these types of presentations, your efforts might backfire and make your presentation seem too cluttered and your ideas too far-flung for them to make sense to your audience.

7 . Design Matters Too

The design of your presentation is another important determinant of how many slides it’s going to contain. If, for instance, your presentation involves a lot of visual imagery (for instance, if you’re presenting a new design of a product), the number of slides is going to be more.

This is because, in order to draw attention to the pictures, you might end up employing one slide for a single picture, thereby increasing your slide count, even if the actual points or written material is not as exhaustive.

On the other hand, if your slide involves a lot of textual material (for instance, if you’re giving a business presentation), then the number of slides that you use might be less, as a multitude of related points might be fixed on a single slide instead of being spread across multiple slides.

In this scenario, you might end up spending more time on a single slide instead of quickly firing through many of them as it contains more points to be explained and expanded upon.

Similarly, if your presentation contains an equal amount of pictures and explanations (for instance, if you’re doing a school presentation), then your slide count might fall somewhere between the two examples mentioned above.

GETTING A LITTLE MORE SPECIFIC…

Selection of slides based on duration of presentation

I’ve listed below a general range that you can follow while laying down the skeleton of your presentation. Again—and I cannot stress this enough—remember that these are only guidelines.

Five Minutes Presentation: In the exceptional scenario that you’ve been asked to deliver a presentation lasting under five minutes, you can get away with using fewer slides, somewhere between 5—10. After all, you simply won’t have the time to breeze through 20—30 slides (unless, of course, your presentation involves displaying a lot of pictures, in which case it’s generally wise to use one picture per slide).
Ten Minutes Presentation: For a presentation that’s to be wrapped up in under ten minutes or less, you can stick to the general guidelines listed above. Anything between 5—20 slides is a good number to aim for.
Fifteen Minutes Presentation: For a moderate-length presentation lasting somewhere around fifteen minutes, you might want to consider using more slides. A general range is something between 15—30 slides, although you can play around with the number depending on how much time you’re going to be spending on each individual slide and other factors listed in the article.
Twenty/Thirty Minutes Presentation: Guy Kawasaki advocates a 10/20/30 rule i.e your presentation should have 10 slides, last 20 minutes, and not contain any font smaller than 30pts. However, you don’t necessarily have to follow such a rigid structure. As the length of your presentation increases, it becomes less and less important to ponder over how many slides it exactly has. You can aim for whatever number feels natural to you.
Forty-Five/Sixty Minutes Presentation: As the length of your presentation increases, chances are that your audience’s attention span will begin to waver or reduce. While you can follow the above-listed guidelines for a sixty-minute presentation as well, for a speech of this duration, it’s important to give prominence to other factors as well. Keep your slides attractive and engaging. Try to include more pictures in each slide. Another important factor is to continue interacting with your audience or involve them in your presentation—this will keep them attentive and less susceptible to boredom.

The above-listed guidelines will help you lay down the structure of your presentation, however, the actual delivery of it is up to you. Choose whatever method suits best your goal and feel the most natural to you. Remember that it is your presentation. You get to decide how to present it.

Enroll in our transformative 1:1 Coaching Program

Schedule a call with our expert communication coach to know if this program would be the right fit for you

7 Keys to Emcee Like a Pro: Unlock Your Hosting Potential

8 Ways to Rise Above the Noise to Communicate Better

How to Negotiate: The Art of Getting What You Want

[email protected]
+91 98203 57888

Get our latest tips and tricks in your inbox always

Kindly drop your contact details so that we can arrange call back

Select Country Afghanistan Albania Algeria AmericanSamoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Rwanda Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Tajikistan Thailand Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Wallis and Futuna Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe land Islands Antarctica Bolivia, Plurinational State of Brunei Darussalam Cocos (Keeling) Islands Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Cote d'Ivoire Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Guernsey Holy See (Vatican City State) Hong Kong Iran, Islamic Republic of Isle of Man Jersey Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Lao People's Democratic Republic Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Macao Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Mozambique Palestinian Territory, Occupied Pitcairn RÃ©union Russia Saint BarthÃ©lemy Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Sao Tome and Principe Somalia Svalbard and Jan Mayen Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tanzania, United Republic of Timor-Leste Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.S.

May 7, 2024

How many slides do I need for my presentation?

How many slides for a 10 minute presentation and the 3-2-1 rule for presentations

The 3-2-1 rule for presentations

Co-founder, CEO

Preparing for a presentation can be a daunting task for anyone. If you are presenting to an important client, a large audience, or a group of classmates, it can feel like it's impossible to figure out where to start.

However, with some planning and preparation (and help from wonderful blog posts like this one!), you can go into your presentation with confidence and deliver your message effectively. So don't worry, we've got you covered!

Here are some tips to help you determine how many slides you need for your presentation, based on the length of time you have to speak.

How many minutes per slide for a presentation?

A general guideline is to allocate approximately 2 minutes per slide. This means that for a 10-minute presentation, you should aim for around 5 slides, plus or minus 1 to 2 slides. Try the calculator below or read the 3-2-1 Rule for presentations for a more in-depth guide on how to budget the number of slides for your next presentation.

How many slides for a presentation? (Calculator)

Here is a calculator that can help you budget how many slides you will need for your presentation depending on the time you need to present for. Just type in how long your presentation needs to be in minutes, and it will give you a suggestion for the number of slides.

While this is a simple calculation, the number of slides in your presentation can vary widely depending on the complexity of the content, the type of presentation, and the goal of the presentation.

For example, a slide deck for an 18 minute TED talk might only have a few slides with very little text, while the slide deck for a ~18 minute research presentation might have 30 slides (although many of them could be backup slides in an appendix).

Here are some additional rules for thinking about the number of slides in a presentation:

When using this calculator, enter the amount of "presentation" that you will be actively presenting. Don't worry about time that will be spent in discussion or Q&A
If you are presenting data, try to reduce the complexity of the presentation itself and put most of the charts and data in an appendix.
If you are creating a presentation as a 'leave-behind' that can stand by itself, you should aim for the higher end of these recommended ranges. If you are creating a presentation that is a visual aid for you to tell a story, you should aim for the lower end of these ranges.

Follow the "3-2-1 Rule" for presentations

While every presentation is different, and everyone's presentation style is different, the 3-2-1 rule is a good rule of thumb to plan the overall structure of a presentation. This applies whether you are a management consultant advising Fortune 500 CEOs or if you're a student making a high school presentation.

Here are the three components of the 3-2-1 Rule:

THREE takeaways for your audience
TWO minutes to present a slide
ONE idea per slide

As you create the outline for a new presentation or revise an existing presentation, you should ask yourself:

What are the 3 things that I want my audience to remember from my presentation when I am done talking (or they are done reading)?
How many slides will I have to make these points? Divide the time of your presentation by 2 to get a general idea for how many slides you will need in your presentation
What is the main idea for each slide? A common refrain among professional consultants is that you should be able to understand the story of a slide deck just by reading the slide titles

Regardless of the length of the presentation, you should always start the planning or revision process by thinking about the key points that you want your audience to take away (that's the whole point of a presentation, really!).

Then, if you are making a 10 minute presentation, you probably need 5 slides plus or minus 1 to 2 slides depending on the style of presentation or depth of content. If these are slides to start a conversation, you probably need fewer. If these are slides to present your takeaways from a research project, you may need more (and maybe some backup slides in an appendix, too).

From there, write out the key idea for each slide. One great way to do this is to make the key idea of the slide the slide title itself. Then, you should be able to read all of the slide titles one after another and make sure that they deliver a cohesive story.

If you need a quick way to get started, try using an AI presentation maker to generate the first draft of your presentation.

How many slides do I need for a 5 minute presentation?

If you are making a 5 minute presentation, your goal should be for your audience to only remember one or two key ideas, so you should have 2 or 3 slides max.

For work: Try to create 1 slide with your main idea, along with 1 or 2 backup slides that can present supporting data like a data visualization, customer quotes, or an execution plan.
For sales: Try to create 1 slide to focus your discussion, along with 1 or 2 backup slides that can help answer customer questions.
For school: Try to create 1 slide for each key point in a story or research idea and make sure the key points can tie themselves together in a conclusion.
For storytelling: Try to create one slide with a poignant story, quote, or data point to help your audience remember the key message from your presentation. Then, you may also want to have 1 or 2 slides to build up to the idea or present conclusions from that idea.

How many slides do I need for a 10 minute presentation?

In a 10 minute presentation, you should aim for 5 slides, plus or minus 1 to 2 slides. Here are some suggestions based on the type of presentation:

For work: Create 2 or 3 primary slides to present your key points (e.g., a framework slide, a key data visualization, or a plan of action), and 2 to 3 additional slides with supporting data or examples.
For sales: Create 3 main slides that highlight the benefits of your product or service (e.g., problem statement, customer story, value proposition), and 2 additional slides for testimonials or data to help support the conversation if your customer wants to dive deeper on a specific topic.
For school: Create 2 or 3 main slides for your key arguments or findings, and 2 to 4 additional slides for evidence or further explanation. A book report, for example, could have a slide with a plot summary and another slide with the key themes in the story.
For storytelling: Create 3 main slides that build a narrative arc (introduction, rising action, conclusion), and 2 additional slides for impactful quotes or visuals. The key slides for a TED talk might be an image to tell a captivating story, a slide to present a shocking statistic, and end with a story about a hopeful new project to solve a key problem.

How many slides do I need for a 15 minute presentation?

For a 15 minute presentation, aim for 7 slides, plus or minus 1 to 2 slides. Here are some suggestions based on the type of presentation:

For work: Create 3 primary slides to present your key points (e.g., a framework slide, a key data visualization, or a plan of action), and 4 to 5 additional slides with supporting data or examples.
For sales: Create 3 main slides that highlight the benefits of your product or service (e.g., problem statement, customer story, value proposition), and 3 to 4 additional slides for testimonials or data to help support the conversation if your customer wants to dive deeper on a specific topic.
For school: Create 3 main slides for your key arguments or findings, and 3 to 4 additional slides for evidence or further explanation. A book report, for example, could have a slide with a plot summary, a slide with the key themes in the story, and a final slide with how those themes apply to your life.
For storytelling: Create 4 main slides that build a narrative arc (introduction, rising action, climax, conclusion), and 3 to 4 additional slides for impactful quotes or visuals. The key slides for a TED talk might be an image to introduce a captivating story, a slide to present a memorable statistic, a slide to with a story about a hopeful new project, and a slide with the results to-date.

How many slides do I need for a 20 minute presentation?

For a 20 minute presentation, aim for 10 slides, plus or minus 1 to 2 slides. Here are some suggestions based on the type of presentation:

For work: Create 3 primary slides to present your key points (e.g., a framework slide, a key data visualization, or a plan of action), and 6 to 7 additional slides with supporting data or examples.
For sales: Create 4 main slides that highlight the benefits of your product or service (e.g., problem statement, customer story, value proposition, evidence), and 5 to 6 additional slides for testimonials or data to help support the conversation if your customer wants to dive deeper on a specific topic.
For school: Create 4 main slides for your key arguments or findings, and 5 to 6 additional slides for evidence or further explanation. A book report, for example, could have a slide with a plot summary, a slide about a key moment/decision in the story, a slide with the key themes in the story, and a final slide with how those themes apply to your life.
For storytelling: Create 4 main slides that build a narrative arc (introduction, rising action, climax, conclusion), and 4 to 5 additional slides for impactful quotes or visuals. The key slides for a TED talk might be an image to introduce a captivating story, a slide to present a memorable statistic, a slide to with a story about a hopeful new project, and a slide with the results to-date. One thing to note here is that the length of a storytelling slide deck does not need to get much longer for 15, 20, or 30 minute presentations.

How many slides do I need for a 30 minute presentation?

At 30 minutes and above, it becomes increasingly likely that you won't be expected to present for 30 minutes straight, and the "presentation" itself becomes more of a conversation aid that can support a back-and-forth discussion about a topic.

For these types of presentations, you should calculate how much time is going to be used in a "single-sided" presentation and how much time will be used in discussion. If you expect 10 minutes of your 30 minute presentation (or more) to be a discussion, you should refer to the section on "How many slides do I need for a 20 minute presentation?"

If you think you will need to present for a full 30 minutes, here is our recommendation for the number of slides you need, based on the type of presentation.

For a general 30-minute presentation, aim for 15 slides, plus or minus 2 to 3 slides.

How many slides do I need for a 45 minute presentation?

45 minutes is a long time for a one-sided presentation, so it's more likely your presentation will be used to facilitate a back and forth conversation (which may use slides as support to make a strategic decision), or present an in-depth look at research data and conclusion (which may use slides with in-depth data analysis).

For these types of presentations, you should calculate how much time is going to be used in a "single-sided" presentation and how much time will be used in discussion. If you expect half of the time to be a discussion, you should refer to the section on "How many slides do I need for a 20 minute presentation?"

If you think you will need to present for 45 minutes, here is our recommendation for the number of slides you need, based on the type of presentation.

For a general 45-minute presentation, aim for 20 slides, plus or minus 3 to 5 slides.

How many slides do I need for a 60 minute presentation?

60 minutes - one hour - is a very long time for a one-sided presentation. For these types of presentations, you should calculate how much time you expect to give a "single-sided" presentation and how much time will be used in discussion or Q&A.

If you expect half of the time to be a discussion, you should refer to the section on "How many slides do I need for a 30 minute presentation?"

If you think you will need to present for 60 minutes, here is our recommendation for the number of slides you need, based on the type of presentation.

For a 60-minute presentation, aim for 25 slides, plus or minus 3 to 8 slides.

How should I create slides for my presentation?

Staring at a blank page when you need to create a dozen slides for your presentation can be a nerve-wracking experience. One of the best ways to get a quick start on your next slide deck is to use AI to speed up your workflow.

To get started, install the Plus AI add-on. Enter a prompt or an existing text block (e.g., an article, a blog post, a document), and then ask Plus AI to generate a first draft of your presentation.

From there, you can use Plus AI's editing, rewriting, remixing, and design features to apply the perfect finishing touches on your deck to make it yours!

Latest posts

Five lessons for building AI apps

Five things we've learned the hard way about building AI-powered apps

How to add bullet points in Google Slides

For an effective presentation, we’ll show you how to add bullet points in Google Slides as well as how Plus AI can provide you with content for your lists.

How to use ChatGPT to create PowerPoint presentations

Step-by-step guide to using AI tools to create presentations. Looking for ChatGPT for PowerPoint? Here's a guide to using AI in PowerPoint and Google Slides

More resources

An in-depth review of slidesai and alternative ai presentation tools.

An in-depth review of SlidesAI.io with how it works, pricing, and real user reviews. Includes top alternatives to SlidesAI for making AI presentations.

MagicSlides and alternative AI presentation tools

An in-depth review of MagicSlides features, pricing, and alternative AI slide creation tools

How to convert text to PowerPoint

Want to use an existing doc to give you a jumpstart on creating your slideshow? We’ll show you a few ways to convert text to PowerPoint both online and on your desktop.

Scroll to top

How many slides should I have in my PowerPoint presentation?

When you’re planning out your next big presentation, it can be hard to know what the slide count sweet spot is. How many slides to put in a presentation, to keep your audience’s attention, is a much bigger question than it may seem.

We’d love to tell you there’s a simple answer, but if you really want to create a persuasive argument, there are a few variables to consider when planning the number of slides in your presentation. And despite what other articles spout, it has nothing to do with time.

