Use Hidden Slides in PowerPoint Presentations

Hidden Slides Can Contain Extra Information

Using hidden slides is one of those best kept secrets of presenters. The best presenters, are those who know their topic inside out and backwards, but don't tell you everything they know during the presentation. They keep this extra information all ready for the question period. Good presenters will always leave room for questions about their topic and know the answers.

The feature to hide slides is a great little tool. The presenter can keep these extra slides, with all sorts of additional information, hidden from view during the presentation. They sit there ready and waiting for the presenter to call them up at any time if need be, to display in detail, the information needed for the audience member.

Creating Hidden Slides

1. Switch to slide sorter view.
2. Hold the Ctrl key and click on the individual slides that you wish to hide.
3. Right click on a thumbnail of one of the selected slides in the Slides/Outline pane and choose Hide Slide (or choose Slide Show > Hide Slide from the main menu).

During the slide show, none of these hidden slides will be seen by the audience.

Revealing a Hidden Slide

While the slide show is in progress -

• Right click on any slide.
• Choose Go to Slide. Hidden slides are shown in parenthesis.
• Select the slide number from the list shown.

Printing Hidden Slides

If there are hidden slides in any presentation, there is an option in the Print dialog box to print these slides. You may uncheck that option if you do not wish to print these slides. This is a great feature if you are giving handouts out to the audience. You can include the hidden slides in the printout so that all the extra information is in the take home package for the audience.

• Printing in PowerPoint 2007
• Printing in PowerPoint (earlier versions)