How to Expand or Collapse All Sections in PowerPoint

To open or fold a single section in PowerPoint, click the small triangle next to the section name in the slide thumbnail pane; the number beside the name shows how many slides are inside. To handle every section at once, right-click any section name and look for Expand All or Collapse All. Older desktop versions showed those commands there (pictured below), but Microsoft’s current help page does not list them, so the arrows are the fallback that always works.

Why a deck full of sections can look half empty

Sections are named groups of slides, such as “Intro,” “Results” and “Next steps.” Microsoft’s guide to organizing PowerPoint slides into sections suggests them for keeping a long deck tidy and for splitting the work when several people build one presentation, with each person taking a section.

When a section is collapsed, its slide thumbnails disappear from the left pane and only the section name (with its slide count) remains. That is useful when you want to focus on one part of the deck, but it can be alarming if you open a shared file and see a short column of headings with no slides under them. The slides are still in the file. They are just folded away, and expanding the sections brings them back into view.

Here is a quick way to decide which method to use:

You want to	Use	Documented by Microsoft?
Open or close one section	The triangle beside the section name	Yes
Open or close every section	Expand All or Collapse All on the right-click menu (if shown)	No, check your version
See all slides grouped by section on one screen	View > Slide Sorter	Yes

Open or close one section with its arrow

This is the method Microsoft documents, and it works in the normal editing view where the slide thumbnails run down the left side of the window.

1. Open your presentation in PowerPoint.
2. Find the section name in the thumbnail pane on the left. The numeral next to it shows how many slides the section holds.
3. Click the triangle next to the section name. If the section was open, it collapses and its thumbnails are hidden; if it was collapsed, it expands again.

Microsoft’s instructions put it simply: click the arrows next to the section names to collapse and expand sections. In a deck with three or four sections, this is often quicker than hunting for a menu command. In a deck with twenty sections, the all-at-once commands below save a lot of clicking.

Expand or collapse every section at once

In older desktop versions the section name’s right-click menu offered Expand All and Collapse All, as the screenshots below show. Microsoft’s current help page does not mention these two commands, so treat the steps as a check of your version rather than a guarantee.

1. Right-click any section name in the thumbnail pane. On a Mac, Control-click it or click with two fingers on the trackpad.

   

   Older PowerPoint version shown; current menus look different.

2. Look for Expand All in the menu and choose it to open every collapsed section. Choose Collapse All instead to fold the whole deck down to its section names.

   

   Older PowerPoint version shown with Expand All on the section menu.

3. Check the thumbnail pane. After Expand All, every section should show its slides again, and after Collapse All you should see only the section names with their slide counts.

You do not need to collapse everything first. In the older versions pictured, Expand All simply opened the sections that were closed and left the open ones alone.

Some versions also list the same two commands under the Section button on the Home tab. Microsoft documents Home > Section only for adding a section, so if the right-click menu does not show Expand All, it is worth a look there before falling back to the arrows.

A practical pattern for long decks: Collapse All, expand only the section you are editing, and then Expand All before you send the file so the next person sees every slide.

See every section in Slide Sorter view

Slide Sorter shows the slides as a grid of thumbnails, grouped under their section headings, which makes it the easiest place to check the overall structure. Microsoft’s steps open it with View > Slide Sorter.

In this view you can move a whole section by dragging its title to a new position, which carries all of its slides along. If the section headings here show arrows, they open and close sections the same way as in the thumbnail pane. To go back to editing slides, choose View > Normal or double-click a slide.

If you spend most of your time arranging slides, you can also change the default view in PowerPoint so decks open the way you prefer.

When Expand All is grayed out or missing

• The deck has no sections. Expand All and Collapse All only have something to act on when the presentation has sections. Add one by right-clicking between two slides and selecting Add Section.
• You right-clicked a slide, not a section name. The slide menu is different. Right-click the heading text of the section itself.
• The commands are not on the menu at all. Your version may not offer them in that spot. Use the triangle next to each section name, which Microsoft documents for every version its page covers.

PowerPoint for Mac and PowerPoint for the web

Microsoft’s sections page covers PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 on Windows, PowerPoint for Mac and PowerPoint for the web, with largely the same steps. On a Mac, the triangle beside each section name works as it does on Windows, and Control-clicking a section name opens its menu, where Expand All and Collapse All may appear.

For PowerPoint in a browser, Microsoft documents adding sections (switch to Slide Sorter with the button on the status bar, right-click the first slide of the new section and choose Add Section) but does not say whether the web app can collapse or expand them, or whether Expand All exists there. Right-click a section name and see what the menu offers. If you cannot open the sections you need, open the file in the desktop app, where the arrows are documented.

Tidy up sections once they are open

Expanding sections often reveals housekeeping to do. A few related jobs, with Microsoft’s labels:

• Rename: a new section starts as Untitled Section, and PowerPoint opens a Rename Section box where you type a name. To change a name later, see how to rename a section in PowerPoint.
• Move: in View > Slide Sorter, drag the section title to its new place.
• Delete: right-click the section name and select Delete. Before you do, check what happens to the slides in your version, and if the goal is to get rid of the slides themselves, here is how to delete a slide in PowerPoint, including several at once.
• Unexpected heading at the top: if slides came before your first section, PowerPoint may group them under a section you did not name yourself. Rename it or move those slides.

Older PowerPoint versions

Microsoft’s sections page applies to PowerPoint 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2024 as well as Microsoft 365, so the arrow method is the same in those versions. Copies labeled “PowerPoint for Office 365” are the same product line now called Microsoft 365. The two screenshots above come from that older version, which is why the menus look different from current PowerPoint.

PowerPoint sections: quick answers

How can I tell how many slides are in a collapsed section?

Look at the number beside the section name. Microsoft describes it as the count of slides in that section, so you can see the size of each part without expanding it.

Does collapsing a section delete or hide slides from the slide show?

Collapsing only changes what you see in the editing views; the slides stay in the file. Microsoft’s sections page does not discuss the slide show itself, so if you want a slide left out when presenting, use PowerPoint’s Hide Slide option rather than relying on a collapsed section.

Can I collapse sections in Word or Google Docs too?

Both have their own version of the idea. Word collapses headings with small arrows, and you can hide the expand and collapse arrows in Word if they get in the way. In Google Docs, here is how to make collapsible sections in Google Docs.

Next time a deck opens as a column of bare headings, start with a right-click on a section name, and if Expand All is not there, click each section’s triangle to bring the slides back.