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Import text from Word or Notepad

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I recommend writing what you will say in Word first, because it’s easier to focus on your message. In another post, “Organize content with an outline,” I provide some more details.

Get text into PowerPoint. Share on X

Importing an outline

powerpoint-tips-import-outline-1You can import then text from Word or even Notepad (or any text editor) to create a new presentation. This is called importing an outline. Follow these steps to create the outline:

  1. Open a Word or Notepad document.
  2. Type the content if you haven’t already done so, following the guidelines below.
  3. Make sure each line, whether for a slide title or bulleted text, is on its own line. There should be no blank lines, because these come in as blank slides!
  4. For each slide title, format the line as Heading 1 in Word or just type in Notepad.
  5. For each line of bulleted text, format the text as Heading 2 in Word or insert a tab in Notepad
  6. For each line of indented bulleted text, format the text as Heading 3 in Word or insert 2 tabs in Notepad
  7. Save the file as a .docx or .txt file.

Here’s an example done in Notepad. Notepad is the free text editor that comes with Windows.

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How to copy a PowerPoint slide to Microsoft Word

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Recently I received this question: How can I copy a slide in PowerPoint to Word?

The answer to the question depends on how you want  it to look in Word.

http://ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/export-all-presentation-text/If you want just the text

 If you want just the text of a slide, you can just copy and paste from PowerPoint to Word.
Note: There are easier techniques for when you want to copy the text of an entire presentation. See “Export all presentation text.”  Be sure to read the comments as they include additional techniques from my very bright readers!

If you want a picture of the slide

Sometimes you want to use the entire slide as an image inside a Word document. I do this when I repurpose a webinar as an e-book. To export a slide as a picture, follow these steps:
  1. Choose File> Save As and choose one of the image options on the Save as Type drop-down list in the Save As dialog box, such as PNG or JPG.
  2. Click Save.
  3. You’ll see a dialog box asking which slides you want to export —  all the slides or just the current one.  Choose the Just This One option to export just the current slide.

If you want a picture of some of the objects on the slide

You don’t have to turn the entire slide into a picture. Instead, follow these steps:
  1. Select just the objects that you want.
  2. Place the cursor over one of the selected objects (you’ll see a 4-headed arrow), right-click, and choose Save as Picture.
  3. In the dialog box, navigate to the desired location, give the image a name, and click Save.
I use this technique all the time. In fact, it’s how I created the image for this blog post — and how I create the images for most of my blog posts.

down-red-arrowsHow do you transfer content from PowerPoint to Word or to any other application? Leave a comment or a question!

 

“101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know” is for everyone who never took a course or read a book about PowerPoint! These tips will fill in the gaps, speed up your work, make presentations easier, and help you get better results. Now updated through PowerPoint 2016 and Office 365. Learn more at http://ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/101-tips/

Link to a specific PowerPoint 2003, 2007 or 2010 slide from Microsoft Word or Excel

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In another tip, “Hyperlink to a specific slide in another presentation, or specific location in another file,” one of the topics I cover is how to create a hyperlink in PowerPoint that links to a specific location in Word or Excel. I also explain that you can link to a specific slide in another PowerPoint presentation by adding the # symbol, the slide number, a period, a space and the slide’s title.

Here’s an example.

As I note in that earlier tip, hyperlinking to another file is a great way to connect content that exists in more than 1 file. You might want to put a hyperlink in a report created in Word or a spreadsheet created in Excel that sends readers to a specific slide in a PowerPoint presentation.

powerpoint-tips-hyperlink-from-excel-word-to-powerpoint-2003-2007-2010-1

Link from Word or Excel to PowerPoint

Suppose you want to link from Word or Excel to Slide 2 in a PowerPoint 2003, 2007 or 2010 presentation. If you try to create such a link, Word and Excel open the presentation in Normal view, not Slide Show view.

But if you create a Slide Show file and link to that, the hyperlink works; it opens the PowerPoint file in slide show view at the desired slide. A Slide Show is just a PowerPoint file that opens in Slide Show view.

Create a Slide Show

To create a Slide Show file, follow these steps:

  1. Choose File (or Application button)> Save As.
  2. From the Save as Type drop-down list, choose PowerPoint Show (*.ppsx or *.pps).
  3. Specify the location at the top of the dialog box. I recommend that the presentation and the Word or Excel file be in the same folder, in case you need to move the files to another computer; then, the link should continue to work.
  4. Click Save.

Add the hyperlink in Word or Excel

Now you’re ready to create the hyperlink in Word or Excel. Here are the steps:

  1. Open the PowerPoint file and note the slide number to which you want to link. If you want to include the slide title in the hyperlink for your reference, note that too. Close the file.
  2. In Word or Excel, add a hyperlink to some text or a shape by selecting it and choosing Insert> Hyperlink.
  3. In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, click the Existing File or Web Page button.
  4. Navigate to the PowerPoint Show file and select it. You’ll see it in the dialog box’s Address text box. If there are spaces in the file name, you may see %20 in place of the spaces. %20 is HTML code for a space, so just leave it.
  5. At the end of the file name in the Address box, add a # symbol, then the slide number. An example: sample%20makeovers.ppsx#2
  6. If you want to add the slide title, add a period, space and the slide title. Tip: In the PowerPoint file, you can click the Outline tab in the left-hand pane and copy and paste the slide title from there. My link now looks like this: sample%20makeovers.ppsx#2. Tell ‘n’ showSM
  7. Click OK.
  8. Test your hyperlink. PowerPoint should open in Slide Show view to the slide you specified.

Nice, yes?

Thanks to a reader for asking the question in the older tip that lead to this technique. How will you find it useful?