PowerPoint Tip: Create Section Markers

A complex presentation can be divided into several sections. To help your audience understand where the current slide is in the entire structure, you can create section markers that appear throughout your presentation. Each slide shows all the section names, but the current section is in bold or a different color, so the audience always knows which section you’re currently discussing.

I was recently asked how to create such a presentation, and this is the technique I used:

1. Add separate text boxes at the bottom, one for each topic. Use a color that is readable but not too obvious. Gray works well on a white background. Make sure they fit snugly on each slide and adjust as needed.

2. Copy the text boxes to all the slides in the section, that is, the first slide of each section.

3. For the first section, add animation to the first section name, choose Accent>Change Font Color, and change it to black or another color that stands out without being distracting. Use Start With Above to have the animation occur when the slide is displayed. Set the speed to Very fast. Another animation you could use is Bold Reveal.

Note: An alternative is to simply bold the word in each section.

4. Copy the text boxes to the other slides in that section; animation will appear.

5. Go to the second section and add the same animation to the name of that section, with the same settings. Copy that onto the other slides in the second section.

6. Continue until you have finished the entire presentation.