How to Merge Two PowerPoint Presentations into One with Separate Backgrounds

PowerPoint presentations are effective tools for a number of business applications, such as new employee orientations, interoffice training seminars and potential client marketing meetings. You can incorporate slides from a second show into a first by using the Reuse Slides feature, and they will appear as one unified presentation. If you want to merge two presentations and retain their individual themes, you have a couple of options.

You can copy slides from one presentation and paste them into the other presentation without changing the backgrounds. Open both presentations and select the one from which you want to copy slides. Press the "Ctrl" key and click on each slide you want to copy in the Slides pane. Right-click any slide and choose "Copy." Click the blank area on the Slides pane of the second presentation. Right-click and choose "Keep Source Formatting" under Paste Options to paste the slides with their original backgrounds.

There are two ways to merge presentations while keeping separate backgrounds when you use the Reuse Slides features, but you must first access the Reuse Slides pane. Open the presentation into which you want to insert slides from another show. On the Home tab, click the "New Slide" down arrow in the Slides group and choose "Reuse Slides." The Reuse Slides pane opens with links to recently used presentations and a list of other options.

Once you have the Reuse Slides pane accessible, you can begin merging presentations. Click on the name of a presentation in the Recent list, if applicable. Otherwise, click the "Open a PowerPoint File" link or click the "Browse" button and choose "Browse File." Navigate to the second slide show from which you want to obtain some or all of the slides. Click on the file name and click "Open" to open thumbnails of all of the slides in the Reuse Slides pane.

Press the "Ctrl" key and click on each slide you want to copy in the Reuse Slides pane. If you want to merge all of the slides, select the "Keep Source Formatting" check box at the bottom of the pane. Right-click any slide and choose "Insert All Slides." Alternatively, click on the slides you want to insert. Press the "Ctrl" key and click on each slide you inserted in the Slides pane. Right-click any slide in the Reuse Slides pane and choose "Apply Theme to Selected Slides." The slides revert to their original backgrounds.