Creating and Saving a New Presentation

Locked lesson.

  • Lesson resources Resources
  • Quick reference Reference

About this lesson

Let's create our first new presentation using a blank template. We'll learn how to save presentations locally and to the cloud, and understand how this determines how the presentation is saved going forward.

Exercise files

Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ PowerPoint presentations from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

Quick reference

A fundemental skill in PowerPoint is knowing how to create a new blank presentation and save it to a folder. Blank presentations by default contain one slide with no placeholders, text or other graphical elements. It provides a blank canvas from which to design a slide deck. 

All presentations should be saved to a local folder, a network drive or into cloud storage. This ensures that any changes we make are saved and the liklihood of losing work is reduced. Presentations saved to the cloud automatically save and synchronize as you work. As a general rule, most presentations we create are saved with the default .pptx file extension. 

When to use

We will need to create and save a new blank presentation when we want to design a slide deck from scratch.

Instructions

Create a new blank presentation.

New blank presentations can be created in a few ways: from the File menu, using a keyboard shortcut or from the Quick Access Toolbar. 

From the File Menu

  • Click the File tab. 
  • Click New . 
  • Choose Blank Presentation . 

Using a Keyboard Shortcut

  • Press CTRL+N . 

From the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)

  • Click the New button on the Quick Access Toolbar. 

Design Ideas

When we create a new presentation, the Design Ideas pane will show on the right-hand side. The Design Ideas feature examines the contents of the selected slide and offers a variety of design choices based on the layout and content.  

To apply a design to a slide, simply select one from the list and click to apply. 

Switch between Presentations

If you are working on more than one presentation at any time, its beneficial to know how to switch between them efficiently. PowerPoint will only display one presentation at a time in the window. 

  • Click the View tab. 
  • In the Window group, click Switch Windows .
  • Choose the presentation to switch to from the list. 

Save a Presentation

Presentations can be saved to a local folder on our PC, a network drive, an external storage device or in the cloud.

Save a Presentation to Cloud Storage

Presentations saved into a cloud storage application like OneDrive are automatically saved and synchronised as we work. This means we only need to save the presentation once at the beginning and any changes made from that point on are automatically saved. 

  • Click Save As . 
  • Click Browse and choose a folder. 
  • Choose a meaningful name for the presentation and type it into the File name field. 
  • Verify the Save as type is set to PowerPoint Presentation (*.pptx). 
  • Click Save . 

Once saved, check the AutoSave slider is toggled on in the Quick Access Toolbar to ensure any changes made are automatically saved and synchronised to the cloud.

Save a Presentation to a local folder on our PC

Presentations saved to a local folder do not automatically save as we work. This means we need to ensure that we save at regular intervals. 

  • Click Save .

Remember to save your work at regular intervals. Click the Save icon on the Quick Access Toolbar, or select Save from the File menu. Alternatively, we can use the keyboard shortcut, CTRL+S . 

Close a Presentation

A common mistake people make when working in PowerPoint is closing down the application when they meant to close down the current presentation. If we click the X in the top right-hand corner of the PowerPoint window, the application and all open presentations will close. 

To close just the current presentation but leave PowerPoint open, click the File tab and Close . 

Hints & tips

  • To make saving into OneDrive easier from within PowerPoint, click the File tab, Save A s and then Add a place . Select your OneDrive account (if you have one). 
  • The Design Ideas pane will pop open automatically when we create a new presentation. We can suppress this through PowerPoint Options. Click the File tab, Options and select the General page. Scroll down to the PowerPoint Designer section and remove the tick from the Automatically show me design ideas box.   
  • 00:04 Now we're a bit more familiar with the PowerPoint interface.
  • 00:07 It's time for us to delve into the subject of creating and saving presentations.
  • 00:12 Now currently on the screen I have opened my first presentation.
  • 00:16 If you recall, this was just a blank presentation that I saved into a folder.
  • 00:21 And I want to start out just by reiterating a really important point when
  • 00:25 it comes to closing down presentations.
  • 00:28 Something I see people doing all the time is jumping up to the cross in the top
  • 00:32 right-hand corner, and clicking it in order to close down the presentation.
  • 00:38 But what you'll find is that if you do click on this cross,
  • 00:41 it's going to close down all of PowerPoint.
  • 00:43 So that is any presentations that you have open as well as the entire application.
  • 00:49 No, it might be that that is exactly what you want to do.
  • 00:51 And in that case, it's absolutely fine to click on that cross.
  • 00:55 However, if you just want to close down the presentation that you currently have
  • 01:00 on the screen, you need to go about this in a slightly different way.
  • 01:04 So I'm going to close this down, I'm going to jump up to File, and
  • 01:08 you'll see halfway down at the bottom here, I have a closed option.
  • 01:13 When I click that, it's just going to close down that open presentation, but
  • 01:17 it's still going to leave PowerPoint open.
  • 01:19 So I can then go in, open up something else, or create a new presentation.
  • 01:24 Which moves us nicely on to our next subject,
  • 01:27 and that is creating a new presentation from scratch.
  • 01:31 Now there are a few different ways that you can do this.
  • 01:34 If we jump back into that file tab and go down to new,
  • 01:38 this shows us all of the different ways that we can create new slide decks.
  • 01:44 And the two options that you really have are you can create a new blank
  • 01:48 presentation from scratch, or
  • 01:50 you can create a new presentation based off of a template.
  • 01:54 We're going to talk a lot more about what these templates are, how you access them,
  • 01:58 and how they work in the next lesson.
  • 02:01 For now, I simply want to focus on creating a new blank presentation.
  • 02:06 So what I could do here is just click on Blank presentation.
  • 02:11 It's going to open in PowerPoint, and
  • 02:13 it's also going to pop open that design ideas pane.
  • 02:17 As I mentioned previously, design ideas is there to allow
  • 02:20 you to quickly add some pizzazz to your presentation.
  • 02:24 So for example, if I scroll through these design ideas,
  • 02:27 I might find one that I like and select it.
  • 02:30 And with just one click, I've been able to style up that title page very effectively.
  • 02:36 Now the design ideas that you see in here changed depending on the slide layout that
  • 02:41 you're using.
  • 02:42 Now, I know that terminology isn't too familiar to you at the moment, but
  • 02:46 it will be when we get on to the topic of slide layouts.
  • 02:49 But just be aware that what you see in the design ideas pane changes depending on
  • 02:54 the layout of your slide.
  • 02:56 Now I'm going to close down this pane simply by clicking on the cross.
  • 02:59 Now that isn't the only way that I can create a new presentation in PowerPoint.
  • 03:05 An even quicker way of doing this is to use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl N.
  • 03:11 And you'll see as soon as I do that it pops open another new blank presentation.
  • 03:16 And again, I get that design ideas pane,
  • 03:19 I can select something from that menu if I want to.
  • 03:22 So currently, I have two blank presentations open that I haven't saved.
  • 03:27 And because when PowerPoint opens presentations,
  • 03:30 they open directly on top of each other.
  • 03:32 If you want to quickly switch back to your previous presentation,
  • 03:36 a good way of doing this is to jump up to the View tab,
  • 03:39 and you'll see that you have a switch windows option.
  • 03:43 That's going to list out all of the PowerPoint presentations that
  • 03:46 you currently have open, and allow you to toggle or switch between them.
  • 03:51 So super nice and simple.
  • 03:54 So now I have these new presentations, I'm probably going to want to save them so
  • 03:58 I don't lose anything.
  • 03:59 So there are a few different ways that I can save.
  • 04:02 However, if this is a new presentation you've created,
  • 04:05 the first thing you are going to want to do is select Save As.
  • 04:10 So let's jump up to File, I'm going to go down to Save As in the left-hand menu, and
  • 04:14 then I need to choose a location where I want to save this file.
  • 04:18 Now I could choose to browse my local drives and find a folder.
  • 04:22 However, if it is a folder that I've accessed recently,
  • 04:26 I'm more than likely going to find it in my recent files list.
  • 04:30 And I can see here that earlier today,
  • 04:32 I save something into the Course Files folder.
  • 04:35 And this is the folder that I want to save this file into.
  • 04:39 So I can simply click, and it jumps me to the correct folder.
  • 04:43 Let's click in the title bar and add the name of this presentation.
  • 04:50 I'm saving it as a regular PowerPoint file.
  • 04:52 So the file extension is .pptx, and all I need to do is click on the Save button.
  • 04:58 Now as soon as I do that, if you take a look at my quick access toolbar,
  • 05:02 you can see I have an option that says AutoSave which is toggled to on.
  • 05:07 And if you'red using PowerPoint for Microsoft 365,
  • 05:10 you will find this option on your Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 05:14 And I would recommend that you have this toggle to on because what it means is that
  • 05:18 it's going to save automatically for you at regular intervals.
  • 05:22 So this really negates the need for you having to keep clicking on the Save icon
  • 05:27 in order to save any changes as you go along.
  • 05:30 And this AutoSave option is set to save every time you do anything to your
  • 05:34 PowerPoint presentation.
  • 05:36 And the good thing about that is that if PowerPoint was to crash unexpectedly,
  • 05:41 it means that when you reopen this file,
  • 05:43 pretty much everything you've done to date is going to be saved.
  • 05:47 Now, I will say that if you're not using PowerPoint for Microsoft 365,
  • 05:52 you might not see this AutoSave toggle.
  • 05:54 And in that instance,
  • 05:55 I would recommend that you save your presentations on a regular basis.
  • 06:00 And you can either do that by clicking on the Save button which you have by default
  • 06:04 on your Quick Access Toolbar, or pressing the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl S.
  • 06:09 So all that's left for me to do here, is close down this file, so file Close.
  • 06:15 I'm also going to close down this presentation which I didn't actually save.
  • 06:19 And I'm going to say don't save.
  • 06:22 And now if I want to go back in and reopen that first presentation,
  • 06:26 if I go down to open, you should see that sitting right at the top of my list.
  • 06:31 Because it was the last presentation that I accessed.
  • 06:34 So I think that is more than enough information for
  • 06:37 you to wrap your head around.
  • 06:38 It's time for you to grab a drink, and join me over in the next lesson.

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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)

  • PowerPoint Tutorials
  • Presentation Design
  • January 22, 2024

In this beginner’s guide, you will learn step-by-step how to make a PowerPoint presentation from scratch.

While PowerPoint is designed to be intuitive and accessible, it can be overwhelming if you’ve never gotten any training on it before. As you progress through this guide, you’ll will learn how to move from blank slides to PowerPoint slides that look like these.

Example of the six slides you'll learn how to create in this tutorial

Table of Contents

Additionally, as you create your presentation, you’ll also learn tricks for working more efficiently in PowerPoint, including how to:

  • Change the slide order
  • Reset your layout
  • Change the slide dimensions
  • Use PowerPoint Designer
  • Format text
  • Format objects
  • Play a presentation (slide show)

With this knowledge under your belt, you’ll be ready to start creating PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, you’ll have taken your skills from beginner to proficient in no time at all. I will also include links to more advanced PowerPoint topics.

Ready to start learning how to make a PowerPoint presentation?

Take your PPT skills to the next level

Start with a blank presentation.

Note: Before you open PowerPoint and start creating your presentation, make sure you’ve collected your thoughts. If you’re going to make your slides compelling, you need to spend some time brainstorming.

For help with this, see our article with tips for nailing your business presentation  here .

The first thing you’ll need to do is to open PowerPoint. When you do, you are shown the Start Menu , with the Home tab open.

This is where you can choose either a blank theme (1) or a pre-built theme (2). You can also choose to open an existing presentation (3).

For now, go ahead and click on the  Blank Presentation (1)  thumbnail.

In the backstage view of PowerPoint you can create a new blank presentation, use a template, or open a recent file

Doing so launches a brand new and blank presentation for you to work with. Before you start adding content to your presentation, let’s first familiarize ourselves with the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint interface

Picture of the different parts of the PowerPoint layout, including the Ribbon, thumbnail view, quick access toolbar, notes pane, etc.

Here is how the program is laid out:

  • The Application Header
  • The Ribbon (including the Ribbon tabs)
  • The Quick Access Toolbar (either above or below the Ribbon)
  • The Slides Pane (slide thumbnails)

The Slide Area

The notes pane.

  • The Status Bar (including the View Buttons)

Each one of these areas has options for viewing certain parts of the PowerPoint environment and formatting your presentation.

Below are the important things to know about certain elements of the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint Ribbon

The PowerPoint Ribbon in the Microsoft Office Suite

The Ribbon is contextual. That means that it will adapt to what you’re doing in the program.

For example, the Font, Paragraph and Drawing options are greyed out until you select something that has text in it, as in the example below (A).

Example of the Shape Format tab in PowerPoint and all of the subsequent commands assoicated with that tab

Furthermore, if you start manipulating certain objects, the Ribbon will display additional tabs, as seen above (B), with more commands and features to help you work with those objects. The following objects have their own additional tabs in the Ribbon which are hidden until you select them:

  • Online Pictures
  • Screenshots
  • Screen Recording

The Slides Pane

The slides pane in PowerPoint is on the left side of your workspace

This is where you can preview and rearrange all the slides in your presentation.

Right-clicking on a slide  in the pane gives you additional options on the slide level that you won’t find on the Ribbon, such as  Duplicate Slide ,  Delete Slide , and  Hide Slide .

Right clicking a PowerPoint slide in the thumbnail view gives you a variety of options like adding new slides, adding sections, changing the layout, etc.

In addition, you can add sections to your presentation by  right-clicking anywhere in this Pane  and selecting  Add Section . Sections are extremely helpful in large presentations, as they allow you to organize your slides into chunks that you can then rearrange, print or display differently from other slides.

Content added to your PowerPoint slides will only display if it's on the slide area, marked here by the letter A

The Slide Area (A) is where you will build out your slides. Anything within the bounds of this area will be visible when you present or print your presentation.

Anything outside of this area (B) will be hidden from view. This means that you can place things here, such as instructions for each slide, without worrying about them being shown to your audience.

The notes pane in PowerPoint is located at the bottom of your screen and is where you can type your speaker notes

The  Notes Pane  is the space beneath the Slide Area where you can type in the speaker notes for each slide. It’s designed as a fast way to add and edit your slides’ talking points.

To expand your knowledge and learn more about adding, printing, and exporting your PowerPoint speaker notes, read our guide here .

Your speaker notes are visible when you print your slides using the Notes Pages option and when you use the Presenter View . To expand your knowledge and learn the ins and outs of using the Presenter View , read our guide here .

You can click and drag to resize the notes pane at the bottom of your PowerPoint screen

You can resize the  Notes Pane  by clicking on its edge and dragging it up or down (A). You can also minimize or reopen it by clicking on the Notes button in the Status Bar (B).

Note:  Not all text formatting displays in the Notes Pane, even though it will show up when printing your speaker notes. To learn more about printing PowerPoint with notes, read our guide here .

Now that you have a basic grasp of the PowerPoint interface at your disposal, it’s time to make your presentation.

Adding Content to Your PowerPoint Presentation

Notice that in the Slide Area , there are two rectangles with dotted outlines. These are called  Placeholders  and they’re set on the template in the Slide Master View .

To expand your knowledge and learn how to create a PowerPoint template of your own (which is no small task), read our guide here .

Click into your content placeholders and start typing text, just as the prompt suggests

As the prompt text suggests, you can click into each placeholder and start typing text. These types of placeholder prompts are customizable too. That means that if you are using a company template, it might say something different, but the functionality is the same.

Example of typing text into a content placeholder in PowerPoint

Note:  For the purposes of this example, I will create a presentation based on the content in the Starbucks 2018 Global Social Impact Report, which is available to the public on their website.

If you type in more text than there is room for, PowerPoint will automatically reduce its font size. You can stop this behavior by clicking on the  Autofit Options  icon to the left of the placeholder and selecting  Stop Fitting Text to this Placeholder .

Next, you can make formatting adjustments to your text by selecting the commands in the Font area and the  Paragraph area  of the  Home  tab of the Ribbon.

Use the formatting options on the Home tab to choose the formatting of your text

The Reset Command:  If you make any changes to your title and decide you want to go back to how it was originally, you can use the Reset button up in the Home tab .

Hitting the reset command on the home tab resets your slide formatting to match your template

Insert More Slides into Your Presentation

Now that you have your title slide filled in, it’s time to add more slides. To do that, simply go up to the  Home tab  and click on  New Slide . This inserts a new slide in your presentation right after the one you were on.

To insert a new slide in PowerPoint, on the home tab click the New Slide command

You can alternatively hit Ctrl+M on your keyboard to insert a new blank slide in PowerPoint. To learn more about this shortcut, see my guide on using Ctrl+M in PowerPoint .

Instead of clicking the New Slide command, you can also open the New Slide dropdown to see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template. Depending on who created your template, your layouts in this dropdown can be radically different.

Opening the new slide dropdown you can see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template

If you insert a layout and later want to change it to a different layout, you can use the Layout dropdown instead of the New Slide dropdown.

After inserting a few different slide layouts, your presentation might look like the following picture. Don’t worry that it looks blank, next we will start adding content to your presentation.

Example of a number of different blank slide layouts inserting in a PowerPoint presentation

If you want to follow along exactly with me, your five slides should be as follows:

  • Title Slide
  • Title and Content
  • Section Header
  • Two Content
  • Picture with Caption

Adding Content to Your Slides

Now let’s go into each slide and start adding our content. You’ll notice some new types of placeholders.

Use the icons within a content placeholder to insert things like tables, charts, SmartArt, Pictures, etc.

On slide 2 we have a  Content Placeholder , which allows you to add any kind of content. That includes:

  • A SmartArt graphic,
  • A 3D object,
  • A picture from the web,
  • Or an icon.

To insert text, simply type it in or hit  Ctrl+C to Copy  and Ctrl+V to Paste  from elsewhere. To insert any of the other objects, click on the appropriate icon and follow the steps to insert it.

For my example, I’ll simply type in some text as you can see in the picture below.

Example typing bulleted text in a content placeholder in PowerPoint

Slides 3 and 4 only have text placeholders, so I’ll go ahead and add in my text into each one.

Examples of text typed into a divider slide and a title and content slide in PowerPoint

On slide 5 we have a Picture Placeholder . That means that the only elements that can go into it are:

  • A picture from the web

A picture placeholder in PowerPoint can only take an image or an icon

To insert a picture into the picture placeholder, simply:

  • Click on the  Picture  icon
  • Find  a picture on your computer and select it
  • Click on  Insert

Alternatively, if you already have a picture open somewhere else, you can select the placeholder and paste in (shortcut: Ctrl+V ) the picture. You can also drag the picture in from a file explorer window.

To insert a picture into a picture placeholder, click the picture icon, find your picture on your computer and click insert

If you do not like the background of the picture you inserted onto your slide, you can remove the background here in PowerPoint. To see how to do this, read my guide here .

Placeholders aren’t the only way to add content to your slides. At any point, you can use the Insert tab to add elements to your slides.

You can use either the Title Only  or the  Blank  slide layout to create slides for content that’s different. For example, a three-layout content slide, or a single picture divider slide, as shown below.

Example slides using PowerPoint icons and background pictures

In the first example above, I’ve inserted 6 text boxes, 3 icons, and 3 circles to create this layout. In the second example, I’ve inserted a full-sized picture and then 2 shapes and 2 text boxes.

The Reset Command:  Because these slides are built with shapes and text boxes (and not placeholders), hitting the  Reset button up in the  Home tab  won’t do anything.

That is a good thing if you don’t want your layouts to adjust. However, it does mean that it falls on you to make sure everything is aligned and positioned correctly.

For more on how to add and manipulate the different objects in PowerPoint, check out our step-by-step articles here:

  • Using graphics in PowerPoint
  • Inserting icons onto slides
  • Adding pictures to your PowerPoint
  • How to embed a video in PowerPoint
  • How to add music to your presentation

Using Designer to generate more layouts ideas

If you have Office 365, your version of PowerPoint comes with a new feature called Designer (or Design Ideas). This is a feature that generates slide layout ideas for you. The coolest thing about this feature is that it uses the content you already have.

To use Designer , simply navigate to the  Design tab  in your Ribbon, and click on  Design Ideas .

