Microsoft

PowerPoint 2016: The Complete Guide

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Welcome
This guide can be used to understand the PowerPoint 2016 software. After reading this
manual, the user should be able to create, edit and share PowerPoint presentations. The
development of presentations can be from scratch or by using templates. Additional
content such as photos, text, graphs, animations and video can be added.
Other enhancements can be added such as speaker notes and user collaboration to create
the perfect presentation.

Preface
PowerPoint 2016 is a presentation program that presents information in the form of slides.
This program is developed by Microsoft and was originally called Presenter released by
another company Forethought Inc. It was originally launched in May 1990 and was and
always been a part of the Microsoft Suite.
It is popularly known as a program that helps users to develop slide based presentations
and is currently the most used presentation program in the world.
The purpose of this guide is to introduce users to the latest version of the Microsoft
PowerPoint program. Reviews on the newest issue, purport that it is new and improved;
boasting redesigned and creative features.
The manual will first look at the genesis of the programs manufacturer; Microsoft Inc.
The Microsoft Office suite and its foundation and subsequent growth will then be
discussed followed by growth of the actual PowerPoint program. From here, the piece will

look at the features of the program and offer a guide on how to maximize each of its
features.

Office 365
Office 365 allows the user to work with great flexibility allowing them to work anywhere,
anytime and it is always ready to go. It has now pushed technology to rethink how the
collaborative process is done. It allows any business to maintain a competitive edge.
With the great, new features, it allows the Office to be anywhere the user is. No matter
where you are, you will still access the top level productivity tools that you need. These
are the latest versions of the Office Applications that you have been familiar with. These
are Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access and Publisher. The user can use
their devices to create, edit and share documents with smooth compatibility across
devices.
Office 365 contains tools for professionals to give their business processes the edge they
need. From branding your company to building the name recognition, the Office Suite
allows the user to create their customized marketing materials that are useful to their
business needs. Additionally with a range of communication tools such as email, IM,
social networking and video conferencing it allows you to keep in touch with colleagues
and customers.
With facilities such as 1 TB storage for users, Office 365 provides amazing tools for
teamwork. Along with files that can be stored online, these documents can be shared with
anyone desired. This can be done whenever you want and whenever you want.
Office 365 can be setup and managed quite effortlessly. Users can be setup and start using
the features almost immediately. This can be done from the easy to access admin center
and it will take care of the all the legwork for you. It ensures that the services are always
up and running for use by the users.
With built in security, compliance and privacy controls, Office365 will aim to keep your
data safe. There is no upfront cost for software and it will always be kept up to date. It also
offers a usage statement of staying up and running 99.9% of the time with a solid
Microsoft backed guarantee.
PowerPoint 2016 - One part of Office 365
PowerPoint helps users to give a visual impact to their ideas and bring them to life. With
features such as Presenter View, it allows the user to create and rehearse and review their
presentations as they are made. When the presentation is projected to a second screen, the
Presenter View will show the current and next slide and the speaker notes.
The Slide Navigator allows the user to quickly switch slides around in their current
sequence by using a visual grid. This grid can be seen at a glance that will help the user to
organize their presentation quite easily. The audience will only see the slides which the
user has selected.

The function auto-extend will allow the user to project their presentation to a second
screen with the slides automatically appearing on the right screens. It allows to the user to
give a professional appearance with no fumbling with settings and equipment.
The creative process is given a boost with all the functionality packed in PowerPoint 2016.
The presentation can be boosted into a highly stylish design that contains highly styled
design themes with different variations.
Presentations can be made special adding amazing visual effects with images, sounds and
videos. In collaboration with catchy transitions between the slides made with animations,
graphics and charts. This will enhance your creative touch and turn you into a top notch
designer. The software is equipped with built in alignment guides that the user can utilize
to align shapes, text boxes and videos to their slides. It also comes with access to
templates that the user can engage to jumpstart their design and get a quick start to their
presentation work. It comes with templates in over 40 categories where the user will be
sure to find one that suits their needs.
PowerPoint also offers a great knowledgebase that can connect the user with experts in the
field that can give them tips on how to make their presentations look professional. It will
have you creating, editing and publishing creative presentation in no time.
History of Microsoft Office
The Microsoft Office is indubitably the most renowned software used globally. This suite
is a compilation of applications first announced at the companys annual meeting on
August of 1988 by then Microsoft mogul Bill Gates. It was later released to the public in
November of 1990. The genesis of the suite included Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word
and Microsoft PowerPoint and was designed to add efficiency to Windows based
computers. It is now available in over thirty-five languages and can be used in almost any
corner of the globe.
The suite primarily includes Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint;
though other Microsoft programs such as Outlook and Access are also available for use.
MS Word is principally designed for the processing of words and is available on both the
OS X and Windows platforms. The very first graphical version of Microsoft Word came in
form of Word for Mac, released in 1985. MS PowerPoint is designed as more of a
presentation program. Like Word, it is also designed to be compatibility with both the OS
X and Windows platforms. It is ideal for the creation of graphics, slide shows and fulsome
texts. The first version of Microsoft Excel was released in 1985 for the Mac operating
system. Its design is centered on the ability to create spreadsheets while maintaining
numerical accuracy.
The initial release of the suite offered only the basic package with features such as
formatting. This was closely followed by Office 1.0 and MS Office 1.5 in 1991. Office
1.5, launched shortly thereafter, boasted an improved version of the Excel program along
with Word 1.1 and PowerPoint 2.0. Office 3.0 was released in 1992 and Office 4.0 in
1994. Office 4.0 consisted of Word 6.0, Excel 4.0 and PowerPoint 3.0; all of which
received an improved interface and formatting updates. As the demand for the software

grew, Microsoft continued with improvements and updates, releasing new versions on a
timely basis.
The latest version of the suite was released in September of 2015 in the form of Microsoft
Office 2016 (Office 16). The suite not only includes the usual PowerPoint, Excel and
Word programs but now also offers users Microsoft Outlook as part of the package. The
package boasts enhanced Cloud integration features and is designed to maximize use on
mobile and touch screen devices.

Microsoft Office 2016-New & Improved
The new Office 2016 boasts enhanced features with updates becoming available with
increased frequency. This guarantees users the most convenient and innovative tools for
home, school and work use. Office 2016 now includes Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft
Word, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Project, Microsoft
Outlook and Microsoft PowerPoint. Improved features are as follows:
Shared Notebooks
Users working with this feature are able to collect data, i.e. documents, drawings, images,
movies or clippings and have them stored with one location. The stored data can then be
shared to facilitate others working in the file or viewing the documents. All changes made
are automatically and instantly updated. This feature is currently only available in
Microsoft OneNote.
Co-Authoring
This is a feature that facilitates and encourages working as a team. Users are able to
collaborate and work on one document concurrently, all from separate devices. The work
of each is saved and users advise of conflicts that would require attention. The feature is
available in both Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint.
Immediate Processing
During the use of the new collaboration feature, users are able to view, in real-time, what
others are working on. The feature also instantly displays the changes being made by other
users; minimizing conflicts and facilitating greater congruence during group-work. This
feature is however only currently available in Microsoft Word.
Mail Triage
This feature acts as the perfect organizer for users. It studies how email received on your
device is selected and read over time and attempts to sort your mail accordingly. The
messages deemed to be lower priority are stored in another file and a summary of those
stored sent daily. The Focused Inbox will then be used to access only the most important
and urgent mails. The Mail Triage feature is currently only available in Microsoft Outlook.

Sharing Made Easier

Available in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint, the Share
feature is designed to enhance the teamwork experience. The Share button is located in
the top Ribbon. The design also allows a user to monitor changes being made in a shared
document or database. The extent of anothers editing capabilities can be controlled;
specifying what each author is able to modify.

Attachments
Documents saved to SharePoint or OneDrive can be shared with fellow email recipients.
The primary user is also able to dictate the access granted to each and the ability each will
have to reviewing the share file directly from the application. This feature is currently only
available in Microsoft Outlook.

Timelines made Flexible
Users enjoying Microsoft Project are now able to stipulate the date for timelines to
commence and end. The feature is also designed to create multiple timelines for the varied
phrases of a work schedule; facilitating a more organized environment.
Managing Resource Scheduling
The design of this feature enables users to maximize the use of resources in an
organization. This is done through the creation of a resource engagement or agreement on
how best limited resources in an entity can best be utilized. This feature is currently
available only in Microsoft Project.

Send Data to Excel
An Excel spreadsheet can be created to display the linked data sources taken from a
Microsoft Access database. The feature is only available to Microsoft Access users.
Perusing History
Users can enjoy the ability to revert to or peruse earlier saved versions of a current
document. This convenient toll is available to users working in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft
Word and Microsoft PowerPoint.

One Click Forecasting
Users are able to create spreadsheets to depict data from previous research or to establish
possible future trends with one simple click. The feature uses the current Exponential
Smoothing algorithm or ETS. ETS is recognized for adhering to industry standards and is
reputed for accuracy in the delivery of forecasting information. One-Click Forecasting is
currently only available in Microsoft Excel.

Chart Types
Office 2016 has included a number of new charts into its Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel
and Microsoft PowerPoint programs. These charts are designed to accurately display
statistical and financial data. The new charts are Pareto, Sunburst, Box and Whisker,
Waterfall, Treemap and Histogram.
Office Themes
Users can now select the office theme most suited for their style or environment. The new
Office theme options are Dark Gray, Colourful and White. The White theme will lend a
more conventional look to your program, the Dark Gray will introduce a more relaxed
feel; resulting in ease of use while the Colorful theme is designed to give a more trendy
look. The new Office themes are available in Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Visio,
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Project, Microsoft
OneNote, Microsoft Access and Microsoft Outlook.
Smart Lookup
The Smart Lookup feature is available in Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint,
Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Excel. It is designed to act as a fact checker for users by
way of the Bing search engine. Users are required only to select the term or phrase they
wish to research or define and Microsoft will complete the task, bringing the information
right to the screen without the user having to go to a web browser.

Tell Me
The Tell Me feature allows users of Microsoft Office 2016 to request guidance when
completing tasks. The feature is designed to acknowledge key words and provide the
appropriate resource to meet the need. Tell Me is now available in Microsoft Access,
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Project, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft
Excel and Microsoft Outlook.

Modern Shapes
Modern shapes have been introduced to the new Microsoft Visio. Users are now able to
peruse and select from a wider variety of redesigned shapes. Microsoft has also introduced
IEEE compliant shapes into the Visio Professional series and has updated the shapes in the
Office Layout in the Visio Standard series. Also included in this new feature is a number
of Starter diagrams. This affords users the ability to apply the use of one or more of these
Starter diagrams to get tasks completed in a more timely fashion.
Data Connectivity Enhanced
The new Office 2016 boasts the ability to connect diagrams to data already in am Excel
spreadsheet. To accurately utilize the feature users are encouraged to ensure that the values
found in the Excel column are a match to the texts placed in each shape on the diagram.
The user should then go to the Data tab and select the option for Quick Import to

complete the import and data connection. This feature is only available in Microsoft Visio
Professional.

Improved with Windows 10
Office 2016 now boasts improved Office Mobile applications for users to enjoy while on
the move. The feature allows users to maintain productivity level as desired even while
outside of the office environment or away from the desktop computer. Also exciting about
this feature is the compatibility of the Office Mobile across all of the users Windows 10
devices. It supports productivity and offers major convenience. This feature is available
with Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Mail and Calendar.
Skype
One of the more innovative of the Office 2016 features is the integration of Skype. Users
are now able to join and conduct online sessions via the Skype for Business mobile
application. The feature will also enable a user to integrate the collaboration feature via
video or voice sharing, Instant Messaging or screen sharing. Users can also use the
feature to communicate with participants of the online meetings, all directly from a mobile
device.
OneDrive Integration
The OneDrive feature is designed to offer optimized storage capabilities. The documents
or files saved can then be accessed from any other device or any other location. The
feature also offers continuity; allowing the user to commence the presentation on the
desktop at home and continuing the progress while running an errand on the road from a
laptop or tablet. OneDrive facilitates the collaboration feature; fostering strengthened
team-working skills, even while offering convenience. The OneDrive Integration feature is
available with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft Excel
and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Crossing Platforms and Devices
This feature is another feature of convenience introduced to the new Office 2016. Users
are able to move across Apple, Windows and Android devices to complete tasks without
encountering program conflicts. The documents can also be analyzed, reviewed and edited
on one device and viewed from another location on a separate device. This feature of
convenience is available with Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Excel,
Microsoft Word and Microsoft OneNote.
The Office 2016 Training Center
The Training Center is designed to provide users with an avenue for additional support
and training on how best to maximize the features offered by Microsoft PowerPoint 2016.
The Center comes equipped with possible scenarios to give all the possible avenues for
tackling issues for most programs. A few of the programs include Microsoft Access,

Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft OneNote, Office 365, Microsoft Visio and Skype for
Business.
PowerPoint 2016 Support
Online support is available for the new PowerPoint 2016. The support is available via
http://support.office.com , the office Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Office
or via the community discussion board that can also be accessed at
http://support.office.com. The various support sites provide step by step instructions for
the installation and use of the new PowerPoint 2016 program.

