How to Delete a Slide in PowerPoint

Elise Williams

2020-09-09 17:49:04 • Filed to: PowerPoint Features • Proven solutions

Deleting a slide in PowerPoint is a very simple process if you know how to do it. If you don’t, you could end up fussing with the menus and getting frustrated because you can’t directly choose the contents of a slide and delete it. That will simply remove the content and leave you with a blank slide, which doesn’t really help. In addition, if you’ve already converted your presentation into a PDF for storage/archiving purposes, you’ll need a tool to delete that page without affecting the other pages and content. This article shows you both actions – how to delete a slide in PowerPoint and how to delete a page in PDF with PDFelement so you’re covered under either circumstance.

How to Delete a Slide in PowerPoint 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Office 365

In PowerPoint 2007 and later, including PowerPoint for Office 365, the thumbnail pane can be used to delete one or more slides at a time. Usually visible by default when you’re in Normal view mode, the thumbnail pane can be seen on the left side of the screen as a vertical row of slides.

• Open the PPT.
• Make sure the “Normal View” is turned on at the bottom of the PowerPoint window.
  
• Select the slide to be deleted and hit the “Delete” key on your keyboard; you can also right-click on a slide and choose “Delete Slide” from the contextual menu.
  
• To remove sequential files, select them with your mouse while holding the Shift key; if they’re not sequential, hold down the Ctrl key and click all relevant slides with your mouse in the thumbnail pane and then delete them as shown in the previous step.

How to Delete a Page from a PDF File

What if the presentation has been converted to PDF and you don’t want to go through the hassle of converting it back to PPT, editing the file, and then converting it back into PDF? In that instance, you can try PDFelement, a comprehensive and full-bodied PDF editor that has all the features you need in order to manage entire PDF workflows. Here are some of the core features:

• Create PDFs with ease either from scratch or from another file type. While converting from other formats, the original layout, alignment, fonts, and other attributes are faithfully maintained in the resulting PDF file.
• Edit PDFs with advanced features to alter text, images, and other objects, including links, headers/footers, page backgrounds, etc.
• Convert PDF files into nearly any other document format you want, which includes MS Office files, EPUB, HTML, and more.
• Create fillable forms or convert non-fillable forms, fill them out, edit form content, extract form data, and do everything you need to on a form.
• Protect your data and content with password encryption, redaction, and watermarks.
• Sign your documents digitally to streamline PDF workflows across teams.
• Perform OCR on image-based PDFs (scanned PDFs) and accurately convert them into documents that can be searched or edited.
• Optimize PDF file sizes and share them directly from within PDFelement to cloud services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Evernote after linked the respective accounts.
• Print PDFs with customized settings like orientation, page range, and other options.

One of the most complicated tasks when it comes to PDFs is page management. Unless you have the right tool, it’s virtually impossible to delete a single page or a set of pages from a PDF document. PDFelement makes it super-simple by giving you several page view options so you can see the results as you delete pages.

• Open the PDF file from which you want to delete a page.
• Click on the “Page” menu item in the top toolbar.
• Click the trash bin icon in the tool panel right below that.
• In the “Delete Pages” window, choose the page, pages, or page range to be deleted.
• Hit “OK” and save the new version of the file with the deleted pages gone.

That’s how simple it is to delete a page or a set of pages from a PDF document. In addition, if you have the file in PPT format, you can simply drag it to the program window and it will automatically convert it into PDF while maintaining the original layout and other attributes of the slide content. It is much cheaper than other alternatives, including the market leaders, Adobe Acrobat DC and Nitro Pro. In addition, the level of customer service is superb because the team is well-trained and highly knowledgeable. With all these benefits to enjoy and take advantage of, it is no surprise that PDFelement has one of the fastest-growing user bases in this software segment.

Last updated: April 9, 2019

A presentation is often a living document that needs to be updated or changed throughout the editing process. Often this process will dictate that you delete or change some of the content on your slides. But you may discover that an entire slide might not fit your overall vision for the presentation, and that you need to remove it entirely.