To use Designer on your slides, click the

NOTE: If the PowerPoint Designer is not working for you (it is grey out), see my troubleshooting guide for Designer .

Change the Overall Design (optional)

When you make a PowerPoint presentation, you’ll want to think about the overall design. Now that you have some content in your presentation, you can use the Design tab to change the look and feel of your slides.

For additional help thinking through the design of your presentation,  read my guide here .

A. Picking your PowerPoint slide size

If you have PowerPoint 2013 or later, when you create a blank document in PowerPoint, you automatically start with a widescreen layout with a 16:9 ratio. These dimensions are suitable for most presentations as they match the screens of most computers and projectors.

However, you do have the option to change the dimensions.

For example, your presentation might not be presented, but instead converted into a PDF or printed and distributed. In that case, you can easily switch to the standard dimensions with a 4:3 ratio by selecting from the dropdown (A).

You can also choose a custom slide size or change the slide orientation from landscape to portrait in the Custom Slide Size dialog box (B).

To change your slide size, click the Design tab, open the slide size dropdown and choose a size or custom slide size

To learn all about the different PowerPoint slide sizes, and some of the issues you will face when changing the slide size of a non-blank presentation,  read my guide here .

 B. Selecting a PowerPoint theme

The next thing you can do is change the theme of your presentation to a pre-built one. For a detailed explanation of what a PowerPoint theme is, and how to best use it,  read my article here .

In the beginning of this tutorial, we started with a blank presentation, which uses the default Office theme as you can see in the picture below.

All PowerPoint presentations start with the default Microsoft Office theme

That gives you the most flexibility because it has a blank background and quite simple layouts that work for most presentations. However, it also means that it’s your responsibility to enhance the design.

If you’re comfortable with this, you can stay with the default theme or create your own custom theme ( read my guide here ). But if you would rather not have to think about design, then you can choose a pre-designed theme.

Microsoft provides 46 other pre-built themes, which include slide layouts, color variants and palettes, and fonts. Each one varies quite significantly, so make sure you look through them carefully.

To select a different theme, go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon, and click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Themes section .

On the Design tab you will find all of the default PowerPoint templates that come with the Microsoft Office Suite

For this tutorial, let’s select the  Frame  theme and then choose the third Variant in the theme. Doing so changes the layout, colors, and fonts of your presentation.

Example choosing the Frame PowerPoint theme and the third variant of this powerpoint presentation

Note: The theme dropdown area is also where you can import or save custom themes. To see my favorite places to find professional PowerPoint templates and themes (and recommendations for why I like them), read my guide here .

C. How to change a slide background in PowerPoint

The next thing to decide is how you want your background to look for the entire presentation. In the  Variants area, you can see four background options.

To change the background style of your presentation, on the Design tab, find the Background Styles options and choose a style

For this example, we want our presentation to have a dark background, so let’s select Style 3. When you do so, you’ll notice that:

  • The background color automatically changes across all slides
  • The color of the text on most of the slides automatically changes to white so that it’s visible on the dark background
  • The colors of the objects on slides #6 and #7 also adjust, in a way we may not want (we’ll likely have to make some manual adjustments to these slides)

What our PowerPoint presentation looks like now that we have selected a theme, a variant, and a background style

Note: If you want to change the slide background for just that one slide, don’t left-click the style. Instead, right-click it and select Apply to Selected Slides .

After you change the background for your entire presentation, you can easily adjust the background for an individual slide.

You can either right-click a PowerPoint slide and select format background or navigate to the design tab and click the format background command

Inside the Format Background pane, you can see you have the following options:

  • Gradient fill
  • Picture or texture fill
  • Pattern fill
  • Hide background

You can explore these options to find the PowerPoint background that best fits your presentation.

D. How to change your color palette in PowerPoint

Another thing you may want to adjust in your presentation, is the color scheme. In the picture below you can see the Theme Colors we are currently using for this presentation.

Example of the theme colors we are currently using with this presentation

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own color palette. By default, the Office theme includes the Office color palette. This affects the colors you are presented with when you format any element within your presentation (text, shapes, SmartArt, etc.).

To change the theme color for your presentation, select the Design tab, open the Colors options and choose the colors you want to use

The good news is that the colors here are easy to change. To switch color palettes, simply:

  • Go to the  Design tab in the Ribbon
  • In the Variants area, click on the  dropdown arrow  and select  Colors
  • Select  the color palette (or theme colors) you want

You can choose among the pre-built color palettes from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

As you build your presentation, make sure you use the colors from your theme to format objects. That way, changing the color palette adjusts all the colors in your presentation automatically.

E. How to change your fonts in PowerPoint

Just as we changed the color palette, you can do the same for the fonts.

Example of custom theme fonts that might come with a powerpoint template

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own font combination. By default, the Office theme includes the Office font pairing. This affects the fonts that are automatically assigned to all text in your presentation.

To change the default fonts for your presentation, from the design tab, find the fonts dropdown and select the pair of fonts you want to use

The good news is that the font pairings are easy to change. To switch your Theme Fonts, simply:

  • Go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon
  • Click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Variants  area
  • Select  Fonts
  • Select  the font pairing you want

You can choose among the pre-built fonts from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

If you are working with PowerPoint presentations on both Mac and PC computers, make sure you choose a safe PowerPoint font. To see a list of the safest PowerPoint fonts, read our guide here .

If you receive a PowerPoint presentation and the wrong fonts were used, you can use the Replace Fonts dialog box to change the fonts across your entire presentation. For details, read our guide here .

Adding Animations & Transitions (optional)

The final step to make a PowerPoint presentation compelling, is to consider using animations and transitions. These are by no means necessary to a good presentation, but they may be helpful in your situation.

A. Adding PowerPoint animations

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust animations engine designed to power your creativity. That being said, it’s also easy to get started with basic animations.

Animations are movements that you can apply to individual objects on your slide.

To add an animation to an object in PowerPoint, first select the object and then use the Animations tab to select an animation type

To add a PowerPoint animation to an element of your slide, simply:

  • Select the  element
  • Go to the  Animations tab in the Ribbon
  • Click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
  • Select the  animation  you want

You can add animations to multiple objects at one time by selecting them all first and then applying the animation.

B. How to preview a PowerPoint animation

There are three ways to preview a PowerPoint animation

There are three ways to preview a PowerPoint animation:

  • Click on the Preview button in the Animations tab
  • Click on the little star  next to the slide
  • Play the slide in Slide Show Mode

To learn other ways to run your slide show, see our guide on presenting a PowerPoint slide show with shortcuts .

To adjust the settings of your animations, explore the options in the  Effect Options ,  Advanced Animation  and the  Timing  areas of the  Animation tab .

The Animations tab allows you to adjust the effects and timings of your animations in PowerPoint

Note:  To see how to make objects appear and disappear in your slides by clicking a button,  read our guide here .

C. How to manage your animations in PowerPoint

You can see the animations applied to your objects by the little numbers in the upper right-hand corner of the objects

The best way to manage lots of animations on your slide is with the Animation Pane . To open it, simply:

  • Navigate to the  Animations tab
  • Select the  Animation Pane

Inside the Animation Pane, you’ll see all of the different animations that have been applied to objects on your slide, with their numbers marked as pictured above.

Note: To see examples of PowerPoint animations that can use in PowerPoint, see our list of PowerPoint animation tutorials here .

D. How to add transitions to your PowerPoint presentation

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust transition engine so that you can dictate how your slides change from one to the other. It is also extremely easy to add transitions to your slides.

In PowerPoint, transitions are the movements (or effects) you see as you move between two slides.

To add a transition to a slide, select the slide, navigate to the transitions tab in PowerPoint and select your transition

To add a transition to a PowerPoint slide, simply:

  • Select the  slide
  • Go to the  Transitions tab in the Ribbon
  • In the Transitions to This Slide area, click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
  • Select the  transition  you want

To adjust the settings of the transition, explore the options in the  Timing  area of the Transitions tab.

You can also add the same transition to multiple slides. To do that, select them in the  Slides Pane  and apply the transition.

E. How to preview a transition in PowerPoint

There are three ways to preview a transition in PowerPoint

There are three ways to preview your PowerPoint transitions (just like your animations):

  • Click on the Preview  button in the Transitions tab
  • Click on the little star  beneath the slide number in the thumbnail view

Note:  In 2016, PowerPoint added a cool new transition, called Morph. It operates a bit differently from other transitions. For a detailed tutorial on how to use the cool Morph transition,  see our step-by-step article here .

Save Your PowerPoint Presentation

After you’ve built your presentation and made all the adjustments to your slides, you’ll want to save your presentation. YOu can do this several different ways.

Click the file tab, select Save As, choose where you want to save your presentation and then click save

To save a PowerPoint presentation using your Ribbon, simply:

  • Navigate to the  File tab
  •  Select  Save As  on the left
  • Choose  where you want to save your presentation
  • Name  your presentation and/or adjust your file type settings
  • Click  Save

You can alternatively use the  Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut to save your presentation. I recommend using this shortcut frequently as you build your presentation to make sure you don’t lose any of your work.

The save shortcut is control plus s in PowerPoint

This is the standard way to save a presentation. However, there may be a situation where you want to save your presentation as a different file type.

To learn how to save your presentation as a PDF, see our guide on converting PowerPoint to a PDF .

How to save your PowerPoint presentation as a template

Once you’ve created a presentation that you like, you may want to turn it into a template. The easiest – but not technically correct – way, is to simply create a copy of your current presentation and then change the content.

But be careful! A PowerPoint template is a special type of document and it has its own parameters and behaviors.

If you’re interested in learning about how to create your own PowerPoint template from scratch, see our guide on how to create a PowerPoint template .

Printing Your PowerPoint Presentation

After finishing your PowerPoint presentation, you may want to print it out on paper. Printing your slides is relatively easy.