The Growth of Microsoft PowerPoint
PowerPoint as we know it started outside of Microsoft Inc. The program was first
developed by Robert Gaskins; Ph.D. student with high hopes of creating an easier and
more efficient way of making presentations. He sought to eliminate the use of boards and
markers as visual aids for presentations and introduce something with less hassle and that
was less tedious to complete. The initial program released in 1987 and dubbed the
Presenter, was to have been used for the Macintosh computers by Apple Inc. The name
as well as its ownership however changed. The program was instead purchased by
Microsoft for millions of dollars and the Presenter name changed to PowerPoint.
The improvements to the program were dynamic, changing with each issue to maximize
customer enjoyment of the product. The versions for the Windows platform advanced
each year, progressing from PowerPoint 2.0 in 1990, to PowerPoint 3.0 in 1992, version
4.0 in 1993, version 95 in 1995, PowerPoint 98 in 1997, PowerPoint 2000 in 1999,
PowerPoint 2002 in 2001 and on, with each being an improvement of sorts over the first.
The timeline for the Mac operating system versions of PowerPoint started in 1987 with
PowerPoint 1.0 and progressed almost annually; introducing improvements with each
release.
Microsoft has invested heavily into the development of the PowerPoint program,
immediately recognizing it as one of its most momentous acquisitions. The creation of a
special unit in the Silicon Valley was created and geared specifically towards the growth
of the program. The result is what we have today; a program engineered to include
graphics, videos and animations into the creation of slides. Let us take a look at the latest
PowerPoint version.

Introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint 2016
Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 is one of the products included in the new Microsoft Office
suite 2016. Office 16 has been designed to assuage the concerns from the earlier Office
2013 and Office for Mac 2011 versions.
The version designed for OS X was the first to be announced by Microsoft execs in July
2015, followed by the licensed version of the program in September of 2015.

The new program has been lauded for the latest improvements. These improvements
include a more contemporary and user-friendly interface, trendy variations of themes, and
Office 365 integration. The new interface offers toolbars for inserting tables, charts and
videos into presentations. It also has as part of its design, a new button that facilitates
users moving between the various displays with greater ease. The new version also
includes new animation panes for editing or changing effects. It also includes more
exciting animation and transition tools to be introduced into presentations. The use of
these new tools can be found in the open; making the editing process easier for users as
well as more creative.
Also included in the new PowerPoint design is the new Collaboration and Threaded
Comments feature and a redesigned Presenter View. The improved Presenter View
introduces users to a better way to dictate how the presentation will flow. Microsoft Inc.
has advised its target market that the new PowerPoint 2016 is designed to be compatible
with the following Mac models; the Xserve, Mac Pro, Mac Mini, MacBook Pro, MacBook
Air, iMac and the MacBook. The program can be purchased as a part of the Office Home
and Business 2016 suite for approximately two hundred and ninety-nine dollars and
ninety-nine cents ($299.99). It can also be purchased in the Office Home & Student 2016
edition for approximately one hundred and nineteen dollars and ninety-nine cents
($119.99).
This manual will aim to educate users on the features of the new PowerPoint 2016 with a
hope of increasing the wealth of knowledge that surrounds the latest version of the
program.

New Features in Microsoft PowerPoint 2016
Tell Me
This innovative feature offers users timely and convenient assistance with completing
tasks in the new PowerPoint 2016. The feature appears in the form of a text field. In this
area, users can enter phrases or words to indicate what they would like to do next in the
program. The feature will quickly redirect to the needed icons or tabs, making completing
the task at hand easier. With this feature, users may also request help with their current
creation or opt to utilize the Smart Lookup feature.

Smart Lookup
This is a new feature incorporated in the Office 2016 suite. The Smart Lookup feature is a
search tool powered by Bing that will allow a user to make queries on how to complete
tasks or how to locate the definition of a word without having to exit the program and start
up the web browser. The feature is not activated by default in the new Office and as such,
must be activated if desired.
To activate the feature in PowerPoint, first highlight the phrase or word to be researched.
From here, go to the top Ribbon on the page and enter the Review tab. From the

available review options, select the option Smart Lookup followed by the option for
Insights located to the right side of the screen. It is important to note that the Insights
panel is outfitted with two primary options; Explore and Define.
From here the user will be prompted with a privacy warning; advising the user that the
data is being redirected to Bing. The user must select the Got It button to the end of the
privacy policy to complete the process. This activates the Smart Lookup feature on your
device; making it automatically available in the other programs of the suite without
repeating the activating process.
To use the feature once activated, simply highlight the word or phrase you wish to peruse
and right click. From the available menu, tap on the option for Smart Lookup; directing
desktop to the Bing search engine. Users can opt at this point to choose the desired field
from the Insights panel; be it defining or exploring.

Insights
This feature is located in the Smart Lookup feature of the Office 2016 suite. Its design
allows a user to choose from two primary options; Explore or Define. The Insights panel
opens with the top related searches from the Bing search site, definitions, parts of speech
and any available Wikipedia articles on the search topic. To enjoy the feature, go to the top
Ribbon on the page and select the Review tab. From the available menu options, select
Smart Lookup and allow the feature to do its thing. Users should note that the search
word or phrase can either be entered at this point or they can initiate the search by first
selecting the term or phrase of interest and then seeking the Smart Lookup feature.

New Charts
The new PowerPoint 2016 is outfitted with six (6) new charts, designed primarily for
assisting with the presentation of hierarchical and financial information. These new
visualization tools are Treemap, Box and Whisker, Waterfall, Sunburst, Histogram and
Pareto. To access the new charts, go to the insert tab and tap on the Ribbon option.
This will display the range of visualization tools including the six new charts which are
displayed at the end of the list as below.
Note: Pareto can be found inside the tap for Histogram.

Ink Equations
This new feature allows a user to include mathematical equations into slides for a
presentation. The feature will allow a user to write out a math equation using your
keyboard or stylus and PowerPoint 2016 will translate the equation to the appropriate
text. To access the feature, go to the Ribbon located to the top of the screen and select the
tab for Insert. From the listed menu options, select followed by the option for Ink
Equation. The user can then enter the desired equation to be inserted to the desired slide

and then tap on the Insert button.

Screen Recording
This is one of the more creative updtes included in the new PowerPoint 2016. The feature
allows a user to enter pre-recorded audio to presentations being designed. The user should
complete and save the desied recording for the presentation to their device. To insert your
audio, first go to the top Ribbon on screen and then select the Insert tab. From the Media
options, select Screen Recording and choose the portion to be inserted into the slide.
Confirm the selection and insert by pressing the Insert key on screen.
Note: This innovative feature is also available in the latest version of PowerPoint 2013.

Sharing Presentations
Created presentations can now be shared among business associates or friends for review.
Sharing is made possible via SharePoint, OneDrive for Business or OneDrive. To utilize
the feature, go to the Ribbon and select the Share option.

Enhanced Version History
This feature is designed to allow users to view all the changes previously made to the
presentation since creation. Users are also able to access earlier saved versions for review
or use where necessary. It is important to note that the feature can only be used on
documents and files that have been saved on the OneDrive Cloud or SharePoint.

Resolving Conflicts
Wherever files are saved to facilitate multiple individuals working at the same time, there
is likely to be conflict with the data entry. PowerPoint 2016 now boasts improvements to
conflict resolution process. When the conflict occurs, users will be shown the conflicted
slides; displayed side-by-side to enable visual review. The user will then receive
prompting to have the conflict resolved by selecting one of the displays.
Enhanced Video Resolution
PowerPoint 2016 now allows users to transfer completed presentations in video format.
Files can be created, converted and saved with resolutions as high as 1920 by 1080. This
high resolution helps with the creation of brighter and sharper images in the presentations;
particularly when displayed via larger screens.
Note: Users of PowerPoint 2013 with the latest updates also have access to this feature.

Formatting Styles

Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 now has increased shape styles from which to choose. These
new default styles boast theme colors and styles to enhance how the presentation is
displayed.

Office Themes
PowerPoint introduces users to three new Office based themes. The themes are more
corporate and modern and lend to a more professional appearance for the presentation. To
utilize this feature, first go to the Ribbon located to the top of the screen and then select
File. From the available options displayed there, select Account followed by the
Office Theme option. The new theme colors are White, Dark Gray and Colorful.

Enhanced Smart Guide
The Smart Guide feature is designed to maximize accuracy when tables or images are
inserted into the various slides. Users of PowerPoint 2013 can also enjoy this feature by
downloading the latest available version.

PowerPoint A Guide to the Basic Features
Microsoft has a Quick Start Guide to assist users with navigating the new interface of the
PowerPoint 2016.
The Ribbon -This is the topmost part of the screen that provides users with tabs to uncover
tools to enhance the design of any presentation.

The Ribbon can be hidden from view and returned when need by tapping on the arrow to
the corner of the screen.

The Quick Access Toolbar - This feature provides timely access to the more commonly
used commands. It can be found to the inside the top Ribbon.

Find context commands- From the Ribbon, a user can enter to find additional tabs to enter
objects, images, shapes or text boxes into the presentation.

Changing object orientation- The new PowerPoint 2016, like earlier editions, also allows
users to modify the orientation of objects, images and text boxes placed into a slide. It
offers the user the ability to be creative and adjust slides to suit what is deemed to be most
appropriate or most suited for a target market. The rotate icon will be displayed
whenever the modification is possible.


Facilitating and maintaining organization- Slides for the presentation can be managed and
kept organized by tapping on the thumbnail of any slide and moving it down or up to the
area of the presentation where it may be considered most effective.
Including comments or notes-This feature of PowerPoint 2016 is designed to allow the
user to manage the presentation; keeping additional information at hand to verbally insert
into the presentation for emphasis. This section can be found to the lower center of the
screen.
Notes can be added by tapping in to designated area to the lower left corner of the slide.
Commencing the presentation- To start your PowerPoint presentation users have two
options from which to choose. A user may tap on the Slide show tab located in the
Ribbon to the top of the page or simply tap on the slide icon to the lower right corner of
the screen.

Zooming- Magnify or minimize the view of a slide by moving the zoom slider to the left
or right. The slider is located to the lower right corner of the screen.

Viewing options- The status bar is located to the lower right corner of the screen and
enables the user to modify how the slides in the presentation are being viewed. The user
can opt to alternate between any viewing options at any point throughout the presentation.

Sharing-The Share feature on the new PowerPoint 2016 is located to the top right side of
the Ribbon. Simply sign in with the details for your cloud account to commence sharing
your presentation with colleagues and friends.

Locating Recent Files- PowerPoint 2016 stores all recently opened files and documents
whether they are saved on the hard drive of the device or on any of the current cloud
storage services. To access these files, simply tap on the File tab located in the Ribbon
and select the option to Open. Users can then select from the following options: Recent,
OneDrive, Other Web Locations, Add a Place or Browse.

Maintaining the connection- This feature is convenient when the user needs to be on the
go while still working on a presentation. A user can now have access to recently accessed
files from any device by tapping on the File tab to the top of the screen and select the
option for Account then entering the account details. The connected services include
OneDrive and SharePoint.

Personalizing PowerPoint 2016 User and interface options can be modified to make it
personal or more user-friendly. To adjust the program options, tap on the File key to the
top of the screen and select the Options setting. Options that can be modified include
language, interface settings, the Ribbon, background and themes.

Layout Options-Users have a numbers of layout options from which to choose when
preparing presentations. To access the layout options, go to the Home tab to the left side
of the Ribbon and select Layout from the options displayed. The available options are
Content with Caption, Blank, Title Only, Comparison, Title Slide, Title and Content,
Section Header and Two Content.

Troubleshooting Common Installation Issues

Issue/ Questions How to Address the Issue
The Install button would not complete the installation process The user can try one of four
options:
Attempt to retune the settings for Internet Explorer
Verify if the new Office suite has already been installed on your device.
The plug-ins, add-ins and extensions on your internet browser should be deactivated and
another attempt made at installation.
Have the temporary internet files saved to your device deleted to create space.

The installation process is seems to be taking a long timeTo address the issue of lengthy
installation, users can:
Locate and temporarily disable your device antivirus software
Verify that that the Office suite 2016 has not already been installed to your device.
If Office 2016 is already installed, try uninstalling and reinstalling the program.
Power off your device, then restart and connect to another internet connection. When this
is complete attempt to reinstall.
Installation is interrupted with another installation is in progress Try powering off your
device and restarting it. If the issue is not resolved, the user should attempt to manually
stop the task in the Task Manager.
Installation process not successful but no error message was displayedFrom a Windows
device try to locate and activate the Fix it tool to have the incomplete installation
uninstalled and removed. Where this is not successful, manual remove the Suite from your
computer.

Application errors after a Windows 10 updateTo address the various issues that could be
occurring between Office 2916 and Windows 10 go to Office.com/help
Do I have the right operating system?Users should verify that the system requirements for
the Office 2016 are met on your device. Users can also check to confirm their current
operating system. It is important to note that the Office suite 2016 cannot be installed on
Windows Vista or Windows XP.
I cannot locate the programs after installation is completeWindows 10 currently will auto
remove the shortcut to the Office suite from the Start Menu and the All Apps menu if
the device has more than five hundred and twelve applications installed. Users can use the
Help section for guidance.
During installation a message suggesting that older apps on the device need to be
deletedThis message is likely to appear during the installation of Office 2016 if your
device has certain versions of Project, Visio, InfoPath and SharePoint 2013 previously
installed on your device.
The warning will list the programs that should be removed and permanently uninstalled
for this device.
Error message indicating that access to the program cannot be granted at that time The
user can attempt one of four options in an effort to resolve this issue
Clear the browsing history and cookies history from the device
Try browsing with an InPrivate session
Close your current browser and reopen
Verify that your internet service is current and active
Message indicating that my recently renewed or purchased subscription is expired The
subscription is only kept active if the user signs in at least once within thirty days. Attempt
to log in and the Office will automatically reactivate the subscription at that time.
Getting error message 0x0C004C060This error message being displayed indicates that an
invalid product key is being used. Users can go to the Help section to identify how to
address the error.
Seeing the Office info on my Account page after having it uninstalledWhen the program
has been successfully uninstalled, the user must disable or deactivate the install function.
Error occurring when trying to complete the installation of the Office for two different
countriesInstallation for two different regions requires two copies of the Office Suite and
two Microsoft accounts.
I cant find what version of the Office I have on my deviceA user can verify whether the
version now installed on the device is Office 2013 or Office 2016 by following the steps
below:
Open any one of the programs in the Microsoft Office suite (example: PowerPoint or
Excel).

