Create a presentation in PowerPoint

With PowerPoint on your PC, Mac, or mobile device:

• Create presentations from scratch or a template.

• Add text, images, art, and videos.

• Select a professional design with PowerPoint Designer.

• Add transitions, animations, and motion.

• Save to OneDrive, to get to your presentations from your computer, tablet, or phone.

• Share and work with others, wherever they are.

 

Create a presentation

1. Open PowerPoint.

2. Select an option:

   • Select Blank Presentation to create a presentation from scratch.

   • Select one of the templates.

   • Select Take a Tour, and then select Create, to see tips for using PowerPoint.

Add a slide

1. Select the slide you want your new slide to follow.

2. Select Home > New Slide.

3. Select Layout and the you type want from the drop-down.

Add and format text

1. Place the cursor where you want, and type.

2. Select the text, and then select an option on the Home tab: Font, Font size, Bold, Italic, Underline, ...

3. To create bulleted or numbered lists, select the text, and then select Bullets or Numbering.

 

Add a picture, shape, or chart

1. Select Insert.

2. To add a picture:

   • Select Picture.

   • Browse for the picture you want and select Insert.

3. To add a shape, art, or chart:

   • Select Shapes, Icons, SmartArt, or Chart.

   • Select the one you want.

Back Stage View

The Backstage view in Powerpoint Online provides access to the File menu and some other options. However, don’t expect the Backstage view within PowerPoint Online to be as full featured, compared to the Backstage view in PowerPoint’s desktop versions—in fact, there’s almost no feature to control interface elements. The options here mainly accomplish basic tasks such as sharing, saving, downloading, etc.

You access Backstage view from the File tab, as shown in Figure 1, below. The File tab, highlighted in blue is placed towards the extreme-left of the Ribbon.

Figure 1: File tab in PowerPoint Online

Although it looks like a tab, the File tab brings up a menu on the left side of the Backstage view that it spawns, as shown in Figure 2. Notice that there are no other menus  Within Powerpoint Interface Backstage view, you'll find features for managing your PowerPoint presentation files, creating and saving files, printing slides, downloading and sharing.

Figure 2: PowerPoint Online Backstage view

When Backstage view is open, you can find several options on the left side. These options, when selected open individual Panes. Here is a a brief introduction to these options:

Info

There are two options within this pane: Open in PowerPoint and Previous Versions.

New

Offers you various Themes to start a new Presentation.

Open

When you launch PowerPoint, and select the File menu, you'll see the Open Pane visible within Backstage view with recently opened presentations listed (see Figure 2, above). If you want to open a presentation that is not listed here, click the More on OneDrive link (highlighted in red within Figure 2), navigate to the OneDrive folder where you have saved it, and open it.

Rename

You can rename the open presentation using this option.

Save a Copy

There is no Save option in PowerPoint Online since PowerPoint saves after every change you make automatically. If you want to go back to a previous stage in your presentation, you can use PowerPoint Online’s versioning feature that’s accessed from the Info option in backstage view. Also, you can save the open presentation as a new presentation (a copy) using the Save a Copy option, shown in Figure 3, below.

Figure 3: Save as a new presentation

Print

Prints the open presentation.

Share

Includes two options:

Share with people: Share your slides with other peoples.

Embed: Used to create an embed code for the open presentation that you can post on your web site or blog.

Download As

This pane, shown in Figure 4, below includes three options:

1. Download a Copy: Creates a copy that you can download to the device on which you are running PowerPoint Online.
2. Download as PDF: Saves your PowerPoint file as a PDF available for download.
3. Download as ODP: Saves your PowerPoint file as ODP (Open Document Presentation) file, available for download. ODP is an open format that can be opened in Google Slides or OpenOffice.

Figure 4: Download options

About

The About pane, shown in Figure 5, below includes four options:

1. Try Microsoft Options: Opens the Try Office 365 for free page on Office.com.
2. Terms of Use: Opens the Microsoft Services Agreement page on Office.com.
3. Privacy and Cookies: Opens the Microsoft Privacy Statement on Office.com.
4. Diagnostics: Provides details of your ongoing session.

Figure 5: About options

Help

The Help pane, shown in Figure 6, below includes two options:

1. Help: Opens the PowerPoint Online Help page on Office.com.
2. Give Feedback to Microsoft: Opens the Feedback window where you can give your opinions. You can either like or dislike something or even give suggestions.

Figure 6: Help options

To go back from Backstage view to Normal view, you click the Back arrow placed on the top left of the interface, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 7 below.

Figure 7: Back arrow within Backstage view

Explore Windows in Powerpoint

 

1. File Tab. This tab opens the Backstage view which basically allows you to manage the file and settings in PowerPoint. ...
2. Ribbon. The ribbon contains three components − ...
3. Title Bar. This is the top section of the window. ...
4. Slide Area. ...
5. Help. ...
6. Zoom Options. ...
7. Slide Views. ...
8. Notes Section.

Save PowerPoint presentations as PDF files

When you save presentation as a PDF file it freezes the formatting and layout. People can view the slides even if they don’t have PowerPoint, but they can’t make changes to it.

 

1. Select File > Export.

   

2. Click Create PDF/XPS Document, then click Create PDF/XPS.

3. In the Publish as PDF or XPS dialog box, choose a location to save the file to. If you want it to have a different name, enter it in the File name box.

4. Optionally, if you want to change what the final PDF file is like, do any of the following:

   • At Optimize for, select Standard for higher quality (for example, if you want to print it). Select Minimum size to make the file smaller (for example, if you want to send it as an e-mail attachment).

