Basics of MS PowerPoint

Contents

This book reproduces and expands the complete Basics of Microsoft PowerPoint syllabus. Every topic, definition, procedure, table, note and exam question of the original manual is preserved here in full academic detail, with extra beginner-friendly explanation and worked context added on top. Page numbers below match the printed booklet.

Introduction to PowerPoint

In practice, PowerPoint lets you build a sequence of pages called slides. Each slide can carry headings, body text, photographs, drawn shapes, tables, charts (graphs) and even video, and the finished sequence is displayed on screen one slide after another as a slide show. Because it combines words with visuals and motion, it is the standard Office program for teaching, reporting and public speaking.

File format and naming

By default, documents saved in PowerPoint are stored with the .pptx extension, whereas the file extension used by the prior (older) versions of PowerPoint is .ppt. The short form PPT stands for PowerPoint Presentation, and a freshly opened, unsaved file is given the default name Presentation1. The file that stores the slides made in PowerPoint is itself known as a presentation file.

What you need to run PowerPoint

To access PowerPoint, you must have Microsoft Office installed on your computer. Only the Office Home and Student, Home and Business, Standard, Professional and Professional Plus packages include PowerPoint within them. Other packages may provide only a viewer — that is, they let you open and watch a presentation, but you cannot create presentations with them.

Home tab (active)

Starting PowerPoint

Best match

Placeholders

PowerPoint is launched from the Windows Start menu in the same way as any other Office program. Follow these steps the first time you open it:

1. Click the Start button.
2. Click the All Programs option from the menu.
3. Search for Microsoft Office from the sub-menu and click it.
4. Search for Microsoft PowerPoint from the sub-menu and click it.

As an alternative to the menu route, you can simply double-click the PowerPoint icon (on the desktop or taskbar). Whichever way you start it, this launches the Microsoft PowerPoint application and the presentation window shown on the next page appears.

When the start screen offers a choice of templates, select Blank Presentation; the blank working window then appears, ready for you to begin typing and inserting content.

The Presentation Window — Parts (I)

The presentation window is divided into several distinct areas. It is important to familiarise yourself with these areas because doing so makes learning and using PowerPoint much easier. The labelled regions of a standard PowerPoint file are the Title Bar, Quick Access Toolbar, File Menu (File Tab), Ribbon, Slide Area, Slide Tab, Notes Section, Slide Views, Zoom Options, Help and the Status Bar. The first three are explained below; the rest continue on the next page.

File Tab

This tab opens the Backstage view, which basically allows you to manage the file and the settings in PowerPoint. From here you can save presentations, open existing ones, and create new presentations based on blank or predefined templates. The other file-related operations are also executed from this view.

Ribbon

The Ribbon is the strip of controls across the top of the window. It contains three components:

• Tabs — they appear across the top of the Ribbon and contain groups of related commands. Home, Insert and Page Layout are examples of ribbon tabs.
• Groups — they organise related commands, and each group name appears below the group on the Ribbon. For example, a group of commands related to fonts, or a group of commands related to alignment.
• Commands — the individual buttons that appear within each group, as mentioned above.

Title Bar

This is the top section of the window. It shows the name of the file followed by the name of the program — which in this case is Microsoft PowerPoint.

The Presentation Window — Parts (II)

Slide Area

This is the area where the actual slide is created and edited. In this section you can add, edit and delete text, images, shapes and multimedia — it is the main canvas of your presentation.

Help

The Help icon can be used to get PowerPoint-related help any time you need it. Clicking the "?" opens the PowerPoint Help window, where you have a list of common topics to browse from; you can also search for specific topics from the search bar at the top.

Zoom Options

The zoom control lets you zoom in for a closer look at your text. The zoom control consists of a slider that you can slide left or right to zoom in or out, and you can click the "−" and "+" buttons to decrease or increase the zoom factor. The maximum zoom supported by PowerPoint is 400%, and 100% is indicated by the mark in the middle of the slider.

Slide Views

The group of four buttons located to the left of the Zoom control, near the bottom of the screen, lets you switch between PowerPoint views:

• Normal Layout view — displays the page in normal view, with the slide on the right and a list of thumbnails to the left. This view allows you to edit individual slides and also to rearrange them.
• Slide Sorter view — displays all the slides as a matrix. This view only allows you to rearrange the slides, but not to edit the contents of each slide.
• Reading View — this view is like a slideshow but with access to the Windows task bar, in case you need to switch windows. However, like the slideshow, you cannot edit anything in this view.

Notes Section

This section allows you to add notes for the presentation. These notes will not be displayed on the screen during the presentation; they are just a quick reference for the presenter.

Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar sits above the File Tab. This toolbar offers a convenient place to group the most commonly used commands in PowerPoint — such as Save, Undo, Redo and New — and you can customise it to suit your needs.

Slide Tab

This section is available only in the Normal view. It displays all the slides in sequence, and from here you can add, delete and reorder slides.

Backstage View & File Commands

In Office, Microsoft replaced the traditional file menu with the new Backstage view. This view not only offers all the menu items that used to sit under the file menu, but adds further details that make management of your files a great deal easier.

You can access the Backstage view simply by clicking the File tab. You can exit this view by clicking on any tab (including the File tab again), or by pressing the Esc key on the keyboard.

Commands available under the File tab

The table below describes the commands found in the first (commands) pane of the Backstage view.

Printer (Name)

Print what

Backstage Panes & Ribbon Tabs

Organisation of the Backstage view

The Backstage view has three sections or panes:

• First Pane — this is the commands pane, which consists of all the commands you would typically find in the file menu of older versions. It also contains the Options menu, which lets you edit the options on the program, such as customising the Ribbon.
• Second Pane — this is the subcommands pane. It lists all the commands related to the main command you choose in the first pane. For example, if you select Print in the first pane, you get to choose the printer and adjust the print settings in the second pane.
• Third Pane — this is the preview or file-information page. Depending on the command and the subcommand you select, this pane will either display the properties of the file or give you a preview of the file.

The Ribbon tabs and their commands

PowerPoint offers a great many tools that help you create a presentation. These tools are organised logically into the various ribbons (tabs) in PowerPoint. The table below describes the commands you can access from the different tabs.

Adding a New Slide

Layout gallery

Layout gallery

The following steps allow you to insert a new slide into the deck (the collection of slides):

1. Go to the Home tab and, in the Slides group, select the New Slide option.
2. The new slide is inserted. You can now change the layout of this slide to suit your design requirements.
3. To change the slide layout, right-click on the newly inserted slide and go to the Layout option in the Slides group of the Home tab, where you can choose from the existing layout styles available.

You can follow these same steps to insert a new slide in between existing slides, or at the end of the slide list.

When you insert a new slide, it inherits the layout of its previous slide, with one exception: if you are inserting a new slide after the first slide (the Title slide), the subsequent slide will have the Title and Content layout.

Adding Text in Boxes

PowerPoint allows you to add text to a slide in a well-defined manner, so that the content is well distributed and easy to read. The procedure to add text in a PowerPoint slide is always the same — just click in the text box and start typing. The text will follow the default formatting set for that text box, although this formatting can be changed later, as required, from the Home tab. What changes from box to box is the kind of content box that supports the text. The most common content blocks you will see in PowerPoint are described below.

Title Box

This is typically found on slides with the Title layout, and on all slides that have a title box in them. This box is indicated by the prompt "Click to add title".

Subtitle Box

This is found only in slides with the Title layout. It is indicated by the prompt "Click to add subtitle".

Content Box

This is found in most of the slides that have a placeholder for adding content. It is indicated by the prompt "Click to add text". As you can see, this box allows you to add text as well as non-text content (a table, chart, picture, SmartArt or video). To add text to such a box, click anywhere on the box — except on one of the content icons in the centre — and start typing.

Text Only Box

This is not a default content box available in PowerPoint, but you can create it using the Slide Master, if required. It is also indicated by "Click to add text". The only difference between the Text Only Box and the Content Box is that the former supports only text in its content area.

Adding New Text Boxes

Text Box button

Most of the standard layouts come with the text-box option. As mentioned previously, text boxes will have "Click to add text" as their default text. Here are the steps to add a new text box to a slide:

1. Click the Text Box icon in the Home ribbon, under the Drawing section.
2. You will get the insert-text-box cursor, which looks like an inverted cross.
3. Click to insert a text box. You can now start typing directly into the text box.
4. Alternatively, you can click and drag the cursor — without releasing the click — to create a text box of the size you want.

The size of the text box can be adjusted afterwards by selecting one of the edges (marked by little squares) or one of the corners (marked by little circles) and dragging it.

Deleting Existing Slides

Delete Slide

There are times, while building a slide deck, when you may need to delete some slides. This can be done easily in PowerPoint. You can delete slides from the Normal view as well as from the Slide Sorter view, and in each view there are two ways to do it.

Deleting from Normal View

1. Go to the Normal view.
2. Right-click on the slide to be deleted and select the Delete Slide option.

Alternatively, you can select the slide and press the Delete button on your keyboard.

Deleting from Slide Sorter View

1. Go to the Slide Sorter view.
2. Right-click on the slide to be deleted and select the Delete Slide option.

Alternatively, you can select the slide and press the Delete button on your keyboard.