The print shortcut is control plus P in PowerPoint

To open the Print dialog box, you can either:

  • Hit Ctrl+P on your keyboard
  • Or go to the Ribbon and click on File and then Print

In the Print dialog box, make your selections for how you want to print your PowerPoint presentation, then click print

Inside the Print dialog box, you can choose from the various printing settings:

  • Printer: Select a printer to use (or print to PDF or OneNote)
  • Slides: Choose which slides you want to print
  • Layout: Determine how many slides you want per page (this is where you can print the notes, outline, and handouts)
  • Collated or uncollated (learn what collated printing means here )
  • Color: Choose to print in color, grayscale or black & white

There are many more options for printing your PowerPoint presentations. Here are links to more in-depth articles:

  • How to print multiple slides per page
  • How to print your speaker notes in PowerPoint
  • How to save PowerPoint as a picture presentation

So that’s how to create a PowerPoint presentation if you are brand new to it. We’ve also included a ton of links to helpful resources to boost your PowerPoint skills further.

When you are creating your presentation, it is critical to first focus on the content (what you are trying to say) before getting lost inserting and playing with elements. The clearer you are on what you want to present, the easier it will be to build it out in PowerPoint.

If you enjoyed this article, you can learn more about our PowerPoint training courses and other presentation resources by  visiting us here .

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PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 cheat sheet

Are you getting the most from powerpoint for microsoft 365/office 365 in windows learn about the key new features in microsoft’s powerful presentation app..

Preston Gralla

Contributing Editor, Computerworld |

two ways to create a new presentation in powerpoint 365

Use the Ribbon

Use the search bar to accomplish tasks quickly, get a jump-start on your presentations, try smart lookup for online research, tap designer for slide design ideas, add new types of charts, morph from one slide to the next.

  • Collaborate in real time
  • Use AutoSave as a safety net while you work
  • Review or restore earlier versions of a presentation

Need to create and share a presentation? If so, you probably turn to the most popular presentation application in the world, Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows.

Microsoft sells Office under two models: Individuals and businesses can pay for the software license up front and own it forever (what the company calls the “perpetual” version of the suite), or they can purchase a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription, which means they have access to the software for only as long as they keep paying the subscription fee.

When you purchase a perpetual version of the suite — say, Office 2019 or Office 2021 — its applications will never get new features, whereas apps in the “365” subscriptions are continually updated with new features. For more details, see “Microsoft Office 2021 vs. Microsoft 365: How to choose ” Confusing matters even more, Microsoft has renamed most, but not all, of its Office 365 subscriptions under the “Microsoft 365” moniker, which generally means the plan includes everything from the old Office 365 plans plus some additional features and apps.

This cheat sheet gets you up to speed on the features that have been introduced in the Windows desktop client for PowerPoint in Office 365 and Microsoft 365 since 2015. We’ll periodically update this story as new features roll out. (If you’re using the perpetual-license PowerPoint 2016 or 2019, see our separate PowerPoint 2016 and 2019 cheat sheet .)

The Ribbon interface that you came to know and love (or perhaps hate) in earlier versions of PowerPoint hasn’t changed much in Microsoft 365/Office 365. Because the Ribbon has been included in Office suite applications since Office 2007, we assume you’re familiar with how it works. If you need a refresher, see our PowerPoint 2010 cheat sheet.

Over the years, Microsoft has tweaked the way the Ribbon looks several times, including a recent facelift that aligns with the look of Windows 11. It has a flattened look that’s cleaner and less cluttered than in previous versions of PowerPoint, and its high-contrast colors make the icons and text easier to see. But it still works in the same way, and you’ll find most of the commands in the same locations as in earlier versions.

The Ribbon in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365/Office 365 has been cleaned up, with text and icons that are easier to see. (Click image to enlarge it.)

To find out which commands live on which tabs on the Ribbon, download our PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Ribbon quick reference. Also note that you can use the search bar on the Ribbon to find commands.

As in previous versions of PowerPoint, if you want the Ribbon commands to go away, press Ctrl-F1. (Note that the tabs above the Ribbon — File, Home, Insert, and so on — stay visible.) To make them appear again, press Ctrl-F1. You can also make the commands on the Ribbon go away by clicking the name of the tab you’re currently on. To make the commands reappear, click any tab.

You’ve got other options for displaying the Ribbon as well. To get to them, click the down arrow at the bottom right of the Ribbon. A drop-down menu appears with these four options:

  • Full-screen mode: This maximizes the content portion of PowerPoint, which now takes up the entire screen, eliminating the entire Ribbon as well as the Quick Access toolbar. To show the Ribbon again, click at the top of PowerPoint.
  • Show tabs only: This shows the tabs but hides the commands underneath them. It’s the same as pressing Ctrl-F1. To display the commands underneath the tabs when they’re hidden, press Ctrl-F1 or click a tab.
  • Always show Ribbon: Selecting this shows both the tabs and the commands.
  • Hide/Show Quick Access toolbar: This hides or shows the Quick Access toolbar, which gives you fast access to PowerPoint features you want to have always available, such as New, Undo, Repeat, and so on. It can appear above or below the Ribbon. To customize the toolbar, click the small down arrow at its right, and from the drop-down menu that appears, choose which features to put on it. If you don’t see a command you want, click More Commands , find the command you want on the left, and click Add .

To customize the title bar above the Ribbon, select File > Options > General . In the “Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office” section, click the down arrow next to Office Theme and select Dark Gray , Black , or White from the drop-down menu. To make the title bar red again, instead choose the Colorful option from the drop-down list. Just above the Office Theme menu is an Office Background drop-down menu — here you can choose to display a pattern such as a circuit board in the title bar.

When you click the File tab on the Ribbon, you get sent to a useful area that Microsoft calls backstage. If you click Open , Save a Copy , or Save As from the menu on the left, you can see the cloud-based services you’ve connected to your Office account, such as SharePoint and OneDrive. Each location now displays its associated email address underneath it. This is quite helpful if you use a cloud service with more than one account, such as if you have one OneDrive account for personal use and another one for business. You’ll be able to see at a glance which is which.

The backstage area (under the File tab) shows which cloud-based services you’ve connected to your Office account and lets you connect to additional ones. (Click image to enlarge it.)

You can also easily add new cloud-based services. From the screen that shows you your online locations, click Add a Place and choose which service to add. Note, though, that you’re limited to SharePoint and OneDrive.

Possibly in the works: A simplified Ribbon

Microsoft has been working for some time on a simplified version of the Ribbon for all Office applications. Like the existing Ribbon, it will have tabs across the top, and each tab will have commands on it. But it’s more streamlined and uses less space than the existing Ribbon.

For now, only Outlook for Windows is the only Microsoft 365 desktop app that uses the simplified Ribbon. However, you can get a preview of what it will look like in PowerPoint by going to the online version of PowerPoint. Click the down arrow at the bottom right of the Ribbon and choose Single Line Ribbon . To revert to the regular Ribbon, choose Classic Ribbon .

A cleaner, simpler Ribbon will be available in PowerPoint at some point. To try it now, head to the online version of PowerPoint, pictured here. (Click image to enlarge it.)

In the simplified Ribbon, all the commands are still there for each tab, but only the most commonly used are visible. Click the three-dot icon at the far right end of the Ribbon to show the rest of the commands in a drop-down menu.

All that said, the simplified version of the Ribbon has been in the works for years and still hasn’t made an appearance in the desktop app. We’re eagerly awaiting its appearance but are beginning to lose faith that it will ever arrive.

PowerPoint is so chock-full of powerful features that it can be tough to remember where to find them all. Microsoft 365/Office 365 has made it easier via the Search bar, which can put even buried tools or those you rarely use in easy reach. (Note that at one point, the feature was called Tell Me.)

To use it, click in the Search bar — it’s above the Ribbon in the title area. (Keyboard fans can instead press Alt-Q to go to the Search box.) Type in a task you want to do, such as change handout orientation . You’ll get a menu showing potential matches for the task.

In this instance, the top result is a Handout Orientation listing that when clicked gives you two options — one to set the orientation to horizontal and the other to vertical. Just click the one you want to use. If you’d like more information about your task, the last items that appear in the menu let you select from related Help topics or display additional search results.

The Search bar gives advice on changing the handout orientation (or any other task you query). (Click image to enlarge it.)

Even if you consider yourself a PowerPoint pro, give Search a try. It’ll save you lots of time and is much more efficient than hunting through the Ribbon to find a command. It also remembers the features you’ve previously clicked on in the box, so when you click in it, you first see a list of previous tasks you’ve searched for. That makes sure that tasks that you frequently perform are always within easy reach, while at the same time making tasks you rarely do easily accessible.

Search is gaining more capabilities, too. Some users of enterprise and education editions of the subscription version of Office are now able to use the Search box to find people in their organization, SharePoint resources, and other personalized results from within PowerPoint. (These features are being rolled out in stages, so you might not have them yet.)

QuickStarter is a great tool for anyone who hates being confronted with a blank slate when starting a presentation. It jump-starts your presentation by helping you with research and outline creation.

To use it, when you create a new presentation, select QuickStarter, type in the topic of your presentation, and then choose from a list of subtopics. QuickStarter suggests a set of slides you might want to use, based on Bing searches and information from Wikipedia. Choose which slide(s) to keep, and then select a look for your slides, including a theme complete with background graphics. You’ve now got a good start on your presentation.

QuickStarter recommends slides you might want to use for your presentation, based on Bing searches and information from Wikipedia. (Click image to enlarge it.)

When Microsoft releases its AI assistant Microsoft 365 Copilot this fall, you may get a far more powerful tool than QuickStarter to help create presentations. Microsoft claims that Copilot will be able create entire presentations from scratch, using your existing documents. It says you’ll be able to “create beautiful presentations with a simple prompt, adding relevant content from a document you made last week or last year.”

If you do research to gather information for presentations, you’ll want to check out another useful feature, Smart Lookup. It lets you do online research from right within PowerPoint while you’re working on a presentation, so there’s no need to fire up your browser, search the web, and then copy the information to your presentation.

To use Smart Lookup, right-click a word or group of words and select Search xxx (where xxx is the word or words you’ve highlighted) from the menu that appears. PowerPoint then uses Bing to do a web search on the word or phrase and displays definitions, any related Wikipedia entries, related media, and other results from the web in the pane that appears on the right.

