How to add slide titles in PowerPoint

There are certain things that every presentation should include like useful visuals and easy-to-read text. One element that many people don’t think about is slide titles. Yes, each slide in your presentation should include its own title. But why?

We’ll not only give you several reasons for using slide titles, but also show you various ways to add slide titles in PowerPoint.

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Why you need slide titles in PowerPoint

Maybe you’re creating a slideshow in a hurry or simply let the slide titles slip your mind. However, these titles are important for several reasons when you create a PowerPoint presentation.

• Accessibility: Screen readers use slide titles to help navigate through the presentation.
• Hyperlinks: When you create links to slides in a presentation, you’ll use the title to select the slide.

• Table of contents: If you insert a table of contents slide, you’ll need the slide titles. This is especially important if you want to link the contents to the slides as described above.
• Custom shows: When you create a custom show in PowerPoint, you pick from the list of slide titles to include.

• Searching: If you search through a lengthy presentation, using a slide title as the search term saves time.
• Slide and Summary Zoom: Both of these features show the titles when you choose the slides to display.

While with some of the above items, you can choose the slide number as an alternative to the slide title, this can be difficult if you have many slides.

To make sure that your presentation is the best it can be, it’s highly recommended to include slide titles. Now, let’s look at a few ways to do this.

How to add slide titles using Plus AI

Plus AI is a PowerPoint add-in that has many robust features, one of them being automatic slide titles. Whenever you create a new presentation with Plus AI, each slide is given a title. Additionally, Plus AI provides you with an Agenda slide listing all titles in the presentation.

Along with providing slide titles for new presentations, Plus AI also adds them when you edit an existing slideshow by inserting a slide. You’ll see the required Slide title field when you insert a new slide.

For additional information on how Plus AI can help you create and edit presentations, visit the Plus AI website.

How to add slide titles using PowerPoint

If you want to use the PowerPoint layouts to add slide titles, of course this is another option. Unfortunately, there isn’t currently a way to format an ordinary text box as a title on a slide. Instead,  you’ll choose a layout that includes a title placeholder.

Go to the Home tab and do one of the following:

• For a new slide, open the New Slide menu and choose a layout that includes a Title placeholder.
• For an existing slide, open the Slide Layout menu and choose a layout with a Title placeholder.

In the Title box that appears, simply type your slide text.

How to find and add missing slide titles in PowerPoint

You have a few ways to find the slides in your presentations that are missing titles and then add them. These are especially convenient methods if you have a lengthy slideshow.

Use the Outline View

1. Go to the View tab and choose Outline View.

2. In the panel on the left, right-click the outline, move to Collapse, and choose Collapse All.

3. You’ll then see only your slide titles to easily spot those that are missing. Click to the right of the slide number and box to type the title.

When you see the title box on the slide, you can use the formatting options on the Home tab to adjust the font.

Use the Accessibility Checker

1. Go to the Review tab and choose Check Accessibility.

2. In the panel on the right, you’ll see the number of missing slide titles in the Errors section.

3. Expand Missing slide title and then also expand the slide number.
4. Choose one of the options to add a title to the slide. You can set a title with existing slide text, add a new slide title, or add a hidden slide title. (Note: This automatically opens the Outline View panel on the left.)

Continue the same Steps 3 and 4 above for additional slides as needed.

How to hide a slide title in PowerPoint

Just because you add slide titles doesn’t mean that you have to display them during your presentation. For instance, you may have a slide with a photo collage, full-size video, or a final “thank you” and don’t want a title box to affect the appearance.

Luckily, you can hide a title so that it still appears as a slide title for all of the earlier reasons but doesn’t display on the actual slide when you present it.

1. On the slide with the title you want to hide, select the title box.
2. Drag the box up until it’s no longer on the slide and release.

3. If necessary, you can change the zoom level in PowerPoint to get a better view of the space above the slide. Simply use the Zoom slider in the status bar and you’ll see your title box above the slide instead of on it.

You can return the zoom to its original view and then preview your presentation to make sure the slide title is hidden.

Conclusion

Now that you know why slide titles are important and how to add them in PowerPoint, you’re off to a terrific start with your next presentation. If you’d like some help building an upcoming slideshow, remember that Plus AI can create engaging and informative content as well as provide a visually appealing experience for your audience.

FAQs

How do I get a list of slide titles in PowerPoint?

If you want to print, save, or distribute a list of slide titles, you have a couple of easy options. First, you can use the Agenda slide that Plus AI creates with every presentation. Print, export, or copy and paste the text from the Agenda slide where needed.

Second, you can use the slide outline that PowerPoint provides. Go to View > Outline View and right-click the side panel to Collapse the outline. This shows you only the slide titles that you can then copy and paste.

How do you link slide titles in PowerPoint?

Select the text that you want to link. Either go to the Insert tab or right-click the text and choose Link. Pick Place in This Document in the pop-up window, choose the slide title to the right, and click OK. You should see your selected text linked to the slide title.

How do I add a slide number in PowerPoint?

Go to the Insert tab and select Insert Slide Number in the ribbon. Use the Slide tab in the pop-up window and check the box for Slide number. Choose Apply to number only the current slide or Apply to All to number every slide.