Use a Word outline in PowerPoint 2013 (review)

A few years ago I already discussed this subject for PPT 2007 and 2010. This is an update for PPT 2013. I added screenshots this time and elaborated on some aspects in Word.

If you want to consult the article for previous versions, click on the link below.

Use a Word outline in PowerPoint 2007-2010

Nothing has changed much as to how you procede. Two options, either import the outline from Word directly in PowerPoint, or send to PowerPoint in Word.

Let us assume you are planning to use the outline of the following word document. In order to do so you will have to have titles that have heading styles applied to them. That is essential.

In PowerPoint 2013

Open a new PPT presentation and remove the first title slide.

Click on the New slide button on the Home tab or choose Insert - New slide.

Click Slides from outline at the bottom, browse to your Word file and click Insert.

Every Heading 1 style will provide a new slide with the text as title. A heading two style or lower will produce a bullet level under the title placeholder.

You can import text that has no headings but then all the text will be inserted in the placeholder for the title, every new paragraph will produce a new slide which makes it virtually unusable.

In Word 2013 send to PowerPoint 2013

To send outline text to PPT you have to add a button to your quick access toolbar.

File - Options - Quick access toolbar - All commands - Send to PowerPoint - Add - OK

Open your Word document with the applied heading styles. Click on the Send to PowerPoint button, PPT does not have to be active when you do.

What if you have not applied heading styles to your document and do not want to. But you still want to transfer the word text to your PPT presentation in an orderly fashion.

In that case you can attribute outline levels to the paragraphs you want to use in Word, no need to apply heading styles.

Put the cursor in the paragraph and click the dialogstarterbutton of the Paragraph group on the Home tab. Next to Outline level choose the desired level, and repeat that process for all the paragraphs you want included in the outline. To speed things up, use the F4 key to repeat on other paragraphs of the same level.

When you send to PowerPoint you get the following result:

As an alternative you can make use of the Outline view in Word.

Click View - Outline, in the Views group.

Make use of the level picker in the Outline tools group. Just put your cursor in the paragraph and choose a level.

When you're done choosing the levels just click on the Send to PowerPoint button.

One caveat though, in choosing the outline view you automatically apply the heading styles to your document with the associated formatting. So if you want the text to remain like it was you will have to close the document without saving it.