Create a Countdown Timer in PowerPoint

Countdown timers can be a fun addition to PowerPoint presentations. They provide a great way to introduce a new slide delivering big news, or to countdown to the beginning of a presentation.

Let's create a simple 10 second countdown timer in PowerPoint.

Create a 10 Second Countdown Timer

1. Click the Home tab on the Ribbon
2. Click the list arrow on the New Slide button and select the Blank presentation
3. Move the slide to the start of the presentation before the title slide
4. Click the Insert tab on the Ribbon
5. Click the Text Box button and draw a text box onto the slide
6. Type 10 into the text box to create your first countdown digit
7. Select the text box and click the Home tab and then the Center align button in the Paragraph group to centre the digit within the text box
8. Change the font size of the digit to something larger and increase the size of the text box so the numbers all fit on one line
9. Click the Arrange button in the Drawing group, select Align and choose Align Center to centre the countdown digit on the slide
10. Repeat step 9 and choose Align Middle to then vertically align the countdown digit on the slide



11. Click the Animations tab on the Ribbon and select a Slide Transition such as the Fade Smoothly effect
12. Change the timing in the Automatically After box under Advance Slide to one second



13. Switch to Slide Sorter view by clicking the View tab on the Ribbon and then clicking the Slide Sorter button in the Presentation Views group
14. Select the slide that you just created and copy and paste the slide 9 times to create 10 identical slides
15. Change the digits on each slide so that they count down from 10 to 1



16. Press F5 on the keyboard to run the slide show and see the countdown timer working

Experiment with different transitions and formats of time for your timer to get the look and feel you want.

Download the countdown timer presentation used in this tutorial.

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