We bet you’ve heard a few conflicting theories on this subject, so we thought it was about time we weighed in. You might’ve heard Guy Kawasaki ’s 10/20/30 rule. This rule states that the “perfect” presentation has ten slides, lasts for 20 minutes, and uses a 30pt font. Or you might’ve read that every minute you speak equates to one slide on display behind you. You might even have uncovered some more formulaic and intricate theories than those, where x = the perfect number of slides. To reach x, you simply divide the number of people in the audience by how many seconds you have to speak, times that by how many steps between your house and the venue, to the power of your height in centimetres. If you’ve already worked your way through a series of varying opinions, you might currently be crying out “just tell me how many damn slides I need!”

Just tell me how many damn slides I need! You

While a lot of these theories are rooted in intelligent thinking and, sometimes, even science, we can’t get on board. They’re just too damn limiting. The people behind the theories were probably trying to over-simplify this complicated question, just to give you an answer. But do you want any answer? Or do you want the right answer?

The right answer is: you’re thinking about presentations wrong.

Do you think Jack Kerouac, Graham Greene, or Dan Brown ever sat down to write with the sole intention of landing on 432 pages? No, they had stories to tell, and it didn’t matter how many pages they took to tell them.

What makes you so different from Kerouac ?

How many slides until there’s purpose?

You’re writing a presentation with a purpose. There’s a change you want to make, and your task is to convey your message persuasively, to inspire everyone that hears it to want the same change. Your purpose is not to fill exactly 20 minutes with exactly ten slides. It takes as many slides as it takes.

No, we’re not just going to leave you with that. We’re not trying to lose friends, clients and beloved readers.

We understand that presentations do often have a time limit, and that limit is one we have to consider when writing. But that limit needs to influence the number of ideas you try to convey, not dictate how many slides go into your presentation to convey these ideas. Because that’s what we’re really talking about here: ideas. For a shorter presentation, you’re going to need to be cut-throat with your editing. To trim the excess, until all that’s left is the most impactful, delicious centre piece.

That doesn’t mean, if you have the freedom of time, you should use it to reel off every idea you’ve ever had. But you can allow yourself the luxury to layer linked ideas that all point towards one conclusion. To build a nest of ideas. And to support those ideas with facts, figures, previous successes, as well as other people’s ideas.

Only once you’ve written your detailed narrative structure, or your full script , if that’s how you feel most comfortable, should you even start to think about PowerPoint slides.

Give your ideas room to breathe

Each of your ideas deserves its time to shine. A dramatic pause works to let an impactful sentence sink in, giving the audience a moment to consider the gravity of the spoken word. Uncluttered slides have the same effect. If you try to include too many ideas on one slide, none of them are going to be understood, or remembered.

If you’re just starting out in the world of persuasive communications, a good rule to follow is: one idea, one slide . This will allow each idea to have its moment, without competing with any of the other ideas. This will also mean, visually, you’ll have more opportunity to enhance your message. With more slide real estate to play with, you can create presentation designs that hammer your ideas home, rather than confuse the situation further.

The journey of an idea:

introduce it
let it sink in

and signal the introduction of the next idea with a brand-new slide.

This is a great guide, for those lacking confidence, to use as a starting point. It is not a rule.

What counts as an idea?

Now, this is a much more complicated question, and one that will change for every presentation. In our role as guides in this scenario, we want to give you a tangible answer to your query, not simply introduce more questions, and more confusion, into the mix. After all, if your presentation is tomorrow and your search was the result of extreme desperation and maybe a little too much wine, well, you’re probably not reading this anymore because you’ve already poured said wine over your laptop in frustration. But if you are still with us, you’re probably really keen to get an answer right about now.

Frustration and confusion are not our goals. We just respect you too much to lie to you. We trust that you’ve caught on to the general theme that there are many considerations that go into the slide count of any presentation that comes through the Hype Presentations studio doors. Now that we’ve addressed that, we can give you a template to help you along your way.

If you’ve read any of our other storytelling blogs , you already know that every story – this includes your presentation – needs a beginning, middle and end . Let’s break down a very basic structure, and accompanying slide count, for these three key sections.

This is where you set the scene, pique the audience’s interest, give them a clue as to what’s in it for them, and establish common ground. It might look something like this:

Title slide : give your audience something exciting to look at, as they’re waiting for the presentation to begin. One slide.
Agenda: lay out the journey they’re about to go on, and why it will be worth their while. One slide.
Current situation : describe the landscape as it currently stands, making sure everyone is on the same page before you set off. No man left behind. One slide.

This is where we get into the real juicy bit of storytelling. And it’s also where all hope you had of squeezing a definitive slide count out of us will come tumbling down.

A persuasive argument needs to acknowledge your audience’s challenges, and propose a solution to each one of them. Your audience might have one challenge, they might have 50, which is where the ambiguity kicks back in. Each challenge needs its own slide, and each solution does too.

If your audience does have 50 challenges, try to find common themes between them, so you can address them as a cohesive group, all under one idea umbrella. Human beings find patterns comforting, so they’ll appreciate the bundling, as well as the reduced slide count.

Appealing to emotion, by showing you have the answer to your audience’s problems, is just one part of landing a persuasive argument. You also need to apply to logic and establish credibility. Again, this could take one slide, or it could take nine, but here is some general guidance:

Case studies: one case study per slide.
How it works: if the technology, service, or process you’re proposing is simple, showing your audience how it works may only take one slide. However, if it’s complicated, you’ll need to break it into component parts and tell this story across multiple slides. Remember, it’s about clarity and comprehension. It takes as many slides as it takes for the information to be processed.
About you: audiences don’t care that much about how you were formed, or where your CEO worked before he came to be with you. Edit your company information down to what actually matters to them, and what will establish credibility in their eyes. If you’ve won awards that prove your innovations are the best in your field, show them the accolades. If the technology partner you work with is exclusive to you, let them know. The most effective ‘About us’ sections are one or two slides at the most. Avoid the company timeline, at all costs.

To close, you’re going to want to sum your key points up in one slide. Just a gentle reminder of the immense benefits they will receive by working with you.

And finally, your end slide should be, as the name suggests, one slide with a powerful call to action. To find out more about how to leave a lasting impression on every audience you encounter, take a look at this article .

Even if you’re still pulling your hair out, desperately grasping for a simple number, hopefully these guidelines have given you some food for thought.

And now we’re going to complicate the already-fuzzy rules we’ve put in place.

At Hype Presentations, we never look at the number of slides.

Give a shit, that’s what we say. Slide count doesn’t mean a damn thing. Sometimes we spread one message across five slides, because that’s how you get the animation to work seamlessly. Complicated navigation often requires duplicating slides, so that you don’t confuse PowerPoint as to where action came from. In contrast, we can present really complicated messaging on just one slide by using animation builds to break up the story, instead of a series of slides. There are so many variables. All we’re trying to say is, stop worrying yourself about slide count.

However, some things, to do with slide count, you should worry yourself about:

Bad advice

This is a call back to some of those other articles you likely stumbled across in your search. If you’re basing your presentation on hitting exactly one minute per slide, you’ve already lost your audience and you’re not even stood in front of them.

If you’re basing your presentation on hitting exactly one minute per slide, you’ve already lost your audience and you’re not even stood in front of them.

Are all ideas created equal? No. Does your audience care about everything you have to say in equal measure? No. Even if you’ve taken the “so what?” test, and all your messages have passed and are providing value to them, they’re not going to appreciate you skipping over important parts of the solution because the clock is ticking.

Take time to explain the ideas with the greatest impact, and appreciate your audience’s intelligence enough to assume they’ll understand what an award means, without you describing it for a minute, just because the rule says so.

Do you need slides at all?

Pick your jaw up off the floor. Just because we create next-level presentations day in, day out, and we absolutely bloody love PowerPoint, doesn’t mean we’re going to lead you astray. Sometimes, you just don’t need the support that slides bring.

Slides are not there to remind you, as presenter, what your key talking points are. If you’re one of the – terrifyingly few – people who practice adequately ahead of a big presentation, you won’t need your memory jogged anyway.

Slides are not there to tell the whole story for you. The slideshow is not the presentation. The words coming out of your mouth are what the audience came to hear. You are the star of your own presentation.

Before you start closing your laptop down in celebration, let’s take a step back and talk about why you (probably) do need slides.

What are slides for, anyway?

When designed and animated correctly, slides enhance your spoken message so that it’s easier to understand, easier to remember, and more persuasive. You and your slides are a team. There are some things that a visual can just do better than you can. Take, for example, a chart. You could spend half an hour painting a word picture of a chart you saw once. Or you could whack an impactful piece of data vis up on the screen and move on.

So, back to the original question you never even asked:

When might you not need slides?

If you only have five minutes to influence that desired change in the minds, hearts, and actions of your audience, an emotional and well-told story, spoken directly from your heart, without the dilution of technology or the fumbling of a slide clicker, could be the best way to get your message across. No distractions, no gimmicks, just authenticity.

In this instance, it wouldn’t matter how many slides are in your presentation, they’re never going to be more impactful than your honesty and vulnerability.

In this short amount of time, your audience is unlikely to suffer from information overload and forget any of your messages, so you don’t need the slides for their ability to enhance memory. They’re unlikely to lose the train of your narrative, so you don’t need the slides as visual guidance. And if your story is told right, speaking to their challenges, and wrapped up in a situation that’s personal to them, you won’t need the persuasive powers of PowerPoint either.

But, nine times out of ten, a PowerPoint can only better your spoken messaging. Fact.

Nine times out of ten, a PowerPoint can only better your spoken messaging.

Extra time means extra slides

And not just because of the extra ideas. If you’ve been asked to speak for a long time, firstly ask yourself if it’s really necessary. Can your audience concentrate for that long? Could the session be split into smaller chunks? Is it even going to be valuable for them? Do you have that many relevant ideas?

If it turns out to be necessary, there are some extra slides you’re going to want to add to your deck. Consider adding regular breaks (one slide per break), recaps (one slide per recap), even quizzes (one slide per question-answer combo) to keep your audience engaged, check understanding, and give them a chance to stretch their legs.

And, with the freedom of time, comes the opportunity to use other people’s voices to enhance your own. Consider adding relevant quotes, audio clips, or videos from recognisable people who support your message. Of course, you could animate these elements onto your slide with a click, but if you’re not that confident using PowerPoint, creating a new slide for each is an easier option.

When we’re deciding what the most impactful way to tell a client’s story is, we bring brilliant minds from each department together to throw ideas around, consider workarounds for each limitation, and push ourselves to deliver the best solution for each client. And not once do we say “But is that the right number of slides?”

Mastering PowerPoint presentation design principles: An expert agency's guide.

In the realm of professional and educational presentations, PowerPoint stands out as...

Our quick presentation design cheat sheet.

20 presentation tips Working on a crucial presentation? Don’t deliver until you’ve...

.css-1qrtm5m{display:block;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:14px;line-height:1.5714285714285714;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.35px;letter-spacing:-0.35px;font-weight:300;color:#606F7B;}@media (min-width:600px){.css-1qrtm5m{font-size:16px;line-height:1.625;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.5px;letter-spacing:-0.5px;}} Best Practices The #1 rule for improving your presentation slides

by Tom Rielly • May 12, 2020

When giving presentations, either on a video conference call or in person, your slides, videos and graphics (or lack of them) can be an important element in helping you tell your story or express your idea. This is the first of a series of blog posts that will give you tips and tricks on how to perfect your visual presentations.

Your job as a presenter is to build your idea -- step-by-step -- in the minds of your audience members. One tool to do that is presentation graphics, such as slides and videos.

Why graphics for your presentation?

A common mistake is using slides or videos as a crutch, even if they don’t actually add anything to your presentation. Not all presentations need graphics. Lots of presentations work wonderfully with just one person standing on a stage telling a story, as demonstrated by many TED Talks.

You should only use slides if they serve a purpose: conveying scientific information, art, and things that are hard to explain without pictures. Once you have decided on using slides, you will have a number of decisions to make. We’ll help you with the basics of making a presentation that is, above all, clear and easy to understand. The most important thing to remember here is: less is more.

Less is so much more

You want to aim for the fewest number of slides, the fewest number of photos, the fewest words per slide, the least cluttered slides and the most white space on your slides. This is the most violated slide rule, but it is the secret to success. Take a look at these examples.

Example slides showing how a short title is easier to grasp than a long one

As you can see in the above example, you don’t need fancy backgrounds or extra words to convey a simple concept. If you take “Everything you need to know about Turtles”, and delete “everything you need to know about” leaving just “turtles”, the slide has become much easier for your audience to read, and tells the story with economy.

Example slides showing how a single image is more powerful than a cluttered slide

The above example demonstrates that a single image that fills the entire screen is far more powerful than a slide cluttered with images. A slide with too many images may be detrimental to your presentation. The audience will spend more mental energy trying to sort through the clutter than listening to your presentation. If you need multiple images, then put each one on its own slide. Make each image high-resolution and have it fill the entire screen. If the photos are not the same dimensions as the screen, put them on a black background. Don’t use other colors, especially white.

Examples slides showing how it's better to convey a single idea per slide vs a lot of text

Your slides will be much more effective if you use the fewest words, characters, and pictures needed to tell your story. Long paragraphs make the audience strain to read them, which means they are not paying attention to you. Your audience may even get stressed if you move on to your next slide before they’ve finished reading your paragraph. The best way to make sure the attention stays on you is to limit word count to no more than 10 words per slide. As presentation expert Nancy Duarte says “any slide with more than 10 words is a document.” If you really do need a longer explanation of something, handouts or follow-up emails are the way to go.

Following a “less is more” approach is one of the simplest things you can do to improve your presentation visuals and the impact of your presentation overall. Make sure your visuals add to your presentation rather than distract from it and get your message across.

Ready to learn more about how to make your presentation even better? Get TED Masterclass and develop your ideas into TED-style talks.

How Many PowerPoint Slides Does a Presentation Need?

Maybe you’ve been in this situation: A colleague is giving a presentation. While he’s talking, you’re shown a huge number of slides; the information literally flies past you. While you’re still thinking about the third slide, he’s already moved on to slide seventeen. Or vice versa: A 60-minute presentation is supported by a few short slides. It’s difficult to follow the presentation and keep track of information because there is basically no visual support.

Neither of these two presentations makes much of an impact. And the presenter doesn’t necessarily do himself any favors either. This shows that choosing the right number of slides in presentations is pretty important.

Presenting with PowerPoint: How many slides are ideal?

First of all: there’s no magic number. Nobody can tell you, “A new slide every two minutes is the secret to success.” Every presentation is unique. Every presenter has his or her own goals and needs. And, every presentation situation is different.

So, although it’s ultimately up to you to decide on the right number of slides for your presentation, there are a few guidelines you can follow.

Seven rules for choosing the right number of slides for your presentations

Quality over quantity.

Presentation slides should never be a constant flow of data and text. Your audience should be listening to you, not reading. When everything you say is also presented on your slides, it becomes pretty redundant.

A good presentation slide should provide an overview of the key points or augment them with audio-visual material. It should support the presentation, not become it. Keep it clear and brief.

Portion out your information

We’ve become used to everything coming to us quickly and automatically. But communicating information doesn’t always work like that. Compare it to a good meal. Instead of piling it all up and eating it in one bite, savoring every bite is a much more enjoyable experience.

And that’s exactly how you should communicate information during your presentation. It’s “more appetizing” and “easier to swallow” for the listener if it’s portioned out. Just because you have enough space on a slide for several important points doesn’t mean you have to use them all. Distribute important points over several slides to emphasize their importance and focus the audience’s attention on them.

For example, if you are referring to a product range, don’t list product A, product B and product C on one slide, but create a single slide for each. These can then be enhanced with pictures or keywords. This of course increases the number of your presentation slides, but it maximizes their impact.

