How To Create A Custom Slide Show

You can essentially tag a subset of slides in a presentation file for the purpose of showing that subset to a particular audience. You might think of it as a playlist. PowerPoint calls this a custom show.

When you create a custom show in PowerPoint, you can adapt a presentation for different audiences. Use a custom show to present only certain slides from your presentation, or to create a hyperlink to a group of slides in your presentation.

There are two kinds of custom shows: basic and hyperlinked. A basic custom show is a separate presentation or a presentation that includes some of the slides of the original. A hyperlinked custom show is a quick way to navigate to one or more separate presentations.

Basic custom shows

Use a basic custom show to present a subset of the slides in a presentation file. For example, if your presentation contains a total of five slides, a custom show named "Site 1" could contain just slides 1, 3, and 5. A second custom show named "Site 2" could include slides 1, 2, 4, and 5. When you create a custom show from a presentation, you can always run the whole presentation in its original sequential order, too.

basic custom show

1 Slides for Site 1

2 Slides for Site 2

Hyperlinked custom shows

Use a hyperlinked custom show to organize content in a presentation. For instance, if you create a primary custom show about your company's new overall organization, you can then create a custom show for each department within the organization and link to these shows from the primary presentation.

You can also use a hyperlinked custom show to create a table of contents slide. A table of contents slide lets you navigate to different sections of your presentation so that you can choose which sections to show to your audience at a particular time.

hyperlinked custom shows

1 Slide with hyperlinks

2 Custom show for Department A

3 Custom show for Department B

Create a custom show and present it

Create a basic custom show

Go to Slide Show > Custom Slide Show, and then select Custom Shows.
In the Custom Shows dialog box, select New.

Tip:To preview a custom show, click the name of the show in the Custom Shows dialog box, and then click Show.
Under Slides in presentation, choose the slides that you want to include in the custom show, and then select Add.
To change the order in which slides appear, under Slides in custom show, select a slide, and then click one of the arrows to move the slide up or down in the list.
Type a name in the Slide show name box, and then click OK.

Create a hyperlinked custom show

Go to Slide Show > Custom Slide Show, and then select Custom Shows.
In the Custom Shows dialog box, select New.
Under Slides in presentation, click the slides that you want to include in the main custom show, and then click Add.

Tip:To change the order in which slides appear, under Slides in custom show, select a slide, and then click one of the arrows to move the slide up or down in the list.
Type a name in the Slide show name box, and then click OK.
To create a hyperlink to a supporting show in your presentation, select the text or object that you want to be the link.
Go to Insert > Hyperlink.
In the Insert Links dialog box, under Link to, click Place in This Document.
Do one of the following:
- To link to a custom show, in the Select a place in this document list, select the custom show that you want to go to, and then select the Show and return check box.
- To link to a location in the current presentation, in the Select a place in this document list, select the slide that you want to go to.

Start a custom show from within PowerPoint

On the Slide Show tab, in the Set Up group, click Set Up Slide Show.
In the Set Up Show dialog box, under Show slides, click Custom show, and then click the custom show that you want.
Click OK.
On the Slide Show tab, in the Start Slide Show group, click Custom Slide Show, and then click Custom Shows.
In the Custom shows list, select a show, and then click Show.

Create a basic custom show

On the Slide Show tab, in the Start Slide Show group, click the arrow next to Custom Slide Show, and then click Custom Shows.
In the Custom Shows dialog box, click New.
Under Slides in presentation, click the slides that you want to include in the custom show, and then click Add.

Tip:To select multiple sequential slides, click the first slide, and then hold down SHIFT while you click the last slide that you want to select. To select multiple nonsequential slides, hold down CTRL while you click each slide that you want to select.
To change the order in which slides appear, under Slides in custom show, click a slide, and then click one of the arrows to move the slide up or down in the list.
Type a name in the Slide show name box, and then click OK. To create additional custom shows with any slides in your presentation, repeat steps 1 through 5.

Create a hyperlinked custom show

On the Slide Show tab, in the Start Slide Show group, click the arrow next to Custom Slide Show, and then click Custom Shows.
In the Custom Shows dialog box, click New.
Under Slides in presentation, click the slides that you want to include in the main custom show, and then click Add.

Tip:To select multiple sequential slides, click the first slide, and then hold down SHIFT while you click the last slide that you want to select. To select multiple nonsequential slides, hold down CTRL while you click each slide that you want to select.
To change the order in which slides appear, under Slides in custom show, click a slide, and then click one of the arrows to move the slide up or down in the list.
Type a name in the Slide show name box, and then click OK. To create additional custom shows with any slides in your presentation, repeat steps 1 through 5.
To create a hyperlink from the main show to a supporting show, select the text or object that you want to represent the hyperlink.
On the Insert tab, in the Links group, click Hyperlink.
Under Link to, click Place in This Document.
Do one of the following:
- To link to a custom show, in the Select a place in this document list, select the custom show that you want to go to, and then select the Show and return check box.
- To link to a location in the current presentation, in the Select a place in this document list, select the slide that you want to go to.

