King Abdulaziz University

The Applied College

ACG 131: Introduction to IT

Chapter 3: Microsoft Office PowerPoint

Module 1: Introducing the PowerPoint
Fundamentals

Lesson 1: Creating a presentation

This lesson will show you how to create, save, and open presentations. It will also show you
how to add additional slides and enter text.

Lesson Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
1. Create a new presentation by starting with a blank or design template.
2. Insert more slides into a presentation.

Topic 1: Create and save a new

presentation
PowerPoint will open on the Home page in what is known as Backstage view. You will be
offered some choices on how to create a new presentation. You can use a blank template or
any template available. You can even choose to create an outline, take a tour through
PowerPoint, or select More themes to choose from a number of fantastic templates or
themes. The following screenshot depicts the Backstage view:

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 King Abdulaziz University
The Applied College
ACG 131: Introduction to IT

Figure 1: Home page, Backstage view

Create a presentation
1. Open PowerPoint and select Blank Presentation.
2. If you choose any other theme, you will need to select Create to download it first.
The following image is based on a new blank presentation:

Figure 2: New title slide

3. Select the first placeholder and enter the title of your presentation.
4. Any text you enter will automatically use the default font type and size that belongs to the
PowerPoint theme.

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 King Abdulaziz University
The Applied College
ACG 131: Introduction to IT

5. Select the second placeholder to enter a subtitle if needed.

6. When you are in a presentation you can create a new presentation by:
o Going to File and selecting New. Then select a template or theme, or
o Selecting Ctrl+N to create a new blank presentation.
To delete a placeholder:
 Select the border of the placeholder and select Delete on your keyboard. Or, from the
Slide Layout command in the Slides group on the Home tab, select a different layout,
such as Title Only.

Video
To review the video on creating a presentation, go to: Create a presentation in PowerPoint.

Save a presentation
When you are ready to save your presentation, it’s the same as saving any other file in the
Microsoft Office suite (refer to Figures 3 and 4). You can do any of the following:
 Select File, Save or Save As, and then select the location under Recent to save the file; for
example, a OneDrive location or This PC.
 If the location is listed, then select it and enter a suitable name. Then, select Save.
 Otherwise, select Browse to locate a different folder in which to save the file.

Figure 3: Save As window in Backstage

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 King Abdulaziz University
The Applied College
ACG 131: Introduction to IT

 Select F12 to open the Save As dialog box. Enter a suitable name for the presentation.
Locate the folder in which to save the file and select Save or Enter on your keyboard.

Figure 4: Save As dialog box

Open a presentation
There are many methods to open an existing presentation including:
 Open PowerPoint and select the presentation from the Recent folder list.
 Go to File, then Open (Ctrl+O) and select the presentation from the Recent folder list. Or,
select the location, such as a OneDrive location or This PC and locate the folder in which
the file is stored. If you navigated to the wrong folder, select the Up arrow to navigate
back through the file system. When you find the presentation, select it once and then
select Open or Enter on your keyboard.
 Select Ctrl+F12 to access the Open dialog box, locate the folder in which the file is stored,
select it once, and then select Open or Enter on your keyboard.
 Access the context menu (right-click) and select Recent, and then select Open or Open a
copy from the submenu.

Save an existing presentation

When a file has already been saved, you can save it again anytime, either by:
 Selecting Save on the Quick Access Toolbar (Ctrl+S).

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 King Abdulaziz University
The Applied College
ACG 131: Introduction to IT

 Via File>Save.
 Select File>Save As (or F12) to save the file using a different name or to save it to a
different location.

Try-it: Create and save a new presentation

This try-it is leveled. Try-it 1 will create a new presentation using the blank presentation
template and Try-it 2 will create a presentation using a specific theme.

Try-it 1
Instructions
The following are the general tasks to perform during this try-it:
1. Create a new presentation using the blank presentation template.
2. Enter your name into the title placeholder.
3. Enter any other information into the subtitle placeholder.
4. Save the presentation as My_presentation and append your initials on the end.

Try-it 2
Instructions
The following are the general tasks to perform during this try-it:
1. Create a new presentation using the Wood Type theme or any other theme available in
Backstage view.
2. Enter your name into the title placeholder and your state or region into the subtitle
placeholder.
3. Save the presentation as My_presentation and append your initials on the end.

