CREATING A POWER POINT Things You Should Know

Templates make it easy to create vibrant presentations no matter your skill level.

When adding photos, you can adjust their sizes by clicking and dragging in or out from their corners.

You can add animated transitions between slides or to individual elements like bullet points and blocks
of text.

Part 1

Creating a New PowerPoint

Image titled Create a PowerPoint Presentation Step 1

Open PowerPoint. Click or double-click the PowerPoint app icon, which resembles an orange box with a
white "P" on it. This will open the PowerPoint templates page.

Image titled Create a PowerPoint Presentation Step 2

Review the available templates. Scroll through the templates page until you find one which you like.

Templates include things like custom color schemes, fonts, and general appearance.

Image titled Create a PowerPoint Presentation Step 3

Select a template. Click the template that you want to use. Its window will open.

If you don't want to use a template, just click the Blank option in the upper-left side of the page and skip
the next two steps.

Image titled Create a PowerPoint Presentation Step 4

Select a theme if possible. Many templates have different color schemes or themes indicated by colored
boxes in the lower-right side of the window; clicking one of these boxes will change the color scheme
and/or theme for your template.

Skip this step if your selected template doesn't have any themes available.
Image titled Create a PowerPoint Presentation Step 5

Click Create. It's in the bottom-right corner of the window. Doing so selects your template and creates
your PowerPoint presentation.

Part

Creating the Title Slide

Image titled Create a PowerPoint Presentation Step 6

Understand how your title slide should appear. Contrary to the rest of your PowerPoint presentation,
your title slide should be completely devoid of content other than the title and subtitle. This is
considered a professional must when creating a PowerPoint.

If you're creating a PowerPoint presentation for which an elaborate title slide has been requested,
ignore this step.

Image titled Create a PowerPoint Presentation Step 7

Add a title. Click the large text box in the middle of the first slide, then type in your title.

You can change the font and size of text used from the Home tab that's in the orange ribbon at the top
of the window.

Image titled Create a PowerPoint Presentation Step 8

Add the subtitle. Click the smaller text box below the title box, then type in the subtitle that you want to
use.

You can also just leave this box blank if you like.

4
Rearrange the title text boxes. Place your mouse cursor over one of the edges of a title box, then click
and drag the box around the slide to reposition it.

You can also click and drag in or out one of a text box's corners to shrink or enlarge the text box.

Click the Transitions tab. It's at the top of the PowerPoint window. Doing so brings up a list of possible
slide transition effects at the top of the page.

Select a transition for your title slide. Click a transition you want to use to apply it to the slide. This
completes the title slide process; you can now move on to adding another slide for your presentation's
main content.

Placing your mouse over the transition will cause the slide to demonstrate what the transition will look
like in practice.

Part

Adding a New Slide

Image titled Create a PowerPoint Presentation Step 12

Click the Insert tab. It's at the top of the PowerPoint window. A new toolbar will open near the top of
the window.

On a Mac, you'll click the Home tab instead.[1]

Image titled Create a PowerPoint Presentation Step 13

Click New Slide ▼. It's on the far-left side of the toolbar. Doing so prompts a drop-down menu to
appear.

On a Mac, click the Image titled Android7dropdown.png drop-down arrow to the right of the New Slide
icon in the toolbar.

Clicking the white slide-shaped box above this option will result in a new text slide being inserted.
Image titled Create a PowerPoint Presentation Step 14

Select a type of slide. In the drop-down menu, click one of the following to add it to your presentation:

Title Slide

Title and Content

Section Header

Two Content

Comparison

Title Only

Blank

Content with Caption

Picture with Caption

Add any other slides that you think you'll need. You can certainly add slides as you go, but adding a few
slides up-front will give you an idea of the layout of the presentation as you progress through it.

Reposition your slides as needed. Once you have more than one slide in your PowerPoint presentation,
you can move the slides around by clicking and dragging a slide's preview box up or down on the left-
hand column of the PowerPoint window.

Naturally, the title slide should be the first slide in your presentation, meaning that it should be the top
slide in the left-hand column.

Part

Adding Content to Slides

1

Select a slide. In the left-hand column of slide previews, click the slide that you want to edit. This will
open the slide in the main presentation window.

Look for a text box. If you selected a slide that has a text box, you can add text to the slide.

Skip this step and the next two steps if your selected slide uses a template that doesn't have text boxes
in it.

Add text to the slide. Click the text box, then type as needed.

Text boxes in PowerPoint will automatically format the bulk of your text for you (e.g., adding bullet
points) based on the context of the content itself.

Format the slide's text. If necessary, select the text that you want to change, then click the Home tab
and review your text formatting options in the "Font" section of the toolbar.

You can change the font of the selected text by clicking the current font's name and then clicking your
preferred font.

If you want to change the size of the text, click the numbered drop-down box and then click a larger or
smaller number based on whether you want to enlarge or shrink the text.

