Before delivering your presentation, you might ask someone else to review it and give you feedback on your slides. You might even work with a collaborator to create a presentation together. If you were revising a hard copy, you could add comments in the margins or compare your rough and final drafts side by side. You can do these things in PowerPoint using the Comments and Compare features.
Optional: Download our practice presentation.
Watch the video below to learn more about PowerPoint's reviewing features.
When revising or collaborating on a presentation, you might want to make notes or suggestions without actually changing the slide. Leaving a comment allows you to take note of something without altering the slide itself. Comments can be added and read by the original author or any other reviewers.
You can view or reply to any comment—including other reviewers' comments—by returning to the Comments pane. Simply click a comment icon on the slide, or click the Show Comments command on the Review tab.
There are situations in which you might end up with more than one version of the same presentation. For instance, you could create multiple drafts, or a collaborator or coworker could save their own unique copy.
You can easily compare and combine multiple versions using PowerPoint's Compare feature. This allows you to see the differences between two versions of the same presentation, so you can decide which changes to include in the final version.
In this example, we'll be comparing two versions of the Internet Safety for Everyone presentation. To follow along, you'll need the original practice presentation (powerpoint2016_reviewing_practice), plus a version that's been slightly altered: internet safety - tim's edits.
Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn how to review changes using the Compare feature.
Some changes, like Inserted or Deleted slides, will show up on the Slides pane. Click the revisions icon to see the change, then click the check box if you want to accept it.
In addition to reviewing changes individually, you can accept multiple changes at once. Click the Accept drop-down arrow, then choose either Accept All Changes to This Slide or Accept All Changes to the Presentation.
To compare your presentation with another version, click the Compare command. Next, locate and select the desired file.
Use the Next command to view the next change in the presentation. You can also click Previous to go back to the previous one.
When you're satisfied with the changes you've reviewed, click End Review. Only the changes you've accepted will be applied to the final presentation.
The Slides tab actually lets you preview the revised slide, so you can see the changes in action (as opposed to the Details tab, which only lists the changes).
The Details tab lists every change that has been made to the current slide, as well as any comments. Click a change to see its location on the slide.
Click the revisions icon anywhere it appears on a slide to see the changes that were made in that spot. To accept a revision, click the check box beside it. To reject a revision, leave the box unchecked.
Download our original practice presentation (powerpoint2016_reviewing_practice) and a slightly altered version (internet safety - tim's edits). If you already downloaded our practice files, be sure to download fresh copies.