A PowerPoint file is a stack of pages called slides. This page gets you from an empty screen to a titled first slide that already looks tidy.
Everything in PowerPoint is a slide, and slides are simply pages shown one at a time. A talk with ten slides is a document with ten pages — you just move through it with a click instead of scrolling.
- Jump between slides here
- Click to add title
- Subtitle placeholder
Once a presentation is open the window has three parts: the strip of small slide thumbnails down the left, the large slide you are editing in the middle, and the ribbon of buttons across the top. The thumbnail strip is how you jump between slides and reorder them.
Try it yourself
Open PowerPoint and, on the start screen, choose a template you like rather than Blank Presentation.
The template sets fonts and colours for every slide you add later, so your deck stays consistent without any extra effort.
Click into the box that says 'Click to add title' and type the name of your talk.
Those boxes are placeholders. Typing into them keeps the text correctly sized and positioned automatically.
Click the smaller box underneath and add your name or the date.
The subtitle placeholder is styled to be quieter than the title, which is exactly what you want.
Press Ctrl+S, give the file a name and save it.
Saving early means later saves are one keystroke, and a crash costs you nothing.
Words people use
Check yourself
If you can say yes to each of these, you are ready for the next lesson.
- I can start a presentation from a template
- I can type into the title and subtitle placeholders
- I know what the thumbnail strip on the left is for
- I have saved the file with a sensible name