What is PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called the PowerPoint, is a software program developed by
Microsoft to produce effective presentations. It is a part of Microsoft Office suite. The program
comprises slides and various tools like word processing, drawing, graphing and outlining. Thus it can
display text, table, chart, graphics and media in the slides.

Presentations using PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint or MS PowerPoint is useful in; Creating Presentation, where one can add
animation, photos, videos, and sound effects making it more readable. Microsoft PowerPoint is great
presentation software designed by Microsoft sometimes abbreviated as PP or PPT. PowerPoint is well
utilized to create a slideshow of valuable information through charts, and images for a presentation. It
is commonly practiced in business and school presentations.

Features of PowerPoint
Some of the features available in Microsoft PowerPoint are stated below.

 Customising Colour Schemes

 Adding Animations
 Creating and Adding tables
 Adding images
 Adding and Managing Hyperlinks
 Creating Custom Shows
 Creating and Importing Charts

How to start MS PowerPoint on a Personal Computer?

 Go through the below-mentioned steps to open MS PowerPoint on a personal computer:
 Click on the Start Menu–>Go to All Programs–>Click on MS Office–> Lastly choose the
MS PowerPoint option.
 A blank presentation will be displayed on the screen. According to the requirement, one can
modify the template for a presentation and begin working on the program.

MS PowerPoint is an application that allows users to create slides and runs a slideshow.

Home
Firstly, in PowerPoint, there are slides. Users need to add content to them to make a presentation.
From the Home menu, users can add new slides, decide their sequence, layout, design & other word
processing functions like font change, size change, etc. PowerPoint layout is used to change the layout
of the current slide.

Insert

From the Insert menu, the user can add media like pictures, symbols, audio, video, header, footer,
shapes, etc. to the slides to enhance the user’s presentation.

Design

The design menu offers the user with ready-made templates & background designs for slides that
make the presentation look very attractive.

Slideshow

Finally, from the Slideshow menu, the user can view the final form of the slideshow. Users can start
the slideshow from the first slide or the slide that users are editing. They can also set display time for
each slide from the ‘Slideshow’ menu.

Animations

During the slide show, the slides emerge on the screen one after the other. In case, one desires to add
some animations to how a slide displays itself, they can refer to the “Animations” category.

Review tab

The various tools that one can use under this tab are; Spelling, Research, Thesaurus, Translate,
Language. The Research button aids in online research in books and Internet resources about a subject
or topic you are working on.

View tab

In the View tab, a user can have a Normal View of a presentation. This is also called the default view.
It consists of slides where one can add content for the presentation. Next inline is the

Uses of PowerPoint
 In Education:
Since PowerPoint offers the feature of adding images and animations, learning by
visualisation makes the learning experience more fun and simplified, and researchers state
that visual information is retained for a longer amount of time thus it makes the whole process
more beneficial.
 In Business:
Business is mainly about creating a well-laid out roadmap and planning for the project at hand
and then executing it. With PowerPoint we can assure a more organised output with a solid
structure.
 In Government and Citizen Services:
PowerPoint is also a good option, from other software bundled within MS Office, for storing
records and since it's also printable, it provides easy access to the records for government and
citizen services to the seekers.
 Marketing and Advertising:
 PowerPoint can be used to create presentations for marketing and advertising
campaigns, to showcase products or services, and to present company information to potential clients
or investors.
 Event Planning:
PowerPoint can be used to create presentations for events such as conferences, trade shows,
and product launches.
 Training and Tutorials:
PowerPoint can be used to create interactive training materials and tutorials for
employees, customers, and students.
 Personal use:
PowerPoint can be used for personal use, such as creating a photo album, creating a resume, or
creating a family tree.
 Data visualization:
PowerPoint can be used to create charts, diagrams, and infographics to present data and
statistics in a clear and visually appealing way.
 Video creation:
PowerPoint has the ability to create videos, animations, and interactive content. It can be used
to create videos for different purposes such as e-learning, marketing, and training.

Creating a Presentation
When you open PowerPoint window by default a slide appears. The slide has two
placeholders or text boxes. Additional text boxes can be added from the Insert tab.

To start creating presentation click on the placeholder or text box a blinking cursor will
appear. Then type the title and click outside the box. The text box will disappear.

See the image.

In a similar way, add text or subtitle to the other text box.

