Word 2007 loses the ability to export outlines to PowerPoint

There's a great little feature in Microsoft Word 2003 and earlier versions of the word-processing program that lets you export to PowerPoint an outline of any Word file formatted with headings. I admit that it's a specialized operation that probably doesn't get used all that often, but it's a handy way to work between the two Office apps.

I was all set to tell you how to use the feature in Word 2007 when I realized it has been removed. So all that noise Microsoft made when the new Office System was released more than a year ago about how much better the various apps would work together didn't extend to exporting Word outlines to a PowerPoint presentation. Oh, well, I'm sure Microsoft had a good reason for removing the feature.

Here's how it works in Word 2003: First, if you haven't applied headings to the document whose outline you want to export to PowerPoint, open it in Word, select the headings one at a time, and click Format>Styles and Formatting>Heading 1. Each Heading 1 entry will become a separate slide. Now select any subheadings in each Heading 1 section and choose Heading 2. These will be the entries under each Heading 1 slide.

To preview your "presentation," click View>Document Map to open a pane on the left side of the screen. If you like what you see, click File>Send to>Microsoft Office PowerPoint. A new presentation will open in that program with slides representing each of the Heading 1 entries in the original Word file.

Preview your new PowerPoint presentation in Word 2003 by clicking View>Document Map.

A plain-jane PowerPoint presentation is created from the outline of your Word 2003 document.

My attempts to find the same function in Word 2007 came up empty. I tried converting the document to PDF and then importing the PDF version to PowerPoint 2007, but this created so many nonsense slides that it would be easier simply to copy and paste the headings into the various slides. If anybody out there knows how to move the outline of a Word 2007 document to PowerPoint, please let me know.

Tomorrow: Safely disable unneeded services in Windows XP and Vista.

[xZero2007x]

Actually, I never really thought of using the export function in word2003 like that. Before, I used to always just type up an outline in word using the automated formatting for the outlines. So if you use bullets, then use bullets; numbers or other formats work fine as well. Because you're simply writing a line, hitting enter, and hitting tab depending on how much of a subgroup you want to make the next line, I always just copied and pasted the entire document into powerpoint's OUTLINE view. Once there, you get a rough power point with your main points and sub-categories. From there, I usually just do some light formatting throughout the entire powerpoint to fix rough edges, add visuals, make sure not too much information's caught up on one slide, etc. Have done it through my junior and senior year in high school, and still do for professional and college purposes today (total about 2.5 years). This should work in office 2007. Which brings me to another point altogether--don't entirely rely on the buttons and built in functions of the software. If you're focusing a lot of effort into using those, you become to reliant on them. A simple work-around like this is just as efficient (and if anything, easier to make the outline in word) and keeps your fingers on the keyboard more rather than on the mouse, which should be an important thing to remember if you want to be as efficient as possible.
Mind my grammar and unorganized comment--I've been lacking a lot of sleep for several days now and couldn't find an email link to the editor.

[itwriting]

The feature seems to be there still. See:

http://www.itwriting.com/blog/?p=469

Tim

[doreilly]

Thanks very much for the pointer to the command in Word 2007, and for the tip on where to look for other "missing" commands. I'll come back to this topic in the future.

[AUTigerFan]

Powerpoint 2007 also has an option in the Open dialog box to open ?All Outlines(*.txt;*.rtf;*.wpd;*.doc;*.docx;*.docm;*.wps)?. The ability to share between products in the suite is enhanced in 2007 so try importing various word documents to see how Powerpoint utilizes the content in the new version. I think you?ll be pleasantly surprised.

[NorseLord]

The Send to Microsoft Office PowerPoint command is still available and can be added to the Quick Access Toolbar in Word. The command was probably tucked away due to low usage based on user research.

How to add the Send to Microsoft Office PowerPoint command to the Quick Access Toolbar
1) Click the Office button and click Word Options to open the Word Options dialog.
2) Select Customize to display customization options.
3) In the "Choose commands from" list, select All Commands.
4) Find "Send to Microsoft Office PowerPoint" in the list and click Add. Click OK. The command will be placed in the Quick Access Toolbar, readily available for a person who frequently uses the command.

See the topic "Customize the Quick Access Toolbar" in the Help at Office Online at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA012341051033.aspx

You might consider writing an article about the Quick Access Toolbar.

You may want to try this in Ability Office version 5. For a free download go to http://www.ASIability.us/webpage.aspx?p=114

[Hepeete]

You can get your headings imported in to powerpoint 2007 if you save the word document and then attempt to open it with powerpoint 2007. No luck with bulleted section though.

[tony92376]

The feature is not lost just buried, here's how you do it.

1.) Open your word 2007 doc in Outline view

2.) Highlight the text you want to be the Title of each slide

3.) With the text highlighted make sure that the style is set to "level 1"
This will create the heading for each new slide

4.) For content under the heading of each slide (bullet points), highlight the text and make sure you select that text to be "level 2"

5.) level 2 text is what is going to be used as your bullet points in PPT 2007

I hope this helps.

Tony :)

[tony92376]

Oops I forgot to mention, just open up PPT 2007 and under the new slide command, import outline. Viola new PPT!

Tony :)