Countdown Timers in PowerPoint

For Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 & 2002

Creating a PowerPoint presentation with countdown timer slides is easy - you'll see screens from PowerPoint 2003, but the techniques work in older versions as well.

Timer Example

You can also download and use this sample timer which increments up to 20 minutes with 1 minute intervals; great for training, speaking, and other presentations. Look for the bit of humor as the timer finishes.

Download These Examples

PowerPoint Countdown Timer (zip)
(first slide is black-press [Enter] to move forward)
Featured images are from Animation Factory

Timers Cheat Sheet
(use as a reference to quickly move to the starting slide you want)

Creating a Countdown Timer

1. Create a new presentation in PowerPoint and insert a blank slide. Or insert a blank slide in an existing presentation.
    
2. Insert a text box and type the number '1' or '01' or '001' depending on how many digits you want your counter to display. Center the text, change the font style, and increase the font to a large size.
    
3. Choose Slide Show > Slide Transition to apply a slide transition and set the advance to the desired interval (1 second, 1 minute, etc.)
   How To Create Slide Transitions in PowerPoint
    
4. Choose View > Slide Sorter and click the formatted timer slide. Choose Edit > Copy and then Edit > Paste to paste an identical slide. Repeat as many times as you want to create the sequential slides for the countdown timer.
   
5. For each of the consecutive slides, edit the countdown number in reverse order until the last slide contains the number '1' or add concluding text.
   

Improve your countdown timer by experimenting with slide backgrounds, transitions, animations, font color and style, etc. to create a unique look. Add images or text such as "Minutes Left" or "Seconds Remaining."

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