How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation

This wikiHow teaches you how to create your own Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. PowerPoint is a program that's part of the Microsoft Office suite, which is available for both Windows and Mac computers. Open PowerPoint. Click or...

Part 1 of 6:

Creating a New PowerPoint

How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 1

Open PowerPoint. Click or double-click the PowerPoint app icon, which resembles an orange box with a white "P" on it. This will open the PowerPoint templates page.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 2
Review the available templates. Scroll through the templates page until you find one which you like.
1. Templates include things like custom color schemes, fonts, and general appearance.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 3
Select a template. Click the template that you want to use. Its window will open.
1. If you don't want to use a template, just click the Blank option in the upper-left side of the page and skip the next two steps.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 4
Select a theme if possible. Many templates have different color schemes or themes indicated by colored boxes in the lower-right side of the window; clicking one of these boxes will change the color scheme and/or theme for your template.
1. Skip this step if your selected template doesn't have any themes available.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 5

Click Create. It's in the bottom-right corner of the window. Doing so selects your template and creates your PowerPoint presentation.

Part 2 of 6:

Creating the Title Slide

How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 6
Understand how your title slide should appear. Contrary to the rest of your PowerPoint presentation, your title slide should be completely devoid of content other than the title and subtitle. This is considered a professional must when creating a PowerPoint.
1. If you're creating a PowerPoint presentation for which an elaborate title slide has been requested, ignore this step.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 7
Add a title. Click the large text box in the middle of the first slide, then type in your title.
1. You can change the font and size of text used from the Home tab that's in the orange ribbon at the top of the window.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 8
Add the subtitle. Click the smaller text box below the title box, then type in the subtitle that you want to use.
1. You can also just leave this box blank if you like.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 9
Rearrange the title text boxes. Place your mouse cursor over one of the edges of a title box, then click and drag the box around the slide to reposition it.
1. You can also click and drag in or out one of a text box's corners to shrink or enlarge the text box.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 10

Click the Transitions tab. It's at the top of the PowerPoint window. Doing so brings up a list of possible slide transition effects at the top of the page.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 11
Select a transition for your title slide. Click a transition you want to use to apply it to the slide. This completes the title slide process; you can now move on to adding another slide for your presentation's main content.
1. Placing your mouse over the transition will cause the slide to demonstrate what the transition will look like in practice.

Part 3 of 6:

Adding a New Slide

How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 12
Click the Insert tab. It's at the top of the PowerPoint window. A new toolbar will open near the top of the window.
1. On a Mac, you'll click the Home tab instead.^{[1] X Research source}
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 13
Click New Slide ▼. It's on the far-left side of the toolbar. Doing so prompts a drop-down menu to appear.
1. On a Mac, click the
  How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 14
  drop-down arrow to the right of the New Slide icon in the toolbar.
2. Clicking the white slide-shaped box above this option will result in a new text slide being inserted.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 15
Select a type of slide. In the drop-down menu, click one of the following to add it to your presentation:
1. Title Slide
2. Title and Content
3. Section Header
4. Two Content
5. Comparison
6. Title Only
7. Blank
8. Content with Caption
9. Picture with Caption
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 16

Add any other slides that you think you'll need. You can certainly add slides as you go, but adding a few slides up-front will give you an idea of the layout of the presentation as you progress through it.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 17
Reposition your slides as needed. Once you have more than one slide in your PowerPoint presentation, you can move the slides around by clicking and dragging a slide's preview box up or down on the left-hand column of the PowerPoint window.
1. Naturally, the title slide should be the first slide in your presentation, meaning that it should be the top slide in the left-hand column.

Part 4 of 6:

Adding Content to Slides

How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 18

Select a slide. In the left-hand column of slide previews, click the slide that you want to edit. This will open the slide in the main presentation window.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 19
Look for a text box. If you selected a slide that has a text box, you can add text to the slide.
1. Skip this step and the next two steps if your selected slide uses a template that doesn't have text boxes in it.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 20
Add text to the slide. Click the text box, then type as needed.
1. Text boxes in PowerPoint will automatically format the bulk of your text for you (e.g., adding bullet points) based on the context of the content itself.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 21
Format the slide's text. If necessary, select the text that you want to change, then click the Home tab and review your text formatting options in the "Font" section of the toolbar.
1. You can change the font of the selected text by clicking the current font's name and then clicking your preferred font.
2. If you want to change the size of the text, click the numbered drop-down box and then click a larger or smaller number based on whether you want to enlarge or shrink the text.
3. You can also change the color, bolding, italicization, underlining, and so on from here.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 22

Add photos to the slide. If you want to add a photo to your slide, click the Insert tab, then click Pictures in the toolbar and select a picture.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 23
Rearrange the slide's content. Just like your title slide, you can move items around the slide by clicking and dragging them.
1. Photos in particular can be enlarged or shrunk by clicking and dragging out or in one of their corners.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 24
Repeat this for each slide in your presentation. Once you've created each of your presentation's slides, you can proceed to the next part.
1. Remember to keep slides uncluttered and relatively free of distractions. It's best to keep the amount of text per slide to around 33 words or less.^{[2] X Research source}

Part 5 of 6:

Adding Transitions

How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 25

Select a slide. In the left-hand column of the PowerPoint window, click the slide to which you want to apply a transition.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 26

Click the Transitions tab. It's at the top of the PowerPoint window. This will open the Transitions toolbar near the top of the window.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 27

Review the available transitions. Transitions make your slide pop up in an exciting, eye-drawing manner during your actual presentation; you can see the list of available transitions at the top of the window.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 28

Preview a transition. Click a transition at the top of the window to watch it run on your slide.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 29

Select a transition to use. Once you decide on a transition, click it to ensure that it is selected. The current slide will use the selected transition.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 30
Add a transition to slide content. You can apply transitions to specific pieces of slide content (e.g., a photo or a bullet point) by selecting the content, clicking the Animations tab at the top of the window, and selecting the transition that you want to use there.
1. Slide content will animate in the order in which you assign transitions. For example, if you animate a photo on the slide and then animate the title, the photo will appear before the title.

Part 6 of 6:

Testing and Saving Your Presentation

How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 31

Review your PowerPoint. Once you've finished adding the bulk of your PowerPoint presentation's content, skim through it slide-by-slide to ensure that you haven't left anything out.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 32

Click the Slide Show tab. This tab is at the top of the window. Doing so opens the Slide Show toolbar.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 33

Click From Beginning. It's in the far-left corner of the toolbar. Your PowerPoint presentation will open in slide show view.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 34
Page through the slide show. You can use the left and right arrow keys to move back and forward through the presentation.
1. If you need to exit the presentation, press Esc.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 35

Make any necessary changes before proceeding. When you're done scrolling through the presentation, add any details that you forgot, delete any content that you want to remove, and so on.
How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Picture 36
Save your PowerPoint. This will save your presentation as a file which can be opened on any Windows or Mac computer that has PowerPoint installed:
1. Windows - Click File, click Save, double-click This PC, select a save location, enter a name for your presentation, and click Save.
2. Mac - Click File, click Save As..., enter the presentation's name in the "Save As" field, select a save location by clicking the "Where" box and clicking a folder, and click Save.

slide click text presentation

Micah Soto

Update 05 March 2020

You should read it

Maybe you are interested