Manage slides
What the exam expects
This domain rewards knowing the difference between changing content and restoring structure. New slides (Ctrl+M) inherit the layout of the currently selected slide, not the first slide. Home > Reset restores a slide’s placeholders to the position, size and formatting defined by its layout while keeping the text and pictures already on it; Reapply Layout re-attaches the slide to a layout and rebuilds missing placeholders. Reuse Slides (Home > New Slide > Reuse Slides) imports slides from another deck, with a “Use Source Formatting” checkbox that decides whether theme formatting travels with them.
Traps
- Delete removes a slide from the deck and from the outline; Hide Slide only skips it during a show - hidden slides still print and export.
- Copy/paste between presentations applies paste options (Use Destination Theme vs Keep Source Formatting); keyboard paste often picks the destination theme unintentionally.
- Sections (Slide Sorter or thumbnail pane right-click > Add Section) organise and can be collapsed, but they do not affect slide numbering.
- Slide numbers are a field; inserting a text box with “3” gives a static number that breaks if slides move.
- Summary Zoom and Slide Zoom create navigable sections inside a deck; deleting a section before a zoom is created breaks the link.
- Duplicating a slide (Ctrl+D, or Ctrl-drag) preserves animations and transitions, which surprises candidates who expect a clean copy.
Worked example
A slide’s title box has been dragged and recolored, and the reviewer wants the template look back. Select the slide and press Home > Reset - the title snaps back to the layout’s placeholder, but the title text survives. If the slide has lost placeholders entirely after being pasted from another deck, use Home > Layout and choose the correct layout instead; Reset cannot create placeholders that no longer exist.