Reordering Sections in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Sections can be useful not only while managing your presentation slides, but also for quickly reordering large blocks of adjacent slides. All you need to do is place all the required slides within a single Section, and then move the entire section, and all the slides within that section will be moved to a new position at once.

Follow these steps to learn more about reordering Sections in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac:

1. Open your presentation that already contains added Sections. Change to Slide Sorter view, as shown in Figure 1, below, so that you can easily access the Sections.
2. 
   Figure 1: Presentation open in Slide Sorter view
2. Right-click (or Ctrl+click) on the name of the Section to be moved. In Figure 2, below, you can see that we have chosen the section named Author Your Presentation for reordering. Within the contextual menu that appears, you will find two options for moving the section: Move Section Up and Move Section Down, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2.
3. 
   Figure 2: Options to move the selected section

Missing Move Section Commands?

Are the Move Section Up or Move Section Down options greyed out? If you right-clicked the first section in the presentation, you will find the Move Section Up option greyed out. If you right-clicked the last section in the presentation, you would find the Move Section Down option greyed out.

4. Let us explore both options for moving a section:

A. Move Section Up

5. This option promotes the selected section along with its content slides to one level above the preceding section, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, below. Compare with Figure 1, shown previously on this page, to see the difference.
6. 
   Figure 3: Result of selecting Move Section Up option

B. Move Section Down

7. This option demotes the selected section along with its content slides to one level below the following section, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4, below. Compare with Figure 1, shown previously on this page, to see the difference.
8. 
   Figure 4: Result of selecting Move Section Down option
3. Select any option to move the section(s) as required.

Moving to Non-Adjacent Sections

Options explained above will move the selected section only one level up or down. If you want to move the selected section to a position after or before non-adjacent sections, then you can use the drag and drop method explained below:

1. Within the Slide Sorter view, click on the section to be moved, and start dragging it, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 5, below.
2. 
   Figure 5: Section being dragged from its position
2. Drag it to the position where you want to move it. In Figure 6, below, you can see that we have dragged the selected section below the last section in the presentation, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 6.
3. 
   Figure 6: Section being dragged to its new position
3. Leave the mouse button when the section is moved to the required position, as shown in Figure 7, below.
4. 
   Figure 7: Section moved to the new position
4. Save your presentation often.