As much as necessary, but as little as possible

This is where efficiency really comes into play. It’s all about making sensible cuts. Slides can and should support a presentation. They can provide a guideline, provide additional visual information or simply relax the presentation a bit. As already mentioned, text should not play too much of a role on your slides.

Always question the purpose of material, such as pictures or graphics, and how useful they are for your presentation. Ger rid of anything that seems superfluous or unnecessary or that can be communicated verbally.

What is useful and what can be cut is of course up to you to decide! Although a cartoon or caricature might not be relevant to your topic, it could be a fun way to loosen things up.

Also keep in mind that the number and detail of your slides will affect hoe flexible you can be during the presentation. You are locked into your slides and their content, and the more of them you have, the less chance you have to diverge from them. This can help if you are feeling a little shaky or nervous. But keep this in mind if you’re someone who likes a bit of leeway and to talk freely.

Practice makes perfect!

We love telling kids to practice things they don’t feel confident about. So why don’t we that ourselves? A great way to see if a presentation works is to run through it at least once in advance – kind of like a dress rehearsal.

Doing this in front of friends or family can provide you with valuable feedback. But even alone in front of a mirror or with an imaginary audience can work. You’ll quickly see where the problems lie, whether you have enough time and whether the slides fit into the presentation.

If you find that your presentation is finished faster than planned, you can add additional information and slides. If, on the other hand, you had problems completing the presentation within the allotted time and couldn’t discuss individual slides or had to skip them, it’s time to make some cuts.

Naturally, the pace at which you speak plays a big role. Those who speak quickly can cover lots of slides in a short time. If you speak slowly, you will of course achieve less. Ideally, you should speak at a pace that is comfortable for the listeners and allows them to follow the presentation. Again, this takes practice! No matter how quickly or slowly you speak, you should be able to present your slides comfortably.

Less is more

Some presenters like to keep a few slides “on ice” just in case there is time left or they feel they haven’t covered everything. This is an option but not really recommended. If the extra slides in your presentation are skipped over, the audience can easily feel that you’re cutting things short and they’re missing something that may be important.

On the other hand, there are also presenters who opt for a minimalist approach to their slides to allow for flexibility or to simplify their presentation. Even this can be irritating or distracting to the audience, as they’re not getting enough visual content.

There should be neither too many nor too few slides. Obviously, this is easier said than done. What is important and what is unimportant, what is helpful and what impedes your presentation is ultimately your decision. Trust your instincts and rely on your expertise.

There’s always an x factor!

Another reason why there is no patent solution for the perfect presentation is that there are so many variables that can affect a presentation. Factors such as topic, audience and location should always be taken into consideration when it comes to the scope and structure of slide presentations.

Things to keep in mind:

The topic. The number of slides that are required and helpful in presentations depends greatly on the topic. For example, pictures or graphics are best suited if you want to explain technical processes, discuss building progress or new products, or present business figures and statistics. It makes little sense to cut down on relevant content just to keep the number of slides low. If your topic is a bit dry, visual material can help keep your audience interested. If your topic relies more on verbal explanations and your slides are there to provide some visual guidance, it wouldn’t make sense to add slides.
The audience. Who your audience is plays a factor in how many slides you need. Here’s an example: You probably won’t need slides that explain and illustrate technical terms when presenting to an audience of experts in that field. But, if you’re communicating the same content to non-experts or an inexperienced audience, you will definitely need the visual material to clarify and simplify these same technical terms.

The room. The best presentation slide is not worth much if the audience can’t see it. Bad lighting an/or poor sight lines may prevent important content from being effectively communicated. This can be frustrating for both you and your audience. If you know the room isn’t well let or half your audience may not be able to see your presentation, think about investing less work in the slides and focusing more on the oral presentation. On the other hand, a room that offers excellent technical equipment can be a major asset, allowing you to add more audio-visual material, such as background music, to your presentation.

Trust your own expertise!

This point summarizes something fundamental; opinions are everywhere. Even something as seemingly innocuous as the optimal number of slides for a presentation is open for debate. There’s a wealth of advice from experts on how many slides are right for presentations.

Don’t forget that none of these expert opinions were formed with your exact presentation style and topic in mind. And the recommendations often vary widely. While some recommend 40 slides in ten minutes, others recommend just two slides in ten minutes. In the end, you are the expert; you know how many slides you need.

This also applies to the time spent on each slide during the presentation. Not all slides are created equal – some need less time, some need more. It always depends on the structure and content of the slide. Don’t worry if you spend several minutes on one slide, but only seconds on another – that’s perfectly fine.

Expert opinions: helpful, but not mandatory

You can of course reference well-known presentation methods if you feel more confident using a given guideline. But make sure it fits and works with your presentation. Here are some well-known methods for slide presentations:

10/20/30 – The Kawasaki method:

Perhaps the best known and most commonly used method is the 10/20/30 rule by Guy Kawasaki. It specifies that ten slides be used in a 20-minute presentation. A font size of at least 30 should be used for text. This equals to about two minutes per slide – a standard rule for presentations. This method can be great for beginners or inexperienced speakers. However, it’s not an iron-clad rule and can be adapted to fit your needs.

The Pecha Kucha method:

The Pecha Kucha method is becoming more popular. The method comes from Japan and translates to “constantly talking”. Pecha Kucha is based on very rigid guidelines regarding time and the number of slides. A Pecha Kucha presentation contains 20 images. Each image is shown for exactly 20 seconds. The speaking time amounts to exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds. The clear, simple rhythm seems to be what makes this method so successful. Here too, feel free to adapt the rigorous rules for yourself.

The Lessig method:

The Lessig method is basically a speed slideshow. This interesting presentation technique uses a large number of slides with a fast transition between slides. It allows 15 seconds (or even less) per slide, which is about four slides per minute. Due to the fast changes, the audience has little chance to drift off and is drawn into the presentation. Of course, the spoken part of the presentation needs to be perfectly synchronized with the slides. This requires practice and can make the method pretty challenging for the presenter, especially beginners.

The Takahashi method:

The Takahashi method follows a similar principle as the Lessig method. Again, the slides only appear for a few seconds at a time. The special feature: all slides contain only one or a few words in a large font. They’re meant to underscore what the presenter is saying. Like the Lessing method, the audience’s attention is key. This method provides the presenter with key points which can make presentation tools, such as index cards unnecessary. Of course, this method is not recommended for presentations that require images, graphics or other similar visual material.

As you can see, there are many different approaches and ideas. Which method is the right one for you? The answer is up to you. It’s your presentation after all. If one of these methods and its defined guidelines works well for you, use it! Otherwise, pick and choose what you like from it and adapt it to your presentation.

Other useful PowerPoint tips:

Your preparation should never start with your slide presentation – this should be one of the final steps. Many presenters take the opposite approach and design their presentation around their slides. This creates a false focus – the slides aren’t the focus, the presentation is. Prepare your content first and then decide how to present it in a meaningful way.
When timing your presentation, remember to leave some room for questions, discussion or other delays. 80% of your time should be given to your actual presentation. If you take longer than planned and exceed your time, you’ll notice your audience quickly becoming restless and disinterested. If you finish a bit earlier, that’s ok. Never try to stretch the presentation unnecessarily by adding something or jumping back to a point in the presentation. Allow time to focus on your audience’s questions and comments.
Expect the unexpected and be flexible. You may find that your audience is already pretty familiar with some of your content. If this happens, keep the presentation moving and focus more on other points. You may also need more time for questions or clarifications. This is normal during a presentation. Don’t let it throw you off balance.
Take time to check whether all the technical equipment is working and familiarize yourself with the settings and operations. This is especially true if you work with embedded video or audio.
Don’t give the slide presentation too much importance! Research shows that 90% of the impression a presenter makes depends on the way he or she speaks, particularly their voice and body language. It might be worthwhile to spend more preparation time on your delivery than on text and slides.
Slide presentations are now so common in meetings that speakers feel obligated to use them. They really do offer wonderful possibilities and can be an asset to both the speaker and the audience. But this is not always the case. Not every topic needs audio-visual support via a slide presentation. And not every speech benefits from it either. Unless you’ve been explicitly told to use one, don’t feel you need to use a slide presentation if you don’t think it works for your topic.

A final word of advice:

The biggest stumbling block in presentations is usually not the slide presentation itself, but the uncertainty of the presenter. Your listeners have probably given presentations themselves and are familiar with the challenges. They’ll most likely be forgiving of a few slides too many or too few. Stay poised and be yourself. A perfect but lifeless presentation often makes less of an impact than one with personality and a few rough edges.

Share this post

share
save

Design Thinking: Problem Solving with a Difference

Why Corporate Mission Statements Are So Important

7 Tips & Learnings from the Apple Keynote

How Many Slides For Presentations (10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 Minutes)

You should limit your presentations to one slide per minute at a maximum. Try to include the least amount of slides while trying to get your message across in a concise while still complete manner.

An alternative rule is the “10/20/30 Rule,” which suggests that a good presentation will limit itself to 10 slides, last 20 minutes in length, and include a font size no smaller than 30 points.

PowerPoint presentations can be overwhelming to the point that they put off people from learning new material and discourage them from taking in the presented information.

The purpose of this article is to help people make their presentations more exciting and easier to follow and discover how many slides are generally needed so you can time your presentations accordingly.

Of course, all of the below points are just suggestions and the number of slides that you will use for your own presentation will of course depend on the content as well your target audience.

How many slides for a 10-minute presentation?

How many slides for a 15-minute presentation, how many slides for a 20-minute presentation, how many slides for a 30-minute presentation, how many slides for a 40-minute presentation, how many slides for a 50-minute presentation, how many slides for a 60-minute presentation.

A 10-minute presentation would require no more than 10 slides. It’s much better to start with too few than too many, so users will likely appreciate the shorter list of bullet points. Your goal is to provide the right amount of information for your audience to understand the topic without overwhelming them.

If you are just giving an overview of something that you want the audience to remember in 10 minutes or less, then this is probably enough. Keep your slides simple and keep them limited to two-three bullet points per slide.

A 15-minute presention should have a maximum of 15 slides. This is the right amount of information for audiences to grasp without feeling overwhelmed or bored. If you can give this type of presentation in 10 minutes or less, it’s even better.

During a 15 minute presentation. These slides should be able to cover the basics of your topic, but if you try to make it too complicated, your audience will lose interest, and you will end up wasting their time.

A 20-minute presentation should require no more than 20 slides. On average, you should only be using 5-7 bullet points on each slide. You can also include one or two images on each slide to help facilitate understanding.

If you are giving an overview of something that you want the audience to remember in 20 minutes or less, this might be the perfect time to follow the 10/20/30 rule. This concept should relate to the audience or is a key part of your speech or presentation.

A 30-minute presentation would require no more than 30 slides. You can use 5-7 bullet points per slide or 8-10 bullet points if the presentation is necessary to convey ideas in great detail. If you are including lots of images and charts to help illustrate your point, then reduce the amount of bullet points used.

It’s a good idea to follow this rule because too many slides can make it challenging to keep track of all the points you are trying to make, and your audience will be more likely to lose interest in what you’re saying or miss important ideas as they go by quickly. It’s also easier for people to focus on your presentation when it’s broken up into smaller sections.

On 30 minute presentations, it is a good idea to leave a few minutes for Q&A. This will allow your audience to ask questions about things they didn’t understand or missed in the part of the presentation. It also gives your audience a reason to get involved in the session.

For a 40 minute presentation, you should try to keep it to 40 slides maximum, you can dole out some information in detail and leave a bigger chunk of time for Q&A. People will stay attentive when the material is broken up into smaller segments.

You should keep in mind that different people respond to different mediums and will better understand an idea when it’s presented to them in a way they are accustomed to receiving information (i.e. some people benefit from text and others from images, some people need the material broken up into small pieces while others prefer a long, steady stream of information).

It will also depend on the type of presentation you are doing. If it’s a demonstration or special event, then more slides are better (and less time per slide is good). If you’re there to present statistics, research, comparison charts, etc., fewer slides with more information per slide would be best.

A 50-minute presentation should include no more than 50 slides. You can have more slides than this if you have a very engaging visual presentation with limited amounts of information per slide.

Similar to a 40-minute presentation, a 50-minute presentation can allow you to go into a lot of detail in some places and remain at a high level. You should also feel free to leave out certain information if it is not essential in a particular presentation’s overall scheme of things.

As a general rule of thumb, experienced public speakers or subject matter experts are the ones who feel the most comfortable holding longer presentations and sessions, which allows them to go into greater detail in certain areas.

If you’re new to this kind of work, it might be best to keep your presentations between 30 and 40 minutes and leave the rest of the time slot open for questions from the floor.

A 50-minute presentation would require no more than 20-25 slides, as the only purpose they serve here would be just as a reminder for the speaker to stay on point as he conveys the story to the audience.

A 60-minute presentation should include no more than 60 slides. If you have a very engaging visual presentation with limited amounts of information per slide, you can have more slides than this.

If the presentation is going to be more interactive, then it’s better to cut down on the number of slides and instead focus on how much each slide will contribute to the overall story you’re telling. You must also leave plenty of time for a Q&A session at the end.

The number of slides for a presentation varies. While too many can bore your audience, not enough will leave them wondering what you’re talking about.

Your slides can serve as visual reminders of your talk and also help you maintain a narrative flow in your presentation. You must know what you want to accomplish with each slide, how long it will take to read the text and absorb information from a chart or graph and how much time you have for Q&A.

Remember that slides can and should be used as visual aids, not as the main point of the presentation. The speaker needs to convey that information, not just read it from their slides.

How Many Slides Do You Need For A Whatever-Minute Presentation?

Yousef "yoyo" abu ghaidah.

May 9, 2018
One Comment

“How many slides do I need for a 10 minutes presentation?”

“I have 30 minutes. Do I need 30 slides?”

“I have a 60-minute presentation coming up and I don’t want to bore my audience to death with slide-overload. What do I do?”

If I had a dollar for every time I get a question like these, I’d be a millionaire.

It’s time to put the age-old PowerPoint question to rest. How many slides do you really need for your next presentation, regardless of the time set?

Here’s your answer: As many as you need, but within reason .

I know, I know. You’re looking for a quick and simple solution that you can use right now. But trust me, you’ll get what I mean after reading this post.

Rules Don’t Apply … Sort Of

There are so many rules out there that you’ve probably heard of.

“Only use five slides.”

“Keep it to one slide for every three minutes.”

Even presentation pros like Guy Kawasaki will advocate for the 10/20/30 rule (10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point font).

These rules aren’t necessarily wrong, but I do feel they overlook one of the most important factors in your presentation: Your message.

When you apply a general rule-of-thumb to the content you want to present, you’re going to end up limiting yourself. That sort of practice can be bad for you, and even worse for your audience.

Look at it this way: Do you think J. K. Rowling was thinking about how many pages she would need to get Harry Potter out to the world?

A photo of the Harry Potter book with some essentials

Of course not. Her priorities were centered down to the plot, how the characters express themselves, the intricacies between the hero and the villain, and so on.

Rowling’s only true goal was to write a fictional novel so epic that it would appeal to the masses.

Do I need to tell you how hugely successful she was a result of that approach?

Take the same principle and develop as many slides as you need to capture every meaningful component of your message.

Remember, slides are empty canvases for your information. You can put a single word and a picture to demonstrate your point or 500 words and a chart to do the exact same thing.

But practice this approach with caution. Don’t just cram in slides for the sake of doing so.

Only bring the slides that express the value of your content. Nothing more, nothing less.

