Here are guidelines for creating a Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® presentation.
See also
Add slides
To add a slide without selecting the layout first, do one of the following:
- On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click New Slide.
- Right-click a slide thumbnail, and click New Slide.
The first slide after the title slide gets the
Title and Content layout by default. After that,
a new slide gets the same layout as the slide that precedes it.
Choose and change layouts
To insert a slide with a specific layout:
- On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the arrow on the New Slide button.
- Click a layout.
Tip Any layout that has "content" in its title includes icons that you can use to insert non-text items such as pictures, charts, and tables.
To change the layout of an inserted slide, do one of the following:
- Right-click the slide that has the layout you want to change, point to Layout on the shortcut menu, and click a layout.
- Select the slide or slides whose layout you want to change (press CTRL as you click to select multiple slides). On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click Layout
,
and then click a layout. If you have selected multiple slides, they all get the same layout.
Insert slides from other presentations
- Open the presentation that you want to add slides to.
Make sure you're in Normal view.
- On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the arrow on the New Slide button.
- Click Reuse Slides.
- In the task pane, browse to either a slide library or a presentation file that has the slides you want to use.
- If you want to keep a slide's original look, select
Keep source formatting, at the bottom of the task pane.
-
Click each slide that you want to insert into your presentation.
Apply a theme
To apply a theme to all slides:
- On the Design tab, in the Themes group, click a theme.
To apply a theme to only some slides:
- Select the slides you want to apply a theme to (press CTRL while you click each one to select multiple ones).
- On the Design tab, in the Themes group, right-click a theme thumbnail, and click Apply to Selected Slides.
Insert slide elements
Insert from within a slide placeholder Apply a layout that has a content placeholder, such as this one:
Click an
icon to insert a table, chart, SmartArt™ graphic, picture file, clip art, or video file.
Use the Insert tab This tab has the most comprehensive collection of things to insert, including shapes, hyperlinks, headers and footers, and sounds.
Size and align pictures and text boxes
- With the picture selected, Picture Tools are available. On the Format tab, use commands in the
Size and Arrange groups.
- With the text box or shape selected, Drawing Tools are available. On the Format tab, use commands in the
Size and Arrange groups.
- The Arrange commands are also available on the Home tab.
Work with notes
- On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click Notes Page. In Notes Page view, you can see and revise the notes formatting for the currently selected slide. Make sure the notes fit into the placeholder, as any text that doesn't fit will not be printed.
Get ready to print
- Click the Microsoft Office Button
, point to Print, and click Print Preview.
- To select a type of printout, click the arrow in the Print What box (in the Page Setup group) and select from the list.
-
To set color options for printing or to access the Header and Footer dialog box, click Options in the Print group.
- To print, click Print
in the Print group.
Work in Slide Show view
To open Slide Show view, do any of the following:
- Click the Slide Show
tab, and click a command in the Start Slide Show group.
You can choose to start on the first slide or on the current slide.
- Press F5 to start on the first slide.
- Press SHIFT+F5 to start on the current slide.
- Click the Slide Show button
in the lower-right part of the PowerPoint window next to the Zoom slider.
The show begins on the slide that's currently selected on the Slides tab.
- On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click Slide Show.
The show begins on the first slide no matter which slide is currently selected.
To get out of Slide Show view, press ESC.
Package to CD or folder
Use the Package for CD feature to bundle all your presentation files and then copy them to a folder or a CD.
To package and then copy to a CD from PowerPoint, you must be running Microsoft Windows® XP or later and you must have a CD burner. If you are running Microsoft Windows 2000, you can still use this feature to package the presentation files to a folder, but you must then use a third-party program to burn the folder to a CD.
Important: Options for when you're packaging
There are a couple of ways you can have your file packaged, depending on the environment in which you'll present it. You can:
- Package it in the Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 Viewer, which enables you to show it on a computer that doesn't have PowerPoint. OR:
- Package it just as it is, to be presented within PowerPoint.
Note that when files are packaged for the viewer, they are converted to older file formats, such as .ppt, .pot, and .pps. This is to enable them to run automatically, if you choose, within the viewer.
If you don't want to show your presentation in the viewer but plan to show it within PowerPoint, choose the Archive Package (do not update file formats) option when you're making selections in the Package for CD dialog box. To get to that option, click Options.
Final note of advice
A must before you present: Go to the room where you'll be presenting, make sure that you can access your presentation from the computer you're using, and run through the slide show. Take your printed notes with you so that you can practice referring to them while you practice clicking through the show. You might also ask someone else to go along, listen, and give feedback.
