PowerPoint Print Skips Slides: How to Print Selected Range Only

When you send a PowerPoint presentation to the printer, the output often includes slides you did not intend to print. The most common symptom is that the printout skips certain slides or prints every other slide when you expected a continuous range. This problem usually occurs because the print settings in PowerPoint are configured to print all slides, a custom range, or handouts with hidden slides excluded. This article explains why PowerPoint skips slides during printing and provides the exact steps to print only the selected range you want.

Why PowerPoint Prints Slides Out of Order or Skips Slides

PowerPoint offers multiple print options that can cause the output to appear to skip slides. The most common causes are the Print Layout setting and the Custom Range field being misconfigured. When you select Print All Slides, PowerPoint prints every slide in the presentation including hidden slides unless you explicitly exclude them. If you select Print Selection, PowerPoint only prints the slides you have highlighted in the thumbnail pane. The Slides field in the Print dialog accepts a range like 1-5,7,9-12. If you type a range incorrectly or leave the field blank, PowerPoint defaults to printing all slides. Another cause is the Print Hidden Slides checkbox in File > Options > Display. When this box is unchecked, hidden slides are omitted from the printout even if they fall within the range you specified. The Print Layout option also affects the output. If you choose Handouts with multiple slides per page, PowerPoint arranges slides in a grid and may skip slides to maintain the layout. The Print Order setting for handouts can also change the sequence of slides on the printed page.

Steps to Print a Selected Range of Slides in PowerPoint

Follow these steps to print only the slides you want, in the order you want them. These instructions apply to PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, PowerPoint 2021, PowerPoint 2019, and PowerPoint 2016 on Windows 11 and Windows 10.

1. Open the Print dialog
   Click File in the ribbon, then click Print. Alternatively, press Ctrl+P on your keyboard. The Print dialog appears with a preview of the first slide on the right side.
2. Select the Custom Range option
   Under Settings, click the first dropdown button that currently reads Print All Slides. From the menu, click Custom Range. A text field labeled Slides appears below the dropdown.
3. Enter the slide range
   In the Slides text field, type the slide numbers you want to print. Use a hyphen for a continuous range and a comma for individual slides. For example, to print slides 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9, type 1,3,5,7,9. To print slides 2 through 8, type 2-8. You can combine ranges and single numbers: 1-3,5,7-9 prints slides 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 9.
4. Choose the print layout
   Click the second dropdown under Settings, which defaults to Full Page Slides. Select the layout you need. For a single slide per page, keep Full Page Slides. For multiple slides per page, choose Handouts and then the number of slides per page. If you select Handouts, also set the Print Order to Horizontal or Vertical in the same dropdown.
5. Set other print options
   Check or uncheck Print One Sided, Collated, and Color options as needed. These options affect how the printer handles the paper and ink. For most users, Collated should remain checked for multi-page printouts.
6. Print the selected range
   Click the Print button at the top of the Print dialog. PowerPoint sends only the slides in your custom range to the printer. The preview updates to show the first slide in the range before you print.

Printing a Non-Contiguous Selection of Slides Using the Thumbnail Pane

1. Select slides in the thumbnail pane
   On the left side of the PowerPoint window, click the thumbnail of the first slide you want to print. Hold Ctrl and click additional thumbnails to select non-adjacent slides. Hold Shift and click the last slide to select a continuous block.
2. Open the Print dialog
   Press Ctrl+P or click File > Print.
3. Choose Print Selection
   Under Settings, click the first dropdown and select Print Selection. The preview now shows only the slides you selected. The Slides field is not available when Print Selection is active.
4. Print the selection
   Click Print. Only the selected slides are printed.

If PowerPoint Still Skips Slides After Setting a Custom Range

If the printer output still does not match the range you entered, check these three settings.

Hidden slides are excluded from the printout

PowerPoint hides slides by default. When you print a range that includes a hidden slide, that slide does not print. To verify, look at the thumbnails in the left pane. A hidden slide has a slash through its slide number. To include hidden slides in the printout, click File > Options > Display. Under Print options, check the box labeled Print hidden slides. Click OK. Then print the range again.

The Slides field contains an invalid entry

PowerPoint ignores invalid characters in the Slides field. For example, typing 1-5,7,9-12 with a space after the comma works, but typing 1-5,7,9-12, or 1-5..7 does not. PowerPoint may print all slides if the field is empty or contains only spaces. Delete any trailing commas, extra hyphens, or letters. The field accepts only numbers, hyphens, and commas.

The printer driver is caching an old print job

Some printer drivers queue multiple print jobs and may mix pages from a previous print job with the current one. Restart the print spooler service on Windows. Open Services.msc, right-click Print Spooler, click Stop, then Start. Delete any pending jobs from the printer queue before printing again.

PowerPoint Print Settings Comparison: Custom Range vs Print Selection vs Print All

Item	Custom Range	Print Selection	Print All Slides
How to select slides	Type numbers in the Slides field	Select thumbnails before opening Print dialog	No selection needed
Supports non-contiguous slides	Yes, with commas (1,3,5)	Yes, with Ctrl+click	Prints every slide
Supports hidden slides	Only if Print hidden slides is enabled	Only if selected thumbnails include hidden slides	Only if Print hidden slides is enabled
Best use case	Printing a known set of slide numbers	Printing slides that are not in numeric order	Printing the entire presentation

You can now print a selected range of slides in PowerPoint without the output skipping or including unwanted slides. The custom range field accepts hyphenated sequences and comma-separated individual numbers. For non-adjacent slides, the thumbnail selection method gives you visual control over which slides appear in the printout. As an advanced tip, save your print settings as a custom print profile using the Presets dropdown in the Print dialog to reuse the same range and layout settings for recurring presentations.