Time Allocation is Crucial

Time is the most precious thing we have in this world , and it is certainly the one thing you NEED to respect when it comes to your audience.

That said, there is a misconception about time limits in presentations that you need to be aware of.

Avoid going for the minute(s)-per-slide approach. Many presenters feel that sustaining this number is crucial for delivery. For example, if someone was preparing 10 slides for a 10-minute presentation, then that same person may feel dedicating 1 minute per slide is the way to go.

Don’t do this, because how you allocate your time should be completely up to you.

I’ve witnessed presenters spend 10 seconds on one slide only to spend five minutes on another, and they were extremely effective in their delivery.

The slide that took five minutes to present was also the slide that needed five minutes of my time to understand. This highlighted that the slide in question was meaningful, insightful, and followed a pace that I was comfortable with.

That’s the key take away. Dedicate more of the time given to you to the content that matters most. This approach should allow you to gauge just how many slides you need to bring in.

So, How Many Slides Do You Really Need?

All you have to do is answer two simple questions:

“How many slides do I need to get my message across?”
“What pace would my audience feel comfortable with?”

With the ‘right’ answers, you’re almost certain to get the perfect number of slides for your presentation, every single time.

You’re The Special Ingredient

Whatever number you go for, remember that your slides should only be seen as the tools you need to get your message across.

Sure, designing beautiful slides will help, but they won’t do the work for you.

Rely on yourself to get your message out there. Your tone, body-language, and passion are what truly can make or break your presentation.

Dang…I needed this LOL. Thank you for decreasing my stress.

Got a project for us?

Session expired

Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.

How many slides for a 15 minute presentation?

When the time allotted for a business presentation varies, so must the slide’s content to fit the minute quota. Yet, it can be hard to know how to achieve the right amount of slides for the time frame that you’ve got. Therefore, we’ve considered how many slides for a 10-minute presentation an entrepreneur would ideally need, as well as how many slides for a 15-minute presentation, and how many slides for a 5-minute presentation. And, we’ve also included a note to the number of slides for a 3-minute pitch.

Without more introduction, we’ll get right to the heart of it.

How many slides for a 15-minute presentation

With as many as a slide per minute, you could still range at a 15 slide average. However, some will say you could even do three slides per minute, depending on your content, so these could go up to even 45 slides according to that rule.

In general, the answer to how many slides for a 15-minute presentation lies in about 25 slides. Yet, think anywhere between 20-30 as the broadest use of those.

And if you genuinely wish to stick to the standard, remember any pitch deck should be able to withstand a 10-20 slide average. Therefore, you might be better off sticking to your 15 slide quota on this one. If you can afford it with 15 with all your must-haves, we say you do so.

How many slides for a 10-minute presentation

Twenty slides are the usual for a 10 min business pitch. Yet, you usually create anywhere from 10 to 20.

If the number 20 on a 10-minute slot is making you think of 2 slides per minute, please take the load off your shoulders on that obligation before you start. It’s the best you could do. If you make yourself present two slides per minute, you might find you’ll be rushing through what you have to say, looking to cover a lot and find time to be a killer for the way you conceive your pitch.

On the contrary, think of what you need to include in your pitch. What’s better yet is to look up a business presentation template to give you an idea of the required content and its order so you can take it from there. We’ve even created a list full of pitch deck examples from successful startups (such as Airbnb, Uber, Facebook , and many others.) You’ll probably find much use relying on those, so take a look and start from there if it helps.

On this one, it’s also helpful if you rely on images to keep a visual flow. Also, in considering how many slides for a 10-minute presentation, make sure your font is at the perfect size to be visible and not disturbing. As long as we’re at it, don’t overdo it with the bullet points and declutter your slides to make them look perfect!

How many slides for a 5-minute presentation

Now let’s get to how many slides for a 5-minute presentation. A 5-minute presentation could already count as a prolonged elevator pitch . If those are new to you, we recommend you read up on How to Create an Elevator Pitch with Tips and Examples .

In theory, a 5-minute presentation could be done with 5-6 slides at most, cutting your presentation time to about 45 seconds per slide. For this (and with any business presentation, really, but here especially), cut your text down to very basics. If people are lost reading your pitch deck, the chances of them listening to you for those 5 minutes decrease.

Instead, create a presentation that keeps your audience engaged with what you’re saying. And remember, we still use story-telling even if the time is short, which will demand of your pitch planning a more concise and cohesive content.

To get there, work on your script. As every word counts, you’ll find drafting a text and then polishing it will make for a precious exercise as you cut down on unnecessary wording to get to your point in the most succinct manner.

You get this time to make an impression and leave something by which the audience can remember you. So be memorable.

If you’re looking for less: the 3-minute pitch

Just in case, if you’re going for 3 minutes, we also have a 3 Minute Pitch Deck Template that can help you out. It works perfectly for Demo Day and going on-stage.

The deck includes a nice-looking cover followed by a critical question slide, your problem, and solution, along with chart slides for your financial slides, video inserts for your product demo, even room for a full quote, and much more! Feel free to check it out!

Regardless of the allotted time: Rehearse!

Whether you’ve got 5, 10, or 15 minutes on your business presentation clock, always prepare with much rehearsal. You need to practice your pitch, especially if time variations will be a demand from you.

There needs to be a clear understanding of your absolute essentials if 3-5 minutes is all you’ve got to draw an investor. While this scenario might sound very wild, trust us that they exist for a very valid reason based on actual need and use in the startup industry.

Also, by tailoring these pitch variations in regards to time differences, you’ll find a much more polished rendition of your business pitch. And that will significantly help give shape to the best version of your business presentation you could find.

Please don’t take this for granted. Rehearse all you can as practice does make perfect. Record yourself on video or tape, listen and watch yourself so you can improve and get advice from others. Peer feedback helps, but even your family and friends can give you tips on presenting that can make your pitch go a long way. If not, we’ve drafted the Best 5 Tips on Presenting and Public Speaking to help out, as well.

And remember: whatever you do, don’t rush! A rushed presenter is a business pitch’s fall. Make the best use of your time without rushing, so people can listen to you and pay attention other than to your hurried stance.

Are you out of ideas?

Before we let you move on to your pitch creation, are you fresh out of ideas on how to build a pitch deck? Just in case that’s you, our CDO and co-founder, Vini, has created a guide to an outstanding presentation deck with presentation deck ideas .

The Startup Financial Model Template by Slidebean

Lunchbox Pitch Deck Tear Down

Upcoming events, financial modeling crash course, how to close a funding round.

Data Room for Investors: What is and What to Include?

10 Elevator Pitch Examples from Successful Startups

Let’s move your company to the next stage 🚀

Ai pitch deck software, pitch deck services.

Financial Model Consulting for Startups 🚀

Raise money with our pitch deck writing and design service 🚀

The all-in-one pitch deck software 🚀

A pitch deck is the standard document used by startups to present their case to investors; it’s a brief deck of about 10 to 20 slides. See examples here.

Learn how to create a compelling slide deck for your startup. Explore how to use slide decks as aids for your presentation, and the most common uses for them.

This is a functional model you can use to create your own formulas and project your potential business growth. Instructions on how to use it are on the front page.

Book a call with our sales team

In a hurry? Give us a call at

How Many Slides for a 30 Minute Presentation

Last updated on May 25th, 2023

30 minute presentations are very common in different situations and scenarios. Some business meetings are arranged for 30 minutes only, and then the PowerPoint presenter can eventually be available for questions or to exchange ideas with the audience. Also, during a presentation in the classroom, a 30 minute presentation is good to leave more space for other student presentations during the same day. This way, many groups can perform the presentation in a single day.

But the question here is, how many slides for a 30-minute presentation? And of course, it is not an accurate answer since every slide and presenter is different and it could take less or more time. But as a rule of thumb, we can get some estimates about how many slides to include in 30 minutes PowerPoint presentation .

Let’s start thinking on this idea. If we have to perform a presentation in 30 minutes and we want to make it on time, let’s imagine every slide should take 2 minutes as most. Then, using 15 slides we’ll be able to present it in a timeframe of 30 minutes.

As a rule of thumb, consider:

Estimate how much time do you require to present your slides in average and add 30 more seconds to the result.
Then divide 30 minutes by the time spent on a single slide.
The result will give you an idea about how many slides for 30 minutes.

Why are we adding 30 more seconds to every new slide? It is very common that we as presenters underestimate the length in minutes for a slide, so by adding a few more seconds for every slide, we’ll be safe in the total presentation time.

Why 30 minute if you can present it in 20 minutes and using less slides?

Alternatively, suppose you need to wrap a presentation in 5-minute presentation, 10-minutes or 20 minutes. In that case, you should be aware that are some well-known methodologies, rules and frameworks that are interesting to know in advance. For example, 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint is a rule that Guy Kawasaki is evangelizing and that is a very simple concept.

10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.

by using 10/20/30 rule of PowerPoint for example, you can make less boring presentations, with only 10 slides and no font smaller than thirty point.

How many words to include in a 10 minute presentation speech?

There are many different classifications and estimates, but as a general rule, presenters can consider a speech takes 100 to 200 words per minute. Having this in mind, how many slides should we use in a 10-minute presentation ? The answer is simple, a 10-minute presentation would require between 1000 to 2000 words.

Similarly, if you have a 30 minutes presentation, it would take between 3000 and 6000 words.

The 5 by 5 rule in PowerPoint

There are many other rules that can help to estimate the time taken by presenters to deliver a speech. For example, the 5 by 5 rule in PowerPoint is a rule that will keep your audience from feeling bored and overwhelmed. In this rule, you should keep the text on each slide reduced at the minimum. Keep it short and straight to the point. For example, in the 5 by 5 rule, you can spend up to 5 words per line of text, 5 text lines per slide.

To keep your audience from feeling overwhelmed, you should keep the text on each slide short and to the point. Some experts suggest using the 5/5/5 rule for presentations : no more than five words per line of text, five lines of text per slide, or five text-heavy slides in a row.

If you need to prepare a presentation of a different length, then our other guides can help you. For example, in How Many Slides for a 45 Minute presentation can help to decipher how many slides to include in a longer presentation, which is sometimes useful for trainings and courses.

We will send you our curated collections to your email weekly. No spam, promise!

PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
EDIT Edit this Article
EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
Browse Articles
Learn Something New
Quizzes Hot
This Or That Game
Train Your Brain
Explore More
Support wikiHow
About wikiHow
Log in / Sign up
Computers and Electronics
Presentation Software
PowerPoint Presentations

How to Insert Slide Numbers in PowerPoint

Last Updated: January 22, 2024 Fact Checked

How to Add Slide Numbers

How to format slide numbers.

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Nicole Levine, MFA . Nicole Levine is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. She has more than 20 years of experience creating technical documentation and leading support teams at major web hosting and software companies. Nicole also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Portland State University and teaches composition, fiction-writing, and zine-making at various institutions. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 47,455 times. Learn more...

This wikiHow guide teaches you how to number the slides in your PowerPoint presentation on your Windows PC or Mac. You can add slide numbers easily on the Insert tab and change the look and position of each number on your master slide.

Things You Should Know

To add slide numbers to your presentation, click the "Insert" tab, select "Header & Footer," check the box next to "Slide number," and click "Apply All."
The position, font, size, and color of your slide numbers is determined by your slide master.
To format your slides, click the "View" tab, select "Slide Master," click the first master slide, and edit the placeholder (the hashtag symbol) as needed.

Step 1 Click the Insert tab in your presentation.

If you don't want a slide number to appear on the first (title) slide, check the box next to "Don’t show on title slide" at the bottom-left corner.
All slides, including hidden slides, are included in the slide count. You'll also see slide numbers when you print your presentations. [2] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source

If slide numbers aren't showing up, the slide number placeholder was removed from your slide master . Skip down to this method to learn how to insert them if they're not showing up.
To remove all slide numbers, return to Insert > Header & Footer , uncheck "Slide Number," and click Apply to All .
To remove just one slide number, select the slide in the left panel, go to Insert > Header & Footer , uncheck "Slide Number," and click Apply .

Click the Insert tab, then click Text Box in the toolbar.
Click and drag a text box in any blank area of the slide. You can always reposition it later.
Click inside the text box.
Click Slide Number in the toolbar. You'll now see the hash symbol in the text box—the slide number placeholder.

Step 3 Select the slide number placeholder.

Click the Home tab.
Click the slide number placeholder to select it.
To change the color, click the "A" with a line under it in the toolbar, then select a color.
To change the font face and size, use the drop-down menus in the toolbar.
You can also make slide numbers bold, italicized, or underlined as you would other text. [3] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source
To return to your presentation, click Normal on the View tab.

Expert Q&A

You can also change the position of headers, footers , text boxes, and other elements when editing the master slide. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-page-numbers-date-and-time-or-footer-text-to-all-slides-in-powerpoint-for-mac-abb23f0c-760a-46ef-940e-be5074d3f287
↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/change-the-fonts-in-a-footer-on-a-slide-ad433255-2de8-441e-99c8-b26a99b04d74

About This Article

To add slide numbering to your PowerPoint presentation, start by opening your presentation in PowerPoint. Then, click the "Insert" tab and select "Header & Footer" on the toolbar. Check the box next to "Slide number"—the preview in the upper-right corner of the window will update to display where the slide number will appear on each slide. If the first slide in your presentation is a title slide and you don’t want a number on it, place a checkmark next to "Don't show on title slide." Click "Apply to All" to add the slide number to each slide in your presentation. If the slide number doesn't look right on one of your slides, you can move it to a different location—just hover the mouse cursor over the slide number until it turns to a crosshair, then click-and-drag it somewhere that looks a little better. You can also change the position of your slide number on all slides at once by editing the Slide Master. Click the "View" tab, click "Slide Master" on the toolbar, and then click your Slide Master at the top of the left panel. Hover the mouse cursor over the slide number until it turns to a crosshair, then drag it to another location. Another thing you can do while editing the Slide Master is to change the size, font, or color of the slide number—double-click the slide number to select it, highlight the number, and then use the font face, size, and color options on the small menu above your cursor. Click "Close Master View" when you're finished. Any changes you made to the slide numbers in the Slide Master will apply to all slides in the presentation. Did this summary help you? Yes No

Send fan mail to authors

Is this article up to date?

Featured Articles

Watch Articles

Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Do Not Sell or Share My Info
Not Selling Info

Keep up with the latest tech with wikiHow's free Tech Help Newsletter

Critical PowerPoint Shortcuts – Claim Your FREE Training Module and Get Your Time Back!

How to add slide numbers in PowerPoint (Step-by-Step)

PowerPoint Tutorials
Shortcuts & Hacks
January 11, 2024

Adding slide numbers in PowerPoint should be an easy and straightforward task, but it is not. The way that PowerPoint manages your slide numbers is confusing.

While confusing and frustrating, the last thing you want to do – and I have done this before myself – is manually add the page numbers to the slides yourself.

Manually adding slide numbers is a classic 101 timewaster that you will instantly regret for two reasons.

The first reason is, manually doing anything in PowerPoint that PowerPoint can automatically do for you (even if it requires a little research), is never an effective use of your time. If you want to have a life outside of the office slaving away in PowerPoint, you will want to push as many of these types of tasks as possible back on to PowerPoint.

The second reason is, after you manually add your slide numbers in PowerPoint, you will have to manually update them again as you add or remove slides from your presentation. If you thought it was tedious to manually add the slide numbers in the first place, believe me when I say that it is ten times as tedious to have to manually update them again, and triple-check that all your slides are numbered correctly.

Follow along with me below and see the advanced trouble shooting video at the bottom of the page if you are still having issues.

