Tips Microsoft PowerPoint

Type text

2009-09-24T00:40:00.000-07:00

Type text such as lists into a body text placeholder.
1. The body text placeholder is usually positioned below a title.
2. Its default formatting is a bulleted list. At the end of a paragraph, press ENTER and then TAB to get to the next level of indent down.

The picture shows text typed within a body text (as opposed to a title) placeholder. This placeholder typically has five levels of text indents available, each with its own bullet style and ever-reducing type size. You'll rarely need so many indents, but PowerPoint offers them.

If you don't want a bulleted list, select the placeholder by clicking its border. Then click the Bullets button . Other buttons on the Formatting toolbar, such as the Center button , are handy for positioning text.

The indent buttons, such as Decrease Indent , help you position text at the right level of indent, and you can also use keyboard methods.

Automatic text fit If you type more text than fits in the placeholder, PowerPoint reduces the text size to fit it all in. You can turn this behavior off, if you prefer.

Add new slides

2009-09-24T00:37:00.000-07:00

Use the Slides tab, the area on the left where the slide thumbnail is, to add new slides.
1. Right-click the thumbnail that you want the new slide to follow, and then…
2. click New Slide on the shortcut menu.

When PowerPoint opens, there's only one slide in the show. It's up to you to add the rest. Add them as you go or several at a time, as you prefer.

There are multiple ways to insert a new slide; you'll see all of them in this blog.

For now, here are two quick methods for adding a slide. On the Slides tab in the left of the window, either

* Click the slide thumbnail that you want the new slide to follow, and then press ENTER.

Or:
* Right-click the slide thumbnail that you want the new slide to follow, and then click New Slide on the shortcut menu.

Slides, text, and notes

2009-09-24T00:33:00.000-07:00

A blank slide can be daunting; don't let it be. Soon you'll feel comfortable filling it up.

here it sits in the middle of the PowerPoint window: a big, blank slide. "Click to add title," says the text on the screen. It sounds easy, but you've never done this before, and the blank canvas is daunting.

Note:
If you want the superfast method of creating a show — that is, the cake mix instead of the simple cake recipe from scratch — use the AutoContent Wizard. Steps for it are in the Quick Reference Card at the end of the course. By contrast, this course's lessons show you how to do all the basic stuff yourself.

Work in the slide area

2008-05-27T17:58:00.000-07:00

1. In the slide pane, type text directly onto the slide, within the placeholder.
2. On the left is a thumbnail version of the slide you're working on. This area is the Slides tab, and you can click the slide thumbnails here to navigate among slides.
3. The notes pane. Type notes that you'll use when presenting. You can drag the borders of the pane to make the notes area bigger.

The window that first opens in PowerPoint has a big working space in the middle, with smaller areas around it. That middle space is the slide area, officially called the slide pane.

Working in this space, you type text directly onto the slide. The area you type into is a box with a dashed border called a placeholder. All the text that you type onto a slide resides in a box like this.

Most slides include one or more placeholders for titles, body text such as lists or regular paragraphs, and other content such as pictures or charts.