You can also change the color, bolding, italicization, underlining, and so on from here.

Add photos to the slide. If you want to add a photo to your slide, click the Insert tab, then click Pictures
in the toolbar and select a picture.

6
Rearrange the slide's content. Just like your title slide, you can move items around the slide by clicking
and dragging them.

Photos in particular can be enlarged or shrunk by clicking and dragging out or in one of their corners.

Repeat this for each slide in your presentation. Once you've created each of your presentation's slides,
you can proceed to the next part.

Remember to keep slides uncluttered and relatively free of distractions. It's best to keep the amount of
text per slide to around 33 words or less.[2]

Part5 Adding Transitions

Select a slide. In the left-hand column of the PowerPoint window, click the slide to which you want to
apply a transition.

Click the Transitions tab. It's at the top of the PowerPoint window. This will open the Transitions toolbar
near the top of the window.

Review the available transitions. Transitions make your slide pop up in an exciting, eye-drawing manner
during your actual presentation; you can see the list of available transitions at the top of the window.

Preview a transition. Click a transition at the top of the window to watch it run on your slide.

5
Select a transition to use. Once you decide on a transition, click it to ensure that it is selected. The
current slide will use the selected transition.

Add a transition to slide content. You can apply transitions to specific pieces of slide content (e.g., a
photo or a bullet point) by selecting the content, clicking the Animations tab at the top of the window,
and selecting the transition that you want to use there.

Slide content will animate in the order in which you assign transitions. For example, if you animate a
photo on the slide and then animate the title, the photo will appear before the title.

Part6

Testing and Saving Your Presentation

Review your PowerPoint. Once you've finished adding the bulk of your PowerPoint presentation's
content, skim through it slide-by-slide to ensure that you haven't left anything out.

Click the Slide Show tab. This tab is at the top of the window. Doing so opens the Slide Show toolbar.

Click From Beginning. It's in the far-left corner of the toolbar. Your PowerPoint presentation will open in
slide show view.

Page through the slide show. You can use the left and right arrow keys to move back and forward
through the presentation.

If you need to exit the presentation, press Esc.

5

Make any necessary changes before proceeding. When you're done scrolling through the presentation,
add any details that you forgot, delete any content that you want to remove, and so on.

Save your PowerPoint. This will save your presentation as a file which can be opened on any Windows or
Mac computer that has PowerPoint installed:

Windows - Click File, click Save, double-click This PC, select a save location, enter a name for your
presentation, and click Save.

Mac - Click File, click Save As..., enter the presentation's name in the "Save As" field, select a save
location by clicking the "Where" box and clicking a folder, and click Save.

If PowerPoint is installed on your computer, but you can't find it in your Start menu, use the following
steps to launch PowerPoint manually:

Open My Computer.

Click or select the C: drive. If Microsoft Office is installed on a drive other than the C: drive, select that
drive instead.

Navigate to the Program Files (x86) folder, then the Microsoft Office folder.

If there is a root folder in the Microsoft Office folder, open that folder. Then open the OfficeXX folder,
where XX is the version of Office (e.g., Office16 for Microsoft Office 2016). If there is no root folder, look
for and open a folder with "Office" in the name.

Look for a file named POWERPNT.EXE and double-click that file to start Microsoft PowerPoint.

Start PowerPoint without using a mouse

Follow these steps if you want to launch PowerPoint without using a mouse.

Press the Windows key.

Type powerpoint.
Select the PowerPoint entry in the search results using the arrow keys and press Enter to launch the
PowerPoint application.

Create a presentation in PowerPoint

Open PowerPoint.
In the left pane, select New.

Select an option:

To create a presentation from scratch, select Blank Presentation.

To use a prepared design, select one of the templates.

To see tips for using PowerPoint, select Take a Tour, and then select Create, .

Create new PowerPoint

Add a slide
In the thumbnails on the left pane, select the slide you want your new slide to follow.

In the Home tab, in the Slides section, select New Slide.

In the Slides section, select Layout, and then select the layout you want from the menu.

PowerPoint slide layouts

Add and format text

Place the cursor inside a text box, and then type something.

Select the text, and then select one or more options from the Font section of the Home tab, such as
Font, Increase Font Size, Decrease Font Size, Bold, Italic, Underline, etc.
To create bulleted or numbered lists, select the text, and then select Bullets or Numbering.

PowerPoint format text

Add a picture, shape, and more

Go to the Insert tab.

To add a picture:
In the Images section, select Pictures.

In the Insert Picture From menu, select the source you want.

Browse for the picture you want, select it, and then select Insert.

To add illustrations:

In the Illustrations section, select Shapes, Icons, 3D Models, SmartArt, or Chart.

In the dialog box that opens when you click one of the illustration types, select the item you want and
follow the prompts to insert it.