Mastering Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 Training Tutorial

The initial screen that is displayed when you create a new blank presentation in PowerPoint is called “Normal” view and is one of the many presentation views that are available in PowerPoint. This is the view in which you will spend most of your time when constructing your presentation. A presentation is the default type of file in PowerPoint. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The Title Bar is the bar that runs across the top of the application window. The name of the presentation that you are working on will be displayed in the center of this bar. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The main tool available for you to use in PowerPoint is the Ribbon. This object allows you to perform all of the commands available in the program. The Ribbon is divided into tabs. Within these tabs are different groups of commands. The commands in each group can be accessed either through the use of the buttons, boxes, or menus that are available within the group. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can click the “File” tab in the Ribbon to open a view of the program called the “Backstage View.” In this view, you can perform all of your file management operations. This includes performing functions such as saving your file, opening an existing file, or creating a new file. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The Quick Access toolbar is located above the Ribbon, by default. It can be placed below the Ribbon if desired, by clicking the “Customize Quick Access Toolbar” button at the right end of the toolbar and then selecting the “Show Below the Ribbon” command. Learn this and more during this lecture.

With the increased use of touch enabled devices, PowerPoint was redesigned in 2013 with a new mode to allow for easier access to the buttons and commands within the Ribbon and Quick Access toolbar. This mode is called touch mode. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Depending upon your magnification level, scroll bars can appear both vertically and horizontally along the right and bottom sides of your presentation slide. They have arrows at each end that point in the direction in which they will scroll the slide when you click them. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When you are working on your presentation in PowerPoint, you may find that you are switching views of your presentation frequently. To change your presentation view, you can click a presentation view button in the lower right corner of the screen. The buttons are “Normal,” “Slide Sorter,” “Reading View” and “Slide Show.” Learn this and more during this lecture.

In the lower right corner of the application window, you can see the Zoom slider, which is used to change the magnification level of the presentation slides. This does not modify the presentation in any way. It only changes your perception of how close or far away the slides in your presentation appear onscreen. Learn this and more during this lecture.

At the bottom of the application window is a long, thin, horizontal bar in which you will find objects such as the “Zoom Slider” and the “Presentation Views.” The bar within which these tools appear is called the Status Bar. Learn this and more during this lecture. 

Another useful and time-saving feature in Microsoft PowerPoint is the Mini toolbar. When you select text within the presentation and hold your mouse pointer over it, a small dimmed-out toolbar will appear next to the selection. Learn this and more during this lecture. 

If you are new to PowerPoint, you may be wondering what a “keyboard shortcut” is. A keyboard shortcut lets you press a combination of keyboard characters to execute a command function instead of clicking a button in the Ribbon or the Quick Access toolbar. While you may never use them, many users who type significant amounts of text find it tiresome to always have to reach for their mouse. Learn this and more during this lecture.

For PowerPoint 2016 there are some new and innovative additions to help you create presentations more efficiently. Probably the biggest new addition is the “Tell me” bar located in the Ribbon. The “Tell me” bar allows you to enter a search term or phrase and will return suggestions for commands. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In this section, we will explore the fundamental skills that you must acquire to create basic presentations within the PowerPoint program. You will learn to create new presentations, open previously created presentations, save presentation changes, and then close those presentations. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If you have multiple presentations open, you may want to close one of them. To close the current presentation you can click the “x” in the upper right corner of the application window. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When you first open PowerPoint, you will see a startup screen that allows you to create a new presentation. Simply click the type of presentation that you want to create within the listing of available templates that appears at the right side of the startup screen. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When you save a workbook for the first time, you must use the “Save As” command to choose where to save the file and what to name it. To do this, click the “File” tab within the Ribbon. Then click the “Save As” command in the command panel shown at the left side of the backstage view. Learn this and more during this lecture.

PowerPoint allows you to attempt to recover unsaved presentation files. This is helpful if your computer crashes, you lose power or something happens and you didn’t get a chance to save manually. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When you create a new presentation, PowerPoint gives you one default slide that contains a “Title Slide” layout. You can click into the placeholders shown in the title slide and type the text that you want to have appear as the title and subtitle of your presentation. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If you aren’t happy with the layout of the placeholders in a slide, you can apply a new layout to the slide. When you apply a new slide layout, you determine which placeholders appear in the slide. Learn this and more during this lecture.