Go to the File menu to the top left side of the opened application and select the option for
Account from those displayed
The version number will be displayed under the Product Information. Ascertaining
whether or not your Office is installed under a subscription can also be found her.
I need to upgrade to the latest version of Office For most devices, particularly those on an
Office 365 subscription an upgrade notification will appear in the menu bar of the
applications; prompting the user to upgrade.
During the installation of Office 2016, a message is displayed suggesting that some older
apps must be removed. If particular Office 2013 standalone applications are installed on
your device, the Microsoft Office 2016 suite will not be able to coexist on that device.
Experiencing compatible issues since completing installation of Microsoft Office
2016Devices on a 2007 Exchange work best with Office 2013 and earlier versions. The
decision may be to simply uninstall the Microsoft Office 2016 suite and reinstall and use
the Office 2013 version. Users may also try the special offer by Microsoft for customers
with Office 2016 and Office 2013 standalone applications.
Initial use of the Office 2016 applications To commence use of the Office for Home:
Go to the Office.com website and sign-in to your account
To commence using Office for Business:
Go to the Office 365 for Business Learning Center
Utilize the tutorials and guides provided
To be more effective while on the go, I would like to have the Office app installed on my
tablet and mobile phone To have the Office 2016 applications, which include Microsoft
PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook, installed to your
mobile devices simply go to Office 365 mobile setup and select Help from the options
displayed.
I get a message that PowerPoint has stopped working when I start the application This
message can occur for any of the Office application and is generally the result of two
issues.
The user needs to verify that Windows has been updated and have this addressed where it
is discovered that it is not the case.
The opened program is trying to an add-in that is an older version
Correct the issue by going the Office.com help site
I want to uninstall the Microsoft Office 2016 suite To uninstall the suite from your PC go
to the Windows Control Panel and tap the option for Programs and features and select
the uninstall option. A user may also select the Uninstall Office 2016 from the Help
section on the Office.com site
Can I enjoy the features of the Microsoft Office 2016 while offline? Users are able to

utilize the applications of the suite from online. Users must however attempt to connect to
the internet at least once every thirty days. The purpose of this is to monitor the status of
the user subscription and to prevent the programs from shifting into reduced mode.
Why cant I just install Microsoft PowerPoint instead of the entire suite? Microsoft Office
2016 is sold as a set. This enables a more accurate, timely and efficient download and
installation process. The user can remove the shortcut to the applications they have no
interest in using once installation is complete.
My Office 2016 looks blurry after installation Go to the Office not looking right site on
the Office help page if a document u created previously looks blurry, flickers or appears
in all black and white as opposed to the color it was designed in.
Seeing a subscription notice whenever I open on of the applications on the 2016 suite This
error can occur when a uses opens any of the Office programs. The reasons:
Your Office 2016 may not have been activated after installation
Your computer may have auto disabled the Office 2016 software
The subscription for the suite is expired.
I receive an error message at installation There are a number of reasons that this possible.
The Office.com site has error links to help address each of the possible errors that could be
displayed. Users should go to the site, peruse the links to identify the numbers in your
error and find the answers.

Learning the PowerPoint Interface
It is important to get familiar with the terminology and the interface to be able to know
where everything is for easy access. At the top of the screen is the quick access toolbar. In
this toolbar, are most of the features that will be used frequently such as Undo and Save.
Features can also be added to this menu by clicking on this pull down menu and adding
any feature that the user will commonly use. The current file name that is open can be
seen at the very top of the screen, the document can be closed by clicking the X at the top
right hand of the screen.
Directly below that is the ribbon which house the File menu. In this menu, it allows the
user to access the properties of the document and other related tasks. The arrow at the top
left of the screen can be clocked to go back to the previous screen. The ribbon is tabbed to
allow an easy interface with all the categories based on the various tasks that can be done
in PowerPoint. The Home ribbon tab will contain all the things that are done most
frequently such as working on shapes and adding a new slide.
The name of the ribbon will give you an idea of the function you are looking for so you
will know where to look for these items. If the user finds that they need more space to do
their work, they can minimize the ribbon by clicking the arrow at the right hand side of
the screen. This will hide the ribbon and at any time the user can click the tabs and they
will open up. Once the selection has been make the ribbon will go away again. The ribbon

can be brought back full time by clicking the push pin icon that will be in place of the
arrow that was originally clicked. The ribbon will be pinned back to the screen.
There is a new feature that the user can tell PowerPoint what they will like to do and the
software will be able to suggest what you are looking for. It will give examples of things
that you can try. An example of this is when the user starts typing plain text and then
PowerPoint will assist in the current task that needs to be completed. The software will
also show you who is currently logged into Office 365 and the presentation can be shared.
The bottom of the screen will show the status bar. This will show what slide is currently
being worked on are how many slides are in the total presentation. Other information it
displays are speakers notes and comments that are in the presentation. The views of the
slide show can be changed between Normal Slide View, which is the default view and the
Slide Sorter View. The user can also zoom in or out so the slides can be seen clearly if the
user has to move farther away from the screen. Options such as fit to screen to the current
can be done by clicking the four cross hairs on the bottom right hand side of the screen.
The status bar can be customized by right clicking on it and placing a check mark beside a
feature you would like to see appearing on the bar. On the left hand side, there is the slide
tabs when the user can navigate the slides. There are times when the user is working on a
particular tasks and a new ribbon toolbar will appear. The user can click on that tab to get
a new pane on the right hand side.
The user can utilize the controls that are located in the pane and when ready to close the
area, click the X on the pane and return to the slide editing. To move back and forth
between the slides, they can be clicked in the navigation view and the information for each
slide will appear on the right side and then the text can be edited.
Adding Guides and Changing Views
When using PowerPoint 2016, it will usually be in the Normal view. That view has the
slides in a vertical display on the left hand of the screen and the currently selected slide
will be shown large on the right hand of the screen. This is considered to be the primary
way to use PowerPoint. If a different view of the thumbnail is necessary, hover the mouse
over the lines that separate the two and drag it to the right to make the thumbnail larger.
The line can be dragged to the left the make the thumbnail smaller as in different times
you may require something different.
There are many view options that are located under the View ribbon tab. Five presentation
views are available for use. The first view type is Normal and that is the default view.
Another view type is the Outline View and this is a text only view of looking at the slides.
Slide Sorter view is also available which will give an overview of what the slides look
like. The zoom slider is located on the bottom right hand side of the status bar to make the
thumbnails get larger.
There is the Notes Page view, which allows the user to see speaker notes for each slide.
The final view is the Reading View which is a great way to see the complete presentation
in a full screen view. There is also a view called the Master View which allows the user to
make universal changes to every slide in the presentation.

There are many things that can be edited under the View ribbon. One of them is the color
of the slides which can be adjusted to the desired color. There is also an option to decide if
the ruler should appear by placing a check box next to Ruler .
Gridlines and guides can also be added to the presentation to assist in the development of
the presentation. The guides are essentially four crossed haired points that will appear in
the center of the slide. These features can help the user to align objects as best as possible
when creating a presentation. Any of these options can be turned off or they can be turned
on temporarily if there is any issue with aligning an object.
Connecting PowerPoint to OneDrive
The OneDrive service is the online cloud storage that is attributed to Microsoft. If the user
is currently a OneDrive user, they have the ability to access the presentations that are
saved on OneDrive right from PowerPoint. They can also be saved directly to OneDrive.
As an Office365 user, you will be entitled to a free OneDrive account with 1TB worth of
storage which can store a large amount of presentations. To connect the account go to File
-> Account -> Sign In -> Sign in with your details.
Once you have completed the sign in process, the relevant connected services will be
loaded. At this point the user can also sign into the Microsoft Office Store to get additional
applications. At any time the user is allowed to sign out or switch accounts to log in as
someone else. At any point in time, if you need to see the user that is currently logged in,
you can click on the name and switch accounts at this point. One of the great benefits to
using the OneDrive service is the ability to access your presentations anywhere at any
time not restricting the user to the computer used to create it.
Creating a new presentation
This section will look at how to create a presentation from scratch, adding content to it and
saving it so it can be edited at a later time. To start, double click the PowerPoint icon on
the desktop or from the start menu. This will start the main screen of the software where
an actual file is not open.
To create a blank presentation, click the option of the same name as it is listed as the first
available option. The first thing displayed is a blank slide with placeholder text. The grey
squares that are located around the text is known as a placeholder. This is PowerPoints
way to get the user to quickly add text and other content to the slides. To start editing the
text directly, click the mouse pointer where it says click to add title.
When activated, the text will go away and be replaced by a blinking cursor. The user can
now start entering text ass desired. This area will represent the title of the presentation, if
the user presses the return or enter key on the keyboard this will move the cursor to a new
line. To enter text in another placeholder, simply click it and start typing in it.
When typing has been completed, the mouse pointer can be clicked into anyone of the
remaining white space in the slide. This will show what the completed slide will look like.
It is important to note that the borders around the placeholder text will disappear and the
slide will look complete. The user can at any time click on the text to continue editing or

adding text to it. If the text is deleted from it, it will return to being a placeholder ready to
accept text.
Text does not have to be entered into these placeholders if not desired. They are simply
there for reference and will not show up in the final presentation. The slides to the left of
the main screen (the thumbnail view) can be viewed as a preview to see what the final
slide will look like. A new slide can be added by going into Home -> New Slide and
choosing a layout.
This option will give the user a new slide with new placeholders for a title and one for
content. Now that two slides are in the presentation, the user can navigate by clicking back
and forth between the slides located in the thumbnail view.
The presentation can be saved by clicking File-> Save As. The user will have the option to
save it to the OneDrive account that the account is currently linked to. It can also be saved
on the computer, which will give a couple of choices. The presentation can either be saved
to the desktop, documents, recent locations that have been saved to or any location the
user will choose. To choose the location to save, click browse and choose were desired by
using the familiar Windows dialog box.
Creating a presentation using a template or a theme
Many times users do not want to have a simple, plain, boring canvas for a presentation.
This will not give a very pleasing presentation as it will be white and just filled with
content. In cases like these, PowerPoint provides themes which are pre-built structures
with borders, fonts and graphics. There will be no content built in as that will have to be
added by the user so they are placeholders there to accept text as necessary. To create a
new presentation using a theme go to Home -> File -> Click New.
This is the similar screen that was used to create a blank presentation previously, but now
a theme can be selected to add to the presentation. PowerPoint 2016 provides the user
with over 20 themes to choose to add to their presentation or the user can look online for
additional themes.
In some of the themes, the user can choose a color variant and be able to choose more
images to add. The various content layouts can be viewed to see which one is desirable
and once one is found click create. This will load one slide similar to when the blank
canvas was loaded. The user can now click into the placeholders to add content and text as
before. The fonts and colors will be changed according to the design of the selected theme.
A theme will give the design elements of a slide with no content however a template will
give us a slide that has been pre-designed with a theme and content built in. The user can
click into the search for online templates and themes search box to search for templates.
Type the search criteria as desired and click the magnifying glass beside the box and then
view the templates that are retuned in the results.
Using templates with content in there can be great for some presentations as it can give
you a head start in the creation of your slides. Many of these templates are used for their
structures and the user will just adjust the text that need to be edited to their needs. One

example of this can be an award presentation, the user can simply add the persons name
and the information on the type of award while using the structure and other content in the
presentation. The file can be saved as normal as discussed before.
Changing themes in the presentation
A new theme can be added to a presentation at any time while you are working on it.
There is never a right or wrong time to add a theme to the slides. It is important to mention
that the user can add a theme to one slide or have each slide containing a different theme.
Firstly, we will discuss adding a theme to the entire presentation. To do this, click on the
Design Ribbon and under here you will see a list of themes also with a list of Color
Variances.
This will look somewhat similar to when the themes were chosen in the earlier discussion.
Click on the arrow with the line above it and this will display additional themes that can
be added. The mouse can be hovered over the theme to get a preview of what it will look
like. The color variance can be seen and while hovering the mouse all the different choices
can be seen that are available.
While looking on the available themes, instead of clicking on the theme which will apply
this to every slide, right click on it. It will give options to Apply it to All Slides or to
Selected Slides. The Selected Slides will just apply the theme to the Selected Slide at the
moment.
Controlling how the presentation looks using Slide Masters
The built in themes gives the user a great base to start from and build up on. However,
these can be fine -tuned and be developed as necessary. The colors can be changed on the
smallest level which can allow the user to color match other content in the presentation.
The fonts call also be changed and these changes can all be applied to all slides. The base
design for any theme is referred to as the Slide Master. There is a Slide Master that is
associated with each theme that is applied in the presentation.
The Slide Master contains the layouts that are used in the theme. It is accessed by going
into View -> Slide Master and the different themes used in the presentation can be seen.
The thumbnails that are shown will contain all the different layouts and the Slide Master
will show how many slides are using that particular layout.
This means that if the user attempts to make any change to a theme, they will know if it is
used by other slides. To make a change, click and drag the mouse to highlight the
placeholder text. At this point, the user can adjust the size, bold the letters or change the
color of the text.
I addition to being able to change font properties, layouts can also be changed. Once the
placeholder is clicked, the user can move it around and determine a new location on the
slide. Other changes such as the slide color can be made and the change can be applied to
any other slide that uses this layout.
While making the various changes the user can click on the Home ribbon toolbar to
change the font properties as well. The Master View can be closed out and the user can

