Cheat Sheet: Microsoft PowerPoint Basic Skills

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Essential Concepts

Basic Skills

Powerpoint allows us to create visual presentations. Just like Word and Excel, when you open Powerpoint you are taken to a backstage view where you can create your new presentation. New presentations can also be created using CTRL+N (or CMD+N) and from the file menu. A theme is a way to design your PowerPoint presentation with colors, preset fonts, and slide layouts.

When editing a presentation you can change the text on individual slides, but you can also make changes to the presentation as a whole:

  • Add slides
  • Move slides
  • Delete slides
  • Change slide layout: title slide, title and content, section header, two content, comparison

There are two primary views you can use when editing a presentation

  1. Normal view is the default view and it allows you to see a thumbnail of each slide in the side panel.
  2. Outline view will not show you the thumbnails of each slide, but will detail the text on each slide in the side panel and will allow you to edit text on any slide even if it is not the active slide.

Objects in PowerPoint

Although PowerPoint slides often include a default text box, additional text boxes can be added for emphasis or to keep some words separated on the slide.

Pictures can be added to the slide as the main, or active, feature, but can also be added from the insert menu on the screen.

In addition to pictures, SmartArt is a common object on a PowerPoint slide. PowerPoint has a variety of SmartArt charts to choose from. You can add SmartArt by converting existing text or by creating a blank object and modifying the texts and shapes.  modified on

Arranging and Grouping

In the drawing tab of PowerPoints ribbon menu are more tools to customize a PowerPoint slide. From here we can add shapes and use QuickStyles. When dealing with multiple objects on a slide we may want to group them together. This allows us to move them and resize them as a group. If we keep the objects separate, we can change their order on the page by bringing them to the front or sending them to the back. This controls which image is on top when the images overlap.

Glossary

active slide

the current slide being displayed and edited in PowerPoint.

ClipArt

pre-made images and graphics that can be inserted into a presentation.

grouping

combining multiple objects so they can be moved or formatted together.

modify

to change the properties or content of an object in a PowerPoint presentation.

Normal View

the default view in PowerPoint that shows the slide, thumbnail pane, and notes area.

Outline View

a view in PowerPoint that displays the text content of each slide in outline form, making it easier to organize and edit.

overlapping

placing one object on top of another within a slide.

PowerPoint

a presentation software developed by Microsoft used to create slideshows composed of text, graphics, and other objects.

presentation

a collection of slides arranged in a sequence to be shown to an audience.

shapes

geometric or custom-designed objects that can be inserted into a slide.

slide

a single page within a PowerPoint presentation that contains content such as text, images, and other elements.

SmartArt

a feature in PowerPoint that allows the creation of diagrams and graphics to represent information visually.

textbox

an object in PowerPoint where text can be entered and formatted.

theme

a predefined set of colors, fonts, and effects that can be applied to a presentation to ensure a consistent and professional look.

thumbnail

a miniature representation of a slide, shown in the thumbnail pane, that provides a quick way to navigate through slides.

title slide

the first slide in a presentation that typically contains the presentation title, subtitle, and other introductory information.