Introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint 2013

Computer presentations are used at offices, schools and many other places to express ideas and opinions to the audience. A presentation supported by images, animations and audio helps to catch and retain the attention of the audience.
There are a number of software that can be used to create computer-based presentations, like- Microsoft PowerPoint, OpenOffice.org Impress, Lotus Freelance and Apple Keynote.

Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most widely used computer-based presentations software. There are various circumstances in which a presentation is made- teaching a class, introducing a product to sell, explaining an organizational structure, etc.

A presentation created using PowerPoint consist of individual pages called slides. A slide can contain text, images, audio clips and video. You can also add sound effects and animations to a presentation to catch the attention of the audience. When multiple slides are displayed together in sequence in full screen mode, it is called a slide show. Let us learn how to use this software.

Starting Microsoft PowerPoint 2013:

To starts Microsoft PowerPoint, follow the steps given here-

Step 1: Click on the Start button on the Taskbar.

Step 2: Click on the All Programs option.

Step 3: Click on the Microsoft Office option.

Step 4: Click on Microsoft PowerPoint 2013.

From the PowerPoint Start Screen, locate and select Blank Presentation to access the PowerPoint interface.

Component of the PowerPoint Window:

The PowerPoint window consists of the following components:

1. Quick Access Toolbar:

The Quick Access Toolbar is present on the top-left corner of the PowerPoint window. It has buttons for commands that are used frequently. By default, it shows the Save, Undo, and Redo commands. You can add other commands depending on your preference.

• Save button to save your file.
• Undo button to undo / rollback the previous action.
• Redo button to redo the action that was undone.

• How to add commands to the Quick Access toolbar:

Step 1: Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Quick Access toolbar.

Step 2: Select the command you want to add from the drop-down menu.

Step 3: To choose from more commands, select More Commands.

Step 4: The command will be added to the Quick Access toolbar.

2. The Ribbon:

The Ribbon is located just below the Quick Access Toolbar. PowerPoint 2013 uses a tabbed Ribbon system instead of traditional menus. The Ribbon contains multiple tabs, each with several groups of commands such as File, Insert, Design, Transitions, Animations, Slide Show, Review and view.

Every tab has commands that are divided into groups. Every groups has a set of related commands. For example, commands related to changing the size, style, font colour, highlight colour etc. of the text are present in the Font group on the Home tab.

• How to minimize and maximize the Ribbon:

The Ribbon is designed to respond to your current task, but you can choose to minimize the Ribbon if you find that it takes up too much screen space.

Step 1: Click the Ribbon Display Options arrow in the upper-right corner of the Ribbon.

Step 2: Select the desired minimizing option from the drop-down menu.

3. Title Bar:

This bar displays the name of the presentation on which you are currently working. It displays the presentation name followed by the name of the program (PowerPoint). The first new presentation you open in PowerPoint is named as Presentation 1. You can give a name to the presentation at the time of saving it.

4. Status Bar:

Status bar appears at the bottom of the window. On the left side, it provides details such as the current slide number and total number of slides in your presentation. The view buttons and zoom slider are present on the right side of the Status Bar.

5. Backstage view:

Backstage view gives you various options for saving, opening a presentation, printing, and sharing your presentation.

• How to Access Backstage view:

Step 1: Click the File tab on the Ribbon. Backstage view will appear.

Step 2: Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn more about using backstage view.

How to create a new presentation:

Step 1: Select the File tab to go to Backstage view.

Step 2: Select New on the left side of the window, then click Blank Presentation or choose a theme.

Step 3: A new presentation will appear.

Adding theme to the presentation:

To make your presentation attractive, you can add colour and design on the slide. Follow these steps to adding the theme:

Step 1: Click the Themes group under the Design tab.

Step 2: For your presentation, select a theme of your choice.

Step 3: You can make changes in these themes by using the Colours, Fonts and Effects tool on the right side of these themes under the Variants group.

Adding text to the slide:

Follow the steps below to add text to a PowerPoint slide.

Step 1: Click in a designated text placeholder.

Step 2: Once you click in the text placeholder, it becomes active and the cursor indicates where to enter your desired text.

Step 3: Ensure that your cursor is located inside the text placeholder and begin typing your text.

Adding placeholder to a slide:

In addition to placeholders you can insert text boxes in the slide. To add a text box follow the below listed steps.

Step 1: Click on the Insert tab

Step 2: In Text group click the Text Box command

Step 3: Click on the slide and drag the cursor until text box takes the desired width

Step 4: Then release the mouse

NOTE:

1. You can move and resize the text box. To move the text box click in the box and drag the mouse to the desired location.

2. To resize the text box click the circle or square sizing handles of text box and drag the mouse to give it desired size.

Formatting the text:

Once you've added your text to the slide, you might want to change how it appears. Whether that's the colour or font of the text, simply select the text in PowerPoint and choose one of these options to modify it. The formatting options are available in the Font group under the Home tab.

