Creating a PowerPoint Presentation – A Brief Primer
A presentation is PowerPoint’s equivalent of a Word document. Each slide is similar to a page in a Word document – when you
save a presentation, you are saving all the slides in that presentation (along with other objects as described below)
Though the main idea of a presentation in PowerPoint is a slide show, a presentation can contain four different components:
Slides
The heart of a presentation. Slides can contain text, pictures, charts, spreadsheets, etc.
Outline
An editable outline of the text of your presentation (shows up in the left pane in Normal view)
Speaker’s notes
Notes on each slide for the presenter to refer to during a presentation
Audience handouts
Handouts for the audience which show slides and text
PowerPoint creates an outline automatically as you create your presentation.
In brief, here are the steps to create a presentation:
Step 1: Create the content of your presentation
Create your slides: The initial view when you start PowerPoint is Normal, (Slide view in versions previous to 2002) which
allows you to create and edit slides. PowerPoint puts a Title slide on the screen as the 1st slide in your presentation. A Title
slide contains two Layout devices – a Title and Subtitle. You simply click a Layout device and type the content you want.
To add a new slide to your presentation, click the New Slide button on the Home tab of the Ribbon. By default, any slides
after the Title slide will be Title and Content slides, but you can choose the slide type you want for each slide by clicking the
drop-down arrow at the bottom of the New Slide area and choosing from the Layouts shown in the panel.
This slide type lets you create a bullet list by simply clicking in the bottom text box and typing the points you want. To create a
new item, simply hit Enter. To create a sub-level bullet, hit the Tab key or press the Increase Indent button in the Paragraph
group. To go back to a main level bullet, hit Shift-Tab or press the Decrease Indent button.
A Title and Content slide also offers 6 icons for adding non-text content to the slide, including Tables, Charts, several types of
graphic images, and video clips. You can also use text and drawing tools to add and arrange your main points and key objects
on your slides. Or use Outline View in the left pane to enter your main text points in outline format. Drag, promote, and demote
your points to change the order and relationships between them.
Save your presentation: From the Office Button menu, choose Save as… to save the existing presentation with a new
name. Choose Save to resave the presentation with the same name. Save frequently as you are creating the presentation.
Preview and rearrange your slides: From the Slide Show menu, choose View Show (or click the Slide Show button on
the View toolbar). Click through each slide to make sure your central message is getting across. From the View menu, choose
Slide Sorter. This view shows your entire presentation as thumbnails. You can drag slides to new positions as appropriate.
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Step 2: Design your presentation
To format the background of one or all slides in your presentation, choose Background area
of the Design tab. You can use Background Styles, or choose the Format Background button
for lots of choices. Choose a background color, then click Close to apply the color to your
current slide or Apply to All to apply to all slides in your presentation.
Set master attributes as appropriate: on the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click
Slide Master. Create any objects that you want to appear on every slide. You can style the title
and body text for all of your slides by formatting the text in the layouts on the Master. For
instance, changing the font of any level of the bullet list on the Master will change the font of
that level of any bullet slides in your presentation, with the exception of text on any individual
slides on which you have made font changes.
Preview your presentation to see how your master format elements and background color have
in the View group in the right side of the
been applied consistently to each slide. (Normal View button
Status Bar at the bottom of the PowerPoint window)
Insert appropriate graphic images. From the Insert menu choose Picture. Select Clip Art for access to the Office Clip Art
library. Choose From File to choose a photo or painting stored on your system. Create additional graphic elements with
drawing tools (on the Draw toolbar).
Insert objects created in other applications such as Word, Excel, Paint, etc. From the Insert menu choose Object, then choose
From File to use an existing object or Create New to make a new object. You could, for instance, put a Word Document
Object on a slide. Double clicking the object will take you to the application that created it.
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Step 3: Create notes, print and show your presentation and handouts
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You can add Presenter Notes to your current slide by typing into the bottom (Notes) pane of your Normal View window.
From the Office Button menu choose Print. From the Print what: drop-down list, select Slides, Notes Pages, Handouts,
or Outline. For Handouts, choose the number of slides per page. Click OK to print.
From the View Bar, click the “movie screen” icon to start your show.
Microsoft PowerPoint
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Copyright 2007 Jay Partlan
PowerPoint 2007 Ribbon Tabs
Home Tab
Insert Tab
Design Tab
Animation Tab
Slide Show Tab
Review Tab
View Tab
Format Tab
Microsoft PowerPoint
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Copyright 2007 Jay Partlan