PowerPoint

for Beginners
Class Objective:
Elmhurst Public Library is committed to offering enriching programs to
help patrons Explore, Learn, and Grow. Today, technology skills are more
than valuable—they are a necessity in the workforce and daily life. By the
end of this PowerPoint class you will be better able to create your own
presentation using most of the available features.

Thanks so much for attending and be on the lookout for further Powerpoint
classes and more!

Introduction
PowerPoint is Microsoft’s presentation software and probably the easiest
way to display information visually while presenting. PowerPoint creates
slideshow presentations, with slides. Although we will be working with
PowerPoint 2013, except for a few differences, the fundamentals of this
class will apply to all versions of PowerPoint.

PowerPoint is also part of a larger suite of applications called the Microsoft

Office suite. The applications in this suite work in a very similar way, and
are designed to have a similar “look,” so that once a user masters one
application, the rest will be easier to learn.

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What We’ll Cover:
Opening PowerPoint
Creating a Blank Project
Slide Views and Layout
Text Boxes and Keyboard Shortcuts
Inserting Images and ClipArt
Transitions
Formatting Bullets and Backgrounds
Presentation Tips
Saving and Printing

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Introduction

PowerPoint 2013 can be found in the Start menu:

[Start] [All Programs] [Microsoft Office] See picture at
Left.

Also, most computers have a shortcut (an icon on the

Windows desktop) that you can click on to open the
PowerPoint application. It can look like this:

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Let’s open up PowerPoint now, click the Microsoft Office icon and select
PowerPoint from the selection menu.

Once PowerPoint is open you can select a predesigned template or

recent presentation from the gallery, but for today’s class we’ll select
blank presentation in the left-hand corner (blank presentations will also
automatically open when you hit enter).

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Office Ribbon
We now have a blank PowerPoint! Notice the icons and commands at the
top of the screen. This white section of tabs is called the Office “Ribbon,”
and it contains the tools you’ll need for creating slideshows.

The Office Ribbon arranges tools into the Tabs like you might
have on a series of folders. If you are familiar with any other
Microsoft Office product, such as Word or Excel, you will
notice several similarities. Each tab contains several tools
and some also have “expandable” menus. These menus in
each tool group can be accessed by the “Expand” icon.

Each expanded menus offer more advanced options.

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PowerPoint is designed
with a graphic interface,
so users learn to recognize
tools by icon. If you don’t
know an icons’ function, put
your mouse pointer on the
icon and leave it there for
a second, the name of the
icon will appear next to the
mouse pointer.

In review, the Office Ribbon is organized in the following way;

[Ribbon]
[Tabs]
[Groups]
[A Single Group Menu tool] (such as “line spacing”)

However an exception is the FILE Button. This

button controls everything you can DO with a
slideshow before and after you work on it; opening,
saving, and printing.

Today we’re going to focus mainly on the FILE Button and the some of the
most frequently used tools in the Tab menus. There are lots of additional
features in this application, but we’ll concentrate on the basics.

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Getting Around
Notice that PowerPoint starts you off with a new blank slide. This slide is
a plain white rectangular box. Anything that fits within the white slide area
will be visible when you “show” the slideshow in the future. Inside the white
slide are a number of cross-hatched rectangles, labeled with “Click here”
text. These are called text boxes. In PowerPoint, text can only be entered
in a text box, although you can create as many texts boxes as you want, or
expand them to fit the entire slide.

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Selecting, Adding & Deleting Slides
To add a slide, click on the “New Slide” icon
in Home tab OR right click and select the
same option. (This is also the location if you
want to duplicate a slide)

To work on a slide, go to the slide column (left side of screen)-click on it. A

slide is selected when the small preview slide has an orange border around

To delete a slide- go to slide column- click on the slide- press “Backspace”

button or right click and select delete

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Home Tab- Slide Layouts
To shrink/enlarge text box borders- click on
a “sizing handle” and drag.

You can click on the Layout tool (next to

New Slide) to change to another type of
slide layout.

Different layouts give room for pictures,

charts, and tables.

Slide Column- Rearranging Slides

To change the order of slides, go to the slide
column (left side of screen)

Right-click on slide you want to move- select

“Cut”

Right-click between the slides where you

want the slide to go-select “Paste.”