return to the direct editing of the presentation content. This is done by clicking on the
Slide Master Ribbon toolbar -> then click Close Master View. This will return to the
presentation and the changes that were made will be updated.
If the user clicks on New Slide, they will see that the layout will be organized with the
changes done before. This is one of the ways to change the look and feel of the
presentation using the Slide Master.
Adding Header and Footer
Headers and footers can be easily added to a presentation if desired by the user. A footer
such as a copyright or confidential notification can be placed at the bottom of the slide can
be done. To add a footer, go to Insert Tab -> Click Header and Footer. On the dialog box,
entries can be made about what is to be included on the footer. An example of this is to
include the date and time on the slide.
The area will become dark which will indicate that this entry will appear on the slide.
Other features such as slide numbers can be entered as well. By looking on the Footer, it
will be clear where the entry will be located on the slide. If the user decides to remove
these elements at any time, the option can be un-checked. A customized footer can be
inserted by placing a check box next to the footer and enter the text desired. One of the
great features of footers is that they can be updated easily when the changes are necessary
from one central place.
The user can choose whether they want the footer to appear on the title slide or not. There
is an option that allows for different footers to be available to a particular slide or all
slides. Once the changes are done, it will be instantly reflected on the bottom of all slides.
If there is any need to make additional changes, click Header and Footer and select what
needs to be changed.
Backstage View and File Options
Many times, when a user is working in one presentation and would like to move to another
one, they usually close the first one and open the next one. This is not necessarily the case,
everything will happen Backstage which is a term Microsoft uses for things that are being
done with a file. To access the Backstage area, click File on the toolbar and this will
enable the Backstage View. At this point a new PowerPoint file can be opened, open an
existing file, print a file or save the one you are currently working on.
The file can also be shared or exported from this area as well. There is also an option to
completely close out the file in its entirety. While in the Backstage, there is the Info tab
which gives all the necessary information about the current presentation. The properties of
the presentation are located to the right of the screen and it also provides useful
information on the file. Information like the file size, the amount of slides contained, when
the file was created and the title of the presentation.
Additionally, Show All Properties can be clicked on the bottom right of the screen and this
will provide more information. Information provided will include how many words are
contained, if there are any multimedia items, if there are any comments, what template is

being used and other useful information. The user can also click Open File Location to see
the location the file is saved in.
If the user desires to return to the presentation they were working on, click the arrow in
the top left of the screen and it will go back to the presentation.
Working with slides
There are many ways to add slides in PowerPoint. One way has already been covered by
our guide which was selecting New Slide within the Home Ribbon Tab and selecting the
content and start populating. However, a new slide can be added without selecting a
layout. It can be done by creating a new slide and using the layout of the current slide. By
using the keyboard, the user can hit Ctrl-M to quickly add a slide. The final way to do this
is to right click the mouse and choose New Slide. Once the slide has been selected, the
layout can be changed by ensuring it is the slide currently in the selected view. Then go
into the Home Ribbon -> Clicking Layout and choosing which one suits your needs. Once
you have selected the layout you desire, you can add the text as necessary.
After adding text, you may desire to add some pictures to the presentation as well. The
mouse pointer can be hovered over the insert icons where the user can insert a table, a
chart, SmartArt content or pictures. As necessary, more things can be added to complete
the presentation. If this same slide is desired to be used again in the same presentation, the
user can right click and choose Duplicate Slide. This will see a copy of the slide added to
the presentation.
All that has to be edited is the text of the slide. Just click into the content areas and you
will be able to edit the text or pictures as necessary. If at any time there are slides that need
to be deleted, the user can remove them by deleting them. The easiest way to do this is to
choose the slide, and hit the Delete key on the keyboard. The slide can also be right
clicked and the user can choose Delete Slide. This can also be done by holding down the
Shift key and selecting multiple slides and then hitting the Delete key or right clicking and
clicking Delete. The slide can be deselected by clicking away from them once they are
selected.
Modifying the Slide Layout
If after adding text and content, you decide to change the layout of the slide this can be
done quite easily. You will not have to delete or recreate the content, the layout can be
changed at that point if desired.
While the slide is selected click on the Home Ribbon -> Click Layout. It will display all
the available themes and it can be changed. Just click the layout desired and it will
rearrange the slides as necessary to conform to the selected layout. All the text will be left
in place and not changed.
One of the layouts called Content with Caption will arrange the layout quite nicely
allowing the details to be easily readable. In some cases in layouts with placeholders, the
user may find that they have accidentally moved the placeholder a little bit, but that is fine
as it can be reset to its original layout.

Located under the Home Ribbon Tab -> Layout -> Reset. This action will put the
presentation back to the original settings with the current available content in the layout.
This can be used to reset the presentation as much as possible.
Some users who find themselves changing the layouts very often should consider making
a custom layout that can be used over and over. This can be done in the Slide Master
View. This is accessed in View -> Slide Master where you can create the custom layout.
Once you have configured the layout how you desire, right click on the slide and choose
Rename Layout. It will show Custom Layout by default but that can be renamed as
desired.
The user can exit this view by clicking the Slide Master Ribbon Tab and choosing Close
Master View. When the user attempts to choose a layout in the future they will have
available the custom layout as an option as well.
Slide Sections
One of the standout features of PowerPoint is to be able to separate the slides into different
sections. This can done in two ways. The first way is a division that only PowerPoint and
the user will be aware of. What this means that it will make it easier for the user to
organize the presentation visually into sections. The second type of division is also a
visual one that can be used by the creator and the audience which is an actual header slide.
This is a good approach as it allows the presenter to pause to catch a breath while the
audience can regroup and refocus on the content.
An important note to understand is that sections can be used without using the visual
header slide however it is a great habit to adapt to your presentation design. To do this,
click in between the slides that need to be separated into section. Then add a new slide
from the Home Ribbon and choose the Section Header option. There will be a title and a
subheading that can be completed as necessary. This is how the divisions are created by
using the section header.
Once the section headings are in place, PowerPoint will have to know about them. A
logical section can be created in the presentation and this is done by inserting the mouse
where one section will end and the new one will begin. Go to the Home Ribbon -> Section
-> Add Section and it will show the different sections and show which slides are part of
which sections.
The user can right click and then select Rename Section and give the section a name. The
sections can be named to allow easy sorting and allows the user to find particular content
faster. This also helps to reduce visual clutter with many slides.
The user can click Section in the Home Ribbon tab and choose Collapse All. This will
collapse every section that has been created in the presentation. The user can quickly find
out how many slides are in each section and click to expand the section conveniently.
Section can also be clicked again to select Remove All Sections if they are not required
anymore or it can be expanded to see all of the slides.
It is also very convenient to work in the Slide Sorter mode. This mode is accessed by

going to the View Ribbon -> Slide Sorter. Under this selection you can collapse or expand
the sections as necessary. This view is very useful as the user can navigate and easily see
all the slides that are contained in the sections. This allows for easy rearranging of the
slides to be completely organized. Working with sections will prove to make the
organization of the presentation much easier.
Rearranging Slides
In some cases, the development of a presentation is a constantly evolving process. At the
beginning of the development the user may have an outstanding plan and while creating
they may find a different way to deliver it. The flow of the presentation is important so the
slides can be rearranged each time the ideas of the user will change. To rearrange the
slides, they can be clicked and dragged with the mouse and released once placed in the
desired spot. If the slide needs to move down, the slide can be moved up or down as
necessary.
The mouse can be scrolled and the user releases it when the pointer is in a spot that is
good for the slide to be placed in. More than one slide can be moved around by holding
down the Shift key and selecting the slides as necessary then dragging them around.
The Slide Sorter is a good way combined with the sections to rearrange large chunks of
the slides in a given time. This is a great feature to have while making a presentation as it
is helps to have the presentation properly organized. Using sections will help to avoid this
problem and make things easier to be rearranged quicker. When the slides have been fully
rearranged, click the View Tab -> Normal and go back to regular slide editing.
Adding Pictures to Clip Art
In the previous areas, we have added images to the presentation using the placeholders
which made a difference. Pictures make a great difference when added to a presentation as
they can strengthen words and create a visual interest.
The easiest way to insert an image into the slide is to change to the Insert Tab -> select
pictures. Browse the computer and select the picture from a saved location. At this point
there is no placeholder so the picture can be placed anywhere as necessary.
The user can click and drag the image which will produce guides on the sheet. These
guides appear to help the user center the picture in accordance with other elements. The
image can be made smaller or larger as desired. This is done by clicking and dragging any
diagonal point on the image to adjust it. It is important to note that this is the four outside
points that are used to do this. The middle points will skew the image when selected. This
means that it will shrink or stretch it.
When handling pictures, a new tab will appear, called the Picture tools tab. This tab can be
selected and choose the option to Reset Picture. If the user clicks on the pull down arrow,
the size and the picture can be reset as it was originally loaded into the presentation.
The background can be adjusted based on the needs of the user by going into Format
Background. A design pane will be shown on the right of the screen. It will give the user
some choices to edit the background such as solid fill, gradient or pattern fill.

Aligning objects using a Guide

Essentially, a PowerPoint slide is a big white square to fill with dynamic content. The user
should aim to build great presentations that look polished and where everything looks
aligned. Guides are used to achieve proper alignment between the object and another
existing object. These guides will automatically appear when the object is centered or has
even spacing with another object. To use the guides feature, you will want to ensure that
the guides are turned on.
This is done by clicking the View Ribbon tab and then clicking the arrow that points to the
right underneath the Guide section. This will provide additional options for the Grid and
Guides. Ensure that a checkmark is selected for the option to display smart guides when
shapes are aligned. The OK button can be clicked to come out of the dialog box.
Another alternative is to adding picture is to drag and drop the image from a folder
directly on the slide. If multiple images are selected they will all be placed on the slide. It
may appear that it is one image placed but they are all on top of each other so once
selected and moved around the rest will appear.
They may appear small so the user may need to adjust the size of the images using the
points as described before. Once the images start to move around then the guides will
appear to let the user pay attention to alignment. This will allow the user to be able to
make the presentation as neat as possible.
Formatting and adding Picture Effects
When pictures have been added to the presentation, they can be accentuated with shadows,
backgrounds and various effects. To do this, while the picture is highlighted, go to the
Picture Tools Format tab that will appear once the user clicks on the picture. One of the
first things that can be done to an image is to make corrections to it. Corrections such as
softening, blurry, sharpening and crisp can be done to the image. If the mouse pointer is
moved over each of the settings, it will show a preview of what the image with the applied
change will look like.
Artistic effects can be added to the picture such as turning it to a watercolor picture. It can
also be re-colored if desired according to a color in the presentation theme. The images
can also be compressed to reduce the file size and thus save some space. Also if a change
was made that you are not comfortable with you can always reset the picture
When a picture is reset it will return to the original way it was inserted into the slide.
Picture styles can be added by clicking the down arrow next to Picture Styles. There will
be a lot of preset choices available that the user can choose from. When the mouse is
hovered over it will show the preview and the desired one can be chosen. Picture effects
can also be selected in a similar way by clicking the down arrow and looking at the preset
choices.
Options such as shadows, reflections, glows and soft edges can be added to an image.
Once changes have been made the user has the option of copying and pasting the actual
formatting of the slide. This is done by using the Format Painter tool, with the image

selected go the Home Ribbon -> Format Painter. Go to the next slide the formatting should
be applied to and the icon will change when the mouse is hovered over it. When the
paintbrush appears, click once on the picture and it the formatting will be applied.
Some cases may require the picture to be cropped and this is done by clicking the Picture
Tools Format tab -> Clicking Crop then the black lines can be clicked and dragged as
necessary to crop the photo. This will allow you to choose what you want to include in the
photo. When satisfied with the crop, click the Crop button once again and the user can
now resize the photo as desired.
Object Layering
The order in which objects are placed on top of each other can play a critical role in the
design of the presentation. The effect can make the difference to show if the presentation
was done hurriedly or it was designed beautifully. Details can be fined tuned so objects
and can be properly organized into an order of how they are placed on each other. This
becomes very important when you are handling text boxes, photos and other content that
will overlap. The order in which elements are added makes the newest object be the one
that is shown on top.
To adjust the order of photos, the user can choose the photo that is on top and if that photo
should go underneath the others the user can right click -> Send to Back. If the photo is
still above the one you need, repeat this step. This will change the layer order of the
picture and move it behind the picture that was original below it.
On the contrary, if the picture should be brought to the front, the user should right click ->
Bring to Front. These tips can allow the user to use object layering to make the important
parts of the presentation stand out.
Removing the background from pictures
While adding pictures in presentations, in some cases a background may cause an issue
with the picture. Some of the pictures have backgrounds that do not make it look clean and
polished when added to a presentation. However, there is a built-in tool that can help the
user to remove the background.
The tool will set a transparent background so whatever color the slide has will be shown
around the picture. To do this, click on the picture and then click on the format ribbon tab.
On the left of the screen, there will be an option for the remove background tool. Once this
is selected, parts of the picture will remain and part of it will disappear.
Another thing that would need to be done is to tell PowerPoint what areas of the image
you would want to keep. This is done by ensuring that the width and length of the photo is
outlines by adjusting the grey bullet points. There is an additional feature that can be
selected on the left side of the screen called mark areas that will indicate to PowerPoint
what parts of the image should be kept.
The user can draw a line to show the software exactly what should remain until they are
satisfied with the results. Once completed with the changes, click keep changes at the top
when finished with all edits.