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 King Abdulaziz University
The Applied College
ACG 131: Introduction to IT

Topic 2: Insert slides and add text

Before describing how to add more slides and content, there are a few best practice behaviors
to consider. Do you know the phrase “less is more?” Well, this is something you should always
keep in mind when creating slides. Here are a few things to consider:
 Do you need to fit all of your content into one slide?
 Should you divide the content into several slides?
 Do you need full sentences, or can you use quick, snappy phrases in which you can
elaborate when you present?
As you progress through this course, you will pick up many other hints and tips to make sure
you are using PowerPoint as effectively as possible.
Now, back to inserting slides! In most cases, every time you create a presentation you will
need to add extra slides. The first slide is usually an introduction slide (a posh way of
welcoming your audience to your presentation). You will need additional slides to give further
information to your audience.

Insert additional slides

1. Select New Slide in the Slides group on the Home tab (or Ctrl+M) as depicted in Figure 5.
The default Title and Content slide will pop into your presentation immediately after the
slide that is currently selected.

Figure 5: Slides group on the Home tab

2. Select the drop-down arrow on the New Slide button to choose a different type of slide
from the available layout options. Depending on the theme that you are using, you might
have different layouts than the one in the following image.

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 King Abdulaziz University
The Applied College
ACG 131: Introduction to IT

Figure 6: New Slide layout options

Alternatively,
 Select any slide thumbnail and then the Enter key, or
 Access the context menu (right-click) on any slide thumbnail and select New Slide or
Duplicate Slide.

Enter content into a slide

1. Add any additional slides you need.
2. Select the title placeholder and begin typing.
3. Select the content placeholder and begin entering text or select one of the options in the
center of the placeholder, such as the Pictures option to insert a picture from your
computer (refer to Figure 7).

Figure 7: Options in a content placeholder

As soon as you begin entering text the options will disappear. However, you can simply go to
the Insert tab and use the appropriate command to insert whatever you need at any time.

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 King Abdulaziz University
The Applied College
ACG 131: Introduction to IT

(Most of the options in the center of the placeholder will be covered in detail in later modules
of this course. But feel free to experiment anytime!)
If there is more text than can fit into the placeholder, PowerPoint will shrink the text to fit it all
in. This is known as AutoFit. If this happens to you, don’t panic, you have a couple of options:
1. Resize the placeholder by dragging the resize handles outward.
2. Turn off the AutoFit feature (the following link provides further information on how to do
this).
3. Enter less text into the placeholder!

Try-it: Insert slides and add text

There are three leveled try-its for inserting slides.

Try-it 1
Resources
You will need the following resources for this try-it:
 Open L1_T2_try1_annual_events_starter.pptx in this lesson’s Learning Activity Resources.

Instructions
The following are the general tasks to perform during this try-it:
1. Open L1_T2_try1_annual_events_starter.pptx.
2. Use any method to insert an additional slide at the end of your presentation.
3. Save the presentation.

Try-it 2
Resources
You will need the following resources for this try-it:
 Open L1_T2_try2_annual_events_starter.pptx in this lesson’s Learning Activity Resources.

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 King Abdulaziz University
The Applied College
ACG 131: Introduction to IT

Instructions
The following are the general tasks to perform during this try-it:
1. Open L1_T2_try2_annual_events_starter.pptx.
2. Use any method to insert an additional slide at the end of your presentation.
3. Enter the text Fall Harvest Fest into the slide title.
4. Save the presentation with the original name and append your initials on the end.

Try-it 3
Resources
You will need the following resources for this try-it:
 Open L1_T2_try3_annual_events_starter.pptx in this lesson’s Learning Activity Resources.

Instructions
The following are the general tasks to perform during this try-it:
1. Open L1_T2_try3_annual_events_starter.pptx.
2. Use a keyboard shortcut to insert an additional slide at the end of your presentation.
3. Enter the text Fall Harvest Fest into the slide title.
4. Enter the following text into the slide content placeholder:
o Public event
o Pumpkin carving and lots of fun
o 18 days in October
5. Save the presentation with the original name and append your initials on the end.

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