NOTE: When printing your slides as handouts, be aware that it is your slide number (NOT the page number) that displays for each page of the speaker notes you print. To learn how to add speaker notes to PowerPoint (and some of the tricks to working with them), read my guide here .

[watch] how to add slide numbers in powerpoint.

You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Youtube . To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.

Adding slide numbers in PowerPoint is one of those things that should be simple and easy (like it is in Microsoft Word) …but it’s not.

And just so we are on the same page, in this article you can use the term slide number and page number interchangeably. They are the same thing in this case.

While a lot of people can “properly” add them to the PowerPoint Slide Master , they still can’t get them to properly show up in the Normal View . And if you work in the professional services industry, this is something you’ll want to get right! The last thing you want to do is torpedo the overall quality of your presentation simply because you can’t get your slides properly numbered.

Take your PPT skills to the next level

Setting up your slide numbers in the slide master view.

When you are adding slide numbers to PowerPoint, or troubleshooting your slide numbers, the first place to check is your Slide Master.

That is because the Slide Number field is driven and controlled by your Slide Master.

Continue reading to see how this is done. If your Slide Numbers are already set up properly on your Slide Master, you move to the next section.

1. Navigate to your Slide Master

In all versions of Microsoft PowerPoint, the slide numbers (or page numbers) for your presentation are driven from the Slide Master View. As such, this is one of the best places to check first if you are having trouble adding slide numbers in PowerPoint, or if your slide numbers are not properly displaying.

To navigate to the Slide Master view in PowerPoint, click the View tab and then select the Slide Master button.

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

Navigate to the View tab in your Ribbon
Select the Slide Master command

If you frequently need to use your Slide Master, you can use the Shift + Normal icon shortcut to jump to the slide master.

2. Navigate to your Parent Slide (the big slide)

Example of the Parent Slide (the larger slide) in the Slide Master View of PowerPoint

In the Slide Master view, navigate to the Parent slide on the top left. This will be the first and largest the slide listed on the left side of your screen.

3. Open the Master Layout dialog box to find the Slide Number field

On the Slide Master tab, select the Master Layout command

To open the Master Layout dialog box in PowerPoint, simply:

Navigate to the Slide Master tab in your Ribbon
Click Master Layout to open the dialog box

The Master Layout dialog box 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, read our guide here .

NOTE: PowerPoint is a contextual program, in that it only displays tabs for the views you are in, or the objects you have selected. If you do not see the Slide Master tab in the ribbon, that means that you have not properly navigated to your Slide Master yet. See step #1 above.

4. Select the Slide Number field

In the Master Layout dialog box, make sure you have a check mark next to Slide number . Selecting this option adds the slide number object to the Parent Slide, that you can then use to automatically add and update all the slides numbers in your presentation (instead of manually adding them yourself).

You can additionally add the Title, Text, Date and/or Footer objects if you don’t already have them on your Parent Slide. These are the fields you will want to set up and properly format if you are building a PowerPoint template for your team or company.

After you select which elements you want to appear on your slides, click OK .

On the Parent Slide of the slide master, make sure you have the Slide Number option ticked

5. Place and format your Slide Number

With the slide number added to your Master Slide , you can now format and/or place it wherever you want. In this case, I’ve placed mine in the upper right-hand corner of my slide.

Where you place it on your Parent Slide determines where the numbers show up (by default) on all of your Child Slides. In the below picture, you can see I placed my slide number in the upper right hand corner of my slide.

Example of the slide number placeholder placed in the upper right-hand corner of the slide on the Parent Slide of the slide master

NOTE: By default, your slide numbers populate to all the Child Slides (the little slides in the Slide Master view) in your presentation. If they do not, you will need to cycle through the Child Slide layouts and delete the old page numbers individually, and then click the Footers icon in the Ribbon to add them back (another area where slide numbers in PowerPoint can be a pain).

To learn how to set up and format the Parent Slide and Child Slides for your PowerPoint template , read my guide here .

6. Close out of the Slide Master view

To return to the Normal View, on the Slide Master tab, click the close master view command on the far right of the Ribbon.

Before you exit out of the Slide Master view, I recommend double-checking that your slide numbers are properly set up both on the Parent Slide, and all the individual Child Slides. If you accidentally missed one, now is the time to catch it.

Once you are sure the slide numbers are all where they are supposed to be, you can click out of the Slide Master View:

Click the Slide Master tab
Select Close Master View

Applying your slide numbers in the Normal View

Once you’ve set up and formatted the Slide Number field in the Slide Master view, you are ready to move on and add them to your presentation.

As an analyst or associate who is in charge of the deck, it is important to keep in mind that just because the Slide Number field is properly set up in the Slide Master, DOES NOT mean they will automatically show up in your presentation.

Continue reading to see the next steps to make sure your slide numbers properly display in PowerPoint.

1. Open the Slide Number dialog box

From the Insert tab, select the slide number command to open the header and footer dialog box

Now that you have setup (or double-checked) that your slide numbers are set up properly in the Slide Master view, now we can add them here in the Normal View of PowerPoint (woo-hoo). Let’s start by opening the Header and Footer dialog box as follows:

Navigate to the Insert tab
Select the Slide Number command

You can alternatively use the Alt + Shift + D keyboard shortcut to open the Header and Footer dialog box. If you want to learn additional PowerPoint shortcuts like this that will save you time, read my shortcut guide here .

Regardless of how you get to the Header and Footer dialog box, this is the best and proper place to add, remove, and/or manage your presentations:

Date and time
Slide numbers

The goal again is to get PowerPoint to do the heavy lifting for you here. Even if this dialog box is new and a little confusing to you, it is worth getting this right as it will save you a ton of time in the future.

2. Apply your Slide Numbers

In the Header and Footer dialog box, select Slide Number and then click apply or apply to all to add them to your slides.

NOTE: The option to “Don’t show on title slide” can easily catch you off guard. That’s because the title slide in PowerPoint is NOT what you probably think it is. For more information, on what the title slide actually is in PowerPoint, read my guide here .

Within the Header and Footer dialog box, make sure there is a checkmark next to the Slide number .

With it selected, you get a preview of where your slide numbers will appear in the upper right-hand corner of the dialog box. After that, select either:

Apply , applies your slide number to the individual slide you are working on.
Apply to All , applies slide numbers to all of the slides within your presentation (assuming that each of the Child Slide layouts has your slid number on it).

Assuming you want to add slide numbers to all your slides in PowerPoint, click Apply to All . Clicking Apply to All, PowerPoint automatically adds the slide numbers to all your slides, based on the formatting and positioning you set up on the slide master.

As you can see in the picture below, the slide numbers now display (just as I set them up on the Slide Master).

Example of a slide number in the upper right-hand corner of a PowerPoint slide

Troubleshooting slide numbers that won't show up

If you followed along with me above and you still can’t get your slide numbers to properly display in PowerPoint, I have you covered.

In the following video, I highlight a few extra steps you can take to make sure your page numbers show up in PowerPoint.

If you still can’t figure out what is happening with your slide numbers, leave a comment or send me a note and I will do my best to help you out.

Final thoughts

You did the right thing by looking up how to add slide numbers in PowerPoint. The worst possible thing you can do is get so fed up with the PowerPoint page numbering system, that you manually add them yourself.

Another good point to remember is that you can use the Header and Footer dialog box to quickly remove all the slide numbers from your presentation. Simply unselect the Slide number option and click Apply to All and PowerPoint will automatically remove them all from your presentation.

While we all wish that adding page numbers in PowerPoint was as easy as it is in Word, that’s why you are paid the big PowerPoint bucks.

If you enjoyed this slide number tutorial and want to take your PowerPoint skills to the next level, check out our online training courses and other PowerPoint tutorials here .

🔒 Unlock the PowerPoint Shortcuts Trusted by Industry Leaders KKR, American Express, HSBC, and More!

Join over 114,880 professionals from diverse fields including consulting, investment banking, advertising, marketing, sales, and business development who have supercharged their PowerPoint game with our proven methods.

✅ Customize compelling presentations effortlessly.

✅ Master time-saving techniques for faster deck creation.

✅ Boost your career prospects with top-notch PowerPoint skills.

Get FREE access to the Critical PowerPoint Shortcuts module of our premium training course by entering your name and email below.

DISCLAIMER: PC Users Only!

We respect your privacy and will keep your info safe and confidential.

What is a broken link chart in PowerPoint (and how to fix it)?
Bar chart trick: Right aligning categories (PPT, Word, and Excel)
PowerPoint settings: program level vs. presentation level
What is a linked Excel chart in PowerPoint?
Set Up Slide Show: Customize how your PPT presentations run

About The Author

This Post Has 9 Comments

Thanks for your guidance but it doesn’t completely work. I have one Master and two layouts. It will only add the page number to one of the layouts. No matter how many times I try to insert the slide number and apply to all, when ever I add a new slide, it only puts the slide number on one layout but not the other! Very frustrating because I followed all of your steps perfectly.

Thank you thank you thank you. Have been desperately trying to populate a submaster with slide numbers for a day now. The trick of RE-clicking on Title and Footers boxes up in the Maser Slide menu, while selecting my submaster slide, finally did the trick !

So happy to be able to help, Fran! Those little slide numbers can be tricky, despite appearances. Cheers!

Great vid. thanks.

Thanks for commenting, and happy this was a help to you! Cheers!

Thanks for the super-concise speed training on this – I was starting to pull my hair out! Again Microsoft prove they are the most clumsy legacy software developers on the planet!!

Hi Mathias! Glad to have been able to help. Yes, this is still a trickier issue than it should be, but luckily, there is a solution! Cheers

WOW! What an amazing and fast video. I will definitley bookmark this site!!

So happy to hear that, Anna! Thank you and let us know if there’s any other nagging problem we can solve for you. Cheers

Comments are closed.

PowerPoint Tutorial Categories

Strategies & Opinions
Presentation Design
Pictures, Icons, Videos, Etc.
New Features
Miscellaneous
Charts & Data Viz

We help busy professionals save hours and gain peace of mind, with corporate workshops, self-paced courses and tutorials for PowerPoint and Word.

Work With Us

Corporate Training
Presentation & Template Design
Courses & Downloads
PowerPoint Articles
Word Articles
Productivity Resources

Find a Tutorial

Free Training
For Businesses

We help busy office workers save hours and gain peace of mind, with tips, training and tutorials for Microsoft PowerPoint and Word.

Master Critical PowerPoint Shortcuts – Secure Your FREE Training Module and Save Valuable Time!

⌛ Master time-saving expert techniques.

🔥 Create powerful presentations.

🚀 Propel your career to new heights.

We value your privacy – we keep your info safe.

Discover PowerPoint Hacks Loved by Industry Giants - KKR, AmEx, HSBC!

Over 114,880 professionals in finance, marketing and sales have revolutionized their PPT skills with our proven methods.

Gain FREE access to a full module of our premium PowerPoint training program – Get started today!

We hate spam too and promise to keep your information safe.

You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Facebook . To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.

How-To Geek

How to add slide numbers in powerpoint.

If you want to keep track of your PowerPoint presentation slides, you could think about adding page numbers. Here's how.

Quick Links

Add slide numbers to a powerpoint presentation, remove slide numbers from a powerpoint presentation, format slide numbers in powerpoint.

When you're presenting a PowerPoint presentation, it can be easy to lose track of what slide you're currently on---especially if it's a large one. To help, you can add slide numbers in PowerPoint to know your position.

You could, of course, add slide numbers manually to each of your slides using text boxes. This isn't an option we'd recommend because any changes you make (for instance, by adding new slides) would require you to update your slide numbers manually, too.

Instead, you can add slide numbers that update automatically on all of your slides, including any hidden slides. By default, these slide numbers will appear in your slide footer, but you can move and format your slide numbers by editing the "Slide Master" for your presentation.

To add slide numbers, open a PowerPoint presentation with several slides added and then click the "Insert" tab.

From here, you'll need to select the "Header & Footer" button in the "Text" section.

This will bring up the "Header and Footer" options box. To add slide numbers to your PowerPoint slides, click the "Slide Number" checkbox in the "Slides" tab.

Press the "Apply to All" button to add slide numbers to all of your slides.

Once applied, your slide numbers will appear on each of your slides in the bottom-right corner. If you've split your PowerPoint presentation into sections, you'll need to repeat this action for each section.

To remove slide numbers from a PowerPoint presentation , you can follow similar steps to those shown above.

Related: How to Remove Slide Numbers from PowerPoint Slides

Press Insert > Header & Footer to bring up the PowerPoint header and footer options. In the "Header and Footer" box, uncheck the "Slide number" checkbox option.

You can remove the page number from only the currently selected slide by clicking "Apply" or to all of your slides by clicking the "Apply to All" button instead.

You can format your slide numbers using the PowerPoint Slide Master to make them appear in a different font, size, color, or position.

Related: How to Create a Slide Master in Microsoft PowerPoint

To do this, click View > Slide Master from the ribbon bar.

This will load the Slide Master editing screen. You'll see the current position of your page number as a text box in the bottom-right section of the slide.

You can move the text box to another position to move your slide number across all of your slides.

To edit the text formatting of the slide number, select the text box and then select the "Home" tab on the ribbon bar.

You can then edit the text formatting options using the available options in the "Font" and "Paragraph" sections.

For instance, pressing the "Bold" button will make the slide numbers appear in bold across all slides.

Once you've formatted your slide numbers, return to the "Slide Master" tab on the ribbon bar and then select the "Close Master View" button.

Your slide numbers will update with new formatting across all of your slides, depending on the changes you made.

Insert or change the slide numbers, date, or footer for on-screen slides

In PowerPoint you can add or remove automatic slide numbers, hide numbering on the title slide, and move slide numbers. You can also add the date and time to slides.

If you'd like to suggest improvements to the slide numbering feature, you can do that by clicking Help > Feedback > I have a suggestion .

Select a heading below to open it and see the detailed instructions.

Add slide numbers to your presentation

On the Insert tab, select Slide Number .

shows the slide number button on the ribbon in powerpoint

On the Slide tab, check the Slide number box.

Show header and footer dialog in powerpoint

If you don't want a number to appear on the title slide, also check the Don’t show on title slide box.

Select Apply to All .

The theme applied to your presentation has a standard location for where the numbers appear on your slides, as illustrated by the two themes picture below. To change that location, see "Change where the page numbers appear on your slides" below.

Remove slide numbers from your presentation

On the Slide tab, clear the box named Slide number .

Hide slide numbers on the title slide

On the Slide tab, check the Don’t show on title slide box.

Click Apply to All .

Re-position the slide numbers

On the View tab, select Slide Master .

shows the slide master button on the ribbon in PowerPoint

At the top of the thumbnail pane, select the Slide Master thumbnail.

Slide Master thumbnail in Slide Master View

In the Slide pane, select and hold the page number placeholder until you see the four-headed arrow, and drag it to a new location.

Select and hold the slide number placeholder

When you're finished, select Close Master View .

Start your slide numbering with a specific number

On the Design tab, select Slide Size , and then Custom Slide Size .

On the Design tab of the Ribbon, select Slide Size and then select Custom Slide Size.

Under Number slides from , click the up or down arrow to switch to the number that you want to start from:

shows the slide size dialog in PowerPoint

Add the date and time

On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click Normal .

On the left of your screen, in the pane that contains the slide thumbnails, click the first slide thumbnail in your presentation.

On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Date & Time .

The Header and Footer dialog box opens.

On the Slide tab, select the Date and time check box, and then choose the kind of date you want:

If you want the date and time to reflect the current date and time each time you open or print the presentation, click Update automatically , and then select the date and time format that you want.

