When you need to create an electronic presentation, you don't always start from scratch. Frequently you may have existing documentation of some sort, and rather than meticulously "cutting and pasting" (or even worse, re-typing the text), you simply import your existing information directly into PowerPoint. You can use text created in other programs to make a new presentation or add slides to an existing presentation.

PowerPoint imports documentation in outline format. (For an example of outline format in Microsoft Word, open a Word document, select Outline from the View menu.) PowerPoint uses the outline structure from the styles in the original document to create logical slide order and content. Therefore, text order is consistent with the original file. Text styles in the original document determine slide text: a Heading 1 becomes a slide title, a Heading 2 style becomes the first level of text, and so on.

If the document contains no styles, PowerPoint uses the existing paragraph indentations to create the outline.

To convert a Word document into a PowerPoint file

You can easily create a presentation from an existing Word document.

1. Open the document in Microsoft Word.



2. From the File menu, select the down arrows and then select Send To > Microsoft PowerPoint.

Each paragraph formatted with the Heading 1 style becomes the title of a new slide, each paragraph formatted with the Heading 2 style becomes the first level of text, and so on.

To convert a non-Word document into a PowerPoint file

When you import outlines from other word processing programs, PowerPoint reads the documents in rich-text format (.rtf) and plain text format. All first-level headings in an imported outline become slide titles, and body text becomes indent levels. The slide master in the current presentation determines the format for the title and text.