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Apr 25 2009

Keep the Formatting of an Inserted Slide in PowerPoint

Category: Templatespptninja @ 9:07 am
Insert a slide from one presentation into another.

How do you keep the formatting of a slide you're inserting?

When you’re building PowerPoint presentations, you may need to copy slides from one PowerPoint slide deck and insert them into another. Sometimes these slides may have different templates, themes, or other formatting options. Whenever you insert slides from another presentation template, the inserted slides will default to the new presentation’s template and formatting options. In most cases, you’ll want to modify the inserted slides to the new presentation’s formatting in order to keep your slides consistent.

However, there may be times when you want to retain the original formatting of the inserted slides. You may realize that it will be too much work to reformat the inserted slides to match the new presentation’s formatting. You may be presenting with someone from another company or business division, and that person may want to retain their own presentation template.

How to keep the original formatting of an inserted slide in PowerPoint

Paste Options icon - Blink and you may miss it.

Paste Options - Blink and you may miss it.

Keeping the source formatting is surprisingly simple. After you copy and insert the new slide into the thumbnail section of your presentation, there is a small “Paste Options” icon that appears at the bottom-right of the insert slide’s thumbnail. It is pretty subtle and actually disappears after a few minutes so it is easy to miss. However, if you click on the Paste Options, you’ll see two options:

  1. Keep Source Formatting
  2. Use Destination Theme (default)

When you change the default setting to “Keep Source Formatting”, the slide will revert back to its original formatting instead of using the new destination theme. This feature is so inconspicuous that I didn’t realize this feature was also available in PowerPoint 2003.

After pasting the slide into the slide thumbnails on the left, look for the Paste Options icon. Change the default setting to

After pasting a new slide into the slide thumbnails on the left, look for the "Paste Options" icon at the bottom-right of the new slide's thumbnail. Click on the icon and change the default setting to "Keep Source Formatting". Voila - two templates in the same presentation.

As an added bonus, you now have both templates to choose from in the same presentation if you retained the source formatting. You can now build a new slide using either template in the same presentation if needed. Booyah!

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32 Responses to “Keep the Formatting of an Inserted Slide in PowerPoint”

  1. Phyllis Khare says:

    YEA! Ellen Finkelstein (@efinkelstein)sent me this link – this is EXACTLY the problem I had with a client’s PPT last week. Now I know how to fix it! Thank you!
    Now I’m following you in Twitter @phylliskhare

  2. pptninja says:

    I’m glad you found this post helpful. Thanks for the follow on Twitter!

  3. abba_dad says:

    I just had this problem this morning. I’m not sure why they hid it like that instead of adding it to the ‘paste special’ menu. And I had to dig through help to find it too.

  4. darkb says:

    ‘Keep Source Formatting’ has always been useful BUT what if you want to bring over the format of the copied slide without having to also bring in a new slide master as well (and unecessarily bulk up your file size)? Anyone know how to do this?

  5. pptninja says:

    PowerPoint 2007′s new file format automatically compresses files as it combines XML with ZIP compression. The “fat” PPT file problem of previous versions isn’t as much of a problem now.

    The main source of “extra bulk” will be any background image in a slide master that you have. Unless you reduce the image file size, I don’t see any way around adding some extra size to your file. But as I stated earlier it shouldn’t be as big an issue with the current PPTX file format. My two cents.

  6. PowerPoint Training says:

    And opening the file in any earlier version just adds to the file size, right!

  7. Reuben Poon says:

    Bazunga! This was the answer to all of my problems (well, not quite, but it definitely made my life a whole lot easier)

  8. Chris N says:

    Anyone know how to do this via macro or API?

  9. Lindsey says:

    Thank you so much!!!!!

  10. Jackie says:

    Oh my gosh! What a lifesaver! I was going nuts trying to figure out how to do this!!! YAY : D

  11. melissa says:

    How can I set this to be default, so I do not have to click paste options all the time?

  12. pptninja says:

    I couldn’t find an option to set this as the default. :(

    Maybe if a Microsoft PowerPoint Product Manager visits this site, they’ll consider it for PPT 2010.

  13. Beth says:

    OMG. Thank you so much!

  14. JJ says:

    THANK YOU!!!!!!

  15. golfwineski says:

    WHY can’t MS help be this simple!!!! I know the answer…bc they are MS. Thanks…problem has haunted me for a while…frikking Gates sucks…

  16. Candice says:

    Thank you so much!

  17. Jim Sauerbaum says:

    I’m using 2007 and I’ve used this little trick for the longest time but now the Paste option icon has disappeared on me. I get it when I cut and paste individual elements from a slide but not when I cut and paste the entire slide. This was working up to a few weeks ago. Any suggestions?

  18. Chris says:

    Thanks you! Saved me hours. Hugely helpful tip.

  19. Jessica says:

    After pasting a new slide into the slide thumbnails on the left, look for the “Paste Options” icon at the bottom-right of the new slide’s thumbnail. Click on the icon and change the default setting to “Keep Source Formatting”. Voila – two templates in the same presentation.

    I cannot find the ‘paste options’ icon at the bottom-right of the new slide’s thumbnail….it does not appear??? please help

  20. pptninja says:

    I ran into this issue recently. I pasted in several slides (30+), and the paste options appeared further down the page (floating in a spot further down the thumbnails than I was expecting). I almost missed it myself.

    Note: The paste options will disappear after a while so you need to look for it before it does.

  21. Sal Paradise says:

    Your Paste Options menu will disappear or not appear at all if you have hidden objects on your slides. Some embedded items from third party software developers can also cause this. However, someone please help me (us): What is the cure for this? If you go to Office Button … Inspect Document … then Remove Hidden Items … you will lose functionality of your third party embedded software, once you paste into ppt 2007.

  22. Cynthia says:

    you ROCK!!!

  23. TG says:

    THANK YOU!!!

  24. Maggie says:

    Dancing naked on my desk!!!

  25. Becky says:

    AWESOME!

  26. Sherri says:

    Thanks a million!!! Not quite as excited as Maggie but close!!!!

  27. Pastor John says:

    Someone already said it, but I’ll say it again: You rock! Wish I’d found this answer years ago.

  28. pptninja says:

    People dancing naked on their desks and pastors saying I rock. I don’t know what to say, but I’m glad my tips are helpful. :)

  29. Jo says:

    This saved my life…it’s taken me years to figure this out! Thank you so much!

  30. Catherina says:

    Brilliant. Panic over…

  31. Joe says:

    You are a PowerPoint God! Thanks so much, this has bothered me for years.

  32. vikky13 says:

    Mega Thanks! It saved me a lot of time.

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