In this time of Stay at Home, Zoom has been such a great tool to stay connected! For Ryan’s mom’s birthday, we wanted to get creative and do something different. We love watching Jeopardy together while we eat dinner, so we thought: why not make one for the whole fam to enjoy?
We got to work. I made a Jeopardy game in PowerPoint and Ryan and I worked together to come up with a variety of questions. We chose a Disney theme because she loves all these Disney. Not only was it a huge hit with the fam, it was also an awesome way for Ryan and I to spend time with each other having fun coming up with questions. We also watched a ton of Disney movies for inspiration which was personally my very favorite. Creating the game board is tedious, but the steps are super easy! If you want to do this too, see below for the scoop on how to make your very own Zoom Jeopardy
Don’t have a ton of time to make the whole thing? No worries! I made a template you can download for $5 via Etsy.
Step One: Create a New PowerPoint Presentation + Choose a Theme.
Open PowerPoint and start a new presentation. Save the presentation before getting started and continue to save as you go along.
Select the “Design” tab and choose a theme you like best. If you will be customizing your game completely, then you can continue with a blank template.
Step Two: Create a Title Slide and the Jeopardy Game Board Slide
Create a Title Slide with either the Jeopardy logo or a Custom Look of your choice. Since this was for Ryan’s Mom’s birthday, below is what we chose as the title slide.
Don’t worry about adding in images or graphics just yet, I went back through and added these in later. Additionally, don’t worry about adding in the Round + Category slides yet.
Next, create the Game Board. Start by creating a new slide, then selecting “Insert“, then “Table“. I did a 5×5 table, however you can amend this based on how many Categories and Point Options you would like to have.
Resize the table to fit the slide.
Go through the table and enter in the values you would like to have for the point system. Enter in your Categories (if you already know them). If you don’t know them yet, title them “Category One”, “Category Two”, etc.
Recolor and edit the table as you wish to match your desired look. Since ours was Disney themed, I found an image of the Disney Princesses taking a selfie and made that the background of the slide.
To make a picture the background, right-click the slide, select “Format Background” sidebar will appear. Select “Picture Fill.” Then, upload the photo you wish to use.
Step Three: Open the Slide Master + Create the Master Clue and Answer slides.
In the toolbar, go to “View“, then “Slide Master“.
Select “Insert Layout“. You will need a “Question/Clue” slide template and an “Answer” slide template.
For the first layout, name it “Clue“. Next, select “Insert“, “Shapes“, scroll to “Action Buttons“, then select “Custom“. This will be the button that takes you to the Answer Slide.
Once the “Action Settings” pop up, Select “Hyperlink To:” and Select “Next Slide“.
Reformat the button to size and where you would like it on the slide. Right-click on the button, click “Edit Text” and type in “Answer”.
Now, we will create the “Answer” slides. Select “Insert Layout“. Name it “Answer”.
Follow the same steps from before, but name the button “Home”. For the Hyperlink, set it to the Game Board = “Slide 2”.
Once both templates have been created, exit the Slide Master view. (Big Red X Button on the top right of the Slide Master toolbar. See above.)
Step Four: Add Clue and Answer Slides and Link Them to Game Board.
This is the tedious part! Grab some wine, pop in a Disney movie and it will fly by!
Now that you have a Title Slide and Game Board slide, it’s time to create the Clues and Answers. Add a third slide. Set the Layout to Clue.
Add a fourth slide. Set the Layout to Answer.
I highly recommend filling in text for the Clue slides noting what category it pertains to and what value. This will make it much easier when linking the slides to the Game Board. See below.
Duplicate the slide pair (Clue + Answer) as many times as needed until you have one for each cell in the Game Board.
If you did the 5×5 format, your total slides will be 42 once done, including the title slide and Game Board.
Step Five: Link the Game Board to Clue Slides
Highlight the first value of Category One. Right Click and Select “Hyperlink“
Select “This Document” and then select the matching Clue Slide. Example ours, in the beginning, said “Category One 200“
Continue through the Game Board and link all Clue slides.
YOU DID IT! YAY!
You have a Jeopardy Game!
Now for the added tips and tricks.
Jeopardy Hex Code (Color): 060CE9
Adding Photos and Sounds
To insert photos, copy and paste or simply drag and drop from your Desktop into the presentation.
You can also Insert sounds by selecting “Insert“, then “Audio” and “Audio from File“.
Here is the link to a great website that has Jeopardy sound downloads for free!
- On the Title slide, I used the “This is Jeopardy” song.
- I put the Correct Answer sound and the Time’s Up sound these on the Answer slide.
- I put the Daily Double sound on Daily Double slides.
- On the Final Jeopardy Questions slide, I used the Jeopardy Theme.
Make it Autoplay by selecting the audio icon on the slide and click the “Playback” tab in the toolbar. Select “Automatically” in the “Start” dropdown menu.
I recommend only doing this for theme songs, not for the “Correct” and “Time’s Up” sounds. For those, select “When Clicked On.”
Adding Daily Double
Insert a New Slide and place it in above the Clue that you would like to be the Daily Double. Title the slide “Daily Double”. Select the points value for the Daily Double Clue in the Game Board and relink to the Daily Double Slide.
Restricting Navigation
Select all slides, except the Title slide (and Daily Double slide if you choose to add). Then, go to the “Transitions” tab and uncheck “On Mouse Click”.
This will ensure that accidentally tapping the mouse on Clue or Answer slides won’t reveal the next slide and will restrict navigation to the action buttons only.
Also, yes, this was the final question! Haha, we made the answer Julius (the cat), but it was hilarious watching everyone trying to guess.
Adding Another Round
Create a second Game Board by Inserting a new slide + table or by simply duplicating Round One’s Game Board. Double the point values.
Open the “Slide Master.” Duplicate the “Answer” Layout. Title it “Answer Round Two“. Relink the “Home” button to Round Two’s Game Board.
Duplicate all of the steps from above to insert the Clue and Answer slides and link them to the second Game Board. Don’t forget to use “Answer Round Two”
Insert an Action Button on Round One’s Game board that links to “Round Two”.
We had a “Intermission” Button that linked to an Intermission Slide followed by a slideshow of past trips to Disney World. Otherwise, that button would say “Round Two.”
Inserting Category Slides
Create a new slide for each category. Note: creating new slides will not interfere with your slide number hyperlinks in the game board. The slide numbers will automatically adjust.
For these slides, make sure to go to “Transitions” tab and ensure “On Mouse Click” is checked.
Final Jeopardy
In Round Two’s Slide or Instead of the “Round Two” button, insert an Action Button titled “Final Jeopardy.”
Next, Insert a new slide and title it “Final Jeopardy.” Link the button to this slide. For this slide, make sure to go to “Transitions” tab and ensure “On Mouse Click” is checked.
Insert a “Clue Slide” and an “Answer Slide.” (“On Mouse Click” should be unchecked for these slides. See Restrict Navigation for more information.)
Adding Transition Effects for Clue Slides
Open the Slide Master, Select the “Clue” slide. I did the “Flip” Transition to make it look like a flash card.
Adding Triggered Animations to Hide Completed Questions
I did not have time to do this, so I recommend using this link to add this functionality. We drew out the game board on a piece of paper and marked them off as we went to keep track. Since we did not have this, it is not included as a feature in the free template download below.
Rules on How to Play Jeopardy
View this link for the rules of Jeopardy. I recommend playing however you want.
We played by having Ryan’s mom go first to select a Category and Point Value. After she got the answer right, she selected the next Clue, until someone else answered correctly. Then they got to select the next Clue, so on and so forth. Also, we didn’t deduct any points for wrong answers. We did follow the “What Is” and “Who Is” format for answers and we were lenient on the answer time limits.
Need Question Inspiration?
If you are organizing a more traditional form of Jeopardy, here is a link to a fan-created archive of all questions in Jeopardy games that have been played.
Ready to Play, but don’t have time to complete all of the above steps? No problem!
I have a gift for you! Download my pre-made template directly to your computer for $5 via Etsy. You can customize how you wish directly in PowerPoint and add in your own Clues and Answers.
All rights to images used belong to the Disney Corporation. All rights to the game format, Jeopardy name, and associated sounds belong to the Jeopardy! Corporation. Disney princess selfie credit is linked to the image.