You can do web research from right within PowerPoint. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Smart Lookup has been getting smarter over time. When the feature first launched, it wasn’t very good at finding specific, timely information such as the current inflation rate in the United States. It was much better at finding more general information, such as a biography of the artificial intelligence pioneer Arthur Samuel. But Microsoft has done a lot of work on it, and it now works well when finding granular information as well.

Keep in mind that in order to use Smart Lookup in PowerPoint or any other Microsoft 365/Office 365 app, you might first need to enable Microsoft’s intelligent services feature, which collects your search terms and some content from your presentations and other documents. (If you’re concerned about privacy, you’ll need to decide whether the privacy hit is worth the convenience of doing research from right within the app.) If you haven’t enabled it, you’ll see a screen when you click Smart Lookup asking you to turn it on. Once you do so, it will be turned on across all your Microsoft 365/Office 365 applications.

Also note that there’s a reasonably high likelihood that Smart Lookup (and all search functions in Office and Windows) will get a serious makeover when Microsoft 365 Copilot is released. Microsoft has indicated that Copilot’s features will generally live in the right pane of its apps and Windows itself. We’ll keep you updated when that happens and include all the details you need to know about how to use it.

PowerPoint’s Designer feature makes it easy to quickly create high-quality slides without you doing much work. When you insert an image into a slide, the Designer panel opens on the right side of the screen, offering you a choice of multiple layouts for the slide. Choose the layout you want and take it from there.

Microsoft claims the feature was built with the help of graphic designers and takes into account the content of the image. A Microsoft blog post about Designer claims that “if the visual contains a natural scene, Designer can zoom, crop and frame it. But if the image contains a chart, it focuses in on the relevant region to ensure the important data is highlighted.”

When you insert an image into a slide, the Designer panel offers suggestions for the best layouts to use. (Click image to enlarge it.)

To make sure your version of PowerPoint has enabled Designer, click File > Options , and at the bottom of the screen in the PowerPoint Designer section, click the box next to Automatically show me design ideas , then click OK .

In PowerPoint (as well as Excel and Word) for Microsoft 365/Office 365, you get eight new types of charts you can add to documents: Treemap, Sunburst, Waterfall, Histogram, Pareto, Box & Whisker, Funnel, and Map. Each provides a unique way to display data visually. See our Excel for Microsoft 365 cheat sheet for details about the new chart types, including what each one looks like and what type of data it’s best suited for.

To insert any of the new chart types (or any other chart) in a document, select Insert > Chart from the Ribbon or click the chart icon in the area that appears when you create a new slide — it’s in the box that also lets you add text, tables, graphics, and other content. Either way, you’ll be shown the full gallery of charts you can insert. Make a selection and click OK, and it appears in your document with placeholder data; at the same time a pop-up window appears that looks like a mini Excel spreadsheet. Enter or edit the data, or else click the Edit in Excel button to open it up in Excel and edit it there.

When you insert a chart, a window where you can edit the data pops up. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Note that the Pareto chart does not show up in the main list of chart types. To insert one, you’ll have to first select Histogram from the list of chart types, and at the top of the screen that appears, select the option to the right, Pareto .

This feature lets you show motion in transitions and inside slides, but without having to use the Animations tab. To use it, duplicate an existing slide: Select the slide, then, on the Home tab, click the down arrow next to New Slide and select Duplicate Selected Slides .

Then make changes to that duplicate, such as shrinking an element or elements in it, making them bigger, moving them to new locations, and/or rotating them. Now select Morph from the Transitions tab, and PowerPoint automatically creates an animated transition between the slides. Onscreen, they look like a single slide morphing.

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two ways to create a new presentation in powerpoint 365

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two ways to create a new presentation in powerpoint 365

Create and open

Create and open a presentation in powerpoint for the web.

Starting in PowerPoint for the web means your files are automatically saved in OneDrive. This lets you share the files with co-workers and start collaborating immediately. And when you need more functionality, you can work on the presentation together in the PowerPoint desktop app and all of your changes will be saved online.

To convert your Google Slides to PowerPoint, go to File > Download > Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx). Then open the file in PowerPoint. See more at Get started with Sheets .

Create, open, and name a presentation

Go to powerpoint.office.com .

The app launcher icon in Office 365

Select New blank presentation , open a Recent file, or select one of the themes .

To name the presentation, select the title at the top and type a name.

If you need to rename the presentation, select the title and retype the name.

Create a presentation

Add a slide

Select the slide you want your new slide to follow.

Select Home > New Slide .

Select Layout and the you type want from the drop-down.

Slide Layouts in PowerPoint

When working in PowerPoint for the web, your work is saved every few seconds. You can select File > Save a Copy to create a duplicate copy in another location.

Or choose File > Download As to save a copy to your device.

Use Download a Copy to save the presentation to your computer

When you're online, AutoSave is always on and saves your changes as you work. If at any time you lose your Internet connection or turn it off, any pending changes will sync as soon as you’re back online.

The AutoSave Toggle in Office

Select Tell me what you want to do at the top of the screen.

Type what you want to do.

Select one of the search results.

Tell me

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6.2 Designing a Presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Create a new slideshow from a blank presentation
  • Create a presentation from a theme or template
  • Understand the functions of the Home tab
  • Understand the functions of the Design tab
  • Understand the functions of the View tab

At WorldCorp, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations are used company-wide for a variety of purposes, such as presenting quarterly sales data or providing training for new sales personnel. As part of the Microsoft 365 suite, PowerPoint has characteristics similar to those of other programs such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel . PowerPoint is divided into various tabs, which appear across a ribbon that helps you organize your actions.

In general, creating a storyboard or outline of a presentation , as outlined in the previous section, is a great starting point, and this is the approach we will use to build My Life in a Snapshot . To get started, this section provides an overview of the PowerPoint program, with a review of several tabs within the ribbon that you will use to develop your first slideshow from scratch. As we start using the primary elements of PowerPoint, you will begin to develop an understanding of how the program works with examples to provide context.

The vast capabilities of PowerPoint enable WorldCorp employees to present complex ideas, facts, and figures in the form of easily digestible visuals. Allowing users to create visual representations of information on the blank canvas slides can allow viewers to interpret, engage with, and expound on what they’re seeing.

Let’s begin by using the blank canvas approach to crafting a presentation.

Getting Started

Open PowerPoint and choose a blank presentation (the first option). You should see a screen that looks like Figure 6.5 , with an arrow highlighting the desired choice. If you want to open an existing presentation, select Open from the left sidebar and search for the file. Another option is to start with a PowerPoint template —a predesigned set of slides that you can use as a starting point for creating a new PowerPoint presentation. Templates include a defined layout and color scheme, and they often include sample text and images that you can replace with your own content. Using template s is a way to save time and ensure consistency in the design of your presentation. Like many organizations, WorldCorp has a preset template that is often used for external communications, such as presentations for clients. However, for the My Life in a Snapshot presentation, you are not restricted to using the template, as this is an internal presentation and is more informal.

In this example, you will start with a blank presentation. After opening this blank document (by double-clicking on Blank Presentation ), you should save it to your computer or to the cloud using a file name that is identifiable to the content of the presentation. As seen in Figure 6.5 , select the Blank Presentation option on the Home screen indicated by the arrow.

In a blank presentation, the initial slide PowerPoint provides is blank except for two placeholders: one for the title and one for the subtitle. When you choose a blank presentation, none of the design elements are defined in advance. The Title Slide layout that is provided by PowerPoint can quickly be altered. Most presentations should have a title. Additionally, the program opens to the Home tab found within the ribbon, as seen in Figure 6.6 . Now, the blank canvas is ready for you to craft My Life in a Snapshot for your team at WorldCorp.

Creating a Presentation with Themes and Templates

Many companies tend to already have a theme developed for use with company presentations. A presentation’s theme refers to the overall design and layout of the slides, including elements such as color scheme, font choices, and graphic elements. Themes are useful because they give you an easy way to create a consistent presentation by using preset fonts and color schemes. If you had chosen a theme instead of a blank presentation, the initial slide would show the same elements, but with the design features of the theme applied. A theme can also include predesigned slide layouts, which can be used to create a cohesive and consistent look throughout the presentation.

Within the New tab, as seen in Figure 6.7 , selecting a theme allows the designer to set the tone and style of the presentation, which can help to engage the audience and convey the message more effectively. Themes can be either built-in or custom-made, depending on the software you are using. PowerPoint offers numerous themes that you can apply and search for in the search window.

Another option that users have is to select a template instead of just a theme. Unlike a theme, a template is a blueprint of a group of slides that can help meet the topic of a presentation. Templates can contain layouts, fonts, colors, and background styles much like a theme. Much like a résumé template in Word, for instance, a template in PowerPoint prompts the user, suggesting sections and topics to include. As an example, a classic conference presentation might have a specific cadence and style. Slides will be arranged to meet the needs of a conference with suggested slides and topics to include. Theme and template options are worth considering and searching for, especially if a theme matches the overall type of presentation you plan to create.

There are benefits to creating a PowerPoint presentation from a theme. First, this approach provides consistency . The program will offer multiple slides with various concepts, all using the same color pattern, style, and texture. A theme allows users to focus on the presentation message without distraction from differing designs, although it does not necessarily guarantee that they will understand the message. Additionally, starting with a theme ensures that all the slides in the presentation will have a professional aesthetic design and layout, making it look polished. Aesthetics is the study of how things look and how we perceive and respond to them. It can also refer to the overall look and feel of something—for example, the aesthetics of a website or a building.

PowerPoint themes often include a multitude of predesigned slide layouts, which can save time and effort in creating your presentation. You can click into the various text boxes or image boxes to provide the required content, copying the desired layouts that work best for you and deleting those that don’t.

Real-World Application

Marketing toolkits.

Most companies now offer their internal stakeholders Marketing Toolkits to use. Marketing Toolkits provide users with the logos, color schemes, outlines, photo depositories, and ideas on what the company is looking for when designing marketing materials. Digital presentation information is almost always included in the toolkit.

With advances in cell phone technology and social media’s growing presence in our lives, companies can now maximize their marketing reach by enlisting their entire workforce into marketing. By providing accessible content for creators and guidelines, any employee can now be a part of promoting their employer.