The Eyedropper tool

Colors can be selected in the presentation by using the Eyedropper Tool. This tool will
allow the user to choose a single color from any image that is on a slide and apply it on the
palette. This will allow it to be used on other slides.
When there is a picture on a slide where the color is to be used it is done in the following
way. As an example, to change the background of a slide to a chosen color, it is done by
going to the Design Ribbon tab -> Format Background on the right side of the screen. In
the Format Background Pane, choose a Solid Fill and then click the down arrow that is
beside the paint can. Then choose the Eyedropper and once the mouse pointer is moved
over the slide a magnifying glass showing the color the Eyedropper is presently over.
It is important to note that as the pointer moves it will fine tune the color. It will adjust as
the pointer is moved and the user is free to choose any color they desire that is on the
slide, this also includes text. This is also a great way to match logo colors and other things.
In any color choosing screen the eyedropper tool can be used.
Bullet Points
Bullet Points are one of the tenets of PowerPoint. It is a short and easy way to point out
your message to the audience of the presentation. It helps both the presenter and the
audience to keep them both focused and always direct them on what to talk about.
Bullets can also be converted into sub-bullets by hitting the tab button on the keyboard.
Another bullet point can be created by placing the cursor where the new bullet should be
and the enter key can be pressed. Sometimes the user creates an indented bullet point by
accidentally pressing the tab key, to undo this, press and hold the Shift key and press the
tab key. If you need to put back an indent just press the tab key again.
The bullet styles can be changed by going to the Home Tab Ribbon -> Click the down
arrow that is next to bullets. The various styles will be shown and the user can make their
choice. The user can also click Bullets and Numbering and be able to access more bullet
types to choose from. Options such as size and color of bullets can also be adjusted as
desired.
To create a numbered list the user can drag and highlight all the text and then go to the
Home Tab Ribbon -> Click Numbering. This will turn the selected items into a numbered
list. Similar to bullet lists a new numbered area can be done by placing the cursor where
desired and hitting the enter key on the keyboard, PowerPoint will automatically renumber
the list.
An item can be removed from the list and PowerPoint will again adjust the numbering as
necessary. Also just like bullet points, the user can click the down arrow beside
Numbering and choose from the various types. Bullets and Numbering can also be used to
change the size and color of the outline forms.
Using the outline mode to edit content
At times the user may choose to add or edit content directly without any intervention from
pictures, clip art or other designs in the presentation. This is what the outline mode is used

for, it will give the user a text only version of the slides so they can be edited directly. To
access this mode, click the View Ribbon Tab -> Click the Outline View. This will enable
the text version of the slides. The slide that is selected will show on the right and as the
changes are made it will show on the right.
The slides can even be rearranged by clicking and dragging and moving them around in
the presentation similar to what can be done in the regular Navigator View. The user has
the option of creating all the text in Microsoft Word and then come into the Outline Mode
and copy and paste and it will be there in an outline. Once in the Outline View and
finished, go to the View Ribbon Tab -> Click Normal and it will go back to the regular
editing. This is a great way to add content quickly to the presentation.
Formatting text and adding WordArt
The text used in the presentation can be made much flashier by adding WordArt and
applying styles. WordArt will change the plain text to something great that looks so much
better than basic text. To apply the WordArt to the text, click and drag to highlight the text.
This time instead of changing font properties on the Home Ribbon Tab there will be a
Drawing Tools Format Tab that has now appeared.
Once this has been clicked on, there will be some suggested WordArt styles shown. Click
on the down arrow to see styles that can instantly change the text. In addition to WordArt,
the user can add Text Effects such as reflections, 3-D rotations and shadows. The text can
also be transformed and if the mouse pointer is hovered over the transformation a preview
of how it is going to look will be shown. If you choose to change the edits that have been
done, go to the Home Ribbon Tab -> Layout -> Reset and it will return to how it was
before the WordArt styles were added.
An entire placeholders text content can be changed all at once by selecting the
placeholder. While it is selected all the font properties such as making the fonts larger,
smaller, bold or even change the color. WordArt can be applied to the text while all still
having the Drawing Tools Format options available. Text effects can also be applied here
as well.
Working with Text Boxes
A text box can be considered a placeholder that is somewhat similar to the ones that were
being used up to this point. The user has the freedom to add their own text boxes and
resize them, change the font in them ad essentially manipulate them as they like.
To insert a text box into the presentation, click on Insert onto the Ribbon Tab -> Text Box.
The user can click anywhere into the presentation and a text box can be added. Once it is
added it can start to be populated with text immediately. It can also be moved anywhere on
the slide as necessary.
The text box will also be somewhat transparent when on the slide and it can be clicked or
dragged to select the text that it contains. At this point, things like the text properties such
as bold- faced, larger or smaller fonts can be edited. Even WordArt styles and text effects
can be added. Once the slide is completed the textbox can be moved around which doesnt

have to be right angles only.

The text box can be nudged around the slide using the directional arrows on the keyboard
so it can be placed somewhere different. In some cases the user may want to have multiple
text boxes and will not want to create different ones all the time. Therefore, they can
duplicate one that is already on the slide by pressing the control key and the letter D on the
keyboard.
This will duplicate the text box and this can only be done once I am using the text box on
the same slide. There will now be a different text box that can be moved and edited as
necessary. While the editing of text is done, this new textbox will retain the properties of
the original text box. This is useful as in some presentations, the user may have done a lot
of work and so not wish to duplicate the work it took to make the original.
The user can also copy a text box if that approach is desired. To do this, choose the text
box -> right click on it and choose copy. Go to the area that the slide is to be placed and
right click -> Paste. The text box can be nudged and set up where desired with the text
being editable as usual.
When the user inserts a new text box by going to Insert -> Text Box and drawing the
boundaries of the text box. Once this is done, you can populate it with text as necessary.
The box can be adjusted and the text will change accordingly. The box can also be
dragged and placed anywhere on the screen.
The creation and formatting of tables
Presentations are used to review different types of data for users. This data can be sales
results, day to day business operations or projections. Tables can be easily created in
PowerPoint to accept the data as necessary. With the content placeholder, the user can
click Insert Table and the software will prompt to determine how many columns and rows
which can be selected by the user. If the amount is not known at this time, that is fine as it
can be adjusted later on. Click Okay and the table will be created.
Many different formatting options will be available but the first thing that you may want
to do is to populate with data. Once created, the first cell will contain the cursor or the
mouse pointer can be clicked there to accept the data. To move between the cells or move
to a new line, touch the Tab key which will move the cursor each time.
Information can be copied and pasted into the table as necessary or the data can be typed
in. Once the user is in the last cell of the table, touching the Tab button will automatically
insert a new row into the table. Tables are a great way to facilitate data entry and once the
table is completed it can be formatted. There will be a new toolbar on the ribbon called
Table Tools, this will allow the user to work on the design and the layout of the table.
Starting with the design, under Table Style, the user can change how the table looks. The
color are based on the themes and once the mouse is hovered over it you can see how it
will look in the table. Effects can also be added to the tables such as shadows etc. Borders
can be added and the thickness of the line can be determined. Table Style options can also
be set as desired.

The height and width of the cells can be adjusted by hovering the mouse over the borders
and dragging with the mouse. It can be done for columns or rows and the entire table can
be adjusted by clicking on and dragging the outside points and changing the size. The text
in the cell can be adjusted by clicking and highlighting the text and going to the Home
Ribbon and adjusting the font properties.
Now looking at the layout, go to the Layout Tab, this will enable the user to make
decisions about the table. Wherever the cursor is located, rows can be inserted above
where the cursor is or below where it is. Columns can also be inserted to the left or to the
right of the cursor. The arrow next to Delete can be clicked and the user can choose
whether they want to Delete Columns or Rows or the entire table. The user can also enter
the height and width of the table manually.
Options to choose the alignment of the cell can be done by highlighting the row or the
column and clicking the desired alignment.
Inserting Excel Tables
While the user has the ability to create tables right in PowerPoint there is no need to
reinvent the wheel. Many of the times, tables to be used have been created in Excel
already. In cases such as this, the user can create a Title Slide in PowerPoint and then add
their title. Open the Excel file containing the table and click and drag to highlight the cells
with data, right click -> Copy.
Return to the presentation right click and look at the Paste Options. The option to Paste
using Destination Styles will give the ability to edit the table like a PowerPoint table. The
user can choose to keep the Source Formatting which will also make the table editable in
PowerPoint and keep the source formatting the way it looked in Excel. Essentially
embedding the Excel file.
This move will leave a copy of the original file in PowerPoint so that if the data needs to
be revised somehow it will open up in Excel. It is important to note that once the Excel
file is large it will make the PowerPoint presentation large as well. This can also pose a
security threat meaning that anyone who has access to this presentation will invariably
have access to the Excel file.
It can also be pasted as a picture and this can give additional benefits such that it can be
formatted as a picture with different effects applied. However, the data will not be editable
once it is pasted. It can also be pasted as pure text and all the formatting can be done in
PowerPoint.
Research, Language and Thesaurus tools
We have covered the majority of information related to editing content. However one of
the main reasons for a presentation is good content. This should always be primary as you
will like your audience to buy into what you are telling them. The PowerPoint presentation
will just be a tool for the user to get their message across but sometimes the words are not
as easy to develop. Again, there are some built in tools that can be used for assistance.
Click and highlight a word in your presentation and click the Review tab then click Smart

Lookup. This will open an Insights pane on the right side of the screen. The first thing
that will appear is the pronunciation of the word, a definition and examples in a sentence
along with some synonyms. Additional options such as searching on Wikipedia and also a
Bing search can be done.
Clicking on the definition tab at the top of the list will give the user an extensive definition
list and a larger synonym list along with the origin of the word. This is a wonderful way to
enhance the presentation especially if you want to boost the presentation from boring to
exciting. The X can be clicked to close out this pane and it is now time to look at the
Slogan tab. If the presentation is being shown to an international audience or you are
changing the country that you are being presented to a translation of text can be done.
The user can drag and highlight a string of text and select the Review tab. They can then
click Translate -> Translate Selected text. Click Yes on the prompt that indicates you are
sending text over the internet to be translated. The first thing to be done is to select the
From language and then decide the language it will be translated to.
There is an option to copy which will leave the original text intact and paste the translated
text in its own text box. Of course the text box can be moved around as needed anywhere
on the slide. When completed, the user can close the Research pane. By using the Smart
Lookup and Language Tools the user can now bring their presentation to an audience they
may not have had a chance to experience.
Formatting and Adding Video from your computer and from YouTube
If a video needs to be shown to your audience there will be no need to connect an audio or
video source. The video can be played directly from the PowerPoint presentation. The
included video can stored on the computer or on YouTube (pending that the computer has
an active internet connection).
The steps to add a video are as follows. Go to the Insert Ribbon Tab and all the way to the
right side of the screen click the pull down next to Video. There will be two choices
Online Video and Video on My PC. The first one we will look on is Online Video, there
will be two options available. The user can do a YouTube search directly from PowerPoint
and the search results will be thumbnails which can be clicked to be included in the
presentation. There is also an option to paste video embed code. This is useful if the
source is not from YouTube or if the user knows the exact video they want from YouTube.
The code from any video source they desire can be added to the presentation.
To add a video from YouTube, first find the video that you would like to use and click the
Share button under the YouTube video. At this point, click Embed and right click on the
iFrame code and choose copy. Go back to the presentation and paste the embed code when
prompted to do so. When added, there will be two new ribbon tabs, the video tools Format
tab and the video tools Playback tab.
The video can be tested by clicking play on the left side of the screen. It will load from
YouTube and you can verify that the video will play problem free. Now, a video can be
added from the computer. This is done by clicking Insert -> Video and then choose Video
on my PC. Browse using the dialog box to find the file on the computer, select it and then

click Insert. By default, the video will fill the entire screen.
This way, when the slide is activated, the video will play full screen. It does not have to
play this way though, there are two tabs Format and Playback. There are ways to get the
video to look the way you want it to. The user can click and drag to resize the video and
move it around the slide as necessary. Effects such as frames and outlines can be added,
borders or even cropping the video to a shape can be done. At any time the video can be
tested by clicking the play button. It will play with the shape or the effects have been
added, it will not be affected.
The color tone of the entire video can be adjusted if needed. The user can choose the
Poster Frame of the video. This frame is what everyone will see when they land on the
slide. The mouse can be clicked and dragged to choose a frame and when satisfied, click
Poster Frame again and then choose Current Frame. Once the formatting is sorted out, the
playback options can now be set.
Working with Video Clips
Now that the video has been inserted into our slide, some functionality can now be added
to it. Choose the slide and the Video Tools Ribbon tab will appear. In the previous section,
we focused on the Formatting options and now we will look at the Playback tab to look on
the functionality of the video. There is a couple of options that can be adjusted in this area.
One of the first things you would want to decide is how the video is going to start playing.
The user should decide whether it will start when the mouse is clicked or automatically
when the slide is initiated. Only the creator of the presentation can decide this.
Another decision to be made is to know if you need to have a preamble to the movie
before it starts. If it will start automatically you will need to keep this in mind when you
are about to progress to the slide. If so, you will have to introduce the movie before you
transition to the slide. It can be looped until it is stopped or it can keep playing until the
Pause button is pressed. It can also Rewind after it is finished playing. Other options
include choosing to play it full screen if it is not already covering the complete slide. You
can also hide the image while it is not playing on the screen.
If the video start abruptly or ends abruptly, the user can choose to have fading options
which will help with the introduction or the ending. If this is selected, you can choose how
long it will take to fade in or fade out. At any time you can choose to press Play to see the
fading option in action. You can also choose to trim the video which is choosing when the
video starts and when it ends. This is particularly useful in long videos that can be made
shorter without affecting the content. There will be a green line that will indicate when the
video will start and the user can click and drag the line to have the video start later than it
was originally supposed to.
The red bar will indicate when the video will end. This bar can also be adjusted to make
the video shorter if desired. If the start time and end time of the video are known, these
can be manually input into the two boxes that are available. The frames can also be
advanced to fine tune when the video will start and end. Once you are satisfied with the
trimming options you can click OK. This will give the user a video exactly how they want

it and behaving as desired.