Bold (Ctrl + B):

Use this option to make your font heavier and thicker.

Italic (Ctrl + I):

An italic effect gives your text a bit of "lean" and is great for captions or annotations.

Underline (Ctrl + U):

An underline is a popular tool for text headings and adds a horizontal line below your text.

Shadow:

When your text needs contrast to stand out from the slide, add a shadow to make it more readable.

Strikethrough:

A strikethrough is a horizontal line through the center of your text, making it appear crossed out.

Character Spacing:

This is also sometimes called kerning, and it describes how much space is between each character in your text.

Change Case:

This tool is a major timesaver for converting text between "cases", such as uppercase, lowercase, and sentence case. If you have all uppercase text for example, you can change it to appear more natural.

Text Colour:

Choose from any colour swatch to change the colour of your text.

Font:

Choose from different typefaces like Arial, Times New Roman, or a custom font.

Font Size:

A higher number would show your text larger, while a smaller number decreases the text size.

Increase Text Size (Ctrl + Shift + >):

Make your text size larger. 

Decrease Text Size (Ctrl + Shift + <):

Make your text size smaller. 

Clear Formatting:

Remove all of the text options you've applied to reset it.

Adding a new slide:

To add a new slide to your presentation, follow the below listed steps.

Step 1: Click the New Slide (Ctrl + M) option in the Slides group on the Home or Insert tab.

Step 2: If you click the top half of the New Slide button, the default Title and Content type slide will be added.

Step 3: If, instead, you click the bottom half of the New Slide button, you will be able to select what type of slide is added. Let us choose the blank layout here.

Step 4: You may change the layout of your slide anytime later by clicking on the Layout option in the Slides group.

Deleting slides:

For a single slide: 

Step 1: Right-click the slide in the thumbnail pane on the left Or select a slide.

Step 2: Click Delete Slide Or press the Delete key from the keyboard.

For multiple slides:

Step 1: Press and hold Ctrl, and in the thumbnail pane on the left,

Step 2: Select the slides.

Step 3: Release the Ctrl key.

Step 4: Then right-click the selection and click Delete Slide Or press the Delete key from the keyboard.

For a sequence of slides:

Step 1: Press and hold Shift, and in the thumbnail pane on the left,

Step 2: Select the first and last slides in the sequence.

Step 3: Release the Shift key.

Step 4: Then right-click the selection and click Delete Slide Or press the Delete key from the keyboard.

 

Duplicate a slide:

Step 1: Right-click the slide in the thumbnail pane on the left that you want to duplicate or click the bottom half of the New Slide option in the Slides group on the Home or Insert tab.

Step 2: Then click Duplicate Slide Or Select Duplicate Selected Slides.

Step 3: The duplicate is inserted immediately after the original.

 

Rearranging single slides:

Step 1: In the pane on the left, click the thumbnail of the slide that you want to move.

Step 2: Then drag it to the new location.

Rearranging multiple slides:

Step 1: Press and hold Ctrl, and in the pane on the left.

Step 2: Click each slide that you want to move.

Step 3: Release the Ctrl key

Step 4: Then drag the selected slides as a group to the new location.

 

Adding a bulleted list:

Enter required information in the placeholders on the new slide, to add bullets follow the below listed steps.

Step 1: Click on the bullets option under the Paragraph group of the Home tab.

Step 2: choose appropriate bullet style.

 

Adding a picture on the slide:

To insert a picture on the slide, follow the below listed steps.

Step 1: Click on the Picture option under the Images group under the Insert tab.

Step 2: Insert Picture dialog box will appears.

Step 3: Search the picture that you want to use on the slide.

Step 4: Click on the Insert button.

Step 5: The picture appears on the slide. You can resize the picture by dragging its corners. You can drag the picture to the desired place using the mouse.

 

To save a presentation:

Step 1:  Select the Save command on the Quick Access toolbar or Backstage view.

Step 2:  Choose where to save the file.

Step 3: Give it a file name.

Step 4:  Then click Save.

Shortcut Key : By pressing Ctrl+S on your keyboard.

Open an existing presentation:

Step 1:  Navigate to Backstage view, then click Open.

Step 2:  Select Computer, then click Browse.

Step 3:  The Open dialog box appears. Locate and select your file, then click Open.

Note: If you've opened the desired presentation recently, you can browse your Recent presentations rather than search for the file.

Shortcut Key : By pressing Ctrl+O on your keyboard.

 

Closing a presentation:

After saving the work in a presentation, you can close it by following these steps:

Step 1: Click on the File tab.

Step 2: Then select the Close option.

Step 3: If there are changes in the presentation that have been not saved, PowerPoint will ask to save the changes. It displays three buttons- Yes, No and Cancel.

• Click on the Yes button to save the changes.
• Click on the No button if you do not want to save the changes.
• Click on the Cancel button if you do not want to close the presentation.

Shortcut Key : By pressing Ctrl+W on your keyboard.

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