Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint can be opened using a shortcut on your desktop or from the Windows menu.  When you launch Microsoft Office PowerPoint 365, the PowerPoint window will open asking you to choose one of PowerPoint’s many slide design templates or a blank template. Begin by selecting Blank Presentation but in the future try experimenting with some of the other presentation styles.

The PowerPoint 365 window resembles the windows from the other Microsoft applications (Word, Excel etc.).

Office 365 displays its commands through a combination of icons stored within different tabs.  This arrangement of tabs and icons is known as the Ribbon and it appears in all Microsoft Office programs.

The presentation Theme controls various formatting features for a presentation including font colours, heading and fonts, line and fill styles and theme effects.

Themes are available in other applications in the Microsoft Office package and will allow coordination between word processed Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations.  In PowerPoint, the Theme can be changed by selecting the Design tab from the Ribbon and choosing a particular Theme from the Themes group.

Inside of each Theme is a number of different Variants that change things like the background and font colours of each slide so that each one is consistent.  The Variants group is found next to the Themes group in the Design tab.

Microsoft PowerPoint provides a range of Slide Layout templates to help structure a presentation according to the contents of each slide.  These layouts contain different combinations of placeholders for titles and content.

The New Slide icon  can be found in the Slides group of the Home tab.  It presents a number of slide templates that can be used when adding a new slide to the presentation.

In Microsoft PowerPoint, there are nine standard Slide Layouts commonly used to create presentations. These layouts help to structure content effectively.

1. Title Slide: Designed for the first slide in a presentation, it typically includes placeholders for the presentation title and subtitle.
2. Title and Content: Includes a title placeholder at the top and a large content placeholder below, which can be used for text, images, charts, tables, SmartArt, or multimedia.
3. Section Header: Used to divide different sections of a presentation, it contains placeholders for a title and a subtitle or description.
4. Two Content: Similar to the Title and Content layout but with two content placeholders side by side, allowing for a comparison of two sets of information.
5. Comparison: Like the Two Content layout, but each content placeholder is paired with a title placeholder, enabling side-by-side comparisons with headings.
6. Title Only: Contains only a title placeholder, allowing for more customization with content placement.
7. Blank: Provides a completely blank slide with no placeholders, offering maximum flexibility for custom layouts.
8. Content with Caption: Features a title placeholder, a content placeholder, and a caption placeholder to provide additional description or context.
9. Picture with Caption: Designed for slides with images, it includes a large picture placeholder and a caption placeholder for describing the image.

Charts and tables can be easily added in to any PowerPoint Presentation as an extra visual aid to augment content delivery.

PowerPoint displays a visual prompt inside each Content placeholder to allow the presenter to quickly add one of these elements into the presentation.

The Insert Table and Insert Chart icons appear as translucent icons until the mouse is hovered over them.

Inserting a Chart

A Chart is a graphical representation of data and can be a useful visual aid to refer to during a PowerPoint Presentation.

When adding a Chart to a PowerPoint presentation, you can choose from a variety of chart types, including column, line, pie, bar, area and scatter. The basic procedure for creating a chart is the same regardless of the type chosen. As data is changed, the chart will automatically update.

Inserting a Table

Tables can be used in PowerPoint to organise text and data into rows and columns. They serve as a useful visual aid for presenters trying to represent data or compare and contrast information across multiple columns.

It is easier than ever to find images for use in presentations. Most presenters have images saved on their computers or in the cloud, intending to include them in PowerPoint presentations.

Similarly, copyright legislation now allows for the use of any media content found online, provided it is sufficiently acknowledged, fair, non-commercial and used as illustration for instruction (see Section 32 of the Copyright and Rights in Performances Regulations, 2014).

Many people are also using AI tools to create custom images for their presentations. Additionally, Microsoft provides a bank of stock images that you can use in your presentations.

Formatting Images

Once an image has been inserted into a PowerPoint slide, it can be modified in various ways, including altering its size and position.

When an image is selected in PowerPoint, eight small dots called sizing handles will appear around it. Hovering the mouse over one of these handles changes the pointer to a white, double-headed arrow. By clicking and dragging the sizing handle, the size of the image can be adjusted.

Additionally, there is a circular arrow icon called the rotating handle, which allows the image to be rotated to any angle.

Slide Show view allows a presenter to view slides as they will appear during a presentation, using the entire screen.

Here are some helpful tips.

• Slides can be advanced in Slide Show view using the left mouse button or the right arrow key on a keyboard.
• The left arrow key can be used to move back one slide.
• The B key can black out the screen, hiding slides from view.
• the Esc key exits Slide Show view, returning to the main PowerPoint window.

Slide Show view can be activated in several ways.

• The Slide Show tab on the Ribbon lets a presenter start the slide show either from the beginning or from the current slide being viewed.
• The View Show icon in the bottom right of the PowerPoint window also launches Slide Show view, starting at the first slide.
• Pressing the F5 key on a keyboard will start the slide show from the beginning.