PowerPoint Training Resource

1. What is PowerPoint?

PowerPoint is a complete software presentation package commonly part of the Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Office suites available on Windows and MacOS computers, and iOS and Android operating systems on mobile devices (iPads/iPhones, Tablets and smart phones). 

It allows users to create electronic presentations that consist of multiple pages or slides. Users can customise the slides and add many types of content including text, images, video and audio. They can design their slides to look how they want and add transitions and effects. It is used to present information to users, and is often used in educational setting including schools, colleges and universities as well as in the world of business.

2. Launching PowerPoint on your Devices

To launch PowerPoint on your device, you can search for the application in your installed software packages by typing 'PowerPoint' in the search bar in Windows or Finder on MacOS, and clicking on the application Icon, if you are going to use it frequently you could pin it to the taskbar and then launch it from there. This will open the desktop version on your Laptop, PC or MacBook.

On a mobile device such as Android and iOS you can search for it in you installed apps and launch it by clicking the icon, and this will open the application on your mobile device.

To use the online version of the application, you should open a web-browser on your device and navigate to Microsoft 365. Once there, sign in with your student or staff credentials (student-id@live.blackburn.ac.uk, or staff-id@blackburn.ac.uk) and your password.

3. Creating a new PowerPoint presentation

To create a presentation:

Open PowerPoint.

In the left pane, select New.

Select an option:

To create a presentation from scratch, select Blank Presentation.

To use a prepared design, select one of the templates.

Add a slide

In the thumbnails on the left pane, select the slide you want your new slide to follow.

In the Home tab, in the Slides section, select New Slide.

In the Slides section, select Layout, and then select the layout you want from the menu.

Add and format text

Place the cursor inside a text box, and then type something.

Select the text, and then select one or more options from the Font section of the Home tab, such as Font, Increase Font Size, Decrease Font Size, Bold, Italic, Underline, etc.

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

Add a picture, shape, and more

Go to the Insert tab.

To add a picture:

In the Images section, select Pictures.

In the Insert Picture From menu, select the source you want.

Browse for the picture you want, select it, and then select Insert.

To add illustrations:

In the Illustrations section, select Shapes, Icons, 3D Models, SmartArt, or Chart.

In the dialog box that opens when you click one of the illustration types, select the item you want and follow the prompts to insert it.

4. Design in PowerPoint

There are many different design tools in PowerPoint that can be used to make your presentation look professional.

Here are some of those tools:

Themes

Select the Design tab.

Select one of the Themes.

Select one of the Variants.

PowerPoint Designer

Insert one or more pictures, a list of items, or a list of dates.

The Designer panel will open. Select the design you want.

You can also bring up Designer by selecting a picture, and then selecting Design > Design Ideas.

Transitions

To add a special effect, to transition from one slide to another:

Select the slide you want to add a transition to.

On the Transitions tab, select the effect you want.

Select Effect Options to change how the transition happens: From Right, From Left,

To undo a transition, select None.

Animations

To animate text or objects on a slide

Select the text or object you want to animate.

On the Animations tab, select Add Animation, and select the animation you want from the drop-down

To animate one line of text at a time, select one line of text, select an animation, select the next line of text, select an animation.

To choose when to Start Animations, select When Clicked, With Previous, or After Previous

You can also select the Duration or Delay.

5. Using PowerPoint to Share & Collaborate

You can use PowerPoint to share your presentations with others. You can do this just to show them the presentation or for them to collaborate in real-time with you and other users.

How to Share your Presentation

On the ribbon, select Share.

If your presentation isn't already saved to OneDrive, you'll be prompted to save it there.

In the Send Link dialog box, do the following:

Enter the names or email addresses of the people you want to share with.

Select the drop-down to change permissions, if you want. Allow editing is checked by default. To change permission to view only, uncheck this box and select Apply.

How to Co-author a presentation

After you share your file, you can work together at the same time.

Under Share, see who is also working in the file.

Coloured flags show where each person is editing.

You can also Include a message if you'd like and select then Send.

You can also select 'Get a link' to create a link that you can copy into an email.

How to add Comments to your presentations

Select Review > Comment or @ Mention. Or select New if the Comments pane is open.

In the Comments pane, type your comment in the box, @mention a collaborator if you like, and press Enter.

Select Reply and type your response.

Select See more comments to go between comments and slides.

6. Giving a Presentation in PowerPoint

You can use one or many screens when giving presentations using PowerPoint using Presenter View. You can also add notes and subtitles.

Starting a presentation

On the Slide Show tab select From Beginning. Now, if you are working with PowerPoint on a single monitor and you want to display Presenter view, in Slide Show view, on the control bar at the bottom left select the three dots, and then Show Presenter View.

To move to the previous or next slide, select Previous or Next.

To view all the slides in your presentation, select See all slides.

Adding Notes

During your presentation, the speaker notes are visible on your monitor, but aren't visible to the audience.

The Notes pane is a box that appears below each slide. Tap it to add notes.

If you don’t see the Notes pane or it is completely minimized, click Notes on the task bar across the bottom of the PowerPoint window

Subtitles

You can choose which language the caption/subtitle text should be shown to your audience. This feature requires Windows 10 and an up-to-date version of PowerPoint.

Select Slide Show > Subtitle Settings.

Set your Spoken Language.

Select Subtitle Language to see which languages PowerPoint can display on-screen as captions or subtitles, and select the one you want.

In the Subtitle Settings menu, set the desired position of the captions or subtitles.

More appearance settings are available by selecting Subtitle Settings > More Settings (Windows).