Working with Audio Files
In the last sections, we have been working with video files, now we will look at audio
files. An audio file can be added to the slide by going to the Insert Ribbon Tab. On the
right side of the screen the Audio option can be selected. The user can choose an audio file
that is already on the PC or one can be recorded using the microphone attached to the
computer. To do this, click Record Audio -> give the audio file a new name and to start
recording click the red dot.
After recording, press the Stop button and press the Play button to listen to the recording.
If you are not satisfied with the recording you can press the red dot once again and once
you are happy with it press OK. This will place a new icon on the slide and it can be
dragged around anywhere on the slide. It is important to note that if there are multiple
sounds per slide put the audio notification in the same spot.
This will allow the users to be able to find them easily. This is a great way to narrate the
slides. This will be a good way to narrate slides if sending a photo slideshow to someone
and using the voice to give them a tour while navigating the presentation. It would be
helpful to find the sound symbol in the same place on every slide. The sound can be
initiated by pressing the Play button. There are some options that can be done with the
audio file similar to the video file. Once the audio file icon is selected, there will be a new
ribbon section with two tabs on it.
There is a format section and a Playback section that have options to adjust these
individual areas as necessary. Some of the options are quiet similar to those seen in the
video options. The audio can also be trimmed to make it shorter if it is too long. The green
is where the audio will start and it can be dragged inwards to shorten the audio. The red is
where the audio will end and it also can be dragged inward to shorten the audio from the
end. If the audio file starts or ends abruptly it can also be faded in or faded out as
necessary.
If the audio clip happens to be too loud when playing, the volume can be adjusted to the
appropriate setting. Also like the video, the user can choose how they want the audio file
to start playing. It can be when the mouse is clicked or automatically when the slide is
initiated. The audio can be played across all the slides if that is desired. The audio file can
also be looped until it is stopped manually by hitting the Play and Pause button. There is
also an option to choose to have the file play in the background.
This will allow the audio to continuously play across all the slides in the background
which is great for the photo slideshows. If at any time the user decides that they do not
want the audio anymore they can click the icon and hit the Delete key on the keyboard.
Slide Transitions
Slide Transitions have been for a long time an essential element of the PowerPoint
software going back to the earliest version. Transitions are the animations that are used
when each slide moves from one to the next. The animation and its timing can be flexible

with the user having different transitions for each slide or it can be applied to each slide in
the presentation. It is important to note that if a transition is slow and you have a large
amount of slides, this can add a significant amount of time to the presentation.
To add a transition, click on the Transitions Ribbon tab. You will find that there are
options for transitioning and if the down arrow is clicked you will find additional types.
They are categorized in type such as Exciting, Subtle and Dynamic Content. Once the
transition is clicked, the user will see a preview of what it looks like. In exploring the
transitions, you will eventually find that some are faster than others. Also there are
additional options for certain transitions called Effect Options.
Not every slide has an Effect Option that can be applied. One of the effects are that the
slide can be pushed on to the screen from any direction. Left, right, top or bottom. Once
you find a transition that works for you, if the transition times are too fast or slow the
duration can be adjusted. In the duration section the speed can be adjusted to what is
suitable to you. To preview what it will look like click Preview on the left of the screen.
The user can also choose to use a sound to advance a slide. Options can also be set for
how the slide will advance. This includes if the slide will advance when the mouse is
clicked or after a set amount of time. Setting a timed transition is useful for presentations
that are unmanned and is not recommended for live presentations. This can prove eventful
as it can easily run out of sync especially if something unexpected happens for instance an
audience member asking a question.
Once a transition has been selected, you can move on to the next slide and choose another
transition or the user can click Apply to All. This will apply the existing transition to all
the slides in the presentation. Once a slide has a transition associated with it there will be a
star icon on the left side of the screen in the navigation pane. Anytime during the
presentation organization you want to change the transition or decide you will not need
one again you can go to Transitions and select None. This will also have to be applied to
all if it is to be removed from all slides.
Animation Objects and Text
Animation can be added to pictures, text boxes and shapes in the presentation. When
animations are created the user should always bear in mind how it will coordinate with the
narration of the presenter. In some cases animation can be for fun to add jazz to the
presentation and in other cases it can have some function. In some presentations, elements
may need to be slowly revealed on the slide.
To do this animation, select the picture on the slide and then select the Animations Ribbon
tab. Under this tab, the user will see some animations that can be used and clicking the
down arrow will reveal more. There are three types of animations, namely, Entrance
Animations, Emphasis Animation and Exit Animation. The Entrance animation will
control how the picture will appear on the slide. The Emphasis animation will control a
picture that is already on the slide while the Exit animation will control how the picture
leaves the slide.
The animation pane can be opened to control all the settings that have been adjusted.

When this is open it will show all the animations that are on the slide. This can be used to
set how each animation will happen. This is useful if there are multiple animations on a
single slide. It is done by setting the order of the picture animations in the Animations
Pane. You can also set here whether it will be started with a mouse click or automatically.
All the animations in the pane can be edited at once by selecting one of them, holding
down the shift key on the keyboard and selecting the last one. While all of them are
selected, there will be more options shown on the Animation Pane. An example of this is
setting the duration of the animation. This is useful if there are a lot of pictures, the speed
can be increased to improve efficiency. A Trigger can also be selected an example of this
is if the user clicks on any other object that is one the slide.
If an animation needs to be removed, click the particular one and when selected press the
Delete key or the user can right click the animation and click Remove. Once completed
with all the animations settings you can close out this area and return to work.
Adding Speaker notes
When the presentation has been created and you are preparing for the actual show there
are some additional things to be done. This is another thing that can be done. It is normal
that the presenter may not remember all the points in the slide when they get to it. That is
why PowerPoint has what is known as speaker notes. These are notes that are seen only on
the screen of the computer of the presenter and the audience will not see them. To add
these notes to a slide simply click to the bottom of the slide (underneath it) and start
typing.
If you do not see a notes area to start typing it can be toggled from the status bar. It can be
turned on or off by clicking on it when you see the Click to add notes then you can put
the cursor there and start typing. Speaker notes can be added to none of the slides or all of
them. It is completely up to the user to determine where they want to place their key
points to remember them. The notes can still be toggled on or off but that again will be up
to the user if they want to use them or not.
Handout Masters
The handout feature of PowerPoint can be considered to be one of the most underutilized
features of the software. PowerPoint allows users to easily print their slides for the
audience even including a space to take notes. The user can use the built in handout
templates or the handout master can be edited.
If you would like to view the handout master go to the View Ribbon tab and choose
Handout Master. If the user desires to have a particular style of handout, it can be chosen
from this view. The handout orientation can be chosen, the slide size and how many slides
to be on each page. Three slides per page is a good one as it provides a space to take notes
next to each slide.
The user can also choose what they want to see on each slide. This includes the header,
footer, date and page numbers. It is important to remember the header and the footer can
be edited. The user can go to Insert -> Header and Footer and go to the notes and handouts

tab. At this point the user can decide what will appear on the handouts when they are
printed. There can also be a custom header and a footer such as a copyright note when it is
being printed.
When it is time to print the handouts, the user can go to File -> Print and within the
dialogue box you can choose how many slide will print as a handout. Options are there to
print all slides, the current slide or printing a custom range. That is, a specific amount of
slide that the user would like to print. They can also choose to print individual sections
which is another useful application for sections.
To get the handouts, choose what kind out slides to print ensuring that handouts are
selected. Then choose the amount of slides starting from one all the way up to nine slides.
As noted before, the three slides option will give the notes on the side. There is a preview
of the handout shown and it will state how many pages it will take to print the
presentation. The user can flip through the pages and to save on ink they can choose to
print them in black and white or greyscale.
When the handouts are ready to print, click the print button at the top of the screen. Then
to return to the presentation, click the arrow in the top left of the screen.
Rehearsing a presentation
One of the factors in being a presenter is to know how much time you have to perform
your presentation. This should always be in the mind of the creator of the presentation. It
is one thing to view the presentation on screen and it is another to speak the presentation
out loud. Therefore, it is advised to rehearse the presentation before it is performed before
an audience this will ensure you to have accuracy and precision in your execution.
PowerPoint has a Rehearse Timings feature that allows the user to assist with their
rehearsal. This is done under the Slideshow Ribbon Tab.
From here the user can click the Rehearse Timings option. This will launch the slideshow
and this is where you can start to critic your presentation. The user can start to practice
their talking as if you are presenting the show. To go to the next slide, touch the right
arrow on the keyboard or the mouse can be clicked. Hover the mouse over the video and
click Play to start the video.
The Pause Slide option can be used to stop the presentation if the user needs to recompose
themselves or change the way they are presenting. When ready to proceed click the
Resume Recording to start the presentation once again. There is something to point out at
this point, there are two numbers at the top of the screen. The number that is rightmost is
the current elapsed time of the presentation and the number of the left side is how much
time was spent on the selected slide.
The user can click Esc on the keyboard to return to the work screen. PowerPoint will tell
the user how long it was for the slideshow and it will ask if the user wants to save the new
slide timings. One benefit to saving this is that you can see how long the timings are. Go
to the Slide Sorter -> View and it will show how much time was spent on each slide.
Another way this can be useful is that if you notice that too much time is spent on a

particular slide it can indicate that it might need to be broken into multiple slides.
Alternatively, if a slide is too short and the pace of the presentation is affected then it
might be wise to eliminate it from the presentation altogether. When you use Rehearse
Timings and you perfect the timings of the slides, you will find that your presentation will
flow fluidly with perfect timing.
Adding/Viewing Comments
Some presentations may have additional presenters and will not be done by one person
only. Possibly the talk may be review process or simply may need to get some feedback or
advice on the presentation. The user can collaborate on the presentation right in
PowerPoint by adding and reading comments on the slides. You will get a notification that
a presentation or one of the slides has a comment. You will be able to see that the slide has
a comment indicated by a balloon icon on the top left of the screen. Additionally, if this
was the first time the presentation was being opened and it has comments on it,
PowerPoint will indicate on the right side of the screen of the PowerPoint.
There are two ways to view comments. The user can click on the word Comments that is
in the status bar on the bottom of the screen or they can click on the bottom icon itself. It
will open the comment pane on the right side of the screen and the user can read the
comment and see the date it was added to the slide. There are two actions that can be done
with this comment and that is delete it or reply to it. To delete it, click the X on the top
right side of the comment and to reply to it, simply click Reply and type the text and press
enter.
The reply will get tagged with the users name and the next time someone opens the
presentation they will get the notification about the response. There will also be a visual
notification showing multiple balloons turning the comment into a threaded conversation.
The collaborators can click the New button and add a new response that doesnt have to be
related to the conversation on the slide. There will be no need to go through each slide to
see if there is a comment associated with it, the user can click the Next and Previous
buttons to go through the presentation and it will show the next occurrence of a slide that
has a comment.
The comment can be ready by the user and they can act on it right away. An example of
this is in the speaker notes they may type something wrong, it can be edited right away.
The comment can be deleted from here once it has been addressed. The user can continue
to their presentation and go back to working. To close the comment pane, click the X on
the top right side of the screen.
A comment can be added to any slide at any time by clicking the Comments from the
bottom status bar. It will open the comments pane and while the user is on the slide they
want to add a comment to click New. To close the comments pane, click the X on the top
right side of the screen and this makes the presentation truly collaborative.
Reviewing and Comparing changes with others
When many persons are collaborating on a presentation, it may be difficult to follow the
different versions that are out there along with changes that are approved etc. The changes