Not all employees will embrace a Marketing Toolkit. It is only as effective as leadership and the culture of the company allow. See if any companies you know have a Marketing Toolkit online. Does the company toolkit offer guidelines for PowerPoint presentations? Presentations to external stakeholders can be a valuable marketing opportunity.

The themes that PowerPoint provides can be customized to reinforce your company’s image and message by matching the company’s branding and style. The visual design and layout of themes can be chosen to convey the message or tone of the presentation in a more effective way, which can make it more engaging for the audience. These themes can also be easily modified to include different colors, fonts, and graphics, allowing you to personalize the presentation while still maintaining a consistent design.

Themes are helpful, but to learn PowerPoint more deeply, you will also need to learn how to create a presentation from scratch. Start by getting to know the Home tab . The tools found on the Home tab are used to create the general structure of the slideshow, as seen in Figure 6.8 . As an introduction to this group of tools, we will review five key commands, which are circled in the figure: New Slide , Layout tab , the tools in the Font command group, the tools in the Paragraph command group, and Design Ideas .

Using the outline laid out in Figure 6.9 , you can create a slideshow from a blank document to present to the team. From here, you can see how a well-planned presentation of ideas can be created in the form of a PowerPoint slideshow.

Following the outline in Figure 6.9 , the presentation requires five distinct groups of information arranged in numerical order with subtopics. In PowerPoint, you will want to add five slides, each of which will represent one of these groups. To do this, go to the New Slide command group and, with your mouse, select the green button on New Slide four times. (Reminder: PowerPoint provides the first slide by default.) Note that you can change the layout at any time after creating a slide. For this exercise, any layout will do to get started. The default layout provided is fine.

Once complete, there should be five slides listed in the thumbnail pane on the left side of the screen. ( Figure 6.10 shows the first two of five.) You can then use the thumbnail feature to click in and out of individual slides as we develop and edit content that meets the storyboard criteria.

Now that you have created five new slides, you can edit and format them. It’s a good idea to use the same steps to edit and format each. For example, you might create a step called “adding text,” ensuring that every slide that needs text will receive text. The first slide, which is similar to a cover page for the presentation, requires a standard title and subtitle, and these are provided by default.

The next command in the Home tab (see Figure 6.8 ) is Layout tab . When you open the drop-down menu in Layout, you will see that PowerPoint offers nine basic layout options, which are designed to provide variety, balance, and consistency to each presentation design. (One of the options is “blank.” This layout gives you a blank, white canvas to build from, enabling you to design an infinite number of layouts.) For your WorldCorp presentation example, use the default layout Title Slide for the first slide. A title slide is a slide layout that provides space for a title and a subtitle. (Note that you are not using a template here.)

To add your content, click into each text box provided (it says “Click to add title” and “Click to add subtitle”). Start by typing “My Life in a Snapshot” in the first text box. In the second text box, type your name, followed by your title at WorldCorp and your geographic location, as seen in Figure 6.11 .

Next, in the thumbnail panel, select each slide and change the layout for the rest of the slides. Depending on the content of your presentation, it can be helpful to have different layouts on different slides. This presentation will use three different layouts to accommodate different types of information. Follow along by selecting each slide from the thumbnails, then selecting the Home tab, followed by selecting the layout option from the ribbon. You can choose to have information on the slide presented in a different way by changing the slide layout. For example, you could have two groupings of text side by side, as is shown in Figure 6.12 , or have the content on the slide grouped all in one area. Make sure to change the layout setting so it accurately reflects the recommendations found in Figure 6.12 .

Font choice plays a big role in PowerPoint presentations. Each letter, number, or symbol on a slide can be adjusted to a specific design. Using these options allows you to make your text more visually appealing. The process for selecting or changing a font is similar to the way you change a font’s details in Word. In PowerPoint, however, you will often have much less text to manipulate than in a Word file, and the text is usually much larger so an audience can easily view the information from a distance.

When you change font characteristics, be sure to choose what will best meet the audience’s needs. There are a few easy rules of thumb to follow when you create text for a presentation to a large audience. One of them is what’s known as the seven-seven rule —that each slide should have no more than seven lines of text and each line of text should have no more than seven words. This will help prevent you from relying on punctuation or sentence structure to convey your message. When it’s necessary to communicate via paragraphs of text, Word may be a better tool to distribute those types of communication either as handouts along with the presentation or in lieu of the presentation altogether. But, remember, this is only a rule of thumb. It is acceptable to deviate by a few words or lines based on the message and content of the presentation. The point is to keep the slides clear and simple and not to distract from the presenters themselves. Best practices can be a great help in keeping the audience front and center in your mind and staying focused on the purpose of your presentation.

Fill in the required text as displayed in Figure 6.13 . As with changing the layouts, click on each thumbnail, select the required text box, change the font to meet your needs (including the type and color of the font), and adjust the font size as needed. Type the required information (this will be your chance to start explaining who you are to your team), and then make sure to review your work for any errors. Take your time. Word choice can be a challenging task. Make sure that every slide is accounted for. Then, you’re ready to move on to the next step of designing My Life in a Snapshot .

A variety of presentation styles are available, so be sure to take note of the things you like and dislike in the presentations you attend as you develop your own style preferences. Consider the contrast between the text and the background. How easy is it to read the text while listening to a presenter? Does the text work both compressed on a laptop screen (as in a Zoom call) and displayed on a 176-inch projector screen designed for a room full of people? You will notice that the font size and choice are large and easy to read in this project. Later, as you explore the many available options, you are likely to find that the text font needs to match the theme of the presentation.

Next, consider the text. Is this the appropriate content to display? As an example, in Figure 6.14 , you can compare the options for our closing slide choice. Is the use of a graphic image of a question mark the best option, or would a written question, as in the center image, be more effective? In some cases, a combination of pictures and text may work best. There is no perfect answer—PowerPoint gives you many options. But at some point, you will need to make decisions. No matter how creative the formatting of the text, a combination of content may be a better option when deciding what layout and kinds of content to use.

Both the font and the paragraph options have functionality only when a text box has been selected. As with the paragraph options, Office offers a helpful array of choices for line spacing, adding bullets, numbering, aligning text, and adding or removing columns. If the default bullet points or line spacing options provided in the text box layouts are incorrect or missing, this can be a place to add or change the required element. You can make changes within a text box either by selecting the entire text box or by selecting only the location you want to change.

Design Ideas/Designer

The latest option group Microsoft has built into the newest PowerPoint versions is the Design Ideas tab (also called the Designer tab in different versions of PowerPoint). (Refer again to Figure 6.8 .) This is an on/off button that provides advanced slide layouts and “smart” options when turned on. The Design Ideas feature increases the options available to you as the content creator of My Life in a Snapshot —or any presentation you may be called on to create.

Select the first slide in your presentation, which is typically the title slide , and type in the title of the presentation. As the title is added, you can see how quickly a few words can shape an entire slide. Turn on the Design Ideas option in the Home tab . You will notice several options to the right of the screen. These options are often unique to the words and layout you provide. In this step, select an option that fits your personality, and the transformation will occur. An example is provided in the comparison Figure 6.15 from an employee who started not too long ago in WorldCorp’s South Asian Marketing division. The image on the left was the general text the WorldCorp team member typed into the default Title Slide layout. The image on the right is the option they chose that best matched their personality, which was created and offered by the designer in PowerPoint. Keep in mind that the Design Ideas option is available for only one slide at a time.

Because the Design Ideas option was turned on, it reviewed the text within the text boxes and considered several complete design options that could apply. Starting with a very limited bit of information, the Design Ideas option could add multimedia content (3D models, pictures, background themes); alter the text alignment, color, size, and formatting; change the layout; and create an entire theme representing the keywords on the page. It could even add simple animations, such as a snowflake background with snowflakes gently falling. Having these action components is like having an entire production team on call to quickly merge your ideas with existing collaborative content to make exquisite slides.

Instead of using the Design Ideas feature, you may want to design your PowerPoint yourself. The wide range of design options in PowerPoint allows you to change the overall look and feel of your presentation, quickly and easily. By using the built-in template s, color schemes, and slide layouts, you can transform the roughed-out text that you added earlier to polished, professional-looking presentation slides without spending much time and effort on design. (You will learn more about this process in the chapter on Giving Presentations ). Rather than using the Design Ideas feature, which only formats a single slide at a time, the Design tab provides a collection of tools for altering color schemes and layout designs for all of the slides at once. For example, you could change your entire color palette with just a few clicks of the mouse, applying the design to all the slides according to their predefined layout. Additionally, the option to change the slide layout makes it easy to organize the information in a way that is easy for the audience to follow and understand.

In summary, the Design tab in PowerPoint will help to make the process of creating a presentation faster, easier, and more professional-looking, by allowing you to communicate your message in the best possible way for your audience. Building new content for presentations is like building anything else: To do a professional job, you need professional tools, and you need to know how to use them.

Now it’s time to select the design and variation recommended in Figure 6.16 . The first command group on the Design tab focuses on themes. Each theme is unique and modifiable. We have a particular theme we want you to use for the remainder of your slides. Hold down the Control key on your keyboard (Ctrl). With your mouse, select slides 2, 3, 4, and 5 from the thumbnails. Go to the top of the screen and choose the theme circled in Figure 6.16 . The theme will be applied to only the slides you selected. Your uniquely designed title slide will remain. Remember to save your work. You will quickly notice how themes and variations can elevate your design.

For more ideas, you can turn to the Design Ideas pane at the right of the slide area, as shown in Figure 6.16 . (Note that in this figure, the Design Ideas option is called Designer.) For even more ideas, click on See More Design Ideas at the bottom of the pane. This can be accomplished by selecting a particular slide. On the ribbon on the Design tab, the Designer/Design Ideas option will illuminate on the far-right side. Click on the icon and then scroll down, and you can click again on See More Design Ideas. If you have Microsoft 365, your app will be updated as designers add new themes.

The next command group on the Design tab is titled Variants. Variants are essentially modifications you can make within a single theme. These provide a way to add a different overall look. This group initially displays four different color schemes to use with your theme. It lets you change the color combinations, font, or background, or add special effects. For every theme you choose, you can alter the color scheme and font combination (title and regular text). Make sure in your slideshow for My Life in a Snapshot that you have selected both the theme and the corresponding variation of the theme.

