How to Add Page Numbers and Footers in PowerPoint (And Fix Them When They Don’t Show Up)

Ever added page numbers in PowerPoint, clicked Apply to All, and then… nothing happened?

Congrats. You’ve just encountered one of PowerPoint’s most common (and most annoying) “features.”

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:

• Add slide numbers (page numbers) and footers
• Fix missing page numbers/footers
• Customize the footer formatting (size, alignment, position)
• Prevent chaos when combining multiple PowerPoint decks

Let’s go.

Step 1: Add slide numbers and/or a footer

1. Go to the Insert tab in the PowerPoint ribbon.
2. Click Header & Footer.

You’ll see a dialog box with three main options:

• Date and time
• Slide number
• Footer (custom text you type)

Turn them on

• Check the box next to Slide number if you want page numbers.
• Check the box next to Footer if you want footer text.
• If using a footer, type your footer text into the field provided.

Apply to one slide vs. all slides

At the bottom, choose:

• Apply → adds it only to the currently selected slide
• Apply to All → adds it to every slide

✅ That’s the normal process.

But if nothing shows up… keep reading.

Step 2: If your page numbers/footers aren’t showing up, here’s why

If you clicked Apply to All and your footer or slide number doesn’t appear, don’t worry — PowerPoint isn’t broken.

This usually happens because:

Your slide layout doesn’t include placeholders for slide numbers and footers.

Basically: PowerPoint can’t display footer items on a layout that doesn’t have a “spot” for them.

So we fix the layout.

Step 3: Fix missing footers or page numbers using Slide Master

1. Go to the View tab.
2. Click Slide Master.

On the left, you’ll see all the layouts in your deck.

Scroll through and look at the bottom of each layout:

• Some layouts will show placeholders for date/footer/slide number
• Some layouts will show nothing (that layout is the culprit)

Turn footer placeholders back on

1. Click the layout that’s missing footers.
2. In the Slide Master ribbon, find Master Layout
3. Make sure Footers is checked

✅ Once that box is checked, the slide layout is now capable of showing footer items.

Step 4: Reapply your footer and page numbers

Even after you fix Slide Master, your footer might still not show on the slide until you reapply it.

Here’s what to do:

1. Go back to Insert → Header & Footer
2. Make sure these are checked:
3. Choose Apply (for one slide) or Apply to All

PowerPoint won’t duplicate anything — reapplying just forces it to “actually show up now.”

Step 5: Customize the look and format of footers (size, alignment, position)

If you want your footers to look clean (or match your template), you’ll format them in Slide Master.

1. Go to View → Slide Master
2. Click the very top slide (the master slide)

This is important because:

Formatting here trickles down into the other layouts.

Common formatting edits you can make

• Remove the date placeholder if you don’t want it:
  • Click the date placeholder and delete it (or drag it off the slide)
• Move the footer placeholder to the left:
  • Drag it where you want it
• Left-align the footer text:
  • Go to Home → Align Left
• Make slide numbers bigger/smaller:
  • Select the slide number placeholder and change font size

As you move through the layout list on the left, you should see your formatting changes reflected across layouts.

Step 6: Combining two decks without footer chaos

At some point, you’ll need to combine slide decks (copy/paste slides from one presentation to another). This is where footer settings can get… weird.

Some decks have:

• Different numbering styles
• Different footer text
• No numbering enabled
• Inconsistent formatting

The easiest way to avoid chaos

Before you paste in slides from another deck:

1. Go to Insert → Header & Footer
2. Uncheck:
3. Click Apply to All

Now the deck has no footer items showing, which makes it a clean target for slide imports.

Then:

4. Copy/paste the outside slides into your deck
5. Once everything is in one file, go back to Insert → Header & Footer
6. Re-check Slide number and Footer
7. Click Apply to All

✅ Now everything in your deck uses one consistent footer setup.

Recap: What you now know

You now know how to:

✅ Add page numbers and footer text in PowerPoint

✅ Fix them when they don’t show up (Slide Master placeholders!)

✅ Format footers globally using Slide Master

✅ Combine decks without footer format meltdowns