1.1.4: PowerPoint Slide Basics
- Page ID
- 63164
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)Adding and Deleting Slides
New slides can easily be added to a presentation by clicking the bottom half of the New Slide button in the Slides group of the Home tab. If the top half of the New Slide button is clicked, the default slide layout (Title and Content) will be inserted into the presentation. By clicking the bottom half of the button, a gallery of several different slide layouts will appear.
The type of content the user intends to add will dictate which slide layout is selected. Most slide layouts include one or more placeholder to guide the user where to add content. Placeholders can contain different types of content, including text, graphics, tables, charts, and videos. Placeholders can be resized, reformatted or deleted. The most common slide layout (Title and Content) has two placeholders. The user simply needs to place the cursor inside the placeholder and begin typing to add text, or click an icon to add an object. PowerPoint automatically sizes the text as it is typed to fit within the placeholder.
The AutoFit icon 
is displayed next to a placeholder when more text than can fit is typed.
The alignment, font, size, and other formats can be applied to the selected text in a placeholder by using the Mini toolbar or the Home tab. A layout can be changed by clicking the Layout button to the right of the New Slide button, and choose a different layout. To delete a slide, right-click the slide in the thumbnail pane, and choose Delete Slide from the shortcut menu.
From the Thumbnail Pane
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You can also add slides from the thumbnail pane, the left hand column of your screen when you’re in the default or Slide view.
- Select (highlight) the slide you want the new slide to follow
- Right-click on the slide
- Select New Slide for the default content slide layout or Duplicate Slide to copy the slide layout and content
OR, to use a shortcut to duplicate the slide layout (not content)
- Select (highlight) the slide you want the new slide to follow
- Press Ctrl + M (PC) or Cmnd + M (Mac)
Note that your layout choice isn’t final, so don’t overthink the decision. If you’re just trying to get your thoughts down on slides, select Duplicate Slide and fine-tune later.
Deleting a Slide
As with most operations, there are multiple ways to delete a slide:
- Highlight the slide in the thumbnail pane and press delete
- Highlight the slide in the thumbnail pane and press the delete icon (Home tab)
- Highlight the slide in the thumbnail pane, right click and select Delete Slide
Organizing Slides
To move a slide, simply drag and drop in the thumbnail frame.
Adding Slide Text vs. Slide Notes
While text can be added to slides via placeholders in various slide layouts, text can be added directly to the Notes pane to create speaker notes for the presenter of the slide show. Maintaining a minimal number of slides requires that each slide only contain summary text, not details. The details need to be added orally through the presentation speaker. The data in the Notes pane does not appear in Slide Show view. The Notes pane can be opened or closed by clicking the Notes button on the status bar.
Slide Notes are an important part of developing a presentation. The slide notes provides more information that can be used to support the person giving the presentation, reviewing a presentation, and detailed source information.
Replacing Text and Fonts
Popular presentations that get used over extended periods of time often need updating due to product, personnel or company name changes. This is particularly the case in technology companies. Instead of relying on manual editing to find specific words that need to be changed, the Find or the Find & Replace features can be much more accurate to accomplish the same goal.
In the Editing group of the Home tab, click the Replace drop-down list, and choose Replace … to open the Replace window. Use the Find what: and Replace with: fields to update the presentation by replacing certain text with new text. Exact case settings can be required to ensure words like Mark versus mark are not replaced inadvertently.
Sometimes a new design requires that a font be changed throughout the entire presentation. Changing fonts throughout a presentation is very similar to changing certain text throughout a document or throughout a presentation. In the Editing group of the Home tab, click the Replace drop-down list, and choose Replace Fonts… to open the Replace Font window. In the Replace: drop-down list, choose the existing font that needs to be replaced, and then in the With: drop-down list, select the new font that should appear instead.
Creating Bulleted and Numbered Lists
The Title and Content slide layout is both the default and the overwhelming most popular slide layout for most slides in a presentation. This the root cause of why so many PowerPoint presentations bore their audiences with mundane amounts of text. The worst offense is when users simply write sentence upon sentence of text, which often gets read to the audience by the presenter. (Not a crowd favorite!) A better approach is to create presentations which utilize bulleted and numbered lists to help organize text, or show sequential processes. Too many slides of the same format can exhaust the audience, so use lists in moderation. However, when used with animation (discussed in the next chapter), lists can really help manage the flow of information by synchronizing the visual elements of the slide show with the verbal accompaniment of the speaker.
As defined in the Word chapters, bulleted lists differentiate from numbered lists in that numbered lists demonstrate sequencing, whereas bulleted lists simply imply that each item is part of an non-ordered group. Bullets and numbers can be formatted using custom symbols and number formats to synchronize with the presentation design.
Bullets and numbers can also be indented to create sub lists. The Paragraph group contains the commands to increase and decrease the indentation of bullets and numbers.
Inserting Slide and Handout Footers
Slide footers represent another way to further customize the look of the presentation. Slide footers are typically displayed at the bottom of the slide, depending on the presentation’s theme. Several fields are available to be added to each slide, including the date, a slide number or a customizable text field. A combination of these fields can 
be included or excluded. From the Insert tab, choose the Header & Footer option from the Text group to open the Header and Footer window.
Two options that often get overlooked are the Don’t show on title slide checkbox, and the Apply versus Apply to All buttons. The Don’t show on title slide option is usually selected to prevent the footer from appearing the title slide. To assign the footer options to the current slide, choose the Apply button. Alternatively, the Apply to All button assigns the footer options to all slides, except the title (if the Don’t show on title slide checkbox is marked).
Slide footers are different than handout footers. Both can exist in the same presentation, but each has their own uses. While the slide footers appear on screen during slide shows, the Notes and Handout footer is designed for hard copy printouts. Similar fields are available as the Slide Footer, although the Header text box represents a new option, and only the Apply to All button exists, since the header and/or footer will appear on all pages of the handouts/notes pages.
The Header and Footer fields often contain data like company or author names, copyright notices, and keywords like Confidential, Sample, Draft, etc.
To delete any header and footer information from the Notes and Handouts printouts, open the Header & Footer window, click the Notes and Handouts icon, and clear all fields and checkboxes before clicking the Apply to All button.
Contributors and Attributions
- Editing and Enhancing a PowerPoint Presentation. Authored by: Nina Burokas. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution