An Introduction to Microsoft

PowerPoint 2019 Presentations

RELATED BOOK
PowerPoint 2019 For Dummies

By Doug Lowe

PowerPoint is similar to a word processor such as Word, except that it’s geared
toward creating presentations rather than documents. A presentation is kind of
like those Kodak Carousel slide trays that your grandpa filled up with 35mm
slides of the time he took the family to the Grand Canyon in 1965. The main
difference is that with Microsoft PowerPoint 2019, you don’t have to worry
about dumping all the slides out of the tray and figuring out how to get them back
into the right order.

Word documents consist of one or more pages, and PowerPoint

presentations consist of one or more slides. Each slide can contain text,
graphics, animations, videos, and other information. You can easily rearrange the
slides in a presentation, delete slides that you don’t need, add new slides, or
modify the contents of existing slides.

You can use PowerPoint both to create your presentations and to actually
present them.

You can use several different types of media to actually show your presentations:

 Computer screen: Your computer screen is a suitable way to display your

presentation when you’re showing it to just one or two other people.
  Big-screen TV: If you have a big-screen TV that can accommodate
computer input, it’s ideal for showing presentations to medium-sized
audiences — say 10 to 12 people in a small conference room.

 Computer projector: A computer projector projects an image of your

computer monitor onto a screen so large audiences can view it.

 Webcast: You can show your presentation over the Internet. That way,
your audience doesn’t all have to be in the same place at the same time.
Anyone with a web browser can sit in on your presentation.

 Printed pages: Printed pages enable you to distribute a printed copy of

your entire presentation to each member of your audience. (When you
print your presentation, you can print one slide per page, or you can print
several slides on each page to save paper.)

Presentation files in PowerPoint 2019

A presentation is to PowerPoint what a document is to Word or a workbook is to
Excel. In other words, a presentation is a file that you create with PowerPoint.
Each presentation that you create is saved on your computer’s hard drive as a
separate file.

PowerPoint 2019 presentations have the special extension .pptx added to the
end of their filenames. For example, Sales Conference.pptx and History Day.pptx
are both valid PowerPoint filenames. When you type the filename for a new
PowerPoint file, you don’t have to type the .pptx extension, because PowerPoint
automatically adds the extension for you. Windows may hide the .pptx extension,
in which case a presentation file named Conference.pptx often appears as just
Conference.

PowerPoint is set up initially to save your presentation files in the Documents

folder, but you can store PowerPoint files in any folder of your choice on your
hard drive or on any other drive. You can also save your presentation to online
file storage, such as Microsoft’s OneDrive. And, if you want, you can write a
presentation to a USB flash drive or to cloud storage.

What’s in a PowerPoint 2019 slide?

PowerPoint presentations comprise one or more slides. Each slide can contain
text, graphics, and other elements. A number of PowerPoint features work
together to help you easily format attractive slides:

 Slide layouts: Every slide has a slide layout that controls how information
is arranged on the slide. A slide layout is simply a collection of one or more
placeholders, which set aside an area of the slide to hold information.
Depending on the layout that you choose for a slide, the placeholders can
hold text, graphics, clip art, sound or video files, tables, charts, graphs,
diagrams, or other types of content.

 Background: Every slide has a background, which provides a backdrop

for the slide’s content. The background can be a solid color; a blend of two
colors; a subtle texture, such as marble or parchment; a pattern, such as
diagonal lines, bricks, or tiles; or an image file. Each slide can have a
different background, but you usually want to use the same background for
every slide in your presentation to provide a consistent look.

 Transitions: Transitions control the visual effect that is employed when

moving from one slide to the next. The norm is to have the next slide
instantly replace the previous slide with no splashy effects. But if you want,
you can have one slide dissolve into the next, or new slides can push
slides out of the way, or you can make it look like the wind has blown the
old slide away to reveal the next slide. In all, there are nearly 50 transition
effects you can choose from.
  Themes: Themes are combinations of design elements such as color
schemes and fonts that make it easy to create attractive slides that don’t
look ridiculous. You can stray from the themes if you want, but you should
do so only if you have a better eye than the design gurus who work for
Microsoft.

 Slide Masters: Slide Masters are special slides that control the basic
design and formatting options for slides in your presentation. Slide Masters
are closely related to layouts — in fact, each layout has its own Slide
Master that determines the position and size of basic title and text
placeholders; the background and color scheme used for the presentation;
and font settings, such as typefaces, colors, and sizes. In addition, Slide
Masters can contain graphic and text objects that you want to appear on
every slide.

You can edit the Slide Masters to change the appearance of all the slides in your
presentation at once. This helps to ensure that the slides have a consistent
appearance.

All the features described in the preceding list work together to control the
appearance of your slides in much the same way that style sheets and templates
control the appearance of Word documents. You can customize the appearance
of individual slides by adding any of the following elements:

 Title and body text: Most slide layouts include placeholders for title and
body text. You can type any text that you want into these placeholders. By
default, PowerPoint formats the text according to the Slide Master, but you
can easily override this formatting to use any font, size, styles like bold or
italic, or text color that you want.
 Text boxes: You can add text anywhere on a slide by drawing a text box
and then typing text. Text boxes enable you to add text that doesn’t fit
conveniently in the title or body text placeholders.

 Shapes: You can use PowerPoint’s drawing tools to add a variety of

shapes to your slides. You can use predefined AutoShapes, such as
rectangles, circles, stars, arrows, and flowchart symbols. Alternatively, you
can create your own shapes by using basic line, polygon, and freehand
drawing tools.

 Illustrations: You can illustrate your slides by inserting clip art,

photographs, and other graphic elements. PowerPoint comes with a large
collection of clip art pictures you can use, and Microsoft provides an even
larger collection of clip art images online. And, of course, you can insert
photographs from your own picture library.

 Charts and diagrams: PowerPoint includes a slick diagramming feature

called SmartArt that enables you to create several common types of
diagrams, including organization charts, cycle diagrams, and others. In
addition, you can insert pie charts, line or bar charts, and many other chart
types.

 Video and Sound: You can add sound clips or video files to your slides.
You can also add background music or a custom narration.

 Animations: Animations put the various elements on an individual slide

into motion. One common use of animation is to make text appear on the
slide with movement to capture your audience’s attention. But you can
apply animation to any element on a slide.
 Basic tasks for creating a
PowerPoint presentation
PowerPoint for Office 365  PowerPoint 2019  PowerPoint 2016  PowerPoint 2013  More...

PowerPoint presentations work like slide shows. To convey a message or a story, you
break it down into slides. Think of each slide as a blank canvas for the pictures and
words that help you tell your story.

Newer versionsOffice 2010Office 2007

Choose a theme
When you open PowerPoint, you’ll see some built-in themes and templates. A theme is
a slide design that contains matching colors, fonts, and special effects like shadows,
reflections, and more.

1. On the File tab of the Ribbon, select New, and then choose a theme.

PowerPoint shows you a preview of the theme, with four color variations to choose from
on the right side.

2. Click Create, or pick a color variation and then click Create.

 Read more: Use or create themes in PowerPoint

Insert a new slide

 On the Home tab, click the bottom half of New Slide, and pick a slide layout.

Read more: Add, rearrange, and delete slides.

Save your presentation

1. On the File tab, choose Save.
2. Pick or browse to a folder.
3. In the File name box, type a name for your presentation, and then choose Save.

Note: If you frequently save files to a certain folder, you can ‘pin’ the path so that it is always
available (as shown below).
 Tip: Save your work as you go. Press Ctrl+S often.

Read more: Save your presentation file

Add text
Select a text placeholder, and begin typing.

Format your text

1. Select the text.
2. Under Drawing Tools, choose Format.
3. Do one of the following:
o To change the color of your text, choose Text Fill, and then choose a color.
o To change the outline color of your text, choose Text Outline, and then choose a color.
o To apply a shadow, reflection, glow, bevel, 3-D rotation, a transform, choose Text
Effects, and then choose the effect you want.

Read more:

 Change the fonts

 Change the color of text on a slide
 Add bullets or numbers to text
 Format text as superscript or subscript

Change the fonts in

a presentation
PowerPoint for Office 365 PowerPoint for the web PowerPoint
2019 PowerPoint 2016 More...

You can replace a font in a single place, or you can

make a systematic font change throughout your
presentation.
 Change the font on a single
slide
1. Do one of the following:
o To change the font for a single paragraph or a phrase,

select the text that you want to change.

o To change the font for all the text in a placeholder,

either select all the text in the placeholder, or click the

placeholder.
2. On the Home tab, in the Font group, select a font in
the Font list.

Change the fonts throughout

your presentation
(This feature is not available for PowerPoint for the
web.)

1. On the View tab, in the Master Views group,

click Slide Master.
2. In the left pane that contains the slide masters and
layouts, click the slide master thumbnail or layout that
contains the font that you want to change.
3. On the slide master or layout, click the title text or the
level of body text that you want to apply a new font
style to.
4. On the Slide Master tab, in the Background group,
click Fonts, and then select a font from the list.

Repeat steps 1 through 4 for any other fonts that you

want to change. To return to editing your slides, on
the Slide Master tab, in the Close group, click Close
Master View.

You can also use the Replace Font option to change a

font throughout your presentation. Here's how:

1. On the Home tab, in the Editing group,
select Replace and then select Replace Fonts.
2. In the Replace Font dialog box, in the Replace field,
select the font that you want to replace.
3. In the With field, select the font that you want to use,
select Replace, and then select Close.

If you’re using one slide master, and you change a font

on the slide master, the new font choice appears
throughout your presentation.
 If you’re using multiple slide masters (for example,
when you apply more than one template to your
presentation), you must change the font style on each
slide master.

See Also
Use decorative fonts from third-party vendors

Find and replace text

Change the fonts in a footer on a slide

Add a text placeholder with custom prompt text

Change the color of text on a

slide
PowerPoint for Office 365  PowerPoint 2019  PowerPoint 2016  PowerPoint 2013  More...

You can change the color of text for one or more slides.

To change the color of text on a slide

1. Select the text that you want to change.
2. On the Home tab, choose Font Color, and then select the color that you want to
change the color of the text to.

Tips: 

 If you don’t see the color that you want, choose More Colors, and then select a color on
the Standard tab, or mix your own color on the Custom tab.
 Choose Eyedropper to match colors on your slide. As you move your mouse over other text colors, a
live preview of the color appears in a square. Select the color you want to match to apply it to the
selected text. (The eyedropper tool is not available in PowerPoint 2007.)

To change the color of text on multiple slides

If you’re building a presentation with many slides, it helps to customize the slide master
first (see Create and save a PowerPoint template for more information). That sets the
text color and other design styles ahead of time, and each new slide you create comes
with the text color that you want.

Changing the text color on the slide master applies the changes to text on multiple
slides at one time.

1. On the View tab, choose Slide Master.

2. In the left thumbnail pane, select a layout that contains the text you want to change to a
different color.
3. Select the text on the layout that you want to change.
4. On the mini toolbar that appears, choose Font Color, and then select the color you
want to change the color of the text to.

Tip:  If you don’t see the color that you want, choose More Colors, and then select a color on
the Standard tab, or mix your own color on the Custom tab.

5. When you’re finished, choose Close Master View to return to your presentation.

If you're an Office 365 subscriber, you can highlight your text with color. See Highlight
text with color.

Add bullets or
numbers to text
PowerPoint for Office 365 PowerPoint for the web PowerPoint
2019 PowerPoint 2016 More...
 

You can use bulleted or numbered lists to help

organize your text or show a sequential process in your
PowerPoint presentation.
Newer versionsOffice 2010Office 2007Web

1. On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group,

click Normal.
2. On the left side of the PowerPoint window, click a slide
thumbnail that you want to add bulleted or numbered
text to.
3. On the slide, select the lines of text in a text
placeholder or table that you want to add bullets or
numbering to.
4. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group,
click Bullets    or Numbering    .
 Notes: 

o To change all lines of text, select the outline of the text object, and then apply the bullet or
numbering.
o To increase or decrease the indent and change the spacing between a bullet or number and the text,
see How do I increase or decrease the space between a bullet or number and the text in a line? in
this article.

Change the color and style of bullets,

and understand the limitations
You can change the color, style, or size of the bullets or
numbers in your PowerPoint presentation, and you can
change the number you want to start from.

1. To change one bullet or number, place the cursor at the

start of the line that you want to change. To change
 multiple bullets or numbers, select the text in all of the
bullets or numbers that you want to change.
2. Click Home, click the arrow next to either
the Bullets or Numbering button, and then
click Bullets and Numbering.

Tip: To quickly change the style of a bulleted or numbered list, just click the style you want in the list
that appears when you click the arrow next to Bullets or Numbering.

3. In the Bullets and Numbering box, on either

the Bulleted tab or the Numbered tab (depending on
what kind of list you’re working with), pick the style
changes that you want to make, such as:
o Bullet or number style

o Color

o Size (to resize a bullet or number so it’s a specific size in

relation to your text, click Size, and enter a percentage)

o Starting number (on the Numbered tab, enter the

number you want in the Start at box)

o Pictures (to use a picture as a bullet, on

the Bulleted tab, click Picture, and scroll to find a

picture)
o Symbols (to temporarily add a character from the

symbol list to the Bulleted tab, on the Bulleted tab,

 click Customize, click a symbol, and then click OK. You
can apply the symbol to your slides from the style lists)
o SmartArt graphics (to convert an existing bulleted or
numbered list to a SmartArt graphic,
click Home > Convert to SmartArt)
Tips: 

o To change the format of just one or some of the bullet or number styles in a list, such as the color or
size, place the cursor at the start of the line that you want to change before opening the Bullets and
Numbering box. Your changes will apply only to the selected lines.
o To adjust the alignment of items in a list, see How do I increase or decrease the space between a
bullet or number and the text in a line? in this article.

Apply custom styles to multiple slides

The best way to apply custom list styles to all slides in

your presentation is to modify the slide master. Any list
customization you make to the slide master will be
saved and applied to all your slides. You can also edit
or create one or more slide layouts that include your
customized list styles, and add these layouts to your
presentation wherever you want to use your list styles.

List limitations in PowerPoint

There are a few things you can't do with lists in

PowerPoint that you can in other Office programs, such
as Word. For example, PowerPoint does not support:
 Decimal numbered lists (1.1, 1.2, and so on).
 Defining new number formats (you must choose from
the default set of styles offered on the Numbered tab
in the Bullets and Numbering box).
 Applying bold, italic, or underline formatting to bullets
or numbers (any formatting will be applied to the entire
selected line or list).
 Nested lists (you can press Tab or click Increase List
Level   to create the same effect, but a new indented
bullet or number style is not set automatically by
PowerPoint).

Format text as
superscript or
subscript
PowerPoint for Office 365 PowerPoint for Office 365 for
Mac PowerPoint for the web More...

You can set a text character set slightly above

(superscript) or below (subscript) the normal line of type:
 For example: When you add a trademark, copyright, or
other symbol to your presentation, you might want the
symbol to appear slightly above the rest of your text. If
you’re creating a footnote, you might also want to do
this with a number.
WindowsmacOSWeb

Keyboard shortcuts: Apply superscript

or subscript
To make text appear slightly above (superscript) or
below (subscript) your regular text, you can use
keyboard shortcuts. 

1. Select the character that you want to format.

2. For superscript, press Ctrl, Shift, and the Plus sign (+) at
the same time.

For subscript, press Ctrl and the Equal sign (=) at the
same time. (Do not press Shift.)
 Tip: You can also format text as superscript or subscript by selecting options in the Font dialog box,
as described in the next procedure.

Apply superscript or subscript

formatting to text
1. Select the character that you want to format as
superscript or subscript.
2. On the Home tab, in the Font group, pick the Font
Dialog Box Launcher .

3. On the Font tab, under Effects, select

the Superscript or Subscript check box.
 Tip: You can make text superscript or subscript without changing the font size. For superscript, enter
a higher percentage in the Offset box. For subscript, enter a lower percentage in the Offset box.

Undo superscript or subscript

formatting
To undo superscript or subscript formatting, select your
text and press Ctrl+Spacebar.

Insert a superscript or subscript

symbol
1. On the slide, click where you want to add the symbol.
2. On the Insert tab, click Symbol.

3. In the Symbol box, in the Font drop-down list,

select (normal text) if it isn't already selected.
4. In the Symbol box, in the Subset drop-down list,
select Superscripts and Subscripts.
5. In the Symbol box, select the symbol you want,
press Insert, and then pick Close.

Add pictures
On the Insert tab, do one of the following:

 To insert a picture that is saved on your local drive or an internal server,

choose Pictures, browse for the picture, and then choose Insert.
 To insert a picture from the web, choose Online Pictures, and use the search box to find
a picture.
 Choose a picture, and then click Insert.

Add shapes
You can add shapes to illustrate your slide. 

1. On the Insert tab, select Shapes, and then select a shape from the menu that appears.
2. In the slide area, click and drag to draw the shape.
3. Select the Format or Shape Format tab on the ribbon. Open the Shape Styles gallery
to quickly add a color and style (including shading) to the selected shape.

Add speaker notes

Slides are best when you don’t cram in too much information. You can put helpful facts
and notes in the speaker notes, and refer to them as you present.

1. To open the notes pane, at the bottom of the window, click Notes   .

2. Click inside the Notes pane below the slide, and begin typing your notes.

Read more:

 Add speaker notes to your slides

 Print slides with or without speaker notes

Give your presentation

On the Slide Show tab, do one of the following:

 To start the presentation at the first slide, in the Start Slide Show group, click From
Beginning.
 If you’re not at the first slide and want to start from where you are, click From Current
Slide.
 If you need to present to people who are not where you are, click Present Online to set
up a presentation on the web, and then choose one of the following options:
o Broadcast your PowerPoint presentation online to a remote audience
o Start an online presentation in PowerPoint using Skype for Business

Tip: For information about viewing your notes as you give your presentation without the audience
seeing them, see View your speaker notes as you deliver your slide show.

Get out of Slide Show view

To get out of Slide Show view at any time, on the keyboard, press Esc.

Tips for creating an effective presentation

Consider the following tips to keep your audience interested.

Minimize the number of slides

To maintain a clear message and to keep your audience attentive and interested, keep
the number of slides in your presentation to a minimum.

Choose an audience-friendly font size

The audience must be able to read your slides from a distance. Generally speaking, a
font size smaller than 30 might be too difficult for the audience to see.

Keep your slide text simple

You want your audience to listen to you present your information, instead of reading
the screen. Use bullets or short sentences, and try to keep each item to one line.

Some projectors crop slides at the edges, so that long sentences might be cropped.

Use visuals to help express your message

Pictures, charts, graphs, and SmartArt graphics provide visual cues for your audience to
remember. Add meaningful art to complement the text and messaging on your slides.

As with text, however, avoid including too many visual aids on your slide.

Make labels for charts and graphs understandable

Use only enough text to make label elements in a chart or graph comprehensible.

Apply subtle, consistent slide backgrounds

Choose an appealing, consistent template or theme that is not too eye-catching. You
don't want the background or design to detract from your message.

However, you also want to provide a contrast between the background color and text
color. The built-in themes in PowerPoint set the contrast between a light background
with dark colored text or dark background with light colored text.

For more information about how to use themes, see Apply a theme to add color and
style to your presentation.
Check the spelling and grammar
To earn and maintain the respect of your audience, always check the spelling and
grammar in your presentation.

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