If you want to set the date and time to a specific date, click Fixed , and then, in the Fixed box, type the date that you want.

By setting the date on your presentation so that it is Fixed , you can easily keep track of the last time you made changes to it.

If you want to add the date and time to all of the slides in your presentation, click Apply to All .

Add text to the footer

On the Insert tab, select Header & Footer .

On the Slide tab, check the Footer box.

In the box below Footer , type the text that you want, such "Company Confidential".

shows insert footer dialog in powerpoint

To prevent the footer from appearing on the title slide, check the Don't show on title slide box.

Select Apply to All to make the footer appear on all slides, or select Apply to make it appear on just the currently selected slide.

Delete a footer

On the Slide tab, clear the Footer box.

Select Apply to All to remove the footer from all slides in the presentation. Otherwise, select Apply to only remove the footer from the currently selected slide.

Troubleshoot problems with making footers appear on your slides

For details, see Troubleshoot footers .

Insert or remove slide numbers

Go to View > Normal .

Go to Insert > Slide Number .

Select Slide Number , then enter the starting slide number. Preview shows the location.

To add or remove the slide number from just the title page, clear or select Don’t show on title slide .

Select Apply to all or Apply .

Insert the date and time in a footer

Select Date and time , then select either Update automatically or Fixed . If you choose Fixed , enter the date in the format that you want. If you choose Update automatically, PowerPoint enters the current date, and you select the date format you want from the dropdown list.

On the Insert tab, select Footer > Slide Number .

In the Footer pane, select the Slide Number box.

If you want to avoid having a slide number on the title slide, select Don't show on title slide .

If you want to include additional "footer" text on your slides, select Footer , then enter the info you want in the text box.

Close the Footer pane.

Add a footer to your presentation

On the Insert tab, select Footer > Footer .

In the Footer pane, select the Footer box.

Enter info you want in the text box. For example, you could enter a data or a file name.

Need more help?

Want more options.

Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.

Microsoft 365 subscription benefits

Microsoft 365 training

Microsoft security

Accessibility center

Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.

Ask the Microsoft Community

Microsoft Tech Community

Windows Insiders

Microsoft 365 Insiders

Was this information helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

How to Add & Fix Slides Numbers in PowerPoint? [An EASY Guide!]

By: Author Shrot Katewa

Isn’t it annoying when you add a new slide within a sequence of slides in your PowerPoint presentation, and all your slide numbers go for a toss! If you are in this boat, then you’ve come to the right place!

Adding slide numbers can be confusing even after you’ve been using PowerPoint for quite some time. However, with the proper process of adding slides numbers in PowerPoint, you won’t go wrong. But, the question really is, what is the correct way to add slides numbers in PowerPoint?

To add slide numbers in PowerPoint, click on the “Insert” tab and click on the “Slide Number” option from the ribbon. Then, enable the “Slide Number” checkmark. Finally, click on the “Apply to All” option to apply slide numbers to all slides in your presentation.

This article will walk you through the complete details of adding slide numbers in PowerPoint in a step-by-step manner with visual references so that you can easily understand the process! You’ll also learn to add slide numbers in the “1 of X slides” format.

Furthermore, I’ll also show you how to exclude slide numbers from specific slides. In the end, I’ll help you troubleshoot some of the most common issues that you may be facing with slide numbers in PowerPoint. That, and much more!

So, let’s get started!

1. Adding Slide Numbers the Wrong Way! [Don’t Do This!]

First, let’s talk about what you shouldn’t do!

The easiest (and most common incorrect way) to add a slide number is by manually adding a text box on each slide, manually inputting the slide number, and placing it at the bottom of the slide. However, this is the wrong way to add slide numbers to your PowerPoint presentation.

If you add slide numbers this way, you have to add the slide number to each slide individually. Moreover, if you decide to place a new slide in the middle of your presentation, it messes up the sequence numbers for all the slides you just inserted slide numbers. Don’t do this!

The following part of this article discusses the different ways you can add slide numbers to your PowerPoint presentation efficiently.

2. How to Add Slides Numbers in PowerPoint? [Correct Way]

There are multiple ways to add slide numbers in PowerPoint. However, I’ll share the most straightforward method in this article with you.

A quick heads up – if you prefer watching the tutorial rather than reading about it, then check out my video below with the step-by-step instructions. However, if you prefer to read the instructions, continue with the article below.

Adding a Slide Number in PowerPoint Using the “Insert” Tab

Although you will see people talk about using the “Slide Master” to add slide numbers to your presentation, using slide layouts in PowerPoint can be confusing!

The easiest method is to use the “Insert” tab to add slide numbers to your slide. You can use this method even if you are a beginner!

So, what do you need to do? Let’s take a look –

Step-1: Insert a Blank Slide Layout

The first step of the process is to insert a blank slide in your presentation. This step is only optional. It is not necessary to do this every time. Don’t do this step, especially if you use a presentation template. But, for the sake of explanation and practice, this will be a helpful step.

Click on the “Home” tab to add a blank slide layout. Then, click on “ Layout “, and from the options, click on the “ Blank ” slide option.

This will convert the slide layout of your current slide to a blank layout. You can also add a slide to your presentation and then convert it to a blank slide layout using the steps I just mentioned.

Step-2: Click on the “Slide Number” option

Now, click on the “ Insert ” tab. Then, from the options, click on the “ Slide Number “. This will open a new pop-up window with more options.

Step-3: Add the Slide Numbers to the Slides

First, make sure that you enable the “Slide Number” option in the next step. Next, make sure that add a checkmark to the check box. You can choose to start the number at “ 1 “.

Then, click on the “ Apply ” option to add the slide number to just the current slide. However, if you wish to add slide numbers to all the slides, click on the “ Apply to All ” option.

Don’t worry. We’ll look at how to disable slide numbers for specific slides slightly later in the article.

Step-4: Duplicate the Slide with the Slide Number

This is, again, an optional step.

Once you have the slide number added by clicking on “Apply” in the previous step, you need to copy and paste the slide in PowerPoint .

Make sure that you format the slide number on this slide before you start duplicating this slide. (check the rest of the article to know how to format the slide number)

However, duplicating the slide with a slide number is only helpful when starting with a new presentation. If you already have a bunch of different slides that have been designed especially using a presentation template, this step 4 won’t work.

If you are in that situation, select the “Apply to All” option in step 3. Then, check the section below to format the slide number in PowerPoint.

3. How to Remove Slide Number from Specific Slides

If you don’t want specific slides to show the slide number, you can easily toggle it off.

To remove slide numbers from specific slides in PowerPoint, first, select the slide. Then, click on the “Insert” tab, and click on the “Slide Number” button. Next, “Uncheck” the slide number option in the pop-up that appears, and click on “Apply” to remove the slide numbers from the selected slides.

I’m hopeful that the process mentioned above is self-explanatory. Nevertheless, here’s a step-by-step process to disable slide numbers for specific slides in your PowerPoint presentation.

Step 1 – Select the Slides to Remove the Slide Number

First, select the specific slides on which you wish to remove the slide numbers. You can use the “Ctrl” on your keyboard (or Cmd key for Mac) and click on the slides on the left part of the screen to select multiple slides at once.

Then, click on the “ Insert ” ribbon, and click on the “ Slide Number ” option from the ribbon. This will open a pop-up.

Step 2 – Uncheck the Slide Number Option

From the pop-up window that appears, uncheck the box for the “ Slide Number ” option and click on “ Apply “. This will remove the slide number just on the selected slides.

4. How to Remove Slide Number from Title Slide in PowerPoint?

One common problem that you may encounter once you add the slide numbers to all your slides is that the title slide of your presentation also now shows a slide number!

Most of us usually don’t want the slide number visible on the title slide. So, how do you remove the slide number from the title slide of your PowerPoint presentation?

Well, there are three different methods you can use. Let’s take a look at them one by one.

Method 1 – Manually Removing the Slide Number

The easiest way is to remove the slide number from the title slide manually. Simply select the slide number on the title slide and hit the “Delete” key on your keyboard, and the slide number will be deleted.

This method works well for the title slide only since the title slide will always remain as the first slide in the presentation and won’t change its position in the sequence.

If you use this method on other slides, chances are you may want to move the slides around and may want the slide numbers back on the slide later. And, that may just complicate things for you. Instead, just follow the steps mentioned in the previous section to delete slide numbers on other slides.

However, sometimes, PowerPoint just doesn’t allow you to select the slide number field on the slide! In such a scenario, you can’t just delete the slide number.

This is where the other two methods come in handy!

Method 2 – Uncheck the Slide Number Option on the Title Slide

This method works just the same way as per the steps described in the previous section (section 3 above) of the article that describes the process to remove slide numbers from specific slides.

All you need to do is select the title slide by clicking on it. Then, click on the “ Insert ” tab. Next, click on the “ Slide Number ” option. From the pop-up that appears, uncheck the box for “Slide Number”, and click on “ Apply “.

Just as before, this will remove the slide number from the selected slide.

Method 3 – Use the “Don’t Show on Title Slide” Option

You can also use the “Don’t show on title slide” option when adding the slide numbers to your presentation in order to avoid the slide number on the title slide!

To do so, repeat the steps of adding the slide number to your presentation. Then, enable the checkmark on the “Don’t show on title slide” option to remove the slide number from the title slide.

5. How to Remove Slide Numbers on All Slides in PowerPoint?

Removing slide numbers from all slides is just as easy as adding slide numbers to your slides!

To remove slide numbers from your PowerPoint presentation, click on the “Insert” tab. Then, click on the “Slide Number” option. From the pop-up that appears, uncheck the box for “Slide numbers”, and click on the “Apply to All” option.

Check the steps on the image shared above in case you need any further clarification.

Once all the steps are complete, you will notice that the slide number disappears from all slides!

6. How to Make Slide Numbers “1 of X Slides” in PowerPoint?

If you have a really long presentation that contains more than 50 slides, then you may want to use the “1 of X Slides” format! [Where “X” is the total number of slides that your presentation contains]

Doing so allows the audience to estimate the number of slides remaining in the presentation. So, how do you do that?

Let me share with you a ninja tip in this section! Here’s a step-by-step explanation of what you need to do!

Step 1 – Insert a Text Box on the Slide

The first step is to insert a text box on the slide. To do that, click on the “ Insert ” tab. Then, click on the “ Text Box ” option from the ribbon. Next, just drag the cursor on the bottom right corner of your slide (or wherever you wish to have the slide number).

Step 2 – Insert the Slide Number

The next step is to insert the slide number. But, don’t add the slide number manually.

Instead, first, click inside the text box to make it active. Then, click on the “ Insert ” tab and click on the “ Slide Number ” option from the ribbon.

This will automatically insert the slide number inside the text box.

Step 3 – Add Text After the Slide Number

Now, simply add the text that you wish to appear after the slide number. In this case, I’ve added “of 20 Slides” after the slide number (as shown in the image above).

Step 4 – Copy and Paste the Text Box

Now, all you need to do is simply copy and paste this text box on all the slides!

Once you copy and paste the text box on other slides, you will notice that the slide number within the text box will change with the changing slide. However, “of 20 Slides” will remain constant!

Thus, it is advised to add such a slide number format to all slides once you’ve completed creating the presentation as it will provide you with a clear understanding of the exact number of slides in your presentation.

Don’t worry! Even if you move the slides around and change the sequence, the slide numbers will still change with the specific slide!

7. How to Format Slide Numbers in PowerPoint?

Formatting slides numbers is quite easy if you know what to do!

PowerPoint allows you to change the font color, font size, and even the font that is used for the slide numbers. Formatting a slide number works just like formatting text in PowerPoint .

There are two key processes to know when formatting a slide number in PowerPoint! Let’s take a look at both of them –

7.1 How to Format Slide Numbers for a Specific Slide Layout?

Formatting slide numbers of a specific slide layout will affect only those slides that use a particular type of slide layout. Here’s what you need to do –

Step 1 – Add Slide Numbers to the Slides

The first step is to add the slides numbers to your slide. Obviously, in order to edit the slide numbers and see the effect, the slide numbers need to be present on the slide.

So, if you haven’t added the slide numbers already, follow the steps mentioned earlier in the article and add the slide numbers first.

Step 2 – Check the Slide Layout

The next step that we need to take is to check the slide layout that is currently in use for the specific slide on which we intend to format the slide number.

To check the slide layout, first, select the slide. Then, click on the “ Home ” tab and click on the “ Slide Layout ” option from the ribbon.

The highlighted slide layout will indicate the layout the current slide uses.

Step 3 – Open the Slide Master View

In the next step, we need to open the Slide Master View in PowerPoint .

To do that, first, click on the slide for which you wish to change the slide number format. Then, click on the “ View ” tab, and click on the “ Slide Master ” option from the ribbon.

This will open the slide master view in PowerPoint.

Slide 4 – Format the Slide Number for the Specific Slide Layout

Now, first, make sure that you have the correct layout selected. By default, PowerPoint will open the slide layout of the slide that was selected before opening the slide master view.

Then, to make changes to the format of the slide number, select the slide number field present on the slide. Click on the “ Home ” tab, and make the changes as per your preference.

You can change the font, text alignment, text styles, font size, and much more! For the sake of this example, let’s change the alignment to left, and add a “Bold” style.

Slide 5 – Exit the Slide Master

Once you’ve made the desired formatting changes, click on the “ Slide Master ” tab once again, and click on the “ Close Master ” option to exit the slide master.

Once you exit the slide master and open the normal view, you will notice that the formatting of the slide number on the current slide layout is different from other slides.

7.2 How to Format Slide Numbers on All Slides in PowerPoint?

If you wish to change the format of the slide number on all slides instead of specific slide layouts, you can do so just as easily. And, no! You don’t need to individually change the format of slide numbers on each slide!

Here’s what you need to do to change the slide numbers on all slides in PowerPoint –

Step 1 – Open the Slide Master View

First, you need to open the slide master view in PowerPoint. Just as before, click on the “ View ” tab. Then, click on the “ Slide Master ” option from the ribbon.

Step 2 – Format the Slide Number Field on the “Master Slide”

Once you open the slide master view, click on the “ Master Slide ” i.e. the first slide in the sequence (which is also larger in size than the other slides).

Next, make sure you select the slide number field on the bottom right of the slide. Then, click on the “ Home ” tab. Here you can make all the formatting changes that you need.

For the sake of this example, I’ll click on the “ Bold ” option and change the font color to red.

You can see the change taking place on the selected slide number field on the master slide.

Step 3 – Exit the Slide Master

The last step is to exit the slide master.

Once you have made all the changes to the slide number formatting, click on the “ Slide Master “. Then, click on the “ Close Master ” options.

When you return to the normal view, you will notice that the formatting changes have been applied to all the slide numbers in your presentation.

Using the method described above, you can make changes to font color, font size, type of font, text alignment, and other formatting changes that you can normally make to text in PowerPoint!

8. How to Change the Position of Slide Numbers in PowerPoint?

To change the position of the slide numbers in your PowerPoint presentation, at first, select the text box of the slide number. After that click and hold the text box and drag it to your preferred position anywhere on the slide.

Once you’ve dragged it to where you want the slide numbers to be let go of the mouse button and the position of the slide number will change accordingly.

In order to change the position of slide number on all the slides, make sure that you use the method described in the previous section of the article (section 7.2)

9. Troubleshooting Slides Numbers in PowerPoint

While adding slide numbers to your PowerPoint presentation you may encounter some difficulties as some users of PowerPoint has.

There may be problems like the slide numbers not, showing the slide number may not be showing as “#”, you may have difficulty removing the slide number, or maybe you want the slide number to start from 0.

