What is PowerPoint?

PowerPoint is a presentation tool. Create slides to explain topics, research, or reports, and take notes directly under each slide to reference during your presentation. Later, present your professional project to a group using the slideshow feature! Enhance your presentations with many multimedia tools including transitions and animations. Use QuickStarter for some extra prep help!   

After launching PowerPoint, you have three options. Let’s break down each one:

  • Choose Blank Presentation to put everything together yourself.

  • Choose to create your presentation from pre-designed templates. Search different themes in the search bar to find a template that best suits your topic material!

  • Choose QuickStarter to begin an outline of your presentation.

QuickStarter

If you select QuickStarter, you’ll be prompted to search for the topic you’re researching. From there, QuickStarter will walk you through some steps to choose other topics that relate to your primary topic. For example, if you search for “water cycle,” you’ll have the option to explore related topics like “changes over time.” Choose a look for your slideshow and select Create.

Just like that, QuickStarter will start an outlined presentation for you containing:

  • A title slide

  • A table of contents

  • A slide of key facts

  • A slide of related topics for research

  • Slides for each related topic, sometimes including pictures (from Creative Commons) and suggested talking points.

  • A slide listing works cited

Now you have a head start on crafting the rest of your story.

Adding new slides

When you create your slideshow, there are quite a few slide types to choose from. Each time you want to create a new slide, choose the New Slide button in the Home tab and choose from options like Comparison or Section Header. You can also choose slides that are completely blank and customize them yourself.

To reuse a slide from this slideshow—or any slideshow you’ve made in PowerPoint before—select Reuse Slides to browse your recent slideshows and find the slide you need.

Adding text to slides

To add text to slides, select the pre-made template boxes or select Insert > Text Box. Click on where you’d like your text to appear and start typing. PowerPoint uses the same processing tools as Word, so some things should look familiar.

Note: Watch out for blue, gold, or red lines appearing under words as you type. These are from the built-in writing assistant, which flags potential spelling errors or offers grammar and writing style suggestions.

Adding pictures

To add a picture to a slide that does not already have a multimedia/photo box, select Insert, then Pictures for a local picture, or Online Pictures for pictures from OneDrive, Bing, or other sources.

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