Fortunately you are able to delete slides from your presentation in Google Slides, and you can even delete multiple slides at once. Our tutorial below will show you how to select more than one slide at a time, then execute the action that will delete whatever slides you have selected.

Don’t want to show a slide, but don’t want to delete it either? Find out how to hide a slide in Google Slides so that it’s not included in the presentation.

How to Delete a Slide in Google Slides

1. Sign into Google Drive and open your slideshow.
2. Hold down the Ctrl key and click each slide to delete.
3. Right-click a selected slide, then click the Delete slides option.

For additional information and pictures for each step, continue to the next section.

How to Select and Delete More Than One Slide at a Time in Google Slides

The steps in this article were performed in Google Chrome, but will also work in other desktop and laptop Web browsers like Edge or Firefox.

Step 1: Go to Google Drive at and open the file containing the slides that you want to delete.

Step 2: Hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and click each slide that you want to delete.

Step 3: Right-click on one of the selected slides, then select the Delete Slides option. Optionally you can click the Edit tab at the top of the window and select the Delete option there.

If you delete a slide, either intentionally or accidentally, then discover later that you actually needed it, then you might be concerned. Fortunately you are able to restore a previous version of the slideshow, so you can choose one of the versions from before the slide was deleted. You can do this by clicking the File tab, clicking Version history, then clicking See version history. The simply click the version with the deleted slide, then click Restore this version at the top of the window.

Are you looking for a way to make your slides bigger so that they are easier to edit? Learn how to hide the speaker notes at the bottom of the screen, which will cause your slides to expand.

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When you customize and save a document theme so that you can apply it to other documents or presentations, the customized theme is saved in the Document Themes folder and is automatically added to the list of custom themes. When you delete the document theme from the Document Themes folder, it is automatically removed from the list of custom themes.

Which Microsoft Office program are you using?

Excel

On the Page Layout tab, in the Themes group, click Themes.

Under Custom, right-click the theme that you want to delete, and then click Delete on the shortcut menu.

Note: If you do not want the built-in themes to be displayed in the Theme gallery, you can move the theme files to another folder. We do not recommend that you delete the built-in themes, because the only way to get them back is to reinstall the Microsoft Office system.

PowerPoint

On the Design tab, in the Themes group, click the More button .

Under Custom, right-click the theme that you want to delete, and then click Delete on the shortcut menu.

Note: If you do not want the built-in themes to be displayed in the Theme gallery, you can move the theme files to another folder. We do not recommend that you delete the built-in themes, because the only way to get them back is to reinstall the Office system.

For Word 2016 and Word 2013, on the Design tab, in the Document Formatting group, click Themes. For Word 2010 and Word 2007, on the Page Layout tab, in the Themes group, click Themes.

Under Custom, right-click the theme that you want to delete, and then click Delete on the shortcut menu.

Note: If you do not want the built-in themes to be displayed in the Theme gallery, you can move the theme files to another folder. We do not recommend that you delete the built-in themes, because the only way to get them back is to reinstall the Office system.

In this course:

When creating your presentation, you’ll typically add new slides, move your slides around, and delete the slides you don’t need.

Add slides

Select the slide you want your new slide to follow.

Select Home > New Slide.

Select a layout.

Select the text box and type.

Delete slides

For a single slide: Right-click the slide in the thumbnail pane on the left, and select Delete Slide.

For multiple slides: Press and hold Ctrl, and in the thumbnail pane on the left, select the slides. Release the Ctrl key. Then right-click the selection and choose Delete Slide.

For a sequence of slides: Press and hold Shift, and in the thumbnail pane on the left, select the first and last slides in the sequence. Release the Shift key. Then right-click the selection and choose Delete Slide.

Duplicate a slide

In the thumbnail pane on the left, right-click the slide thumbnail that you want to duplicate, and then click Duplicate Slide. The duplicate is inserted immediately after the original.

Rearrange the order of slides

In the pane on the left, click the thumbnail of the slide that you want to move, and then drag it to the new location.