See the image:

Click outside the text box and the slide will look like the image given below:

How to Save a Presentation

There are multiple options to save a presentation. The frequently used options are:
 o Click on the Microsoft Office Button then select Save or Save As from the menu.
See the image:

o Click on the first icon of the Quick Access Toolbar.

How to Add Slide

There are multiple ways to add slide in PowerPoint presentation. The frequently used
option is to click the New Slide button.

See the image:

The other ways to add a slide are: Office Themes, Duplicate Selected Slide and Reuse
Slides.

1) Using Office Themes to add slide:

Backward Skip 10sPlay VideoForward Skip 10s

o Select the slide next to which you want the new slide to appear
o In Home tab, click the drop-down arrow on the New Slide button
o It will display the office themes
o Select the slide choice that suits your requirement
See the image:
2) Using Duplicate Selected Slide option to add slide:

o Select the slide you want to duplicate

o In Home tab, click the drop-down arrow of New Slide button
o Left click the Duplicate Selected Slide
See the image:
3) Using Reuse Slides option to add slide:

o Select the slide next to which you want the new slide to appear
o In Home tab, click the drop-down arrow of New Slide button
o Select the Reuse Slides option
o Click on Browse then click on Browse File
o Select the slide from the presentation that you want to import
See the images:
Use Charts and Graphs in your Presentation
You can make a chart in PowerPoint or Excel. If you have lots of data to chart, create your
chart in Excel, and then copy it into your presentation. This is also the best way if your data
changes regularly and you want your chart to always reflect the latest numbers. In that case,
when you copy and paste the chart, keep it linked to the original Excel file.

1. Click Insert > Chart.

2.Click the chart type and then double-click the chart you want.

3.In the worksheet that appears, replace the placeholder data with your own information.

1. When you insert a chart, small buttons appear next to its upper-right corner. Use
the Chart Elements button to show, hide, or format things like axis titles or data
 labels. Or use the Chart Styles button to quickly change the color or style of
the chart.

5.When you’ve finished, close the worksheet.

Animations
In PowerPoint, you can animate text and objects like clip art, shapes, and pictures.
Animation—or movement—on the slide can be used to draw the audience's attention to
specific content or to make the slide easier to read.

The four types of animations

There are several animation effects you can choose from, and they are organized into four
types.

 Entrance: These control how the object enters the slide. For example, with
the Bounce animation the object will drop onto the slide and then bounce
several times.

 Emphasis: These animations occur while the object is on the slide, often
triggered by a mouse click. For example, you can set an object to spin when
you click the mouse.

 Exit: These control how the object exits the slide. For example, with
the Fade animation the object will simply fade away.
  Motion Paths: These are similar to Emphasis effects, except the object
moves within the slide along a predetermined path, like a circle.

To apply an animation to an object:

1. Select the object you want to animate.
2. On the Animations tab, click the More drop-down arrow in
the Animation group.

3. A drop-down menu of animation effects will appear. Select the desired effect.

4. The effect will apply to the object. The object will have a small number next
to it to show that it has an animation. In the Slide pane, a star symbol also
will appear next to the slide.
Slide Sorter
Slide Sorter view is a great way to view and organize your presentation, particularly when
your presentation has many slides.

Rearrange Slides

1. Click the Slide Sorter button on the Status bar.

PowerPoint switches to Slide Sorter view, displaying all of the presentation's slides as
thumbnails.

2. Scroll to find the slides you want to arrange.

3. Click and drag a slide to a new location.

The slide is dropped in the new location and all slides in the presentation are renumbered
accordingly.

Remove Slides
1. Select the slide(s) you want to remove.
2. Click Cut on the Home tab.
You can also press the Delete key on your keyboard.
Return to Normal View
When you’re done working in Slide Sorter view, return to Normal view to continue editing
the presentation.

1. Double-click the slide you want to edit in Normal view.

PowerPoint switches back to Normal view, and you can edit the selected slide.
Slides-show
Once you create the presentation you can view it in different ways.

Select the View tab. Locate the Presentation Views group. It displays four options to view
presentations; Normal View, Slide Sorter View, Slide Show View and Notes Page View.

Normal View: The normal view appears by default when we open the PowerPoint window.
We create and edit slides in Normal View. This view also offers three view options out of
four options in the form of buttons on the status bar.

Slide Sorter View: It offers miniature or thumbnail version of all slides. You can see all your
slides at one time in the screen. You can also drag or delete the slides to rearrange them.

Slide Show View: It displays your presentation in full screen mode. It also offers an
additional menu at the left bottom corner of the slide.
Notes Page View

This view provides space below the slide to add notes.

