Microsoft has confirmed that it’s retiring PowerPoint’s much‑loved Reuse Slides feature, and for anyone who builds presentations regularly, that’s a real loss.

What Reuse Slides Used to Do

If you never used it, Reuse Slides was one of those quiet, incredibly helpful features. It opened a small panel inside PowerPoint where you could browse another presentation and pull in the exact slides you needed. You could even choose whether to keep the original formatting.

It was brilliant for keeping your logo, colours, and layout consistent across every deck. And it saved a lot of time.

Why It Mattered

Instead of rebuilding presentations from scratch, teams could lift slides straight from previous proposals, reports, or training materials. Everything stayed professional, on‑brand, and much quicker to produce.

Why Microsoft Removed It

Earlier this year, Microsoft retired the feature, explaining that there were duplicate ways to achieve the same result and that maintaining overlapping tools no longer made sense.

That may be true from a technical perspective, but for many people, Reuse Slides was simple, fast, and reliable.

How You Can Still Reuse Slides

You can still move slides between presentations—it just takes a couple of extra steps.

A straightforward method is to open both presentations at the same time and drag and drop the slides you want. This usually keeps the formatting, animations, and media intact.

Another option is using View > New Window to open a second window of your current deck. This is handy when you want to work on a new version without touching the original.

Are These Methods as Good?

They work, but they’re not quite as seamless. Reuse Slides gave you more control, especially when you only needed a small number of slides from a larger presentation.

Drag and drop is quick but can be less precise, and sometimes small formatting tweaks are needed afterwards.

Helping Your Team Adjust

If your business relies on PowerPoint for client presentations, sales decks, or internal training, it’s worth making sure your team is aware of this change. A little preparation now—showing them drag and drop or the New Window trick—can save a lot of time later.

Need help keeping your team productive through Microsoft 365 changes? Our team is here to help. Get in touch today.