To select multiple slides: Press and hold Ctrl, and in the pane on the left, click each slide that you want to move. Release the Ctrl key, and then drag the selected slides as a group to the new location.

See Also

Add a new slide

In Normal view, on the left slide thumbnail pane, click the slide that you want your new slide to follow.

On the Home tab, click the arrow next to New Slide.

In the gallery of layouts, click the layout that you want for your new slide.

Your new slide is inserted, and you can click inside a placeholder to begin adding content.

Rearrange the order of slides

In the pane on the left, click the thumbnail of the slide that you want to move, and then drag it to the new location.

Tip: To select multiple slides, press and hold the Command key while you click each slide that you want to move, and then drag them as a group to the new location.

Delete a slide

In the pane on the left, Ctrl+click or right-click the slide thumbnail that you want to delete, and then click Delete Slide.

Alternatively, click the slide you want to delete, and then press Delete.

Duplicate a slide

In the pane on the left, Ctrl+click or right-click the slide thumbnail that you want to duplicate, and then click Duplicate Slide.

Another way to see all your slides at once and rearrange them is by using Slide Sorter view. Read about it in Switch to different views in PowerPoint.

Turning off the narration does not delete the narration from your presentation—it only prevents the narration from playing. Deleting the narration permanently removes it from your presentation.

Turn off the narration

On the Slide Show tab, in the Set Up group, clear the Play Narrations check box.

Alternatively, you can click Set Up Slide Show, and under Show Options select the Show without narration check box. This action has the same effect as step 1.

Tip: To turn the narration back on, ensure that the Show without narration check box is cleared and the Play Narrations check box is selected.

Delete the narration

In Normal view, click the sound indicator on a slide, and then press Delete.

Repeat step 1 for each slide from which you want to delete the narration.

Turn off the narration

On the Slide Show tab, clear the Play Narrations check box.

Alternatively, you can click Set Up Slide Show, and under Show Options select the Show without narration check box. This action has the same effect as step 1.

Tip: To turn the narration back on, ensure that the Show without narration check box is cleared and the Play Narrations check box is selected.

Delete the narration

In Normal view, click the sound indicator on a slide, and then press Delete.

Repeat step 1 for each slide from which you want to delete the narration.

Turning off narration isn’t available in PowerPoint for the web.

You can, however, remove narration from a slide by selecting the audio icon on a slide and pressing the Delete key.

It’s pretty common to have to delete a slide in PowerPoint. Maybe your presentation is going on a bit too long and you need to cut content. Or maybe you were keeping a slide for notes that you don’t want to appear in your presentation.

Regardless of the reason, there’s good news: PowerPoint makes it very easy to delete slides, no matter what version of it you have.

In fact, the solution is so intuitive, you may have missed it altogether while looking for a delete button or a trash bin somewhere in the application.

If you need to delete a PowerPoint slide, here’s how you do it, using any version of PowerPoint on your Mac or PC.

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How to delete a slide in PowerPoint

1. Open your PowerPoint presentation and right-click (or hold Control as you click) any slide you want to delete in the left sidebar.

2. From the drop-down list that appears, select “Delete” or “Delete Slide.”

Even better, PowerPoint will actually allow you to delete multiple slides at once — in case you need to delete a whole section or trim a few extras here and there.

To delete a section of slides that are right next to each other, just hold shift and select the first and last slides in the section. This will select those slides, as well as every slide between them. Once they’re selected, just delete them the same way you did above.

To delete multiple slides that aren’t next to each other, hold down the Ctrl or Command key and click on each slide you want to delete. Once selected, right-click any of them and select the “Delete” option.

PowerPoint has become a universally recognized mode of presentation. In order to make an attractive and effective PowerPoint file, one has to invest a significant amount of time and effort. After putting much labor in creating a PPTX file, nothing is more painful than accidentally deleting the PowerPoint files. To help the users who are facing this situation, we will describe here how to recover accidentally deleted PowerPoint slides. First, we will check out some related user queries:

User Query 1: “Hello friends. I am in a big trouble and I want your help in this matter. I have been making a PowerPoint file for official presentation with around 50 slides in it. While working, I have accidentally deleted some of the slides from the file. I do not exactly remember what I have included in those slides so I have to get back those slides. Please tell me how can I recover deleted PowerPoint slides?”