Editing a Slide
The Microsoft PowerPoint tool lets you edit/modify the slides as well as format the data
contained in them. The editing and formatting may include: adding the titles or subtitles to
the slides, adding the text to the slides, change the background, adding Watermark, adding
the headers and footers and slide numbers to the slides, etc. Let us discuss them one by one
in detail:
1. Add Titles, Subtitles in a slide
When we start a new presentation, PowerPoint opens a blank Title Slide with a title and
some text. So,
1. Type the title in the Title box(as shown below) to add the title.
2. To add a subtitle, click the Subtitle box and then add the subtitle.

2. Adding the New Slide

When we start a new presentation, PowerPoint opens a single blank slide it is the initial
slide of any new presentation. But was cannot make any presentation using only a single
slide so PowerPoint allows us to add new slides in your presentation according to your
requirement using the following steps:
Step 1: Click on the new slide icon on the top.
Step 2: Select the type of slide (Example: blank) and click on it.

So this is how a new slide is added to the document.

3. Adding the text in a slide
We can also add text in our presentation using the following steps:
Step 1: Click on the insert tab at the top.
Step 2: Under it, click on the text box.

Step 3: Drag your mouse on the slide where you want to add the text box. Your text box
will be added.

So this is how you can add text to your presentation.

4. Changing the Background

PowerPoint allows us to change the background color. So to change the background color
follow the following steps:
Step 1: Click on the Design tab on the top.
Step 2: Then on the right-most side, click on background styles. Various styles will be
shown. Select any of them (Example: style 7 here)
Step 3: After selecting, click Apply to all to apply to all the slides.
You can also format the background by following the following steps:
Step 1: Click on the Design tab on the top.
Step 2: Then on the right-most side, click on background styles. Then click on the format
background option.

The format background window will pop up. You can select the options you want for
formatting like – solid fill, gradient fill, present color, type, etc.

How to Insert Picture and Clip Art

To Add Picture:

o Click the Insert tab

o In Illustrations group click on the Picture button
o Insert Picture dialogue box appears
o With a click select the desired picture
o Click Insert, the picture will be added to the slide
o Click and drag the picture to move it to desired location

To Add Picture:

o Click the Insert tab

o In Illustrations group click the Clip Art button
o Clip Art task pane appears on the right side
o In task pane you will notice three fields: Search for, Search in, Results should be

In "Search Field" you can enter the keyword related to clipart you want to insert
In "Collection Field" click the drop-down arrow. It gives four options. Choose the option
that suits your requirement.

In "Results should be" filed click the drop-down arrow, you will find five options. Choose
the option that suits your requirement.

Now click the "Go". Clip Art menu will appear. Select the desired clip art or click the
drop- down arrow next to clip art, it will display Insert option to add the clip art.

How to Edit Picture and Clip Art

 o Select the Picture or Clip Art that you want to edit
o Format tab appears in the Ribbon next to View tab
o It displays four groups of commands; Adjust, Picture Styles, Arrange and Size group

The Adjust group displays six commands.

o Brightness: To increase and decrease the picture brightness

o Picture Contrast: To increase or decrease the picture contrast
o Recolor: To recolor the picture to give it special effect
o Compress Picture: To compress picture to reduce its size
o Change Picture: To change the picture
o Reset Picture: To discard all the changes made to the picture
The Picture Styles group displays picture styles and three commands.

o Picture Styles: To apply a picture style to the picture or clip art

o Picture Shape: To change the shape of the picture or clip art
o Picture Border: To give colors to the picture border
o Picture Effects: To apply visual effect to the picture
The Arrange group has six commands:
 o Bring to Front: To bring the picture in front of all other objects
o Send to Back: To send the picture behind other objects
o Selection Pane: It displays selection pane with various options to format and change
order of picture
o Align: To align the multiple pictures on the slide. You can distribute them evenly
across the slide.
o Group: To group different objects together
o Rotate: To rotate the text or objects
The Size group has three commands.

o Crop: To remove unwanted parts of the picture

o Height: To change the height of the picture
o Width: To change the width of the picture

How to Set Slide Transition Sound

o Select the slide to which you want to add the transition sound
o Select the Animation tab
o In Transition to This Slide group click the drop-down arrow next to Transition Sound
option
o A list of different transition sounds appears
o Select the desired transition sound
o Click Apply To All to apply the effect to all slides