Figure 6.17 displays other variant settings that you can customize, including fonts, effects, and background styles. These options can be accessed in the Design tab, within the Variants ribbon, using the down arrow option. Colors, Fonts, Effects, and Background Styles all become options with a multitude of choices.

Selecting the arrow to the right for Colors extends a drop-down list that displays many preset color scheme possibilities, plus a Customize Colors option that allows you to change all of the colors in a scheme. The Font variant lets you pick different fonts for title text and body text. The Effects variant, or Artistic Effects, applies a graphic effect or filter to your slides, such as making them look like a sketch or a painting. Effects can be applied to a single slide or to all slides within the presentation.

The last command group on the Design tab is Customize , which gives options to change the slide size and format the background appearance. You won’t need to use this option for your first presentation, but it is a helpful tool to learn for your future presentations. The slide size command offers two principal choices of aspect ratio , which is the relationship of the slide’s width to its height: standard (compatible with older screen sizes), with an aspect ratio of 4:3, and widescreen (for today’s HD environment), with an aspect ratio of 16:9 ( Figure 6.18 ).

Also found in the Customize group of commands is the Format Background command. Click on it and you will see the menu as shown in Figure 6.19 . This command lets you change the background of a slide by changing the fill to a solid color, gradient fill, pattern fill, and so on. Select fill and then hover over each of the circles to see the available color and background options.

Format Background contains all the options for changing the background: Solid fill, Gradient fill, Picture or texture fill, and Pattern fill. Each option has its own set of elements to adjust. Solid fill is just that—choose a solid color for your background. Gradient fill lets you choose the way the color is spread across the slide, the intensity or transparency of the color, and the shape the background effect follows as it moves across the slide. Finally, you can fill the background with a pattern or a photo.

There are many ways to customize a theme to meet your specific needs. Different color combinations, fonts, effects, and background styles are all elements you can use to customize your presentation. Even small changes may be transformative.

The next tab to review is the View tab. To have a basic understanding of PowerPoint , you will need to know the general purpose of several view options. Within the View ribbon, there are seven command groups. The first three are circled in Figure 6.20 , starting with Presentation Views .

When creating slides, you will typically work with the Normal View , the default view that PowerPoint opens within a new presentation ( Figure 6.21 ). The large window shows the current slide, and the other slides are shown as thumbnails down the left side of the window. The large window gives you plenty of room to focus on developing content and layout for each slide while you can also jump in and out of each slide through the thumbnails.

Outline View shows a list of the slides on the left, highlighting the text rather than the actual slides as pictures. In Outline View, you can scroll through the text of each slide rather than having to jump in and out of individual slides. This can be a great aid when reviewing or organizing text, as seen in Figure 6.22 . (You may have noticed that we changed our title slide to match the theme of the rest of the slides. Now the presentation has a more consistent design.)

Slide Sorter is an option that lays out slides in order, allowing you to move them around with a drag-and-drop of the mouse. This view is useful when you want to add or delete a slide or change their order.

For example, suppose a team member creates a photo album to introduce themselves, with each slide consisting of a single photo. If they select thirty photos, creating an album with thirty slides, Slide Sorter View can help them edit the album by adding or deleting a photo and by arranging the photos in the desired order. In My Life in a Snapshot, with only five slides to edit, this view would be overkill. But with a larger presentation with many more slides, a Slide Sorter View can be a helpful option.

Notes view (or Notes Page ) displays a single slide with the notes below the text or image. These notes are typically designed for the speaker. They may be reminders, citations, or any various notes that the presenter wants to have at their fingertips. This can be handy when a user wants to add or edit a large amount of text. If, for example, they have a lot of text on a slide but are not sure yet which words might be best to highlight for the audience, this area of notes can provide a collection place for content.

The Reading View displays slides one at a time, as they would appear in a slideshow. Utilizing the View option allows you to take any one of the five slides and adjust the size of text boxes and change alignments—all while seeing most of the screen.

The Master Views option group may be a bit advanced for this introductory review, but we will provide a brief example. Within this group, the Slide Master is simply a template of the slide, breaking apart the individual components of the slide layout. This is a time-saving method for creating professional and consistent presentations. You can start with one of the PowerPoint themes or a blank slide, add or change the colors, add borders, change the font, and change or create a layout of your own. You can insert text boxes and object placeholders. When you do this on a master slide, you create a template that unifies the slides in a slideshow. When you have completed a slide that you want to keep as a master slide, select File, Save As, choose a location, and, in file type, choose PowerPoint Template. This is now a Master Slide template that you can use repeatedly.

Handouts Master and Notes Master are specialized viewing modes for specific tasks. The Handouts Master options allow developers to create a template for the PowerPoint printed handout for audience members. Slides can be arranged; titles, dates, and notes can be laid out. Within the Notes Master option group, the view of the slides and printable notes can be arranged as you desire.

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Creating New Slides: Three Ways in PowerPoint

Did you know these three ways to create slides in PowerPoint? These ways can be used as sequential steps.

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: PowerPoint

OS: Windows and Mac OS X

Date Created: September 16, 2010 Last Updated: August 18, 2023

Learn PowerPoint

Solve this problem: Change PowerPoint slide size, and you lose fonts, backgrounds, and colors!

This question has been asked so often: how many ways are there to create new slides. There may be many ways, but broadly speaking all these techniques fall into three separate ways. You can use either one of these ways, or all three!

Here are the three ways, as shown in Figure 1 , below:

  • Add new slides
  • Import and reuse existing slides
  • Import a structured outline

3 ways to create slides

If you see Figure 1 , you'll notice that we have represented these three ways by using overlapping circles. This means you don't have to use just one way. You can combine whatever approach works best for you. Taking this further, we changed the overlapping circles to subsequent circles, as shown in Figure 2 , below.

3 ways to create slides in a sequential approach

This indicates that you should explore using a sequential approach, as explained in the following process:

  • First create a structured outline so that your content has a sequential flow.
  • Then import any existing slides you want to reuse. These could be slides from your own presentation or those from presentations of colleagues and friends (as long as you have their permission).
  • Finally add any missing slides directly within your presentation. During this step, you can also add any charts or tables you want to add, or maybe you want to convert some bulleted slides into SmartArt graphics. Pictures too can help your presentation look great if they are relevant to the subject of your presentation.

People Also Ask:

What are the different types of slide layouts available in powerpoint.

The three most common layouts are Title slide, Title and Content slide, and Blank slide. There are many other types of slide layouts available in PowerPoint, but these are the most common. The best layout for your presentation will depend on the content that you are presenting and the style that you want to create.

How can I use a metaphor or analogy to help me explain my concept on a slide?

When using a metaphor or analogy, it is important to make sure that it is clear and relevant to your audience. You should also avoid using metaphors or analogies that are too complicated or that could be misinterpreted.

How can I test my PowerPoint slide with my audience to make sure that it is effective?

First, show the slide to a small group of people and ask for their feedback. You can also record yourself presenting the slide and watch it back to see how it flows. If this is an important presentation, get feedback from a professional presentation coach.

01 03 01 - Creating Slides: Creating New Slides: Three Ways in PowerPoint (Glossary Page)

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Use Copilot to create and edit awesome PowerPoint presentations

march 8, 2024

A smiling woman with blonde hair, glasses, and a leopard print cardigan poses with her hands on her hips in front of an olive green background.

by Deb Ashby

Are you looking for an efficient way of creating modern, multi-slide PowerPoint presentations? If so, then Microsoft Copilot is a game-changer!

In this article, we are going to explore how to use Copilot and AI design tool Microsoft Designer in PowerPoint to quickly create and edit presentations.

Set yourself up for Success: Copilot pre-requisites

In PowerPoint, the Copilot icon can be found on the Home ribbon.

A screenshot of where you can find Copilot in PowerPoint

If the Copilot button is greyed out (inaccessible), we need to make sure that we have completed the following steps:

  • Save the presentation to the OneDrive account associated with your Copilot licence ( File > Save As > OneDrive ).
  • Toggle on autosave.

A screenshot of the autosave toggle

Create a presentation with Copilot

In this scenario, we are a tech startup called Infotech. We are looking to create a sales pitch presentation to dazzle potential investors.

Let’s use Copilot to help us with this.

Create a blank presentation

  • Open PowerPoint.
  • From the File tab, click New and select Blank Presentation .

A screenshot of what it looks when you select "Create a new presentation" in PowerPoint

  • From the Home tab, click Copilot to open the Copilot Preview pane.

The Copilot pane

The Copilot pane is split into halves. The top half shows three prompt suggestions, which are a good place to start when using Copilot.

A screenshot of the Copilot pane

The lower half is where we type our prompts and ask questions. We can also specify if we want to work within this presentation or if we want to work with our organization’s data.

  • Select Using this presentation.

A screenshot within PowerPoint where you select "Using this presentation"

Note: The prompt area has dictation capabilities which can be useful for people with accessibility or mobility issues. Click the microphone icon to speak instead of type.

  • In the prompt box, type the following: “Create a sales pitch presentation for a tech startup called Infotech to impress potential investors and secure investments. The tone should be professional.”

A screenshot of the prompt box within PowerPoint

  • Click Send .

Copilot will generate a multi-slide presentation with sample, placeholder text. This text is AI-generated based on the prompt you provided.

A screenshot of Copilot's presentation options

Redesign slides with Microsoft Designer

Often, the AI-generated images used in the presentation won’t be exactly what you want. You may want to use your own company images instead.

  • Click on an image in the presentation.
  • From the Picture Format tab, in the Adjust group, click Change Picture .
  • Choose a picture source from the drop-down list.

A screenshot of the PowerPoint panel where you can change the picture

In this example, I’m going to use a Stock Image .

  • Click Insert .

A screenshot of PowerPoint's built-in stock photos

We can change the look and feel of each slide in our presentation by using an existing AI tool, Microsoft Designer. The Designer pane will open each time you insert an image into a slide unless you have disabled the setting.

If you don’t see the Designer pane open automatically, click the Home tab and then Designer .

  • Choose a new design to apply to the slide.

A screenshot of the new slide design

  • Repeat this process for each slide in the deck.

Designer helps us quickly redesign slides and achieve a consistent look.