User Query 2: “I was deleting some of the unnecessary files from D drive. Suddenly, I deleted some PowerPoint files by mistake. My query is, how to recover accidentally deleted PowerPoint. I have checked my Recycle Bin and it is not there. Those presentation files are important to me. Kindly suggest how can I recover deleted PowerPoint files? Thanks in advance for helping.”

How to Recover Accidentally Deleted PowerPoint Slides

There are different ways to get back the PPTX slides you have deleted accidentally. Users can adopt any of the techniques depending on their need. You will be able to recover the accidentally deleted PPT slides with the help of given methods.

Restore Deleted PowerPoint File from Recycle Bin

If you are lucky, you can recover your accidentally deleted presentation file from the Recycle Bin of your computer. If you have not deleted the file permanently, this method will be useful.

Go to the deleted file location to confirm the folder from where the powerpoint presentation has been deleted.

1. Go to the Recycle Bin folder from the desktop.

2. Select the deleted file and right click on the file. Click on Restore button.

3. Check the restored Powerpoint presentation in the folders.

If you couldn’t find your slides in recycle bin. There must be two reason behind it. One, you might have permanently deleted it by pressing Ctrl + shift + Delete. Second, your recycle bin capacity is almost full. So, just hope you not in a bad luck. Otherwise, try to recover accidentally deleted PowerPoint slides from next method.

Restore Deleted PowerPoint Slides from AutoRecovery Folder

You can easily recover the slides, if the AutoRecover function has been enabled for MS PowerPoint, a backup copy of the file is always saved after a certain time. You must check if you have enabled the auto-recover option or not. After that, you just need to follow the given steps.

1. launch MS PowerPoint application. Click on File tab>>Options.

2. Here, choose Save from the opened window. Now, check out the path of the AutoRecover file location.

3. Copy the directory path and navigate the location. Locate the deleted PowerPoint presentations copy it to some other location.

Remember, this only works when the auto-recover option is enabled. In case, this is not enabled or something not happened as it states. Relax, still you can find the deleted slides. If you can OneDrive account. Read next method to understand in better way.

Restore Deleted PowerPoint Presentation From One Drive

If you have synchronized your system with a OneDrive account, the deleted file will be still in OneDrive. You can absolutely able to recover accidentally deleted PowerPoint slides by following these steps.

Check the recycle bin, if you have temporary deleted the file. If you couldn’t find the PowerPoint presentation in the bin. Go check to your OneDrive.

1. Go to your OneDrive account and select File>>Documents folder.

2. Here, find out the presentation file you have shared before deleting it.

3. Choose Version History and check the versions available for recovery.

4. Download your required version or copy paste in a blank PPTX file.

What if the above techniques works but not in your favour? You found restored files are corrupted. No worries, Still there is a way which will help you to repair them. You can easily fix the bugs and corruption by using this ultimate utility. This is explained in next solution, go ahead.

What If the Recovered Deleted PowerPoint Files are Inaccessible

The methods discussed in the previous section should be helpful in recovering accidentally deleted PowerPoint slides. After you get back your files, you should check its integrity and confirm if they are accessible or not. Many times, auto-recovered files do not remain in the equally healthy state. If this is happening to you, check the file using PowerPoint Recovery Tool.

Step 1: Download & Install: Launch software from available .exe and run it in your system.

Step 2: Add Powerpoint File: With the Software, you can add Single Powerpoint File, even Complete Folder of Powerpoint files.

Step 3: Search PowerPoint File: This software has auto-detecting feature to detect files from drives (C:, D:, E:). Even it searches powerpoint files within the sub-folders.

Step 4: Previewing PowerPoint File: This tool allows you to preview the recovered or repaired slides within the tool. You can use it’s inbuilt preview tools to view the whole presentation.

