Work together on PowerPoint presentations
Applies ToPowerPoint for Microsoft 365 PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 for Mac PowerPoint 2024 PowerPoint 2024 for Mac PowerPoint 2021 PowerPoint 2021 for Mac PowerPoint 2019 PowerPoint 2016 PowerPoint for iPad PowerPoint for iPhone PowerPoint for Android tablets PowerPoint for Android phones PowerPoint Mobile

When you save your presentation to OneDrive or SharePoint in Microsoft 365, you can work on it concurrently with your colleagues. 

Share your file with others

To invite other people to access your PowerPoint file and collaborate, take these steps:

  1. With the presentation open, select the Share button in the top right corner of the ribbon. If you have not yet stored your presentation to OneDrive or SharePoint in Microsoft 365, a message will direct you to do so.  PowerPoint Collaboration Screen(You can also simply share a copy of the file via this panel.)

  2. The Share dialog box prompts you to invite one or more recipients to access the presentation for collaboration. For each recipient, enter their email address. If you have them in your contacts, simply enter their name(s).  PowerPoint Collaboration Screen

  3. Use the drop-down list to indicate whether a recipient can edit the file or only can view the file. Optionally add a note.

  4. To proceed, select Send.

Note: The Share dialog box offers an alternative option: Use the Copy link button and share the link. Anyone with the link can access the document with default permissions. 

Collaboration 

As others join you in working in your shared document, you can see evidence of their presence and activity. 

  1. With the presentation open, note the indications of collaboration. When someone is viewing or modifying the presentation, their thumbnail (image or initials) will appear in the top-right corner of the ribbon.   PowerPoint Collaboration Screen

  2. To enable automatic display of full names (i.e., for Accessibility purposes) go to File > Options > Advanced > Display > Show presence flags for selected items

  3. To know who is currently working on a slide, hover over the identity icon that appears on a slide in the thumbnail pane.  PowerPoint Collaboration ScreenIndication on thumbnail

  4. Select the thumbnail to display the full slide which shows a border around the affected area in that slide.  PowerPoint Collaboration ScreenIndication on the draft slide 

  5. When you’re done working, simply save your file. If there are no conflicts in the revisions, they will be automatically merged.

Reviewing changes and resolving conflicts

When you close/exit your shared PowerPoint presentation file, you can review the recent changes and resolve any difference across the team’s edits. 

Review all changes 

Upon saving your file, all non-conflicting changes are automatically merged into your presentation. You can see these in the My Changes view.

  1. Choose either My Changes or Changes by Others.

  2. If there are multiple conflicts to resolve, do the following:  Choose Next to keep resolving conflicts. Choose Previous to revisit an earlier conflict.  If you would like to choose the same set of changes for all the remaining conflicts, select the check box Do this for remaining conflicts.   PowerPoint Collaboration Screen

  3. When you are done resolving conflicts, select Done.

More detail about conflicting changes 

When there are conflicting changes, you will see a visual comparison between your changes and the conflicting changes from one of your collaborators. Only changes that directly conflict with your changes will appear in the comparison. Proceed through the Resolve Conflict screens to choose which changes to keep. 

Communicate in the shared file via Comments, Tasks, and Chat

In addition to seeing each other’s slide revisions in real time, PowerPoint enables various team interactions within the presentation file. 

Comments. To create, view, or respond to comments, use the Comments icon.   You can reply to, resolve, or mark comments as complete. To learn more, see Add comments

Tasks. A Task is a special kind of Comment that can be assigned and tracked to closure. To learn more, see add TasksChat. (Microsoft 365 only) You can instantly chat with other people who are working in a presentation stored on OneDrive for work or school or SharePoint in Microsoft 365. 

  1. On the toolbar, at the right end, click the icon (picture or initials) of a collaborator who is currently working in the file.

  2. On the menu that appears, select Join Group Chat ...

  3. Use the chat window to interact with everyone who is currently in the file. 

Note: If another person subsequently opens the file to edit it, they can also join the chat. However, they will see only the new messages from that time forward, not the chat history. 

Notifications upon reopening a changed file 

When you reopen a shared presentation after other people have made changes to it, PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 notifies you about this. A banner message indicates who made changes while you were away.   ...

See others’ recent revisions

  1. Any slide containing collaborator revisions will have a blue dot in the margin of its thumbnail pane. Note the collaboration indicator dot on slide thumbnail.  PowerPoint collaboration process screen

  2. Select the thumbnail to open the full-size slide.

  3. In the displayed slide, see the changed portion indicated by an outline. The revised area indicated by colored rectangle.  PowerPoint collaboration process screen

Note: Recently revised slides are highlighted, but all revisions may not be indicated on the slide. Non-indicated revision types include notes pane changes, deletion of shapes, comment additions, and animation changes. 

Access prior versions of a presentation

While you are working on files stored via OneDrive and OneDrive for work or school, Office preserves prior versions of them. For a specific file, you can view the list of prior versions and optionally restore a prior version. 

View the prior-versions list

With the file open, take these steps: 

  1. Select the file name in the title bar of the app window.

  2. Select Version History.

  3. View the list of prior versions.  ...

Open a prior version 

  1. In the Version History pane, select a previous version.

  2. Select Open version.

  3. View the read-only copy now displayed in a separate window.

More information about revision highlighting 

Several factors can affect the extent to which revision highlighting occurs. 

  • Revision highlighting works on shared documents that are stored in OneDrive and SharePoint.

  • Changes are not highlighted if the file is encrypted or password protected.

  • Changes are not highlighted if the file is in .odp format or the older PowerPoint .ppt or .pps format.

  • Changes are highlighted only when the person making the change is using PowerPoint for the web, or PowerPoint for Microsoft 365. (More specifically, at least version 1707 of Current Channel or version 1803 of Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel). Here is a link to Find your Office version.

  • Changes are not highlighted if revision data has been turned off for the document in the Trust Center Privacy Options Privacy options NOT turned on  If the privacy options are not turned on, the presentation will store the user's name and the time of the most recent edits to an object. If needed, you can remove that information via Document Inspector. Learn how in this article: Remove hidden data and personal information by inspecting documents, presentations, or workbooks Privacy options ARE turned on  If the privacy options are turned on, the revision highlighting gets turned off. Thus, there is no storage of person-related data (usernames and their recent access timing.)

Where the data is stored

In order to make revision highlighting possible, data about the read/unread status of individual slides is stored separately by PowerPoint. Where that data is stored depends on which version and channel of PowerPoint is in use. 

Note: We are in the process of shifting towards storing that data in an online Microsoft service designed for saving user settings. 

This table lists versions of PowerPoint and where each one stores the read/unread status data specific to each person who opens the file. Use this link to Find your Office version

For this PowerPoint app

For this version number (or later)

The read/unread status of data is stored here

PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 in Current Channel

between 1707 and 1710

On PC disk, under the path:

%appdata%\Microsoft\PowerPoint\SlideViewState

This location is protected by the Windows Users folder; if you want to, you can manually delete the files that record your own read/unread status.

PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 in Current Channel

1711

Microsoft Online service

PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 in Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel

1803

Microsoft Online service

PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 for Mac

16.11

Microsoft Online service

PowerPoint for Android

16.0.9001.2077

Microsoft Online service

PowerPoint for iOS

2.9.108.0

Microsoft Online service

PowerPoint Mobile

17.8827

Microsoft Online service

Do you miss Slide Libraries? 

If you’d like to see Slide Libraries in PowerPoint, please send us your feedback. See How do I give feedback on Microsoft 365. Your input will help us prioritize which features to include in future updates. 

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