Summary zoom in PPT 2016-2019

This is the first article in a series of three. The zoom function is new in PPT starting with version 2016.

Summary zoom

Most presentations follow the slides in the order they have been created. This leaves you with no flexibility to respond adequately to questions that might arise with the public. Using the zoom function makes an end to that.

Summary zoom creates a summary slide, an interactive table of contents. From this slide you can jump to specific parts (sections) of your presentation. No need for hyperlinks, animations of animation triggers.
Sections have been a part of PPT starting with version 2010. See my concise article on the subject:
Sections in ppt 2010

Open your presentation. Select the Insert tab, Links group, Zoom button.

Click the Summary zoom option.

In the dialog Insert summary zoom, select the slides where you want to start a new section.

Next click Insert, a new slide is created containing the selected slides appearing as a thumbnail.

In the Outline pane on the left of your screen you can see the sections and their respective name. The name is chosen from the title on the slide if present. You can of course change the name by right- clicking and choosing Rename section. The summary slide itself gets its own section with Summary section as its logical name..

If there is no title on the slide you chose to be part of the summary the section just gets a number. Which can of course be changed.

In slide sorter view you can see even better where the sections are located. Just click on the slide sorter button bottom right corner.

During the slide show you just click on one of the thumbnails to zoom in on the slides of that particular section. Once all slides have been shown you automatically return to the summary slide.

If you want to move on to a different slide after you return then type in the number of the slide and press enter. In that case you quit the zoom. Do not click next to the thumbnails you will just activate the following section of the zoom.

If you delete a section (Home tab - Slides group - Sections button) the thumbnail is still present on the summary slide but it is greyed.

Just select the greyed thumbnail and press Delete.

Selecting a thumbnail activates the Zoom Tools. Here you can change some settings. If you want to get rid of the zoom action uncheck the box Zoom transition. You can also opt to not return to the Summary slide by unchecking the Return to Zoom box.

Also note that when the zoom tools are active, you can see the range of slides that belong to each section.

Summary thumbnails can be changed to any picture you choose. Just click the Change image button and choose Change image.

The thumbnail is an exact reproduction of the slide, including fixed background graphics. If you do not want those to show click the Zoom background button in the Zoom styles group on the Zoom Tools Format tab.

Here's an example of the same Summary slide without the background element. To make things more distinctive I have added a Zoom border.

Finally, you can edit your zoom summary by clicking on the Edit Summary button in the Zoom options group. You can add sections or remove them. Remove or add checks as appropriate. Then click on Update.

If you changed the thumbnails, for instance made them larger or smaller, moved or rotated them, click on the Reset Layout button and all will return to normal.

Attention!

If you open a presentation with a zoom summary in an earlier version of Word, everything will work but the slide transition will be the one you chose for your presentation or turn into the dissolve animation.