How to Change the Header and Footer Information in a MS PowerPoint Presentation

The header and footer information in a MS PowerPoint presentation is not limited to what is seen on the slides. They are also present in the title slide, presenter view, and handouts.

In a Nutshell

Changing the header and footer information in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation is easy. Here are the general steps to do it:

  1. Click on the View tab from the top menu bar.
  2. Click on Slide Sorter View.
  3. Select the slide that you want to edit.
  4. Right click on any of the slides and select Header and Footer from the drop down menu.
  5. Type in your desired header or footer information and click on OK button.

More Detailed Instructions

A MS PowerPoint presentation can have one or all of the following “Header & Footer” information:

  • Date and Time
  • Slide Number
  • Footer

In the Insert tab, click the Header & Footer button to display the related dialog box:

(Click to enlarge the image)

In order to display any of this information, the MASTER SLIDE you have selected/edited and applied to the body slides must have a PLACE HOLDER for this information.

But that is not enough.

For example, you may have a FOOTER in your master file. But even if you enter your URL for the footer it will not display consistently in your body slides.

So how would you fix that?

Easy.

For consistent display of such information you need to enter them through the Header and Footer dialog box.

Place a check-mark next to the information you’d like to appear on individual slide(s) and then click Apply (for a single slide) or Apply to All (for all slides in the project).

This gives you a lot of flexibility in determining what your FOOTER should actually look like. PowerPoint possibilities are endless: copyright information, web site URL, phone number, etc.