Why are Microsoft retiring the re-use slide feature in PowerPoint?

Question

Why are Microsoft retiring the 're-use' slide feature in PowerPoint?

It's one of the most useful features in PPT! Way quicker than opening another PPT window and copying and pasting from a slide in one presentation into another.

What is the logic behind removing a great feature and making the process longer and more laborious?

Answer 1

Hi @Froy, Caroline,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum.

According to MC1111178 via Microsoft 365 Admin Center, PowerPoint is retiring the Reuse Slide feature from the Ribbon by July 31, 2025. PowerPoint’s Reuse Slides feature will be eventually removed in January 2026. PowerPoint Reuse slide was considered a duplicate feature and it was removed to streamline the user experience and reduce redundancy. Users can continue to reuse content by copying and pasting slides between presentations or duplicating existing presentations.

To replicate the old Reuse Slide feature, you can do the following steps:

1. Open a new PowerPoint and the source deck.
2. Then, you enter split mode on Windows. Have your new PowerPoint on the left side and the existing presentation on the right side that you want to reuse.
   
3. Now, simply select the slides you want to use and drag and drop them to the new PowerPoint.

This will retain all your animations and media in most cases.

However, if you want to duplicate the entire presentation, simply navigate to the ‘View‘ tab and select ‘New window.’ It will duplicate your existing PowerPoint presentation but make sure to save it with a separate file name.

However, although “New window” is possibly the best replacement for “Reuse slide” in PowerPoint, but Reuse slides still offers greater control because you can pick specific slides and choose formatting in a sidebar. I believe this is an important feature that you can suggest for many users, and your feedback can help prioritize it and bring it back if possible. Please share your feedback directly with the PowerPoint team through the Feedback Hub by submitting your feedback directly to PowerPoint · Community, where Microsoft product development team can know your requirements and ideas for product improvements. The team actively monitors user input, and many improvements have been made based on community suggestions.

Note: As Microsoft Community moderators, please note that we are not involved in product design decisions and do not have direct access to the development roadmap, we want to assure you that your feedback has been acknowledged and is valued.  

In the meantime, if you see my replies bring helpful information, please kindly accept it as an answer and vote it up by your original account, which raised this question. Once marked, it will automatically pin to top. As other users will also search information in this community, your valuable vote up will definitely also help other users who have similar queries easily to find the correct channel and useful information more quickly.   

I hope this provides enough clarity and helps you stay inform with your current situation.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you. 

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Answer 2

There is no one here in a decision-making role at Microsoft, so why can't answer why questions.

There have been many Feedback Forum suggestions asking that the feature be reatined. This one has the most votes, please add yours: Do Not Depreciate Reuse Slides Button from the Ribbon in PowerPoint