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Creating a presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint involves starting with a basic design; adding new slides and content; choosing layouts (layout: The arrangement of elements, such as title and subtitle text, lists, pictures, tables, charts, AutoShapes, and movies, on a chart.); modifying slide design, if you want, by changing the color scheme (color scheme: A set of eight balanced colors that you can apply to slides, notes pages, or audience handouts. A color scheme consists of a background color, a color for lines and text, and six other colors selected to make slides easy to read.) or applying different design templates (design template: A file that contains the styles in a presentation, including the type and size of bullets and fonts; placeholder sizes and positions; background design and fill color schemes; and a slide master and optional title master.); and creating effects such as animated slide transitions. The information below focuses on the options available to you when you start the process.

The New Presentation task pane (task pane: A window within an Office application that provides commonly used commands. Its location and small size allow you to use these commands while still working on your files.) in PowerPoint gives you a range of ways with which to start creating a presentation. These include:

• Blank    Start with slides that have minimal design and no color applied to them.
• Existing presentation   Base your new presentation on one that you have already written and designed. This command creates a copy of an existing presentation so you can make the design or content changes you want for the new presentation.
• Design template   Base your presentation on a PowerPoint template that already has a design concept, fonts, and color scheme. In addition to the templates that come with PowerPoint, you can use one you created yourself.
• Templates with suggested content   Use the AutoContent Wizard to apply a design template that includes suggestions for text on your slides. You then type the text that you want.
• A template on a Web site   Create a presentation using a template located on a Web site.
• A template on Microsoft.com   Choose from additional PowerPoint templates in the Microsoft Office Template Gallery. These are arranged according to type of presentation.

Content inserted from other sources

You can also insert slides from other presentations or text from other applications such as Microsoft Word.