How to Sort Alphabetically in PowerPoint

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Microsoft PowerPoint has the ability to automate quite a bit of what you need to make presentations in the workplace, but a few things are lacking when you compare them to other Office Suite programs. When you need to sort your slides or text within your slides alphabetically, you won't find the small "AZ" icon that appears in the other programs' ribbons. This doesn't mean you can't sort – you just need to put on your workaround cap and actually do the sorting yourself.

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Using Text Boxes

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Step 1

Launch PowerPoint and open the slide deck to sort alphabetically.

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Step 2

Scroll to the slide with text boxes to sort.

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Step 3

Click once on a text box to enable it. You'll see its border become darker.

Step 4

Drag the text box higher on the slide, above any other text boxes that come after it in the alphabet.

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Step 5

Adjust the other text boxes the same way, by dragging and dropping them into place and moving them down as they should appear in the alphabet.

Using the Slide Sorter

Step 1

Launch PowerPoint and open the slide deck to sort alphabetically.

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Step 2

Click the "View" tab, then click the "Slide Sorter" button on the ribbon. The view changes from the traditional big slide in the main window to the pasteboard with as many slides as will fit in the current view. If the text on the slides is very small, it may help to use the screen view slider to zoom in, but this will then show fewer slides on the screen.

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Step 3

Click once on the slide to appear first in the alphabetical list, such as the one with a text box starting with "A." Press and hold down the left mouse button, then drag the slide to the left of the first slide on the screen.

Step 4

Release the left mouse button and the slide takes the first position, labeled with a "1" on the screen. If you dragged and dropped the slide into the wrong place, simply redo this step and move it into first place.

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Step 5

Click the next slide to appear in the alphabetical list, then drag and drop it into place. You can also work backwards, moving slides with letters that appear further back in the alphabet to the end of the slide deck.

Step 6

Click the "Normal" button on the ribbon to return to the regular slide view.

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