done can be tracked with the Review Ribbon tab and it can even be marked as final to
indicate that is the one to be used. It is advised before starting this process it is best to save
an original version before any work is done.
Once this is done and the safe copy and the review copy has been established and can be
sent out as an attachment. Another option is to share it directly from SharePoint or
OneDrive. However it is shared, to see the changes go to the Review Tab -> click
Compare and dialog box will open.
This is where the user will navigate to the original version and then click Merge and both
copies will be merged together. At this point the user will still have the control as they can
accept or reject the changes that have been made. There is a revisions pane that would be
on the right of the screen which will show the revisions made to the document.
If the user goes on the Slide tab they can see an overview what the slide will look like.
When the user sees the change that has been made, they can accept the change by
selecting Accept -> Accept Change. The user can also choose to Accept All Change to
This Slide or they can Accept All Changes to the Presentation without seeing them.
On a user level, the changes can be accepted based on who did it. This is done by selecting
their name and then clicking to Accept All Changes by this reviewer. Consequently, the
down arrow to the right of the slide can be clicked and the changes by this reviewer can be
rejected. In order to carry this out, a check box has to be placed beside their name first. If
the change is to be accepted, the user can click on it and place the check box next to it.
PowerPoint will then accept the change and it can be noted that the change will be added
to the slides.
To see the next change that has been made, the user can click the next button on the
Review tab. Instead of using a check box next to it, the change can also be accepted by
clicking Accept -> Accept Change. If there is a change that you do not want to add to the
presentation simply leave it unchecked and it will not be inserted into the presentation.
When all reviewing has been completed, click End Review. This will close the review
process and leave any unapplied changes. The changes without any checkboxes beside
them will be discarded. Once all changes have been done and you are now sure your
version is final, mark it as the Final Version. This will lock the file for editing and turn it
into a read only file.
It is important to note that this method does not stand as an absolute security feature as it
can be unlocked. It is simply a feature of convenience to ensure everyone knows the exact
version they should be using. Under the File Tab, the user can click under Protect
Presentation and can choose Mark as Final here as well. This indicates that the
presentation will be Marked as Final and then it will be saved. Confirm this all by clicking
Okay and there will be a notification to show that editing is complete.
When the file is opened, it will show that it has been Marked as Final. This is primarily
why it is not a security feature as it can be clicked to be accessed and edited however
initially it will be a read only file. These methods help to reduce the confusion of which
presentation will be the final one after collaborators have made their changes on the same

document.
Running a slideshow
After organizing the presentation, adding themes and graphics, bullet points and timing
rehearsals, the presentation is ready for the audience. There are a couple of ways the
presentation can be setup to be viewed by the audience. The first assumption is that the
presentation will be run on a laptop or computer that has been connected to a projector or
an external monitor to show the audience. To start the slideshow, it can be done under the
Slide Show Ribbon tab -> Play from Beginning or the F5 key on the keyboard.
What is shown on the screen is what the audience will see on your output. The progress
the slides, the mouse can be clicked or the right arrow on the keyboard can be pressed. To
move backwards, press the left arrow. To come out of the presentation the Esc key can be
pressed on the keyboard. If you would like to start the slideshow from any point use the
Slide Show Ribbon tab and choose from the Current Slide or with the select selected hold
down the Shift key and press the F5 button on the keyboard.
This will start the presentation from the current slide in the slide navigator. The mouse can
be used to advance the slide. All the animations that were setup will be see. The final click
of the mouse will bring the user to the end of the presentation. One more mouse click will
exit the presentation.
Many times in a presentation, the user would like to keep the audiences focus on them
and not on the slides. In this instance, they will not want the audience viewing a picture
for a long time. Therefore, the screen can be quickly blanked by right clicking the mouse
then choosing Screen then choose a Black or White Screen. There are two differences with
this types, the white screen can startle your audience in some instances as it is very bright.
Alternatively, the black screen may also have them wondering if there is a technical
difficulty with the presentation.
These can both be good options for keeping the focus on the presenter and not the slide.
To go back to the slide, click the mouse and the presentation can continue.
Presenter View
Many times, PowerPoint presentations are delivered in the same way. That is, the audience
watching the presentation on a large screen. The presenter will be facing the audience with
their computer with the presentation on it. This setup gives the presenter a huge advantage
as they can see a special view on the computer monitor but the audience will not see
this. This view is called the Presenter View and to use this, change to the Slideshow
Ribbon tab and ensure the Use Presenter View is checked on.
The user can select which monitor will have the Presenter View on it. In most cases, there
is only one monitor so it will not be complicated. Many persons start it when they are
running their presentation and then they can right click on the slide and choose Show
Presenter View. There is a number of things that can be seen here. One of which is the
slide timer which is shown on the left side of the screen.
It may be distracting for some persons, so if it is, it can be paused. The timer can also be

reset. Go to the right hand of the screen and I can see the current time which can prove to
be useful if it may be difficult to stop the presentation. The current slide that is on will be
shown and on the right side of the screen the user can see the next slide that will be
upcoming so the presenter can prepare adequately for it. If there are any speaker notes on
the slide it will be listed on the bottom of the screen. The font can be changed if so
desired. If the speaker notes are too small then the user can click the A which will make
it bigger or if the text is too big the smaller A will reduce the size.
Located below the slide and here you will find the Annotations Pen. The user can jump
from slide to slide to be able to zoom into slides better. This is great in times when there is
something in the presentation to look at closely.
The slides can also be moved back and forth between by using the arrow keys. There is
indication as to how may slides there are. To end the slide show click End Slideshow at
the top of the screen.
Highlighting, Annotating, Zooming, Jumping to Different Sections/Slides During a
Slideshow
Once the presentation has started, the cursor can be moved to the bottom left side of the
screen where the pen icon can be clicked. There are some tools in there that can be used
and one of them is the laser pointer. This can be selected and bring a particular point in the
slideshow into focus that the audience needs to pay attention to.
This tool does not mark the slide show, it just illustrates where they should look. In the
pen icon there is also a highlighter. If this is chosen, then several areas can be marked that
area important. If needs be, the eraser can be used to erase anything that has been marked
on. In addition to the highlighter there is the pen tool, this can be used to draw on the
slide.
This options allows the user to write and do anything they deem necessary on the slide.
Once the writing on the slide has been completed, the user can choose to use the eraser to
remove what has been written to start over. In fact, they can make color changes, swap
back ideas or mark something else as desired. When slides are progressed, the annotations
will remain on them.
The slide can also be zoomed so if there is a particular detail that needs to be seen closer
that is not a problem. This is done by clicking the Magnifying Glass icon and finding the
particular area of the slide that needs to be enlarged. Click on the area and it will be
enlarged and to zoom back out the user should right click with the mouse.
The user can jump to any slide they want without going back first. There is a jump to slide
icon that can be clicked which is in the middle of the icon row.
At this point, there will be a great overview of the slides. Any slide can be clicked on to
jump to the particular section. When the user is complete moving around, press the Esc
key to exit the presentation and a prompt will show to confirm if the annotations should be
saved.
Setting up slideshows and custom shows

There are some other ways to run a slide show without the user being in control of the
mouse. It can be setup in something called the Kiosk mode which is perfect for leaving a
screen where you are showing pictures for a slide show. To do this, go to the Slide Show
Ribbon Tab and go to Set Up Slide Show. It is under this tab that the slide show can be
setup this way. As a default, the show type is for a speaker and the slides will progress
manually. This means that the user will have to click the mouse to move the slides.
There is also an option of moving the slides using timing is this option is present. There
are a couple of ways to do timings especially when doing a kiosk presentation. For the
kiosk presentation, it is a default to have the show loop continuously until the user presses
the Esc key.
One of the first ways to get timings in the show is to record the slide show. This method
does add some form of timings to the slides. This slides can be used for their timings in
the kiosk mode. If there are timings in the slide and you do not wish to use them, the user
can click Clear -> Clear Timings on All Slides. The kiosk mode will also use any timings
that have been setup in slide transitions. The slides can be advanced through mouse clicks
or after a designated amount of time.
There is another way to setup another type of slide show, this is the custom slide show.
This is an excellent approach for a presentation that took some time to develop. Instead of
having different versions of the slide show, it can be customized to have different slides
appear for different target audiences.
In essence, if there are slides that a particular audience does not need to see, a custom
show can be made that excludes that data from them. Again, this approach allows the user
not to worry about having multiple copies of the same presentation. This could lead to the
user choosing the wrong presentation at any given time because some confusion could
exist. Choose Custom Slide Show from the Slide Show Ribbon and then choose Custom
Shows. This will open a dialogue box then the user should click New to create a New
Show.
A new name can be given to the show and the user can setup a custom show without
information that does not have to be in the presentation. This is done by placing check
boxes beside every slide that should appear in the presentation. When completed click the
add button and all the selected slides will brought over. If a slide comes over that in fact
should not be there then the user can click on it and click the X then click OK. The custom
show will now be built and close can be clicked to go back to the slide edit.
The custom slide show can be viewed by going to the Slide Show Tab -> Custom Slide
Show and choose the one that should be played from the pull down menu. At any time the
user can click Custom Shows -> Select the Slide Show and it can be edited or removed as
necessary.
Saving a Custom Theme
After changing the theme of the presentation including the colors, graphics and layout this
may take some time to reach to this point. However, time can be saved the next time by
choosing this presentation by using the same design. This means that there will be a blank

presentation with no content but with similar design elements. To save theme, go to the
Design Ribbon Tab and click More in the themes area and choose Save Current
Theme.
To use this theme go to File -> New and choose from the pre-existing themes. There will
be a new tab called Custom and when clicked you should see the theme that was created
earlier. When your selected theme is chosen you should see a new presentation with all the
changes. This is really useful if a great amount of time has been spent on a presentation
and it is desired to use it multiple times.
Reviewing a presentation for an stray comments
If the user wants to reuse and share a presentation, they will not want it to have draft
markup on the presentation. The software understands this, therefore PowerPoint makes it
easy to remove the markup from the file before it is finalized. The user can check for
markup by selecting File from the Ribbon tab -> Click Info -> Check Issues -> Inspect
Document. The things that you want to inspect for can be selected, an example of this are
comments and ink annotations.
A search can also be done for embedded documents such as Excel files if there is pasted
table data. Earlier we discussed the safety issues of a pasted Excel document and the
Document Inspector can find these documents.
There can also be a check for presentation notes. More than likely if you are sending out
the presentation you will not want speaker notes in it as they may be private to you only.
When Inspect is clicked, it will show everything that has been found in the document. It
will show a list of what it found and anything not desired can be removed from this list.
When completed, click Close and then the back arrow to go back to the presentation.
Saving a presentation as a template
In some cases the user may want to use content in addition to design elements. In this
situations, the presentation can be saved as a template. This will involve deleting the slides
that are not needed and keeping the content needed and saving it as a template. Once you
have configured your template as necessary go to File -> Save As -> Choose Browse and
direct it to where it should be saved. As usual the file type will be defaulted to a
PowerPoint presentation however it should be changed to a PowerPoint template.
To use it, click File -> New -> Custom to be able to select the saved templates. The user
can proceed to add slides and additional content as necessary.
Printing a presentation
A presentation can be printed if required to do so. It doesnt have to be the entire
presentation, it can just be particular slides as needed. To print the presentation click File > Print and choose the printer and then the user can decide what they want to print.
You can choose to print all slides, select slides or choose the current slide you are on. If
you wanted to print particular slides you can put the slide numbers in separated by
commas. The next thing you would want to do is to decide how you would want the slides
to be printed, whether it is a full page, notes page that includes speaker notes, outline or

handouts. The color scheme of the prints can also be selected from the options of color,
grayscale or black and white. When the desired options are selected, the amount of copies
can be set and click the print button. The back arrow can be clicked to return to the
presentation.
Recording and Narrating a Slideshow
Slide shows can be narrated and recorded by the user as desired. This is a great approach
if the user plans on saving the presentation which can include putting in on a DVD,
publishing it to the internet or having persons view it via a kiosk. All that is required is a
microphone and PowerPoint will provide everything else that is necessary. The user will
just have to ensure that the microphone works and then they should go to the Slide Show
Ribbon Tab -> Record Slide Show and choose to start the recording from any slide
desired.
When the recording begins, the user can start talking while going through the slides. You
can decide what you would like to record before it starts and this includes slide timings
and any ink and annotations that will be added to the slides. Once you click Start
Recording it will commence immediately. The narration can be paused by clicking the
pause button.
Once you are ready to resume press the pause key once again and you can continue as
normal. The slides can be advanced by pressing the arrow keys or clicking the mouse.
When the recording is complete, press the Esc key to close the slide show. You will now
notice that there is a new icon on the bottom right of all the slides. This is a speaker icon
and it informs the viewers that there is narration on the slide.
The presentation can be played and the volume adjusted by hovering the mouse pointer
over the volume controls or the play controls. There are options to clear all the narration,
to do this, go to the Slide Show Ribbon Tab -> click Record Slide Show -> Clear. This
will allow you to choose to Clear Timing on the Current Slide, All Slides or the Narration
on the Current Slide or on All Slides. If this is done you will see that the icon has
disappeared and there will be no more
Saving the presentation as a video
The video can be saved as an mp4 video file or a Windows Media file directly from
PowerPoint without having to have experience with video creation. This will even include
the audio of the presentation. This is done in the Slideshow Tab, if the user has recorded
the slideshow or setup timings, the video will capture all this information. For slides that
do not have any timing or narration associated, the user can define how long the slide
should remain without moving to the next slide. To export the slides, click File -> Export > Create a Video.
There will be a couple of things that would need to be decided before completing the task.
One of them is the file size and quality that you desire the output to be. Presentation
quality will have the largest file size and the best quality while low quality will have a
small file size and lower quality. Choosing the latter may result in blurry pictures and
overall poor quality. There is also the Internet quality which is suitable for internet

