Hello, welcome to this tutorial on Microsoft PowerPoint, the Office product
that allows you to realize dynamic presentations and slideshows! In just
13 minutes we are going to see all the features you need to know to
make a successful presentation showing content, data analysis and
representations in a Windows machine.
When opening PowerPoint, the Home page appears with quick options to start
from a new project or open an existing one you have. To start right away
just pick any of the ready templates and open the main interface.
This interface is very simple: on top you have the Ribbon bar with tabs
collecting tools and features we are going to see; on the left the slides
list and on the center the big preview. You can also change the interface
colors by going to File, Options, General and selecting the right ones from
Office Theme.
First of all, let's understand what is a PowerPoint project. This is indeed
a presentation made by several pages or slides, each made by several
objects put together. These can be pieces of text, shapes, tables, charts
or media files.
Make sure to download our sample presentation from the video description!
When you start from a new presentation this shows a couple of slides with
sample content inside. You can go to New Slide on top to add new slides
following the template chosen, each with different kinds of objects inside.
You can also select any slide from the left and go to Layout to change its
layout or to the Design tab to completely change its appearance and size.
All these slides are listed on the left from top to bottom. You can drag
any up or down to change its position and right-click on it to cut, copy,
paste or delete it.
Now let's understand how to edit the slides content. Click within text
titles to type inside. These are called Text Boxes, showing text content
within a dashed box that you can drag to move. You can also use its nodes
to rotate and resize, adjusting the text distribution and size inside.
From the Home tab you can adjust text font, size, style and letter spacing.
Make sure to select any text in case you do not see any modification.
You can also set background color, font color, distribution within the box
and line spacing. You may go to View, Ruler to customize the text
distribution as you like.
To add links on any selected text go to Insert, Link. This way you add
direct links to any document or even hyperlinks from the web.
Whereas use Equation and Symbol to add math equations and symbols. Check
these out!
You can also make bulleted and numbered lists. On Home, Paragraph select
the list to add and click on the down arrow to set the symbol to use. As
you make a new line a following symbol or number is added automatically -
if you do not see it just make a new text box with Insert, Shapes, Text
Box.
Use the Tab key to enter sublines and come back with the Backspace key. You
can also use the Ruler to adjust spacings in detail.
From Insert, Shapes you can also add shapes and lines. Just pick any and
click and drag to drop it. You can always drag it to move it and use its
nodes to rotate, scale or reshape. You can also include text inside by
right-clicking on it and going to Edit Text.
When selecting text or shapes the Shape Format tab appears above with all
the properties you can adjust for the object. Apply any ready template with
Shape Styles and customize the object fill color, contour color and style
with Outline and add special visual effects with Shape Effects. Whereas
use WordArt Styles to set the font color, contour and effects.
With Insert, Table you can make a table with the proper number of rows and
columns. You can type within any cell and extend its borders by dragging
these. To move the entire table, drag from its borders and use its nodes to
resize it.
From the Home tab you can adjust text as seen for the Text Boxes, by either
selecting text or even entire cells.
On Table Design set the table appearance by picking any ready style or
applying the right background color or border on the selected cells. On
the right use Draw Table to draw the contours one by one with proper line
style, thickness and color above.
With Layout you adjust the general table layout, removing or adding columns
and rows or even merging or splitting selected cells. Make sure to set the
text alignment properly.
Now let's see how to implement charts, such as graphic representations of
databases. Make sure to have Microsoft Excel installed to get the most from
these charts on PowerPoint.
Go to Insert, Chart and select the kind of chart from the templates of
Microsoft Excel. The new chart takes some default data from an integrated
Excel sheet that you can edit to update the chart representation.
You can move, resize and reshape the chart and also add or remove chart
elements from its plus button.
With Chart Design above set the chart appearance and change the chart type.
Whereas click on Select Data to select the data series to plot and Edit
Data to open the Excel sheet again.
With Format adjust the shape and the text properties as seen for other
objects.
Make sure to watch our dedicated video to learn more about the Excel
charts.
From the Insert tab you can also import media files such as pictures, video
and audio files, complete with an integrated player. You can move, resize
these and open the Format panel above to adjust the visual appearance.
Correct brightness, colors, transparency and apply ready styles, colored
borders and great visual effects! Whereas enable Crop on the right to crop
the visual media as you need.
On pictures and videos you can open the Playback tab to add bookmarks, trim
the file, add fade transitions and adjust the volume level.
All these elements composing your slide can be managed in the same way. You
can right right-click on these to cut, copy and paste, using CTRL (or CMD)
and Z to undo.
You can also go to Format... to open the Format panel on the right,
collecting the complete set of properties for the current object! Check
this out!
If objects overlap you can go to Home, Arrange to set the order of
visibility, taking the selected object as reference. Select Bring
For-Backward to move it up or down once and Bring to Front and Send to
Back to overcome all the other objects.
To present your slides in full screen mode open the Slide Show tab. At this
point move through the presentation with the arrow keys or go on with a
click.
In the bottom left corner you get additional buttons to interact with your
attendees: you can transform your cursor into a well-visible laser pen or
into a pen or highlighter to draw freehand and underline specific parts.
When working with projectors it is very useful to enable multiple screens
(in Windows, Windows(and)P). In this case you can show your presentation on
the projector and read notes or taking up time in your main screen using
the Presenter View. To end the presentation use the Escape key.
You can also record the presentation with the Recording tab, extracting
the result with Export to Video!
By default the presentation is completely static, but you can add dynamic
effects with transitions and animations.
Inside the Transitions tab you find loads of effects that you can apply
between two consecutive slides. Click on any to apply it on the current
slide and customize it with Effect Options. You can also add sound, set
duration and much more on the right. Click on Preview to check it again and
select None to remove any transition applied.
Under the Animations tab you find several motion effects for each single
element of your slide. Just select any object and pick the right animation,
adjusting properties with Effect Options.
On Add Animation you find the complete effects list, divided in four
groups: the green Entrance animations to make the object appear; the yellow
Emphasis to animate the object in place; the red Exit effects to make the
object disappear and the Motion Paths that move the object from the green
arrow to the red one.
You can also open the Animation Pane to get the complete list of all the
animations applied within the current slide, including the playback of
videos and audio files. When you click on Play All, PowerPoint plays all
these in order, respecting placement, delays and duration for each
animation block. For example if you move any block on the right you add a
proper pause before playing it; whereas if you extend the block you make
the animation longer (and slower) according to the timeline at the bottom.
You can also drag any animation up or down to change the order and edit the
animation effect by selecting it and picking another one.
To save your presentation go to File, Save As. Choose .pptx or .pptm to
save it as a PowerPoint project to reopen and edit it any time. Whereas
switch to a .pdf format to export the presentation as a document, without
any transition or animation applied.
Thank you very much for watching this tutorial! Do not forget to visit our
website and subscribe to our channel to discover more free and outstanding
tutorials!