How to Add Slide Numbers in PowerPoint?

Easy navigation of the presentation makes a huge difference. You want all important data and slides easily accessible for effective delivery of the idea. Complex subjects and topics may require up to 100 slides. Can you navigate to a specific slide without slide numbers?

The presentation design is optimized by adding slide numbers. The left pane in the editing view shows the numbering for every slide. What about the slide numbers in the presenter view? When slideshow is running, you will not see the numbering for each slide unless you have inserted slide numbers in footer or header.

How to Add Slide Numbers in PowerPoint?

Users need to understand that placement of the slide number is determined by the template or theme of the presentation. The header and Footer in PowerPoint slides can have custom details, too. In the next section, we are going to see how to insert slide numbers in the presentation.

How to Insert Slide Numbers Only?

Different themes or PowerPoint templates may have different place to display slides numbers, date and time. Here are steps to enter slide numbers in PowerPoint presentation.

Step 1: Open Presentation >> Insert Tab

Open the presentation on your computer and go to the “Insert” tab in the top menu by selecting any slide. You can insert slide number for any selected slide or all slides in the presentation.

Step 2: Click on the Slide Number

The “Text” portion in the “Insert” tab has different options. For the sake or inserting slide numbers, click on the slide number.

Step 3: Choose Slide Number

The new “Header and Footer” window will pop up and in the Slide window, check the “slide number” option. 

Step 4: Apply Changes

Do you want to add slide number to the selected slide only or to all slides in the presentation? Select the “Apply to All” button if you want to display slide numbers on all slides. Click “Apply” if you want to insert the slide number only into the selected file.

How to Add Slide Number to All Slides but the First Slide?

With the above-given method, PowerPoint will number the selected slide or all slides. In default settings, the very first slide in the presentation is numbered 1. What if the first slide has only the title and name of the presenter?

Would you like to start the slide numbering from the second slide? In other words, you don’t want to assign a number to the topic slide and want the slide numbering to start from the second slide.

It is possible and all you have to do is to follow the above-mentioned method, Insert >> Slide Number >> Check the Slide Number Box >> and the extra step is to check that one little box at the bottom of the window.

This box with the text “Don’t show on title slide” must be checked if you want to number all slides but the first slide.

How to Add Date and Time to Slides in PowerPoint?

Did you see that some presentation slides have different other details in the footer? The dedicated space under every slide is known as the footer, and the concept works the same for MS Word and other programs.

The footer can have extra details about the slide or the PowerPoint presentation as whole. The most common practice is to use footer to add references, company logo, date or time and other essential information.

How to Add Date and Time to Slides?

Do you to display today’s date or specific date in the footer section of the selected slide or all slides? The steps to add date and time to footer of PowerPoint presentation is same as inserting slide numbers.

Step 1: Go to Insert >> Header and Footer

Open your presentation and go to Insert Tab >> Header and Footer >> Check Date and Time box.

Step 2: Apply Date and Time

Here, you can set the date and time to update automatically or set any fixed date for the footer. Now, apply the settings to the selected slide or all slides.

How to Edit Date & Time Format?

Now that you have added the Date and Time through the Header and Footer section, you will see a small text box under the slide. If the text box has the date format as you like, everything is perfect.

If not, click on the date and time box in the footer and then go to date and time option in the top menu. This will open a new window will all the available formats to display date and time in the footer of slides. Choose any format and display date or time, only date or only time in the desired format.

You can also change the text style, size, and other settings for the date and time box by selecting the text and then modifying it.

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Conclusion- How to Add Slide Numbers in PowerPoint?

Apart from inserting slide numbers to PowerPoint presentation, we have also learned how to edit footer and how to add date and time to the slides. The process is simpler when done as you just have to go to insert, choose header and footer and then insert slide numbers or date and time.