   • Click Options to set how the presentation will appear as a PDF. Here are some of the available options:

     • To save the current slide only as a PDF, under Range, select Current slide.

     • To save specific slides as PDF, in Slides(s), enter the slide number range in From and To boxes.

     • If you don't want to save slides, but instead only save comments, handouts, or Outline view, under Publish what, select an appropriate option. You can also specify the number of slides to appear in Slides per page dropdown box, and modify the order (Horizontal or Vertical).

     • You can choose to include frame slides, hidden slides, comments, ink, non-printing information such as Document properties or Document structure tags, in your PDF by selecting the appropriate options.

     • Click OK.

5. Click Publish.

Insert a picture in PowerPoint

Depending on which version of PowerPoint you're using, you can insert pictures, photos, clip art, or other images to your slide show from your computer or from the Internet.

You can add single or multiple images onto a slide, the slide master, or to the background.

Insert a picture from your computer on your slide

1. Click where you want to insert the picture on the slide.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Images group, click Pictures.

   

3. In the dialog box that opens, browse to the picture that you want to insert, click that picture, and then click Insert.

   Tip: If you want to insert multiple pictures at the same time, press and hold the Ctrl key while you select all the pictures you want to insert.

Insert a picture from the web on your slide

1. Click where you want to insert the picture on the slide.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Images group, click Online Pictures.

   

3. (PowerPoint 2013) In the Bing Image Search box, type what you are searching for, and press Enter.

   Or

   (Newer versions) Ensure Bing is showing on the left in the drop-down list of sources to search. In the box, type what you are searching for, and press Enter.

   Use the Size, Type, Color, Layout, and licensing filters to adjust the results according to your preferences.

4. Click the picture you want to insert, and click Insert.

   Tip: After you insert a picture, you can change its size and position. To do so, right-click the picture, and click Format Picture. You can then use the Format Picture tools that are on the right of your slide.

Insert clip art

Unlike some earlier versions of PowerPoint, PowerPoint 2013 and newer versions don't have a clip art gallery. Instead, use Insert > Online Pictures to find and insert clip art using the Bing search tool.

For example, after you select Online Pictures, you might search for horse clip art and see a variety of images under a Creative Commons license.

Font Management in Powerpoint

Managing the fonts in PowerPoint is vital to designing an impressive slideshow. PowerPoint offers extensive font management features to cover various aspects of fonts. The font management can be accessed from the Home ribbon in the Font group.

You can also access font management features by selecting a text box, right-clicking and selecting Font.

This opens up the Font dialog which contains all the font management features available under the font section in the Home ribbon.

The table below describes various font management features available in PowerPoint.

S.No	Features & Description
1	Font Type   Defines the font type like Arial, Verdana, etc.
2	Font Size   Defines the font size. Besides, there are icons to increase and decrease the font size in steps in the Font group.
3	Font Style   Defines font styles like Regular, Bold, Italics or Underlined.
4	Font Color   Specifies the font color.
5	Font Effects   Defines effects like shadow, strikethrough, subscript, superscript, etc.
6	Character Spacing   Specifies character spacing like loose, tight, normal, etc.

 

Copy and paste in PowerPoint

Copying and pasting in PowerPoint for the web differs from copying and pasting in the PowerPoint desktop application because of certain web browser limitations.

Copy and paste pictures

You can copy and paste pictures from one slide to another in the same presentation or another presentation. You can also copy a picture from another app, such as Word for the web, and then paste it in PowerPoint for the web.

1. Select the image you want to copy, and then on the Home tab, select the Clipboard button  and then select Copy.

   

2. Click where you want to insert the text, and on the Home tab, select the Clipboard button  and then select Paste.

   If you're prompted for access to the Clipboard, click Allow Access.

You can also copy pictures from web sites and paste them to your slides as long as you have a license for the image:

• Right-click the image on the web site and select the Copy command, then switch to PowerPoint for the web to paste the image on your slide.

PowerPoint for the web doesn’t support pasting pictures that are copied from Outlook. If there’s a picture in Outlook that you want to use in PowerPoint for the web, save the picture to your computer, then go to Insert > Pictures in PowerPoint for the web.

Copy and paste text

Shortcut key for Paste:    Ctrl + V

1. Select the text you want to copy, and then on the Home tab, select the Clipboard button  and then select Copy.

   

2. Click where you want to insert the text, and on the Home tab, select the Clipboard button and then select Paste.

   If you're prompted for access to the Clipboard, click Allow Access.

Copy and paste unformatted text

Shortcut key for Paste Unformatted:    Ctrl + Shift + V

1. Select the text you want to copy, and then on the Home tab, select the Clipboard button  and then select Copy.

2. Click where you want to insert the unformatted text, and on the Home tab, select the Clipboard button and then select Paste Text Only.

   

   Currently, Paste Text Only is only available in Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer.  And for Chrome, you need an Office extension to use this command in PowerPoint for the web. 

Copy and paste slides

1. In the thumbnail pane on the left, select the slide or slides you want to copy, and then on the Home tab, select the Clipboard button  and then select Copy.

2. In the thumbnail pane, select the slide you want to insert after, and then on the Home tab, select the Clipboard button and then select Paste.

3. If the slide or slides you copied come from a different presentation and you want to keep their original formatting, Click the (Ctrl) button that pops up at the bottom-right corner of the pasted slide, and select Keep Source Formatting.

   

   When you're copying-and-pasting slides within the same presentation, Keep Source Formatting currently isn't supported.