Selected slide

Rearranging Slides

Slide being moved

Rearranging slides is important when it comes to organising the overall flow of the presentation. While it is vital that you get the right content on every slide, it is equally important that you are able to present the slides in an order that makes it easier for the audience to understand the content; most of the time this will require rearranging the slides. You can rearrange slides from two views in PowerPoint — the Normal View and the Slide Sorter View. The steps for each view are given below.

In Normal View

1. Select the slide to be moved.
2. Left-click on the slide and drag it to the position in the sequence where you want to place it. PowerPoint indicates the insert position with a line in between the existing slides.
3. When you reach the right position, release the left-click button to insert the slide. Alternatively, you can cut the selected slide and paste it back into the sequence.

In Slide Sorter View

1. Select the slide to be moved.
2. Left-click on the slide and drag it to the position in the sequence where you want to place it. PowerPoint again indicates the insert position with a line in between the existing slides.
3. When you reach the right position, release the left-click button to insert the slide. Alternatively, you can cut the selected slide and paste it back into the sequence.

Designing a Theme

To design the theme, follow these steps:

1. Select the Design tab, then in the Themes group click the drop-down arrow next to the last theme shown.
2. The All Themes window appears, displaying the available presentation themes.
3. Move the mouse pointer over a theme to preview how it would look on your slides.
4. Click on a theme of your choice to apply it.

Themes gallery

Editing Techniques — View Modes

Title band stays visible

The Normal, Slide Sorter, Reading and Slideshow views all allow you to type, edit and view your presentation. To switch between views, click the View Options buttons at the lower right-hand side of the PowerPoint window.

A. Normal View

Normal View is the main editing view, which you use to write and design your presentation. The view has three working areas: on the left, tabs that alternate between an outline of your slide text (the Outline tab) and your slides displayed as thumbnails (the Slides tab); on the right, the slide pane, which displays a large view of the current slide; and at the bottom, the notes pane.

B. Slide Sorter View

Slide Sorter View is an exclusive view of your slides in thumbnail form. When you have finished creating and editing your presentation, Slide Sorter gives you an overall picture of it, making it easy to reorder, add or delete slides and to preview your transition and animation effects.

C. Reading View

Reading View is new in PowerPoint. It is similar to Slide Show View. The difference between the two is that while Slide Show View takes over the whole screen, in Reading View the slide is shown in full screen but you still see the PowerPoint title band at the top of the screen, and the PowerPoint status bar together with the Windows task bar are also displayed at the bottom.

D. Slideshow View

Slide Show View takes up the full computer screen, like an actual slide-show presentation. In this full-screen view you see your presentation the way your audience will. You can see how your graphics, timings, movies, transition effects and animation elements will look in the actual show.

Bulleted Lists, Pictures & Masters

Open button

Slide Master tab

Adding a Bulleted List

Typing text in PowerPoint is similar to typing in other applications. However, because PowerPoint deals with bulleted lists, a few keystrokes will help you when typing multiple lines.

In Normal View, to edit the bulleted list, place the insertion bar after each line of the bulleted text, then go to the Home tab, then the Paragraph subgroup, and select the first option. To add a sub-bullet (a deeper level of indentation), go to the Home tab, then the Paragraph subgroup, and select the second option.

Adding Pictures

Pictures are any type of computerised images, such as artwork and photos. You can make your presentation more eye-catching and entertaining by adding pictures. To add a picture to your presentation, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Insert tab and, in the Images subgroup, select the Pictures option.
2. Select the picture to be inserted.
3. Click the Insert button. The picture will get inserted into your presentation.

Slide Masters

PowerPoint has a set of Master Slides available for every Design Theme. The three masters are the Slide Master, the Handout Master and the Notes Master. Masters correspond directly to the slides; they contain the elements that appear on every slide and control the format for all slides in a presentation, which provides a consistent appearance for each slide.

Slide Transitions

PowerPoint allows you to apply special effects, using slide transitions and text/graphical animation, to make your presentation more visually appealing. This page covers transitions; the next covers animation.

To apply a transition to a slide, follow these steps:

1. Click on the slide.
2. Go to the Transitions tab and click on the transition you want.
3. Apply the transition effect of your choice.

Transition gallery

Text & Object Animation

To apply animation to text, follow these steps:

1. Confirm that you are in Normal View (View > Normal).
2. Go to the slide you want to animate.
3. Click inside the Text Placeholder and select the text area.
4. Click on the Animations tab and then click the drop-down arrow located in the Animation group to view the animation categories.

