How to Create a Progress Bar in PowerPoint

Quick summary

A PowerPoint progress bar is built by layering two rectangle shapes — one as an outline and one as a filled indicator — then applying a Wipe animation so the bar fills from left to right during your presentation. This step-by-step method requires no plugins and works in any modern version of PowerPoint.

Steps

1. Go to the Insert tab in the PowerPoint ribbon.
2. Click Shapes located in the Illustrations section.
3. Choose a rectangle shape from the shapes menu.
4. Drag and draw a bar across your slide to set the progress bar track.
5. Click Shape Fill on the Format tab.
6. Select No Fill to make the outer rectangle transparent.
7. Click Shape Outline to style the border of the outer rectangle.
8. Hover over Weight and select a thicker outline for visibility.
9. Duplicate the shape and place the copy directly above the first rectangle.
10. Click Shape Fill on the duplicated shape.
11. Choose a color for the progress indicator fill.
12. Click Shape Outline on the duplicated shape.
13. Select No Outline to remove the border from the filled shape.
14. Go to the Animations tab.
15. Select the Wipe animation for the filled rectangle.
16. Click Effect Options to open direction settings.
17. Select the From Left effect direction.
18. Adjust the Duration to your preferred animation speed.
19. Click Slide Show or Preview to test the animation.
20. Click your screen to see the progress bar animate in action.