PowerPoint Drops Its “Reuse Slides” Feature

Have you noticed that some changes don’t feel like improvements?

Microsoft has announced that it’s retiring PowerPoint’s much loved Reuse Slides feature. 

For anyone who builds presentations regularly, that’s a real blow.

If you’ve never used it, Reuse Slides was one of those quiet, behind-the-scenes features that made life a lot easier. It let you open a small panel within PowerPoint, browse through another presentation, and pick out the exact slides you wanted to reuse. You could even choose whether to keep the original formatting. It was perfect for keeping your company’s logo, colors, and layout looking consistent. And it was a huge time saver. Instead of rebuilding every deck from scratch, teams could pull in existing slides from previous proposals, reports, or training materials. It kept things looking professional and saved hours of fiddling with design templates.

But earlier this year, that convenience disappeared. Microsoft says it removed Reuse Slides because there are duplicate ways to do the same thing. It no longer makes sense to maintain overlapping features. 

While that might be technically true, it’s not much comfort for people who liked the simplicity of clicking one button and getting straight to work. You can still reuse slides. It just takes an extra step or two. 

One simple method is to open both PowerPoint files at once and drag and drop slides between them. This usually keeps most of your formatting, animations, and media in place. 

Another option is to go to View > New Window, which opens a duplicate of your current deck. That’s helpful if you want to work on a new version while keeping the original untouched.

These alternatives do the job, but they don’t feel quite as seamless. Reuse Slides gave you more control, especially when you only needed a few slides from a larger deck. The drag and drop method can work, but it’s less precise and can sometimes cause small formatting quirks that need tidying up afterwards.

Still, change is inevitable. Microsoft wants fewer overlapping features and a more streamlined experience, even if that means saying goodbye to a few long-standing favorites.

If your business relies on PowerPoint for client presentations, sales decks, or internal training, make sure your team knows about this change. Get them comfortable with the drag and drop method or the “New Window” trick to save time and confusion later.

And if you need help getting to grips with this, or any other change in Microsoft, get in touch.

Published with permission from Your Tech Updates