One way to keep a complex PowerPoint you’re putting together organized is to name the objects on each slide. Taking this step helps you understand the order in which they’ll appear in your slideshow, how the items link to each other, and whether your PowerPoint file is accessible to all.

Why Name Objects in PowerPoint?

The main reasons for naming objects in PowerPoint are centered around making life easier in the long term. Although I concede that naming items as you add them to your presentation can initially slow your workflow, it’s a surefire way of saving time down the line. What’s more, if you share your PowerPoint file with others, naming the objects could also improve their experience.

In my example below, I want to reorganize the animations on a slide via the Animation Pane. However, because the objects have generic names, working out which item is which can be challenging. Yes, I could click each of the items in the Animation Pane to activate the linked item on the slide (or vice versa), but this becomes a less viable solution if my slide has many objects.

Similarly, generically named objects make setting animation triggers much more difficult. Staying with my example, let’s say I wanted the picture of the chickens to appear when I clicked the picture of a goldfish. To do this, after adding the animation to the chicken image, I would click Trigger > On Click Of in the Animations tab, and ideally select the goldfish image. However, because the items aren’t properly named, I don’t know which picture is the right one.

Finally, and most importantly, naming the objects means I can use the Reading Order Pane, which tells me the order in which screen readers will read text and alt text. Items being jumbled up in the Reading Order Pane will significantly hurt the experience of people using screen readers, as the objects will be read to them in an illogical order.

In the example below, it’s unclear which object is which, so ensuring the reading order is correct suddenly becomes a complicated task.

How to Name Objects in PowerPoint

To name the items (anything from text boxes and shapes to tables and charts) on a given PowerPoint slide, click “Select” in the Home tab on the ribbon, and choose “Selection Pane.”

Now, when you click through the items in the Selection Pane, you’ll see them become active on the slide itself.

Double-click an object to rename it. You don’t always need to name every item on the slide—just the ones that will make your life easier when adding animations or organizing the Reading Order Pane.

When you’re done, you’ll see the names you have assigned to the objects when you open the Animation Pane, go to create an animation trigger, or use the Reading Order Pane to make your PowerPoint presentation more accessible to people with visual impairments.

Using the Selection Pane to make animating easier and improve accessibility is just one of the many things I wish I’d known before I made my first PowerPoint Presentation. For example, the program’s ability to remove image backgrounds and automate designs are other perks I’ve learned to use to improve my PowerPoint output.