Multiple Audiences: ONE PowerPoint

One of PowerPoint’s seldom-used features can save you time and effort if you need to present the same basic information to different audiences. Instead of creating multiple presentations, use Custom shows to create a subset of the slides in a presentation file, kind of like creating a music playlist. Keeping all of your slides in one file helps limit the time – and potential errors – involved in
maintaining multiple files, too.
For example, if your presentation contains a total of five slides, a custom show named “Office Employees” could contain just slides 1, 3, and 5. A second custom show named “Floor Employees” could include slides 1, 2, 4, and 5. You can always run the entire presentation in its original order, too.
Slides in custom shows can even be re-ordered to appear in a different sequence without actually moving them in your primary file. You can also display a custom show when you start your slide show, even if the presentation contains many more slides.
You can create a Basic Custom Show or a Hyperlinked Custom Show.

Create a basic custom show

1. Go to Slide Show > Custom Slide Show, and then select Custom Shows.
2. In the Custom Shows dialog box, select New.
   Tip: To preview a custom show, click the name of the show in the Custom Shows dialog box, and then click Show.
3. Under Slides in presentation, choose the slides that you want to include in the custom show, and then select Add.
   Tip: To change the order in which slides appear, under Slides in custom show, select a slide, and then click one of the arrows to move the slide up or down in the list.
4. To change the order in which slides appear, under Slides in custom show, select a slide, and then click one of the arrows to move the slide up or down in the list.
5. Type a name in the Slide show name box, and then click OK.

Hyperlinked custom shows

A hyperlinked custom show lets you organize content in a presentation. Say you’ve created a primary show about your organization’s new direction. You can create a custom show for each department within the organization and link to these shows from your primary presentation.
You can also use a hyperlinked custom show to create a table of contents slide that lets you navigate to different sections of your presentation so you can choose which sections to show to your audience at a particular time.

Create a hyperlinked custom show

1. Go to Slide Show > Custom Slide Show, and then select Custom Shows.
2. In the Custom Shows dialog box, select New.
3. Under Slides in presentation, click the slides that you want to include in the main custom show, and then click Add.
4. Type a name in the Slide show name box, and then click OK.
5. To create a hyperlink to a supporting show in your presentation, select the text or object that you want to be the link.
6. Go to Insert > Hyperlink.
7. In the Insert Links dialog box, under Link to, click Place in This Document.
8. Do one of the following:
   To link to a custom show, in the Select a place in this document list, select the custom show that you want to go to, and then select the Show and return check box.
   To link to a location in the current presentation, in the Select a place in this document list, select the slide that you want to go to.

Start a custom show in PowerPoint

1. On the Slide Show tab, in the Set Up group, click Set Up Slide Show.
2. In the Set Up Show dialog box, under Show slides, click Custom show, and then click the custom show that you want.
3. Click OK.
   OR
4. On the Slide Show tab, in the Start Slide Show group, click Custom Slide Show, and then click Custom Shows.
5. In the Custom shows list, select a show, and then click Show.
6. If you’re using a Hyperlinked Custom Show, start your file and when you get to the item you set as a hyperlink, click on it and you will be taken to the custom show you linked, then returned to the original slide when it’s done.

You can also access your custom shows by right-clicking when in your original presentation and going to Custom Show.
And finally, you can also print your Custom Shows. In the Print dialogue box, simply select Custom Shows in the Settings options.