Start a custom show from within PowerPoint

On the Slide Show tab, in the Set Up group, click Set Up Slide Show.
In the Set Up Show dialog box, under Show slides, click Custom show, and then click the custom show that you want.
Click OK.
On the Slide Show tab, in the Start Slide Show group, click Custom Slide Show, and then click Custom Shows.
In the Custom shows list, select a show, and then click Show.

Create a custom show

Open the presentation that you want to use to create a custom show.
On the Slide Show tab, click Custom Show, and then click Custom Slide Show.
Click +.
Under Slides in presentation, click the slides that you want to include in the custom show, and then click Add.

Tip:To select multiple slides, hold down as you click the slides.
To change the order in which slides appear, under Slides in custom show, click a slide, and then click or to move the slide up or down in the list.
Type a name in the Slide show name box, and then click OK. To create additional custom shows with any slides in your presentation, repeat these steps.

Tip:To see how a custom show will appear in slide show view, in the Custom Shows dialog box, click the name of the show, and then click Start Show.

Link to other customs shows

A hyperlinked custom show is a quick way to navigate to other custom shows from your primary presentation. You can also create a table of contents slide to link from. Designing your presentation this way allows you to navigate from the table of contents slide to different sections of your presentation, so that you can choose which sections to show to your audience at a particular time. The following instructions explain how to create one or more custom shows, and then add a hyperlink from the primary presentation to the custom shows.

Note:If you want to create a hyperlink from one presentation to a completely different presentation, you can add a hyperlink to the other document. For more information, see Create, edit, or remove a hyperlink.

Select the text or object that you want to represent the hyperlink. You can also create a table of contents and hyperlink from each text entry as a way to navigate through your custom show. To do so, insert a new slide into your presentation, type a table of contents, and then link from each entry.
On the Insert tab, click Action.

In the Action Settings dialog box, select how to initiate the action by doing one of the following:

To initiate an action	Click
When you click the action button	The Mouse Click tab
When you rest the mouse pointer on the action button	The Mouse Over tab

Click Hyperlink to, and then on the pop-menu, click Custom Show.
Under Custom Shows, select the custom show you want to link to.

To return to the slide that you started the custom show from after the custom show plays, select the Show and return check box. This option is helpful if you have a slide that serves as a table of contents to custom shows.
Click OK

To add additional links to other custom shows, repeat these steps.

Play a custom show

On the Slide Show tab, click Custom Show, and then click the custom show that you want to play.

Note:If you haven't created a custom show yet, click Custom Show, click Custom Slide Show, and then click +.

Create a custom show

Open the presentation that you want to use to create a custom show.
On the Slide Show tab, under Play Slide Show, click Custom Shows, and then click Edit Custom Shows.
Click New.
Under Slides in presentation, click the slides that you want to include in the custom show, and then click Add.

Tip:To select multiple slides, hold down as you click the slides.
To change the order in which slides appear, under Slides in custom show, click a slide, and then click or to move the slide up or down in the list.
Type a name in the Slide show name box, and then click OK. To create additional custom shows with any slides in your presentation, repeat these steps.

Tip:To see how a custom show will appear in slide show view, in the Custom Shows dialog box, click the name of the show, and then click Show.

Link to other customs shows

To create a hyperlink from the primary presentation to a supporting custom show, in your presentation, select the text or object that you want to represent the hyperlink. You can also create a table of contents and hyperlink from each text entry as a way to navigate through your custom show. To do so, insert a new slide into your presentation, type a table of contents, and then link from each entry.
On the Slide Show tab, under Set Up, click Action Settings.

In the Action Settings dialog box, select how to initiate the action by doing one of the following:

To initiate an action	Click
When you click the action button	The Mouse Click tab
When you rest the mouse pointer on the action button	The Mouse Over tab

Click Hyperlink to, and then on the pop-menu, click Custom Show.
Under Custom Shows, select the custom show you want to link to.

To return to the slide that you started the custom show from after the custom show plays, select the Show and return check box. This option is helpful if you have a slide that serves as a table of contents to custom shows.
Click OK

To add additional links to other custom shows, repeat steps 1 through 6.

Play a custom show

On the Slide Show tab, under Play Slide Show, click Custom Shows, and then click the custom show that you want to play.

Note:If you haven't created a custom show yet, click Edit Custom Shows, and then click New.