All these issues and possible reasons why you are encountering them are described in the following section.

9a. Slide Numbers Not Showing in PowerPoint

Sometimes you may find it difficult to add slide numbers to your PowerPoint presentation. Some of the reasons why you’re having this problem and possible ways to get around them are described below.

1. There may be a shape inserted over your slide number: Sometimes, there may be a shape or an image placed over the location where you inserted your slide number.

To solve this issue, click on the area where the slide number should be, and if there is a shape over it, “Right-click” on the shape and select the “Send to Back” option.

2. Make sure you have used the right layout: Some layouts don’t include the “ Slide Number ” placeholder in the slide. In that case, you won’t be able to see the slide number in slides using that layout.

To get around this issue, either insert a slide number placeholder in that layout or use a different layout that has a page number placeholder.

9b. Slide Number Showing as “#”

If the slide number is not showing as “#” in your PowerPoint presentation, then the presentation may be using multiple layouts.

To resolve this issue either use a different layout or manually insert a “ Footer ” in your PowerPoint presentation. After that that you should be able to see the “#” sign in the slide number placeholder.

9c. Can’t Remove Slide Number in PowerPoint?

You can’t remove slide numbers from your PowerPoint presentation by simply deleting them. This would only remove the slide number from the single slide where you deleted the slide number.

To remove slide number from all the slides in your PowerPoint, follow the instructions of excluding a slide from being number described earlier in this presentation, but instead of selecting the “ Apply ” button, select the “ Apply all ” button.

9d. Make Slide Number Start at 0

To make the slide number start from zero, follow the instructions given below.

Step-1: Select the “Customize Slide Size” option

The first step of the process is to select the “ Customize Slide Size ” option. To do that simply go to the “ Design ” tab from the ribbon of your presentation, click on the “ Slide Size ” button located in the “ Customize ” section of the “ Design ” tab.

After that, a dropdown menu will appear on your screen. From the dropdown menu, click on the “ Customize Slide Size ” option.

Step-2: Type in 0 in the “Number starts from” box

Finally, type in ‘0’ in the “ Number starts from ” box which is the last box in the “ Slide Size ” pop-up window, and then hit the “ Ok ” button. This will make the slide numbering start from zero.

Credit to drobotdean (on Freepik) for the featured image of this article (further edited)

Stack Exchange Network

Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow , the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.

Q&A for work

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

Insert total number of slides in PowerPoint 2007

Is it possible to insert the total amount of slides in a PowerPoint presentation into a footnote? I'm looking for an automated way.

Of course I could edit the footer and put it in manually, but if I increase/decrease slides, it would be necessary to adjust it. And this is something that we always forget.

The help from Microsoft explains how to do it manually. I can't believe that PowerPoint doesn't have it...

microsoft-powerpoint-2007

1 Is the "insert > field" option not available in powerpoint? That's how I used to do it in word... – Seamus Apr 13, 2010 at 17:36
Yeah, thats what I was looking for. I'm new to 2007 and I can't find it. – Bob Rivers Apr 13, 2010 at 18:07
yea, fields dont exist in Powerpoint, so that won't work. – BBlake Apr 13, 2010 at 19:36
4 How irritating is it that we still need an add-in to this very basic feature? I've had this issue for years... – user79854 May 5, 2011 at 10:43

6 Answers 6

If you're looking for an option or configuration setting that will just automatically add it to every presentation you create, there isn't one. However, if you edit the Header or Footer, you can automatically add slide numbers there and have them appear on all slides.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA101181931033.aspx

2 Yes, this is the article that I read. I don't want to have to put "of 10" manually. I'm looking for something like <#> of <##>... – Bob Rivers Apr 13, 2010 at 18:08
1 Ahh, ok, yea, this would only work if you just want the page number. If you want "of total slides" there isn't a quick solution. The only other solution I can think of is to use VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) to accomplish this. I know that will work, but could get a bit complex. – BBlake Apr 13, 2010 at 19:44
@BBlake You're right. VBA is required to achieve this. See my answer for details on how to do this. – trejder Mar 21, 2015 at 7:56

This is basically pwrpntuser 's code extended to full executable guide.

Creating macro

In PowerPoint 2007 and newer make sure, that you saved your presentation under .pptm extension (standard presentation with macros allowed).

Make sure, that you have added slide numbers using method described in this article 1 .

Open " Macro " window 2 . In PowerPoint 2007 and newer, click on View tab (last) and then on Macro button in last toolbar group. In eariler versions select Tools > Macro from menu.

Type a name for your macro (say PageCountUpdater ) and click Create .

Paste macro code (from pwrpntuser 's answer or below) between Sub PageCountUpdater() and End Sub . Change van in the most indented line to of or anything similar in your lang.

Save macro and close Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications.Go back to PowerPoint.

You're done. Code to be inserted (full and with corrected "glue-word"):

Executing macro

Open " Macro " window again.

Select saved PageCountUpdater macro and hit Run .

You have to do this each time manually. A keyboard shortcut would be most welcome. But... there is no way to change PowerPoint's shortcuts, except for buying a commercial plugin, for which you have to pay price starting at 20 bucks per one computer. See end of this or this article for a details.

Deleting macro

This macro is run only, when you need it. It is not a live-macro. It updates field with actual slide count and that's it. Field itself is a standard text field. No magic. This means, that you can easily convert your file back to .pptx and throw this macro away, once you're sure, that your presentation is done and you'll be adding no more slides to it. Field will remain in their places with their values untouched, once macro is removed.

This is comfortable as many users does not like documents with macros and many presentation places, fairs, conferences etc. simply won't let you run .pptm file.

This is also good, because this macro recreates numbering fields on all slides (except title ones -- see footnote no 1 at the end), even if you remove them manually. Therefore you should run it one last time, after you're sure about final number and order of slides and then you can remove it.

Opening macro-enabled file

If you decide to keep .pptm extension and macro inside, you'll have this document always opened with macros disabled and you'll have to click Enable macros each time (if you run on default settings) to enable them.

If documents are your own, you trust, that they contain no malicious code and they're all stored in a secure location (i.e. not in some temporal or shared folder), you can change each Office program settings to have these files always opened with macros enabled.

The easiest way is to add folder with macro-enabled presentations to secure locations in PowerPoint.

To do this:

Click File tab, Options button, Trust Center section and Trust Center Settings button.

Go to Trusted locations section (second) and click on Add new location... button.

Paste or select folder path into Path field and optionally check, that all subfolders in added location should also be treated as trusted.

Click OK three times to confirm and close all opened windows. Reopen your macro-enabled document.

From this point on, all documents opened from just added location should not display any warning and should always be opened with macros enabled. You'll find much more details on this matter in this Office.com support document .

1 In most versions of PowerPoint the meaning title slide is determined not as first slide in presentation , but as any slide styled as title slide . You can see diffreent slide types, when inserting new one. This mean that, if you have no slide styled as title, you'll have page numbers added to all slides. And opposite -- if you used many title slides inside presentation, for example to mark different sections or blocks, you'll have numbering missing on all of them.

2 All GUI elements' names are on-the-fly translation from my Polish edition of PowerPoint 2010. In other releases or language editions of PowerPoint they may be slightly different. Adjust accordingly.

First make sure every slide has a normal slidenumber. Then add a module, insert the following piece of code and press F5 (Start).

3 What is a module? – Pez Cuckow Jul 25, 2012 at 11:38
When you programmatically change the contents of the slide number placeholder this way, slide numbers will no longer update automatically when you delete/add/move slides. I would think this creates more problems than it solves. – OfficeAddinDev Aug 26, 2016 at 19:37
This answer has been extended by trejder in this other same question , to explain to non-developers how to code it and save it. – Sandra Rossi Aug 28, 2020 at 9:21

Bill Dilworth's add-in for PowerPoint may help you, depending on which version of PowerPoint you're using. This is exactly its purpose.

I found one web page that said you put <#> of x into a text box in the Master Slide and then add "slide number" to the slide. I got it to work briefly, but then when I moved it, and tried again, it no longer populated the full slide number into x. But this solution may be feasable for most users.

Yes... and this webpage is already mentioned here, in an answer older 1,5 year than yours . – trejder Mar 20, 2015 at 21:49

Here's some slightly different code that updates your footer with "slide # of ##." I chose to not count hidden slides towards the total. I have this code executing from the mouse over of a hidden action button on slide 1.

Welcome to Super User. Please be advised you have answered a question that is many years old and has an accepted answer. Although there is nothing wrong with doing so, it is unlikely you will get a response. – CharlieRB Jan 14, 2016 at 21:24

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged microsoft-powerpoint-2007 ..

The Overflow Blog
Reshaping the future of API platforms
Between hyper-focus and burnout: Developing with ADHD
Featured on Meta
Our Partnership with OpenAI
Imgur image URL migration: Coming soon to a Stack Exchange site near you!

Hot Network Questions

Quickest return from stable Earth orbit to ground?
Using Mars inner moon Phobos as a brake
Ceiling box has two reds and two blacks - how to wire this?
What is Rishi Sunak's reasoning/incentive to talk of a hung parliament, rather than a Labour majority, right now?
Could not locate statistics in the system catalogs error in SQL Server
Create an empty 8x8 One Up puzzle with a unique solution
Is science value-free?
Troubleshooting why my hammock fell
Try Triling ("Triangular-Tiling")
How did the bugs get all over the place?
Why does the EU find the foreign agent law in Georgia against their values?
Can I swap a gravel wheel with 1x10 cassette for a new road wheel with 1x12?
Would you correct grading mistakes downwards if there is a mistake in grading?
Why is the reliability of Stormy Daniels testimony relevant in Trump's hush money process?
Is the meter relative to time?
FourierTrigSeries doesn't know Jacobi–Anger expansion?
Who was Nicolò Paganini that discovered the amicable pair 1184, 1210?
Why doesn't constant acceleration give me total displacement?
Is the estimand in a Regression Discontinuity Design the ATE, ATT, etc?
Why doesn't `FindInstance` work in finding Heronian triangle?
Looked at a different rolling (3d6, 3d6, average) for D&D characters in AnyDice and the result didn't come out as expected. What am I missing?
Can I safely customize fingering of arpeggios?
The Wu line drawing algorithm for anti-aliased lines optimization
A word for not just optional but usually not done

Got any suggestions?

We want to hear from you! Send us a message and help improve Slidesgo

teacher appreciation

mother teresa

18 templates

memorial day

12 templates

summer vacation

25 templates

Kids Presentation templates

Find free google slides themes and powerpoint templates designed for kids, educators or anyone looking for backgrounds and resources more suitable for a younger audience. with many options at your disposal, customizing them is easy as pie..

Ideas for Incorporating Movement in the Classroom presentation template

Premium template

Unlock this template and gain unlimited access

Ideas for Incorporating Movement in the Classroom

Download the "Ideas for Incorporating Movement in the Classroom" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and teach with confidence. Sometimes, teachers need a little bit of help, and there's nothing wrong with that. We're glad to lend you a hand! Since Slidesgo is committed to making education better for everyone,...

Let's Celebrate Children's Day at School!

Children's Day is a celebration that is observed on different days depending on the country, but a clear date is November 20, because that same day, in 1959, the UN approved the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, becoming a key date and the date of celebration in some...

World Health Day Activities for Pre-K

Download the "World Health Day Activities for Pre-K" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and create big learning experiences for the littlest students! Dynamic and adorable, this template provides the visual stimuli that Pre-K students thrive on and makes your lessons more playful and exciting — after all, Pre-K education...

Card Game to Improve Mental Arithmetic Skills

Download the "Card Game to Improve Mental Arithmetic Skills" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and teach with confidence. Sometimes, teachers need a little bit of help, and there's nothing wrong with that. We're glad to lend you a hand! Since Slidesgo is committed to making education better for everyone,...

Project Evaluation in Pre-K and Elementary

Download the "Project Evaluation in Pre-K and Elementary" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and prepare to receive useful information. Even though teachers are responsible for disseminating knowledge to their students, they also embarked on a learning journey since the day they decided to dedicate themselves to education. You might...

English Language Grammar Rules

The English language is spoken almost anywhere in the world, making it almost a necessity in everyone's education. Today, we're releasing this kid-friendly template with cute cartoony drawings of kids and many layouts prepared for you to teach some grammar rules. We've added some examples as a starting point. Use...

Sports and Leisure Activities Vocabulary - German - 5th Grade

Download the "Sports and Leisure Activities Vocabulary - German - 5th Grade" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and easily edit it to fit your own lesson plan! Designed specifically for elementary school education, this eye-catching design features engaging graphics and age-appropriate fonts; elements that capture the students' attention and...

Grammar Subject for Elementary - 4th Grade: Greek and Latin Roots

Download the "Grammar Subject for Elementary - 4th Grade: Greek and Latin Roots" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and easily edit it to fit your own lesson plan! Designed specifically for elementary school education, this eye-catching design features engaging graphics and age-appropriate fonts; elements that capture the students' attention...

Rotavirus Vaccination Case Report

Download the Rotavirus Vaccination Case Report presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. A clinical case is more than just a set of symptoms and a diagnosis. It is a unique story of a patient, their experiences, and their journey towards healing. Each case is an opportunity for healthcare professionals to...

Language Arts Development for Pre-K

Come on! An exercise to practice language arts development with your preschoolers! Get them to order these words! "best" "Slidesgo" "of" "templates" "is" "the" "website". What do you come up with? Well... you can use other kinds of vocabulary... Like some of the practical exercises we've included at the end...

No More Interrupting

Download the "No More Interrupting" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and teach with confidence. Sometimes, teachers need a little bit of help, and there's nothing wrong with that. We're glad to lend you a hand! Since Slidesgo is committed to making education better for everyone, we've joined hands with...

Physical Education Subject for Elementary: Body Elasticity

Download the Physical Education Subject for Elementary: Body Elasticity presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and easily edit it to fit your own lesson plan! Designed specifically for elementary school education, this eye-catching design features engaging graphics and age-appropriate fonts; elements that capture the students' attention and make the learning...

Feelings Activities for Kindergarten

Help your little students learn the feelings with this fun presentation full of cute stickers that represent the most common feelings. Happy that you found such a cool resource for your lesson? We’re excited that you’re going to use our design in your class. The slides are completely editable and...

Multiplying Integers

Download the "Multiplying Integers" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and teach with confidence. Sometimes, teachers need a little bit of help, and there's nothing wrong with that. We're glad to lend you a hand! Since Slidesgo is committed to making education better for everyone, we've joined hands with educators....

Elementary Activities to Celebrate Children's Book Day

Download the "Elementary Activities to Celebrate Children's Book Day" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. High school students are approaching adulthood, and therefore, this template’s design reflects the mature nature of their education. Customize the well-defined sections, integrate multimedia and interactive elements and allow space for research or group projects—the...

World Health Day Activities for Elementary

Download the "World Health Day Activities for Elementary" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and easily edit it to fit your own lesson plan! Designed specifically for elementary school education, this eye-catching design features engaging graphics and age-appropriate fonts; elements that capture the students' attention and make the learning experience...

Pre-K Outdoor Activities to Celebrate National Play Outside Day

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the kids are playing. An ideal world! There's much to see outside, and breathing fresh air feels so much better. Let's do some activities outside so that we celebrate National Play Outside Day! This illustrated template for kids can be a...

Kids' Growth and Development Notions for Pre-K Teachers

Pre-K teachers optimize children's growth and development. Through activities such as reading, crafting, and playful interactions, they foster critical thinking, self-direction, resilience in the face of challenges, and social-emotional wellbeing. Share your experiences with other teachers by editing this template and giving a slideshow with your insight. The design aims...