A screenshot of all PowerPoint slides in the presentation

Edit the presentation with Copilot

We can use Copilot to make edits and structural change to our presentation.

Reword text on a slide.

  • Select the text placeholder.
  • In the prompt area type “Reword the text in this placeholder” .

A screenshot of the Copilot prompt box in PowerPoint

Change fonts

We can change the fonts currently in use in the presentation. Let’s see if Copilot can help with this.

  • In the prompt area type “Change the heading font on all slides to Lato Black” .

Copilot has returned a message that it can’t access this functionality directly.

However, it returns some instructions on doing this manually. We can even jump straight to the relevant command on the ribbon by clicking Show Me.

A screenshot of the "Show me" button

Delete and organize slides

We can use Copilot to help us delete slides and organize the presentation into sections.

Delete slides

  • Click in the prompt area.
  • Type the prompt, “Delete the last slide in the presentation” .

Organize the presentation

We can use Copilot to organize our presentation by adding sections.

  • In the prompt area, type, “Organize this presentation” .

Copilot will add sections to the presentation and any other slides it feels might be necessary. We can see a summary of the changes made to the presentation in the Copilot pane.

A screenshot of Copilot's organizational suggestions

Summarize the presentation

Copilot can summarize large presentations and produce a concise overview. This is useful if you are looking to send an email that gives people a summary of the key points in the presentation.

  • Type the prompt, “Summarize this presentation” .

Copilot will return a summary of the deck with references. The reference number tells us which slide in the desk the summary item relates to.

A screenshot of Copilot's summary of the slide deck

  • Click Copy to copy the summary to the clipboard.

A screenshot of the button that lets you copy Copilot's summary

We can now paste this information into an Outlook email, a Teams channel, a Word document etc.

Speaker notes

A cool feature of Copilot is that it automatically creates speaker notes and adds them to the presentation.

  • Click the View tab.
  • In the Show group, click Notes .

A screenshot of where Notes lives on the PowerPoint ribbon

The notes will show at the bottom of the slide. Notes can be edited and will be displayed when using Presenter view.

A screenshot of the speaker notes at the bottom of the presentation

Create a presentation from a file

When we create a presentation from scratch using Copilot, the text and images are generated by Copilot’s AI. This means the text and images can be somewhat generic and may not be tailored to our organization.

We can create more customised presentations by starting with an existing document.

  • From File , click New and choose Blank presentation .
  • On the Home tab, click Copilot .
  • Choose the prompt, “Create a presentation from file…” .

A screenshot of where in Copilot you can select "Create a presentation from a file"

In this example we are going to use an existing Word document. To use an existing file, the file needs to be saved in OneDrive.

  • Click the Files tab.
  • Select the file from the list.

A screenshot of the file selection process in PowerPoint

Alternatively, we can paste the link to the OneDrive file directly into the prompt area.

  • Open the file.
  • Click Share and Copy Link.
  • Click Copy .

A screenshot of the PowerPoint link you can copy

  • Go back to PowerPoint and paste the link into the prompt area.

A screenshot of what it looks like when you select a file

Copilot will use the information and images in the file to build a presentation. It will automatically add notes to each slide and show you the outline the presentation will be based on.

We can then use Designer to redesign our slides or manually make changes.

A screenshot of the presentation Copilot and Designer made from the selected file

What do you think of Microsoft Copilot and Designer in PowerPoint?

Remember, we’ve only scratched the surface here with what Copilot can do. I encourage you to try it out for yourself and start unleashing the power of AI!

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IMAGES

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  2. How to Create a Powerpoint Presentation in Office 365

    two ways to create a new presentation in powerpoint 365

  3. How To Add A New Slide In Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation

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  4. How to Create a Presentation in PowerPoint

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  5. How to Create a New PowerPoint Presentation

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  6. How to create your own PowerPoint Template (2022) (2023)

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VIDEO

  1. How to Create a Presentation in PowerPoint

  2. How to create a presentation in PowerPoint

  3. PowerPoint: Slide Basics

  4. Microsoft PowerPoint

  5. How to Create a New PowerPoint 2019 Presentation

  6. Microsoft PowerPoint for Beginners: 4-Hour Training Course in PowerPoint 2021/365

COMMENTS

  1. 2 Ways to Create a New PowerPoint Presentation

    1) Start with a Blank Presentation. A blank presentation is a quick and easy way to start a new slide deck. A blank presentation contains very little formatting. You start with the default fonts ...

  2. Create a presentation in PowerPoint

    Create a presentation. 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, .

  3. Create a presentation in PowerPoint

    Create a blank presentation. Open PowerPoint. Select one of the Blank Presentation and start typing. Note: Microsoft 365 subscribers will find Design Ideas based on the words you type. You can browse and select a new look.

  4. Create and open a PowerPoint presentation

    Create a new presentation. Open PowerPoint. Select Blank presentation, or select one of the themes. Select More themes to view the gallery and search for more. Add a slide. Select the slide you want your new slide to follow. Select Home > New Slide. Select Layout and the you type want from the drop-down.

  5. PowerPoint 2019

    In this video, I show you how to create a PowerPoint 2019 presentation from a new template in Microsoft Office 365. I show how to change the theme of the pre...

  6. How to Create a Presentation in PowerPoint

    How to Create a Presentation in PowerPoint - Office 365. This video explains how to create a basic PowerPoint presentation. How to select a theme and how you...

  7. Creating and Saving a New Presentation

    We will need to create and save a new blank presentation when we want to design a slide deck from scratch. Instructions Create a new blank presentation. New blank presentations can be created in a few ways: from the File menu, using a keyboard shortcut or from the Quick Access Toolbar. From the File Menu. Click the File tab. Click New.

  8. Create a presentation in PowerPoint for the web

    Select New blank presentation, open a Recent file, select one of the themes, or start with a presentation template. To name the presentation, select the title at the top and type a name. If you need to rename the presentation, select the title and retype the name.

  9. How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)

    To do that, simply go up to the Home tab and click on New Slide. This inserts a new slide in your presentation right after the one you were on. You can alternatively hit Ctrl+M on your keyboard to insert a new blank slide in PowerPoint. To learn more about this shortcut, see my guide on using Ctrl+M in PowerPoint.

  10. PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 cheat sheet

    Add new types of charts. In PowerPoint (as well as Excel and Word) for Microsoft 365/Office 365, you get eight new types of charts you can add to documents: Treemap, Sunburst, Waterfall, Histogram ...

  11. Creating a presentation

    So next, I'll select New blank presentation. Before going too far I want to make sure I've renamed and saved my presentation. I can see the save status next to the title of the presentation, and ...

  12. How to Create a Presentation in PowerPoint 2021 for Microsoft 365

    Learn everything you need to know to get you started with using Microsoft PowerPoint 2021 for Office 365. You will learn the very basics and in just a few mi...

  13. Create a presentation in four simple steps in PowerPoint

    On the Home tab, click New Slide. To choose a different slide layout, click the arrow next to New Slide and then click the slide layout you want. On the Transitions tab, click the transition you want. To see more transitions, expand the Transition gallery . On the Transitions tab, click Apply To All. Now you've set up a presentation with a ...

  14. Create and open a presentation in PowerPoint for the web

    And when you need more functionality, you can work on the presentation together in the PowerPoint desktop app and all of your changes will be saved online. To convert your Google Slides to PowerPoint, go to File > Download > Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx). Then open the file in PowerPoint. See more at Get started with Sheets.

  15. PowerPoint 101: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners

    Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation design software that is part of Microsoft 365. This software allows you to design presentations by combining text, images, graphics, video, and animation on slides in a simple and intuitive way. Over time, PowerPoint has evolved and improved its accessibility to users.

  16. Free Online Slide Presentation: PowerPoint

    PowerPoint for the web and PowerPoint desktop app for offline use. Premium templates, fonts, icons, and stickers with thousands of options to choose from. Dictation, voice commands, and transcription. Advanced spelling and grammar, in-app learning tips, use in 20+ languages, and more. Up to 6 TB of cloud storage, 1 TB (1000 GB) per person.

  17. 6.2 Designing a Presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint

    Getting Started. Open PowerPoint and choose a blank presentation (the first option). You should see a screen that looks like Figure 6.5, with an arrow highlighting the desired choice. If you want to open an existing presentation, select Open from the left sidebar and search for the file.

  18. Creating New Slides: Three Ways in PowerPoint

    Here are the three ways, as shown in Figure 1, below: Add new slides. Import and reuse existing slides. Import a structured outline. Figure 1: 3 ways to create slides. If you see Figure 1, you'll notice that we have represented these three ways by using overlapping circles. This means you don't have to use just one way.

  19. Learn How to Create New Presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint ...

    FREE Course! Click: https://www.teachucomp.com/free Learn how to create new presentations in PowerPoint 2019 & 365 at www.teachUcomp.com. A clip from Masteri...

  20. Tips for creating and delivering an effective presentation

    Use graphics to help tell your story. Don't overwhelm your audience by adding too many graphics to a slide, however. Make labels for charts and graphs understandable. Use only enough text to make label elements in a chart or graph comprehensible. Make slide backgrounds subtle and keep them consistent.

  21. How to Create New Presentations in PowerPoint 2019

    PowerPoint 2019 For Dummies. The simplest way to create a new presentation is to start Microsoft PowerPoint 2019, click Blank Presentation on the opening screen, and then edit the blank presentation to your liking. After PowerPoint is started, you can also create a new presentation by clicking the File tab to switch to Backstage View and then ...

  22. Creating Presentations in PowerPoint Microsoft 365 Flashcards

    Sequence the steps to create a section outline slide in a presentation in PowerPoint Office 365. 1.Select the slide after which you'd like to position the section outline slide. 2.Navigate to the New Slide menu. 3.Select the Title Only layout. 4.Drag-and-drop the section links onto the section outline slide.

  23. Use Copilot to Create and Edit Awesome PowerPoint Presentations

    Are you looking for an efficient way of creating modern, multi-slide PowerPoint presentations? If so, then Microsoft Copilot is a game-changer! In this article, we are going to explore how to use Copilot and AI design tool Microsoft Designer in PowerPoint to quickly create and edit presentations.