Animation gallery

Animation Pane

Illustrations, SmartArt & Shapes

“Choose a SmartArt Graphic” dialog

Illustration Features

Microsoft Office has multiple Illustration and Image features that let you enhance your document with numerous graphics, sound and motion. PowerPoint allows you to insert illustration and image features such as Tables, Charts, SmartArt, Pictures and Media Clips within the text placeholders of a slide.

Inserting SmartArt

1. Click an Illustration and Image button to locate, format and insert features into your slide. (These features can also be located on the Insert ribbon.)
2. SmartArt is the newest feature in Microsoft Office. When you click on the SmartArt button, the Choose a SmartArt Graphic window appears. You can enhance your slide presentation by incorporating text together with a variety of images.

Insert tab

Illustrations group

Inserting Shapes

SmartArt has numerous graphical options to select from, but you can also create your own graphical slide by using Shapes. Select the Insert ribbon to view the available shapes (lines, rectangles, arrows, callouts, stars and more), then drag on the slide to draw the shape you need.

Running the Slide Show

Once you have finished adding text, graphics and formatting to a presentation, you can run the Slide Show. PowerPoint allows you to preview, rehearse or show your presentation electronically to an audience. Display the presentation on screen by selecting the Slide Show ribbon.

A. Launching the Slide Show

Select the Slide Show ribbon and then click the From Beginning button. The slide show will begin with the first slide.

B. Navigating the Slide Show

While running your slide show, you can move to the next slide by clicking with your mouse, pressing the right arrow on the keyboard, or pressing the Enter key. To return to the previous slide, press the left arrow on the keyboard (the Page Up key also moves to the previous slide). To end the presentation, press the Esc key on the keyboard.

You can use these keyboard and mouse controls while running a slide show. Press the F1 key during a presentation to display the Slide Show Help dialog box, which lists every available shortcut.

Start Slide Show group

Printing the Presentation

You can print your presentation by following these steps: go to the File tab and select the Print option. PowerPoint lets you print your presentation as slides, outlines, speaker's notes and audience handouts. Slides will be printed in full colour (on a colour printer) or in grayscale (on a black-and-white printer).

A PowerPoint presentation can also be printed on transparencies.

Print what (layout)

Review, Zoom & Other Tools

The Review tab

• Spelling — check the spelling and grammar in your slides from Review > Proofing > Spelling.
• Comments — the Comment option is on the Review ribbon; use it to attach a note to a slide for a reviewer.
• Translate — the Translate tool is also on the Review ribbon.

Zoom and the Status Bar

Use Zoom In to see an object in a bigger size and Zoom Out to see it in a smaller size. In general, when the zoom is set to 125%, the slide on screen looks similar to the printed page. The Zoom controls sit at the right-hand side of the Status Bar, and the View Buttons sit at its left, just to the left of the horizontal scroll bar.

Views, Notes and the View tab

PowerPoint provides 4 views that let you look at your presentation; the default view is Normal. These are found in the Presentation Views group of the View tab. The Notes Page view is used to prepare the speaker's notes for the audience; below the slide pane is the Notes Pane, where you type notes about the current slide. The Ruler, Gridlines and Guides commands are chosen on the View tab to display those on-screen aids. The Outline View in PowerPoint works in a similar way to the Outline View in a Word document.

Presentation Views group

Key Facts & Shortcuts

Must-remember facts

Keyboard shortcuts

Where common commands live

• New Slide, Layout → Home > Slides  ·  Text Colour, Shadow → Home > Font  ·  Line Spacing, bullets → Home > Paragraph  ·  Arrange → Home > Drawing
• Tables, Picture, Video, Slide Number, Text Box, Header & Footer, WordArt, Date & Time, Object → Insert (Text group)  ·  Themes, Format Background, Slide Orientation, Page Setup / Slide Size → Design
• Rehearse Timings, Broadcast, From Beginning → Slide Show  ·  Spelling, Comments, Translate → Review  ·  Ruler, Gridlines, Guides, Presentation Views → View

Exam Question Bank

These objective questions are frequently asked in GCC-TBC and computer exams. Revise with the answer beside each question. All 103 questions from the source question bank are reproduced here.

Exam Question Bank (cont.)

Exam Question Bank (cont.)

Exam Question Bank (cont.)

Chapter Mind Map

One-glance revision of the whole chapter — follow each branch to recall the key points.

Image Credits

All screenshots in this book were captured from Microsoft PowerPoint running on Microsoft Windows, and were prepared by the GradeTyping editorial team specifically for these training notes. They are reproduced here for educational purposes to illustrate the features described in the text. Microsoft, Windows, Office and PowerPoint are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

The GradeTyping logo, mind-map and page watermark are original vector artwork created in-house for the GradeTyping Practice. Improve. Succeed. series.