Duplicate Slides in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Duplicating slides is a task that can be helpful, yet its value is not always understood. The first question asked is why would anyone want to duplicate slides? There are many reasons to do so. You may want to:

1. Create another slide that is similar to what you already have.
2. Use the same slide twice.
3. Create a slightly edited chart than what you already have on an existing slide; duplicating and editing is easier than redoing it again.

Whatever your reasons may be, it is easy to duplicate slides in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows in both the Slides Pane and Slide Sorter View:

Duplicating Slides within Slides Pane

Open your presentation and select the slide(s) to be duplicated within the Slides Pane. You can see that we have selected two slides, highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Slides to be duplicated selected within the Slides Pane

You can now duplicate selected slide(s), following any of these four ways:

1. Use the Ctrl + D keyboard shortcut. This action will duplicate the selected slide/slides and place them right below the selection.
   

   PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

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2. With the slides selected, click the down-arrow within the New Slide button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, below. Within the resultant drop-down menu, select the Duplicate Selected Slides option, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 2.
3. 
   Figure 2: Duplicate Selected Slides option
3. Right-click the selected slide (or slides) to bring up a contextual menu, as shown in Figure 3, below. Within this contextual menu, select the Duplicate Slide option, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3.
4. 
   Figure 3: Duplicate Slide option within the right-click contextual menu
4. Hold down the selected slide/slides and then drag within the Slides Pane to the location where you want to place the duplicated slides. Don't let go off your hold yet, and press the Ctrl key so that your cursor shows a plus sign while Ctrl + dragging, as showm highlighted in red within Figure 4, below. Then, release the mouse button to place the duplicate slide in the new place.
5. 
   Figure 4: Ctrl+drag the slides to duplicate within Slides Pane
5. Save your presentation often.

Duplicating Slides within Slide Sorter View

Change the view to Slide Sorter and select the slide or slides to be duplicated, as shown in Figure 5, below.

Figure 5: Slides to be duplicated selected within the Slide Sorter view

You can now duplicate selected slide(s), following any of these three ways:

1. Use the Ctrl + D keyboard shortcut. This ation will duplicate the selected slide/slides and place them right next to the selection.
2. With the slides selected, click the down-arrow within the New Slide button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 6, below. Within the resultant drop-down menu, select the Duplicate Selected Slides option, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 6.
3. 
   Figure 6: Duplicate Selected Slides option
3. Hold down the Ctrl key and drag the selected slide/slides to the new area within Slide Sorter view, where you want to place the duplicated slides as shown in Figure 7, below. Notice that your cursor will show a plus sign while Ctrl + dragging, as showm highlighted in red within Figure 7. The duplicate slide gets dragged along.
4. 
   Figure 7: Ctrl+drag the slides to duplicate in Slide Sorter view
5. Change the view of your presentation to Normal and also save your presentation.