Step 5: Saving the PowerPoint File: Save the file intact with the original format. Along with this, you can save the selected file from the repaired and recovered ones.

Thus by using this tool, you make your PowerPoint files accessible again. This software is suitable for all PPTX files created by MS PowerPoint 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019. Multiple PowerPoint files can be processed using this software.

Conclusion

File deletion is a great way to get rid of unnecessary files from your system. But if the important PPTX files get mistakenly deleted, this creates a problem for the users. This write-up talked about how to recover accidentally deleted PowerPoint Slides using multiple approaches. Even after recovering the files you cannot open the files, you can try PowerPoint Recovery Tool. This software will make your recovered PowerPoint slides accessible without any trouble.

About The Author

Ashwani Tiwari

Being a Chief Technical Operator, I am aware of the technicalities faced by the user while working with multiple technologies. So, through my blogs and articles, I love to help all the users who face various challenges while dealing with technology.

Many of the Powerpoint templates that you use will likely include at least one text box or text placeholder somewhere. Whether it’s on the title slide or on one of the default layouts, text boxes are an important element of creating slides in Powerpoint.

But if you can’t find a layout template that suits your needs, or if you simply need to add another text box to your Powerpoint presentation, then you may be wondering how to do so.

Our guide below is going to show you how to add a text box in Powerpoint, as well as how to delete a text box in Powerpoint. With that knowledge in hand you should be able to customize your slides with the text that your presentations require.

How to Add a Text Box in Microsoft Powerpoint

The steps in this article were performed in Powerpoint for Office 365. However, these same steps will also work in many of the other versions of Powerpoint as well, such as Powerpoint 2010, Powerpoint 2013, and Powerpoint 2016.

Step 1: Open your Powerpoint presentation.

Step 2: Select the slide from the column at the left side of the window in which you wish to add the new text box.

Step 3: Click the Insert tab at the top of the window.

Step 4: Choose the Text Box button in the Text section of the ribbon.

Step 5: Click and hold on the point in the slide where you wish to place the text box, then drag your mouse until it’s the correct size.

Note that there are some symbols that appear around the text box. If you click one of the circles on the text box’s perimeter you can adjust the size of the box. If you click and drag on the circular arrow at the top of the text box you can rotate it.

You can format text inside of the text box using any of the text formatting options found on the Home tab.

How to Delete a Text Box in Powerpoint 2016

Now that you know how to add a text box in Microsoft Powerpoint, it’s also helpful to know how to remove a text box in Powerpoint. Since there isn’t actually a dedicated “Delete Text Box” option anywhere in Powerpoint, we can use one of two separate options to accomplish the task.

The first option that you can try is to click on one of the borders of the text box, which will select the entire object. Then simply press the Backspace key or the Delete key on your keyboard, and the text box should disappear.

The second option for removing a text box in Powerpoint is to once again click on the text box border to select it, then right-click on the text box and choose the Cut option. While this isn’t technically deleting the text box, it serves a similar functional purpose.

More Information on Text Boxes in Powerpoint

• Other Microsoft Office applications, such as Microsoft Word or MicrosoftExcel, also have text boxes. They work in very similar ways to the text boxes that you would use in Powerpoint.
• The Google Slides application lets you work with text boxes, too. If you’re working in Google Slides but need to continue in Powerpoint, then this guide will show you how to download a Powerpoint copy of your file from Google Slides.
• When you are editing the text inside your text box, or when the text box is selected, there is a Shape Format tab at the top of the window. This tab includes options that let you change the style of the text box, as well as apply fill colors, outline colors, effects, and more. There is also an option to resize the text box at the right end of the ribbon if you would prefer to make that change numerically.

Find out how to center a text box in Powerpoint if you need to place your text box at the vertical or horizontal center of a slide.

@Marshall_G08
September 5, 2019, 11:23am EDT

Slide numbers are a great way to navigate to a specific slide on your PowerPoint presentation quickly. In the event that the slide numbers are no longer necessary, you might want to remove them. Here’s how.

