Hide and Unhide Slides in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Ever had a slide packed with useful nuggets that you just can’t bring yourself to delete? Think of it like that drawer at home where you keep important stuff. You don’t need it every day, but you definitely don’t want to throw it away! Now imagine accidentally opening that drawer in front of your audience mid-presentation. Awkward, right?

Here’s the neat trick: hide the slide. It’s like putting that drawer behind a secret panel. Your audience never sees it during Slide Show view, but it’s still right there for you whenever you need it. You can edit it, tweak it, and—when the moment is just right, bring it back into the spotlight with a quick unhide.

Follow these steps to hide and unhide your slides in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows:

1. Open your presentation that contains slides you want to hide. To make the hiding process easier, view the slides in Slide Sorter view, as shown in Figure 1, below.
2. 
   Figure 1: Slide Sorter view
2. Next, you need to select slides that you want to hide:
3. - To select a single slide, click on it.
4. - To select multiple, non-contiguous slides, select the first one, and then press the Ctrl key as you click on other slides.
5. - To select contiguous slides, select your first slide, and then press the Shift key and click on the last slide you want to select. You will end up selecting all slides in between.
6. Whatever selection options you choose, you will end up with a selection of one or more slides, as shown in Figure 2, below.
7. 
   Figure 2: Select your slides
3. Now, carefully right-click on any selected slide to bring up a contextual menu, as shown in Figure 3, below. Choose the Hide Slide option, highlighted in blue within Figure 3.
4. 
   Figure 3: Right-click and hide slides
5. You can also access the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon, and click the Hide Slide button, highlighted in blue within Figure 4, below.
6. 
   Figure 4: Hide slides with a click

7. Hide Options are Everywhere

   You are not necessarily restricted to Slide Sorter view to hide or unhide slides. You can also select slides within the Slides Pane, and access the same right-click options, as shown in Figure 5, below, or even use the Hide Slide button on the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon.

   
   Figure 5: Hide slides from the Slides Pane

4. Either of these options will hide all your selected slides. Do note that hidden slides have diagonal strikes over the slide number. They also look faded both in the Slides pane as well as in the Slide Sorter view, as shown in Figure 6, below.
5. 
   Figure 6: Faded slides indicate their hidden status

6. Toggle Options

   All options used to hide slides work as toggles. You choose these options to hide slides and then choose the same options to unhide slides.

   Want to show a hidden slide in Slide Show view? It’s easy if you know the slide number. For example, if the slide number of this slide is 16, you just press 1, 6, and Enter keys in rapid succession, and your slide will change to slide number 16. This trick works with all slides, including hidden slides.

5. Save your presentation often unless AutoSave is enabled.