viewing/streaming.
When that selection has been done, choose whether or not you would like to use the
recorded timings and narrations. The user can choose whether they would like to use these
settings or not. Additionally, if there are none on the presentation then they can be
recorded at this point.
There is an option to review the final video to see what it will look like by clicking
preview timings and narrations. By choosing recorded timings, the user can choose the
time to spend on each slide that does not have a timing set. Once completed, click create
video and it will prompt for a name and then you can choose the type of video you will
like to save. As mentioned before, it can be saved as an MPEG4 or a Windows Media
Video.
When this has all been done you can click save and depending on the size of the
presentation it could take some time to save. To double check the size, right click on the
presentation -> Choose properties and you can see the type of file it is and the size. Once
the video has been created, the user can do what they want with it such as emailing to
others, playing on a kiosk or uploading it to YouTube.
Exporting the Presentation as a PDF or JPEG
Another important feature of PowerPoint is the ability to create a PDF of all the slides.
This is a way of saving paper by not having to print the entire presentation. This also
ensures that no one will edit or change anything on the slides like they would on a regular
PowerPoint file. This is done by going to File -> Export -> Create PDF document ->
Create PDF/XPS. Save it to the desired location and choose the file type PDF and there
are options to optimize it for publishing online and printing.
Within the options there are additional options that can be fine-tuned to adjust the PDF as
necessary. Just a current slide can be selected or the complete presentation can be
converted to a PDF. It can also be chosen whether you want to create the PDF file by
using the handout, outline view, speaker notes or slide options. Click Okay then Publish
and the file will be created.
The slides can be exported as a JPEG file also. You may choose if you want to export the
complete presentation or just a subsection. To save as a JPEG, go to File -> Save as and
then browse for a location. In the Save as Type, click the down arrow and there will be a
list of options that it can be saved as. It can be noted that PDF can be chosen here too, but
this is the way for the graphic formats, therefore choose JPEG. Once okay is clicked,
PowerPoint will ask whether it is the complete presentation or just particular slides should
be saved.
Sharing the presentation with others
PowerPoint makes it quite easy to share your presentation with others. To do this, click
File -> Share on the left side of the screen. Once you choose Email Presentation, you will
be presented with some options to send as an attachment or sending a link to the
presentation so everyone is working from a central file location.

The presentation can be sent as a PDF file as exported in the previous video. This would
skip a step as you would just create the PDF and attach it as a regular attachment. It could
also be sent as an XPS attachment or sent as an internet fax. Additionally, it can be saved
to One Drive and it will prompt to share the document as desired.
If the user clicks OneDrive, they will already have a dedicated folder to save it to that
location. When it is saved, you can decide who you would like to share the document
with. Once you decide who you are sharing it with, to can decide whether they can edit or
just view the document.
A message can also be included for them. More persons can be invited via the dialogue
box shown on the screen. A Sharing Link can also obtained from the bottom of the screen.
This will show an Edit or View only link. By clicking on these links will allow the user to
copy them and send them to whoever the user desires to share it with. The left arrow can
be clicked to come out of this dialogue box.
The user you have shared with will get an invitation to view the document. You will also
see the different permissions everyone has to the document. This will represent
collaborating in the cloud.
Presenting Live Online
There is a free service within PowerPoint called the Office Presentation Service. This will
allow the user to follow along with the presentation in their web browser. This can also be
referred to as webcasting. A Microsoft account will be needed first and this can be
obtained free on their website. If you already subscribe to Xbox Live or Office 365 you
will have one. There is a couple of ways a user can present online. They can click the
Slide Show Ribbon Tab and choose the Present Online option. Alternately, they can click
File -> Share -> Click Present Online.
The user will also have to decide whether they want a remote viewer to be able to
download the presentation or if they should just watch it on their screen. If you are
currently signed in, you can click Present Online. Microsoft will go ahead and prepare the
presentation and depending on the size of the presentation it could take some time to
process and be ready. The main idea is that you will schedule a time when you will be
presenting online.
It is advisable to tell the audience when the presentation will commence and ensure that
they are properly informed on where it will be. One way to do this is to create a Google
Event and provide everyone with the URL so that they can go in and check the web
address of the webcast. Persons could also register with you by sending an email so you
could respond to them with the link of the webcast.
When everything is all finished, click End Show and then click End Online Presentation.
Once it is ended, anyone who is presently connected to it will be disconnected.
Inserting Diagrams, Shapes & Slides to Slides
Inserting Shapes
The new PowerPoint 2016 allows users to insert shapes while creating a presentation.

Users are encouraged to apply their previously acquired knowledge of layering;

specifically skills related to the placement of callouts. This is designed to draw focus to
the principal point of the presentation. To insert the desired shape:
Go to the Home Ribbon tab
Tap on the drop down arrow located next to the shapes
Select the desired shape to be inserted into the slide.
Users are able to make their selection from standard shapes, rectangles, lines, arrows,
equations, stars, flowcharts and callouts. The selected shape should be drawn and dropped
into the slide using the mouse. With the mouse still pressing down on the shape, it can be
spread and made wider or pushed inwards to minimize. The shape can be adjusted as
desired and a text box inserted. To insert the text box, tap on the option to Insert Text
Box. The text box can then be filled with the relevant data.
Note:
Users can add additional shapes at any point and to any slide in the presentation.
To modify an inserted shape, look for the yellow dots that surround the shape. Pulling or
pushing on these dots will allow the user to adjust the thickness and length to the size most
appropriate for the slide. To zoom into a slide to apply changes to a shape, simply use the
slider located to the bottom right side of the screen.
Text boxes can be added to any shape in an effort to create a more informed and appealing
presentation.

Formatting Shapes
The color, effect and lines on an inserted shape can be modified to portray the general
theme of the slide. Slides for example that discuss the accolades of an entity or individual
can be accompanied by medal or star shapes. The se can them be adjusted to have a more
award-type appearance.
To modify the color of the shape:
tap on the shape
select the tab for Drawing Tools/ Format
Select the color desired in the Shape Fill option.
Users may also modify the color of the shape outline by tapping on the option for Shape
Effects; choosing the effect most likely to create the look desired. Users also have the
option of adjusting the transparency of the shape, to make the wording more legible. The
option for Line can also be selected to remove the outline of the shape being used. The
font, size and effects of the words in the text box inserted can also be formatted either for
effect or for appropriateness. To alter the font, size or effect of the words in the boxes
through the slide, simply:

Right click on the inside of the text box

Highlight the portion of the text you wish to adjust
Apply the change as is desired. The changes can include making the wording bolder,
larger, smaller or applying italics for effect.
Note: The callout shapes have been so designed to accommodate texts being inserted. This
makes editing text details easier. Users need only to right-click on the text and select the
Edit Text option.
The shapes can also be moved to more ideal locations as seen fit. To move your inserted
shape:
Tap on the shape
Click on the four way arrows to the top of the shape
Move the shape and place in the desired area of the slide.
The styles of the various shapes can also be adjusted. To modify these styles,
Tap on the Format tab to the top of the screen
Select the down-pointing arrow located to the right of the Shape Styles option
When the pane for the format shape is displayed on the right of screen, select the preferred
option and apply.

Cropping a Picture to a Shape
To enhance the presentation, users may also opt to insert themes, preferred patterns, colors
and custom or personalized photos into various slides. These preferred photos can be
customized and cropped to any shape desired. To successfully complete this task:
Go to the View Ribbon tab and tab Slide Master
Identify the slide or area in which the image is to be inserted. Moving the mouse or
pointer over the area will identify the area, making it possible for the user to identify if the
correct slide is being edited.
Insert the image by tapping on the option to Insert followed by the option for Pictures.
Browse your device or the web and tap on the desired photo.
With the desired photo now inserted, go to the tab for Picture Tools Format and select
Crop from the drop down arrow.
Choose the Crop to Shape option and peruse the available shapes. Once the shape is
applied to your photo, the user may resize or relocate the new photo shape as desired. The
user may also opt to use the design as a watermark for a specific slide for the entire
presentation.

Merging shapes to create a personal graphic

PowerPoint can be used as a graphical program to create simple graphics such as logos
etc. It can be used to create a shape if you cannot find the shape that you desire to use. The
user can add shapes from the Shape Menu as desired and adjust the fill color of the shape
as needed. There are options such as hitting the CTRL key D on the keyboard and this
will duplicate the shape. The shape can also be flipped or rotated all from under the
Drawing Tools Format tab. The shift key can be held down and click two shapes to have
them both selected. Click the Format tab -> Merge Shapes to join the shapes.
There will be some different choices available, if the mouse is hovered over the selections,
a preview will be shown to the right of the slide. The Union option will convert the shapes
into one shape. Combining the shapes will cut out the overlapping parts of the image.
Fragment will outline the overlapping parts instead of cutting them out. The Intersect
option will cut out everything except the overlapping parts and Subtract will subtract one
shape from the next, including the overlapping parts.
After doing these edits on the shapes, Effects can also be added to them. This is done by
clicking Shape Effects and the user can choose one of the preset ones to match their needs.
Utilizing options such as send to back, shape effects and merging of the shapes, the user
can create unique looking objects to give great additions to their presentations.
Creating and Formatting Charts
Charts can be a big part of a presentation. To insert a chart go to insert a chart from
Content Placeholder and there will be some selections such as column, bar charts, line
charts and area charts. Each one of the cart types has its own subtypes of charts that can be
selected as well. Choose the one desired and click OK. This will open a mini Excel
window which the user can populate with their data. When completed, click the X and the
chart will be loaded. The user can click the Chart Title to give it a new name and then
there will be some additional chart options.
The plus sign can be clicked and they can choose what elements they want to add such as
axis titles, data labels and the legend can be hidden as well. The paintbrush icon can be
clicked to change the style of the chart. The look of the chart can be changed by choosing
from some preformatted types and the filter icon can be clicked to choose what data
should be displayed in the chart. When the chart is selected, there will be a Chart Tools
Ribbon Tab at the top.
From this Ribbon, more Chart styles can be selected by clicking the down arrow to see all
the types. Things such as shadows can be added to the charts, including colors, chart
elements and other layout options. At the right side of the screen the user can edit the data
if it needs to be changed and the chart type can be changed if something else may be a
better fit.
That is how a chart can be created in PowerPoint. One can also be pasted from Excel if
required. If you have a chart that has already been made in Excel, click the chart and hit
Ctrl + C to copy it and go back to the presentation, right click and the paste options will be
available.

If the user choose to use the destination theme and embed the workbook, this means that
you will be using the fonts and colors that are being used in the current PowerPoint theme.
Embedding the Workbook means that it will embed the Excel Workbook in the
PowerPoint presentation. It is important to note that the size of the Excel document could
inflate the size of the PowerPoint presentation. Also the same security risk as discussed
before will be presented again, as users will now have access to the content of the Excel
file.
The source formatting can also be kept and embed the workbook which still presents the
same concerns but keeping the source formatting will keep the same look and feel as it did
in Excel. If the user chooses to use the destination theme and link data this means that it
will keep the PowerPoints color scheme but it will still be linked to the Excel file. This
means that if the contents of the Excel file are changed, the chart will also change and be
updated accordingly.
One more option is to insert the chart as a picture. This will present the least amount of
security risk and it will also affect the file size the least. The downside of this is that the
data cannot be edited because it is a picture. However, picture styles can be applied to it as
you could do with any other picture that has been inserted into the slide.
Using SmartArt to Create Diagrams
PowerPoint can be used to create great diagrams, flow charts etc. This is called SmartArt
and all the functions you need is built into PowerPoint. To do this, click and drag to select
all the text and on the Home Ribbon tab choose Convert to SmartArt. At this point, the
user can choose a graphic that best suits their needs.
If the mouse is hovered over each one then you will see a preview of what it will look like
on the slide. When one has been selected, there will be two new tabs at the top, SmartArt
Design tab and SmartArt Format Tab. One of the first things that can be done is to select a
SmartArt style by clicking the down arrow and making a selection. The colors can be
adjusted to make them interesting to look at.
Depending on which one is selected, additional options can be adjusted for each. If it at
any point you decide you do not want to continue with the SmartArt chosen, click on it
once to choose it and click the SmartArt Tools Design Tab and a new layout can be
selected. Additionally, the user can click more layouts and you will get a better list of
them so a SmartArt graphic can be easily found.
Adding Equations
PowerPoint can help the user to present their equations easily if their presentation requires
this. To insert an equation in the slide, go to the Insert Ribbon tab and choose the Equation
option. Click the down arrow where you will find some equations that can get you going.
You could also click Equation and a blank one will be there and the Design tab will
appear.
At this point, the user can enter their own fractions, scripts, integrals, radicals and any type
of operators and sign functions. Even mathematical symbols can be added to this. By

clicking the down arrow, there will be access to geometric symbols, scripts, arrows,
operators, basic math symbols and Greek letters. Another great function of PowerPoint
2016 is the ability to create ink equations.
This is the ability to use your own handwriting ideally by using a stylus although a mouse
can be used. Once the mathematical equation has been written it can be previewed at the
top of the list. PowerPoint will attempt to figure out what you are trying to write, if it gets
it wrong you can click Erase and start over or choose Select and Correct what it didnt
figure out correctly. Once the equation has been corrected and everything is perfect, click
the Insert button and it is loaded into PowerPoint.