PowerPoint Removed “Reuse Slides” — Here’s the Fastest Clean Replacement Workflow

Reuse Slides is gone, here’s what to use now.

If your team builds proposals, trainings, or leadership updates, this change adds extra steps. That one click panel made it simple to pull a few slides from another deck and keep formatting tidy. Earlier this year, it disappeared.

If you never used it, Reuse Slides opened a side panel inside PowerPoint where you could browse another presentation, grab only the slides you needed, and choose whether to keep the original look.

That mattered because it kept decks consistent. Logos, colors, and layouts stayed the same without rebuilding from scratch or fighting templates. It also made it easier to pull from old proposals, reports, and training decks without making everything look patched together.

Microsoft’s reason is that there are other ways to do the same job, so keeping a separate feature did not make sense. True or not, it broke a quick, familiar workflow.

You can still reuse slides, it just takes a couple extra moves. These are the two most useful options.

1. The quickest replacement (usually keeps formatting intact)

• Open both PowerPoint files at the same time, Deck A and Deck B.
• In Deck A, select the slide thumbnails you want.
  • Tip, hold Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) to pick specific slides.
• Drag the selected slides into Deck B’s thumbnail pane on the left.
• When prompted, choose Keep Source Formatting to preserve the original theme, fonts, and layout.
  • Choose Use Destination Theme if you want the slides to match Deck B instead.

This is the closest “grab and go” substitute. It usually keeps formatting, animations, and embedded media.

2. The New Window trick (best for making a clean new version)
   Use View, New Window to open a second window of the same presentation. It helps when you want to create a new version while keeping the original untouched.

It will not pull slides from a different file, but it’s useful for comparing versions, copying elements carefully, and avoiding accidental edits to the source.

What changes
These work, but they’re not as smooth.

Reuse Slides was better when you only needed a few slides from a huge deck. Drag and drop can be less precise, and it can bring small cleanup issues like text spacing, font swaps, or theme mismatches.

What to do next
If your organization depends on PowerPoint for client decks, sales presentations, board updates, or internal training, make sure everyone knows this feature is gone, then standardize the replacement.

• Teach teams to drag and drop between open decks.
• Set a simple rule for Keep Source Formatting vs. Use Destination Theme.
• Maintain an approved “slide library” deck for brand safe reuse.
• Build in a quick final formatting check before anything goes out.

Need a hand
If Microsoft 365 changes keep tripping up your workflow, we can help you standardize templates, tighten brand consistency, and cut the time your team spends fighting slide decks, so you can focus on the message.