Page 1 of 91

Great presentations, faster

Slidesgo for Google Slides :

The easy way to wow

Register for free and start editing online

A simple guide to slideshows

Learn what slideshows are, how they’re used, common features, and how to choose a slideshow maker. Get started creating your own slideshows today with Microsoft PowerPoint.

What is a slideshow?

What are slideshows used for.

Meetings and presentations

Slideshows are most frequently used to create professional presentations for business meetings, conferences, and educational purposes. A slideshow program allows people to organize content, include visuals, and enhance the overall impact of their message.

Visual storytelling

Because slideshows sequentially display engaging visuals, text, and other multimedia, they’re a strong way to tell a cohesive and compelling narrative from start to finish.

Content creation

Slideshows give content creators a versatile and efficient way to organize information, increase visual appeal, and communicate effectively across different contexts.

Photo and video sharing

Slideshow makers are popular for creating photo and video presentations, especially for events like weddings, birthdays, and vacations. People can add transitions, music, and captions to fully bring the photo-sharing experience to life.

Training and tutorials

Slideshows help break down complex information into digestible chunks with the support of visuals and text, making them ideal for instructional materials, tutorials, and training modules.

Collaborative projects

In collaborative settings, teams use slideshow makers to create joint presentations or reports. The best slideshow makers enable multiple contributors to add their content simultaneously, which helps ensure a cohesive and unified presentation.

What are the features of a slideshow creator?

Slideshow creators vary in what they offer but ideally include:

A library of templates, themes, and images.

If you’re not a designer, this feature is huge. Simply browse the options available in your slideshow maker library to create a polished, professionally designed presentation in a flash. Be sure to confirm that access to the library is free and the images are approved for unrestricted usage.

Audio and video compatibility.

Keeping your audience engaged is key to any successful slideshow presentation. To mix things up, being able to add a multimedia element—like a song or a video clip—will help people stay focused and interested.

Presentation tools.

Handy presenter tools go a long way toward making your slideshow experience seamless. For example, straightforward slide navigation, slideshow keyboard shortcuts, pen and highlighter markup, and adjustable resolution settings.

AI assistance.

With AI revolutionizing content creation, using a slideshow maker that has AI capabilities will enhance efficiency and innovation. Depending on the slideshow app you have, creating an entire slideshow could be as easy as a quick prompt, like “Make a presentation about the benefits of sustainable fashion that has 15 slides.”

Animations.

Like audio and video, animations give your audience a bit of sensory surprise that can capture their attention.

Slide transitions.

Add some pizzazz to how you change slides with visual effects like fading, wiping, and zooming.

Screen recording.

Being able to record your screen in a slideshow maker is helpful when giving an instructional talk, software demonstration, and other types of presentations that require visual aids.

A place to put speaker notes.

Having somewhere to jot a few notes down will help remind you of everything you want to cover as you present.

Different viewing options.

Looking at different views—for example, a presenter view, an audience view, and a high-level view of slide order—is useful when organizing your slideshow’s structure and understanding and preparing for what you’ll see versus what your audience will see.

How do I choose the right slideshow maker?

When choosing a slideshow maker, keep the following questions in mind to make sure you get the most for your money:

Is it scalable with your business?

As your organization grows and changes, it’s important to have flexible technology that adapts to new needs. Having certain features—such as cloud-based collaboration, compatibility with other work apps, and a mobile app—will help ensure that no matter how your business changes, the slideshow maker is up to the task. This also applies to pricing plans. Consider choosing a slideshow app that has a subscription plan (so the software is always up to date), volume-based pricing, or enterprise-level pricing.

Does it have a variety of visual elements?

It’s pretty much a given that a slideshow maker will allow you to add images, but think outside the JPEG box—what other visual elements are available to you? Features like preset themes, free templates, SmartArt, a built-in clip art library, shape tools, background styles, 3D models, and charts and graphs provide diverse ways to switch up how a slideshow looks without relying solely on adding your own images.

Is it easy to use?

You could have the most feature-rich slideshow maker on the market, but if it isn’t easy to use, you probably won’t use it. Or you will, but you’ll be frustrated, waste valuable time, and have difficulty convincing people you work with to use it. As you research slideshow makers, look for videos that show the apps’ interfaces in action to help you decide if they’re intuitive and will have a shorter learning curve.

Does it have collaboration and sharing options?

Because making a slideshow is often a collaborative effort, it’s worthwhile to find a slideshow creator that was designed with this in mind. Pick one that offers editing controls and commenting, as well as the ability to work on a slideshow at the same time as someone else. Having a cloud-based slideshow maker will be key here. You’ll not only save yourself time but also keep things simple by not having multiple versions of the same slideshow.

Explore more about slideshows and slideshow makers

Copilot in powerpoint.

Transform how you make slideshows with the versatile AI in Copilot for PowerPoint.

Improve your presenting skills

Practice presenting with an AI speaker coach to get feedback on body language, repetition, and pronunciation.

Six slideshow tips and tricks

Read up on tips about how to finesse your slideshows to give your most confident presentations.

Get free PowerPoint templates

Show your style with PowerPoint templates in more than 40 categories.

How to make a branded slideshow

Create a cohesive visual identity for your brand that goes beyond adding a logo to every slide.

Try a photo album template

Relive your favorite memories with photo album templates designed for all your unforgettable moments.

The benefits of visual aids in slideshows

Discover why using visual aids helps communicate ideas and messaging more effectively.

Slideshows that reach all learners

Explore the different ways that people learn and how to include all learning styles in your presentations.

Frequently asked questions

How do i make a good slideshow.

Making a good slideshow in PowerPoint is easy:

Plan what you’d like to include in your slideshow.

Launch your slideshow creator.

Choose the theme you’d like.

Import media.

Add text, music, and transitions.

Record, save, and share your slideshow.

Learn more about how to make a slideshow .

How do I add music to a slideshow?

To add music to a slideshow, first make sure that you’re using a slideshow maker with music compatibility. In PowerPoint, follow these steps:

Open your PowerPoint presentation and select the slide where you want to add music.

Click on the Insert tab in the ribbon menu.

Click on the Audio button and select Audio on My PC.

Browse to the folder on your computer where the audio file is located and select it.

Click on the Insert button.

How do I record a slideshow?

The steps for recording a slideshow in PowerPoint will vary depending on the version that you own. Get help with slideshow recording based on your version.

What types of files can I add to a slideshow?

File compatibility in PowerPoint includes the use of JPEGs, PNGs, TIFFs, GIFs, PDFs, MP3s, WAVs, MIDIs, MPEG-4 Videos, and Windows Media Videos.

How do I share my slideshow?

To share your PowerPoint slideshow, follow these steps:

Open your presentation and click Share at the top right of your screen.

If your presentation isn't already stored on OneDrive, select where to save your presentation to the cloud.

Choose a permission level, like Anyone with a link , or maybe just people in your company. You can also control if people can edit or just view the doc.

Select Apply.

Enter names and a message.

Select Send.

Follow Microsoft

IMAGES

1 to 10 Numbered Slides Template for PowerPoint
Customizing Slide Number Options in PowerPoint
What Is The Ideal Number of Slides in Presentation
How to Add Slide Numbers in PowerPoint Presentations (Step-by-Step)
How Many Slides for 45 minutes or 1 Hour Long Presentation
How to Add Slide Number in Google Slides Presentation

VIDEO

How to add page number in powerpoint
How to link to a specific slide in google slides presentation
Traxxas XRT
How to Number a Slide in PowerPoint
How to Number slides in a Google slide Presentation
professional powerpoint presentation 10 slide

COMMENTS

How Many Slides to Use for a 5, 10, 15+ Minute Presentation?
Guy Kawasaki believes the ideal presentation has 10 slides, lasts 20 minutes, and has no font smaller than 30 points. That's his 10/20/30 rule. Here are some tips for a 20-minute presentation: 1. Go Longer. With 20 minutes, you can go longer.
How to Choose the Right Number of Slides for a Powerpoint Presentation
2. Think about the speed at which you speak. If you speak quite quickly, you will be able to get through a great number of slides. If, on the other hand, you speak more slowly, you'll probably require a smaller number of slides. Use your rate of speech to determine how many slides your presentation can accommodate. 3.
How Many Slides Should You Use in a Presentation?
The Max Number of Slides for a 15-Minute Presentation (or Less.) The max number of slides for a short presentation (less than 15-Minutes) is seven. However, I'd suggest you stick with five slides if at all possible. If you have watched videos on my YouTube channel or listened to my podcast, you'll know that when I help people design ...
How Many Slides to Use in a Presentation? 5 Tips
2 minutes: Time for each point in your presentation (1 slide per point) 1 minute: Time for each sub-point in your presentation (1 slide per sub-point) 3 minutes: Deep dive for one or two key takeways (1-2 slides) Flash slide (quick on and off the screen): For transitions between large topic areas or polling the audience to keep them engaged
The ideal number of slides for an hour-long presentation, and other
Until I can go slide-less, I have compromised at what I feel is the ideal number of slides for an hour-long presentation: about 15 slides (including the title and conclusion slides). Kawasaki says to limit the number of slides to 10 because no one can retain any more than 10 ideas in an hour, and though I don't know what data supports this, I ...
How Many Slides Does Your Presentation Need, Anyway: A No-Nonsense
Here is a quick overview of how many slides your presentation should include: Duration of Presentation. Suggested Number Of Slides. 5 Minutes. 5-10 Slides. 10 Minutes. 5-20 Slides. 15 Minutes. 15-30 Slides.
How many slides do I need for my presentation?
A general guideline is to allocate approximately 2 minutes per slide. This means that for a 10-minute presentation, you should aim for around 5 slides, plus or minus 1 to 2 slides. Try the calculator below or read the 3-2-1 Rule for presentations for a more in-depth guide on how to budget the number of slides for your next presentation.
How many slides should I have in my PowerPoint presentation?
You might've heard Guy Kawasaki 's 10/20/30 rule. This rule states that the "perfect" presentation has ten slides, lasts for 20 minutes, and uses a 30pt font. Or you might've read that every minute you speak equates to one slide on display behind you.
Best Practices The #1 rule for improving your presentation slides
You want to aim for the fewest number of slides, the fewest number of photos, the fewest words per slide, the least cluttered slides and the most white space on your slides. ... The best way to make sure the attention stays on you is to limit word count to no more than 10 words per slide. As presentation expert Nancy Duarte says "any slide ...
How many PowerPoint Slides does a Presentation Need?
10/20/30 - The Kawasaki method: Perhaps the best known and most commonly used method is the 10/20/30 rule by Guy Kawasaki. It specifies that ten slides be used in a 20-minute presentation. A font size of at least 30 should be used for text. This equals to about two minutes per slide - a standard rule for presentations.
Ideal Number of Slides for 5, 10, 15-Minute PowerPoint Presentation
The short answer: Anywhere between 10 slides of 1 minute each to 20 slides of 30 seconds each are ideal for a 10-minute presentation. Since you have ample time, be sure to go into more detail. Remember, a boring 10-minute presentation can feel like 30 minutes for your viewer! So be sure to keep your presentations interesting and engaging.
How Many Slides For Presentations (10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 Minutes)
A 15-minute presention should have a maximum of 15 slides. This is the right amount of information for audiences to grasp without feeling overwhelmed or bored. If you can give this type of presentation in 10 minutes or less, it's even better. During a 15 minute presentation. These slides should be able to cover the basics of your topic, but ...
How Many Slides For A Whatever-Minute Presentation?
There are so many rules out there that you've probably heard of. "Only use five slides.". "Keep it to one slide for every three minutes.". Even presentation pros like Guy Kawasaki will advocate for the 10/20/30 rule (10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point font). These rules aren't necessarily wrong, but I do feel they overlook one of the ...
How many slides for a 15 minute presentation?
In general, the answer to how many slides for a 15-minute presentation lies in about 25 slides. Yet, think anywhere between 20-30 as the broadest use of those. And if you genuinely wish to stick to the standard, remember any pitch deck should be able to withstand a 10-20 slide average. Therefore, you might be better off sticking to your 15 ...
Show the slide number and total number of slides on every slide
Place your cursor after the <#>, and then type of x, where x equals the total number of slides in your presentation (for example, <#>of 10if you have 10 total slides in your presentation). Numbering slides this way doesn't automatically calculate the total number of slides in your presentation, so you'll need to enter the total manually, in place of the x.
How Many Slides for a 30 Minute Presentation (w/Examples & Tips)
Then, using 15 slides we'll be able to present it in a timeframe of 30 minutes. As a rule of thumb, consider: Estimate how much time do you require to present your slides in average and add 30 more seconds to the result. Then divide 30 minutes by the time spent on a single slide. The result will give you an idea about how many slides for 30 ...
Add slide numbers, page numbers, or the date and time
Add slide numbers or notes page numbers. On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click Normal. On the left of your screen, in the pane that contains the slide thumbnails, click the first slide thumbnail in your presentation. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Header & Footer. If you want to add slide numbers, click the Slide ...
How to Add Slide Numbers in PowerPoint on Windows & Mac
Things You Should Know. To add slide numbers to your presentation, click the "Insert" tab, select "Header & Footer," check the box next to "Slide number," and click "Apply All." The position, font, size, and color of your slide numbers is determined by your slide master.
How to add slide numbers in PowerPoint (Step-by-Step)
1. Open the Slide Number dialog box. Now that you have setup (or double-checked) that your slide numbers are set up properly in the Slide Master view, now we can add them here in the Normal View of PowerPoint (woo-hoo). Let's start by opening the Header and Footer dialog box as follows: Navigate to the Insert tab.
How to Add Slide Numbers in PowerPoint
To add slide numbers, open a PowerPoint presentation with several slides added and then click the "Insert" tab. From here, you'll need to select the "Header & Footer" button in the "Text" section. This will bring up the "Header and Footer" options box. To add slide numbers to your PowerPoint slides, click the "Slide Number" checkbox in the ...
Insert or change the slide numbers, date, or footer for on-screen
In PowerPoint you can add or remove automatic slide numbers, hide numbering on the title slide, and move slide numbers. You can also add the date and time to slides. If you'd like to suggest improvements to the slide numbering feature, you can do that by clicking Help > Feedback > I have a suggestion. Select a heading below to open it and see ...
How to Add & Fix Slides Numbers in PowerPoint? [An EASY Guide!]
Step-2: Click on the "Slide Number" option. Now, click on the " Insert " tab. Then, from the options, click on the " Slide Number ". This will open a new pop-up window with more options. Step-3: Add the Slide Numbers to the Slides. First, make sure that you enable the "Slide Number" option in the next step.
Insert total number of slides in PowerPoint 2007
Make sure, that you have added slide numbers using method described in this article 1. Open " Macro " window 2. In PowerPoint 2007 and newer, click on View tab (last) and then on Macro button in last toolbar group. In eariler versions select Tools > Macro from menu. Type a name for your macro (say PageCountUpdater) and click Create.
Free Kids Google Slides themes and PowerPoint templates
Download the Learning the Days of the Week presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. The education sector constantly demands dynamic and effective ways to present information. This template is created with that very purpose in mind. Offering the best resources, it allows educators or students to efficiently manage their presentations...
Slideshow Maker Software Guide
Slide transitions. Add some pizzazz to how you change slides with visual effects like fading, wiping, and zooming. Screen recording. Being able to record your screen in a slideshow maker is helpful when giving an instructional talk, software demonstration, and other types of presentations that require visual aids. A place to put speaker notes.