Remove Slide Number from One or All Slides

First, open the PowerPoint presentation that contains the slide numbers you want to remove. The slide number appears in the top-left corner of its respective slide.

Next, head over to the “Text” group of the “Insert” tab and select “Slide Number.”

Once selected, the “Header and Footer” dialog box will appear. In the “Slide” tab, uncheck the box next to “Slide Number.” If you want to remove the number from only the selected slide, then select “Apply” (2). If you want to remove the numbers from every slide in the presentation, then select “Apply to All” (3).

Remove Slide Number from Title Slide

You might want to remove the slide number from the title slide only. Numbering that slide probably isn’t necessary as most understand the title slide is the first slide of your presentation.

To remove the slide number from the title slide only, select “Slide Number” in the “Text” group to open up the “Header and Footer” dialog box again. This time, check the box next to “Don’t Show on the Title Slide.”

If you happened to be on the title slide when you opened the dialog box, then select “Apply.” However, if you were on any other slide, you’ll need to select “Apply to All” for it to work.

Deleting animations from a PowerPoint presentation is simple and quick, but what if you just want to disable the animations during a particular presentation? Good news; there’s a way.

Deleting Single (or Multiple) Object Animations

Let’s say you have a presentation that, though you’re happy with the content, you’d like to remove all of the animations and start over. No problem. Though PowerPoint doesn’t currently have a feature that allows you to wipe all animations from a presentation at once, you can delete them slide by slide, which is still a pretty quick and painless task.

Go ahead and open up the presentation that has the animations you’d like to delete. Select the slide that has the animations you want to delete.

Tip: You can easily tell which slides have animations in PowerPoint’s “Normal View.” As you can see in the screenshot below, the slides with animations have a star under the slide number.

To delete an animation an object at a time, you first need to select the object.

Next, head over to the “Animations” tab and select “None” from the list of options.

This will successfully delete the animation from the object. The process is the same for deleting animations from multiple objects at once. To select multiple objects at once, hold the Ctrl key and select the objects and then remove the animations by selecting that same “None” option.

To get rid of all the animations on a slide, it’s easiest to select all the objects on the slide by pressing Ctrl+A. Then you can select the “None” option on the “Animations” tab to remove all the animations from the slide.

Repeat this process for each slide in the presentation, and you’ll be animation free in no time.

Disable an Entire PowerPoint Presentation’s Animations

Now let’s say you only want to disable the animations instead of completely deleting them. This will be ideal if you’re planning to use the presentation with animations in the future. There’s also the benefit of having a feature that disables the entire presentation’s animations, so you don’t have to go through each slide.

Head over to the “Slide Show” tab and click the “Set Up Slide Show” button.

In the “Set Up Show” window select the “Show without animations” option and then click “OK.”

All of the animations in the presentation are now disabled. To reverse this, go back and untick the “Show without animations” checkbox.

Did you notice gridlines inside the presentation slide?

On some occasions, these gridlines can appear without the user change PowerPoint’s setting. Don’t worry, gridlines you just see doesn’t affect the slide when it is being presented.

Gridlines supposed to help users create a presentation slide with a higher precision level. However, if you are not a fan of it, you can remove gridlines easily.

INFO: The following screenshots are based on PowerPoint 365 version 1902 (Build 11328.20480). Other PowerPoint versions may have a different look. However, I’m pretty sure the overall interface still the same.

Time Needed : 1 minutes

In the guide below, you will learn how to remove gridlines in the PowerPoint when editing the slide.

1. Launch PowerPoint and go to the View menu.

Remove the checkmark from Gridlines.

Now, the PowerPoint slide is clear from those annoying gridlines.

Tools

• Microsoft PowerPoint

Materials

• Gridlines

This setting will remain permanently unless you decide to use the gridlines again.

Although you don’t need this feature right now, gridlines are very useful for positioning an image or object. A geometrical shape also would be easier to make if you let the gridlines option enabled. After all, gridlines are not showing when you run the presentation.