You can also click on a slide and “drag” it to

a new location.

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Shortcuts & Right-Clicking
Ctrl-Z to undo changes
Ctrl-Y to redo changes.

To select text, highlight with mouse or press

Ctrl-A to select all text in a text box

To change font, color, & size, text and double

click on the text and use the popup menu
or adjust these settings in the top left of the
home tab

Home Tab- Bullet Points

Automatic…click on Bullets icon in Home tab
to turn off.

To start new bullet, press enter

To make a sub-point, press tab

To go back to a regular bullet point, right-click

and then click on the “Decrease Indent” icon

Keep bullet points concise.

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Insert Tab- Adding Images
Inserting ClipArt: ClipArt is a collection of copyright free photos and
illustrations provided by Microsoft Office. More than likely it is fine to use
images from the web and other copyright materials as long as it is not for
commercial use but it may be preferable to use ClipArt if you are worried
or unsure. In previous versions of PowerPoint, ClipArt was located on
the computer, however in PowerPoint 2013 these files are located on the
internet in a free database to access ClipArt:

Click on Insert Online Pictures (for ClipArt).

Type a search word- click on your choice. Adjust image by dragging it or

using the “sizing handles”

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Insert Tab- Add Pictures From File
If you want to add an image saved on computer or digital camera, go to
Insert Tab/Picture.

In pop-up window, find the image on your computer.

Select it and hit ‘Insert’.

Adjust size as needed

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Design Tab- Themes
Blank slides can get a little boring however! Thankfully PowerPoint is full of
nice looking, customizable design themes. This is where the most noticeable
differences between PowerPoint versions is located as the updated designs
look more intricate and relevant.

To choose a pre-made background- go to the Design Tab, choose a Theme.

Colors in the Theme can also be adjusted by clicking on the Colors tool.

You can also adjust the background color by clicking on background style.

These changes will effect all slides

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Transitions Tab
Transitions determine what happens as PowerPoint moves from one slide to
another. Transitions can offer a nice finishing touch to a presentation.

Go to Animation Tab- “Transition to This Slide”- click on a slide icon to

preview it.

After choosing, click on “Apply to all slides”

Timed slide advance option on the far right under “Advance Slide.”

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Presenting
To start show, press F5 or hit the slideshow icon, in the
bottom right corner

To start from a certain slide, click on slide, go to Slide Show Tab, and choose
“From Current Slide.”

To advance a slide, press Enter (keyboard) or click mouse

To go back a slide, press Backspace (keyboard)

To end the show press Escape (keyboard)

Keep presentations simple- remember that PPT is just a tool, not the
presentation.

If you want to make the screen black press B (keyboard)

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Saving and Printing
Check your text for errors by pressing F7. This will run the spellcheck.

To save, go to File- Save As and select where you would like to save the file.
Today we’ll select Computer and then Desktop. Finally you will need to give
the PowerPoint a name in the blank name spot and select a file type.

Many users frequently ask what the correct file format to save in. This
depends on how you want the file displayed, and who you want to share it
with.

For most cases saving our PowerPoint as a PowerPoint File (or .pptx) is
preferable.

If you know the person you are sharing it with has a much older computer
(2003 or older) then you’ll want to save as a PowerPoint 97-2003 file

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If you do not want to allow someone receiving the file (or you know that
that person does not own a copy of PowerPoint) you should save the file as
a PDF

There are many more file types but these are the three most common.
-In pop-up window, give PPT show a simple file name

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Printing

To print PPT, go to File button- Print. Under here you’ll be able to select the
printer, number of copies, how many slides per page you’d like to print, and
more.

Conclusion
By now you should have a great working knowledge of the basic features
and design of PowerPoint. Now the best way to cement what you’ve learned
is to practice! We hope that you have enjoyed today’s class and continue to
think of Elmhurst Public Library as a gateway to technology, learning, and
fun. To sign up for any of our other classes visit: elmlib.org/techclass

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 125 S. Prospect Ave. • Elmhurst, IL 60126
(630) 279-8696 • [email protected]
www.elmhurstpubliclibrary.org

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