A table of contents is an incredibly useful addition to any PowerPoint presentation. It allows your audience to easily see an overview of the topics you’ll be covering and quickly navigate to certain slides.

There are a few different ways to make a table of contents in PowerPoint. I’ll walk you through the four main methods, from the easiest drag-and-drop approach to more advanced features using links and text boxes.

Method 1: Drag Slides to Create a Table of Contents

The simplest way to make a table of contents in PowerPoint is by dragging and dropping slides. Here’s how:

Create a new slide where you want your table of contents to appear
In the thumbnails pane, click and drag slides to this new slide
Arrange the slides in the order you want them to appear in the table of contents

It really is that easy! PowerPoint automatically creates the slide image thumbnails and names for you.

Pros:

Super fast and easy

Automatically generates slide thumbnails and names

Cons:

No hyperlinks – slide names not clickable

Can get disorganized if you have lots of slides
Have to manually update if you change slide order or names

While this method is quick, it can get tedious if you’re working with a long presentation. But it’s a good starting point if you want a no-fuss table of contents.

Method 2: Create Hyperlinks from Table of Contents

To make your table of contents more functional, you can add hyperlinks. This makes each entry clickable so you can jump straight to key slides.

Here are the steps:

Create a new slide for your table of contents

Insert a text box and type in each slide name
Highlight the text for the first slide and click “Hyperlink” on the Insert tab
Choose the matching slide in the list to link the text

Repeat for each slide name

Pros:

Creates clickable links for easy navigation

More organized look than dragging slides

Cons:

Time consuming to manually type each slide name and link

Need to update links if you change slides

The hyperlink method results in a clean, professional-looking table of contents. But it does take longer to set up.

Method 3: Use Custom Layout Masters

For the most customization options, use PowerPoint’s master slides. This lets you create your own layout to reuse each time you need a table of contents.

Follow these steps:

Create a new master slide with a table of contents layout
Add text placeholders for slide titles and numbers

Format the slide however you want
Insert the master slide to add your custom table of contents

Pros

Create your own reusable layouts
Only need to edit master slide to update
More consistent formatting

Cons:

Most complex option
Need intermediate PowerPoint skills

Placeholders don’t automatically update

Using master slides is best if you create presentations with tables of contents frequently. The initial setup takes longer but saves time down the road.

Method 4: Use the Navigation Pane

PowerPoint’s Navigation pane gives you another quick way to generate a table of contents:

Open the Navigation pane and select the slides you want
Right click the slides and choose “Copy Slide Images”
Paste them into your table of contents slide

Pros:

Fast way to select multiple slides
Automatically copies slide images

Cons:

No customization options
Can’t reorder slides once pasted

Need to manually update slide images if changed

The Navigation pane method is best used for quick access to copies of your slide images. But it lacks the flexibility and customization of other options.

Which Method is Best?

All four methods allow you to make a table of contents in PowerPoint, but some work better than others depending on your needs.

For most presentations, I’d recommend the hyperlink method. It strikes a good balance between easy creation and helpful functionality for your audience. But don’t be afraid to experiment to see which option fits your personal presentation style best!

Adding a table of contents is an easy way to impress your viewers and simplify navigation of your slides. Hopefully these four methods give you a good starting point to create a custom PowerPoint table of contents that fits your presentation perfectly! Let me know in the comments if you have any other tips for making useful tables of contents.