PowerPoint has many different methods you can use to share your finished presentations with others. To share a presentation in PowerPoint 2016 or PowerPoint 2013, click the “File” tab in the Ribbon and then select the “Share” command in the command panel at the left side of the Backstage View. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Since PowerPoint 2007, there have been four different basic file format types available. The first and default file format type is the “PowerPoint Presentation.” This is a PowerPoint presentation that does not contain macros or code, and is the type of file most users create by default. Learn this and more during this lecture.

“Normal” view is the default view in PowerPoint. You can select this view by clicking the “Normal” button in the “Presentation Views” group on the “View” tab in the Ribbon. In this view you can see much of your presentation content. This view contains many different panes of information you can use to make changes to your presentation’s content. Learn this and more during this lecture.

“Outline View” is just like “Normal” view, but with the text, or outline, of the slide’s placeholders shown in the far left pane in the view. This lets you focus on the flow of text and ideas within the presentation. Learn this and more during this lecture.

“Slide Sorter” view allows you to view and sort the presentation slides. To select this view, click the “Slide Sorter” button in the “Presentation Views” button group in the Status Bar or click the “Slide Sorter” button in the “Presentation Views” button group on the “View” tab in the Ribbon. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Notes Page View shows the current slide as a picture at the top of the page and a text box with the associated slide’s notes at the bottom of the page. You can enter notes into the bottom pane of the “Normal” view or enter notes directly into the text box in this view, if preferred. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You use the Slide Show view to show the presentation or preview how the presentation will appear when presented. To start your presentation from the beginning, click the “From Beginning” button in the “Start Slide Show” button group of the “Slide Show” tab. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Reading View allows you to view the content of a presentation as if it were being displayed in “Slide Show View,” but within the frame of the application window versus being displayed full screen. The options that you have for advancing through this view are almost identical to the options that you have when viewing the presentation in Slide Show View. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In this lecture, you will learn how to insert text into slide objects. In PowerPoint, you can add text to slide placeholders, text boxes, or shapes. Many times when creating presentation slides, you enter text into the text and title placeholders that are included as elements in the slide layout. Learn this and more during this lecture. 

In this lecture, you will learn the basics of object manipulation. These techniques can be applied to shapes, text boxes, placeholders, pictures and many other types of selected objects. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can apply font formatting to a text-containing object when it is in “object” mode to apply formatting changes to all the text within it. You can also click into the text within the object to place the object into its “text edit” mode and then apply formatting to only the text that you select. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can apply paragraph formatting to a text-containing object when it is in “Object” mode to apply your formatting changes to all the text within the object. Note that some paragraph formatting options, such as “Increase Indent” and “Decrease Indent,” will not be available in this mode. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can customize bulleting or numbering on a per paragraph basis by first selecting the paragraphs in a text-containing object to change. Selecting the entire object allows you to change all bullets or numbering for all paragraphs within the object. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To apply tabs to text, first ensure that the ruler is activated by checking the “Ruler” checkbox in the “Show” group on the “View” tab. The “Tab” button is located in the upper left corner of the slide area when editing text within a text-containing object in the “Normal” presentation view. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can set the text options for a text box or placeholder by clicking either the “Text Direction” or “Align Text” drop-down buttons in the “Paragraph” button group on the “Home” tab of the Ribbon, and then clicking the “More Options…” command in either drop-down menu. Learn this and more during this lecture.

PowerPoint gives you a spelling tool that can show you possible misspellings in slide text. You can click the “Spelling” button in the “Proofing” button group on the “Review” tab in the Ribbon to open the “Spelling” pane to assist you in finding spelling errors in your presentation. Learn this and more during this lecture.

One of the most useful functions of PowerPoint is the ability to add pictures to your presentation to maximize its overall appearance. This lecture will cover adding pictures to your presentation that are saved locally on your computer. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Starting in PowerPoint 2013, you can now insert pictures from various online resources. These include your OneDrive online storage account, searching for an image on Bing or, depending on the subscription you have, inserting an image from Facebook or Flickr. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can click a picture to select it within a slide. When a picture is selected, small white circles (squares, in 2013), called “resizing handles,” appear on its border. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Now we need to look at the tools that you can use to modify the pictures that you have inserted. Once you insert a picture and select it, the “Picture Tools” contextual tab appears in the Ribbon with the “Format” tab displayed. This tab contains the main functions that you can use to format selected pictures. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To make advanced changes to a selected image, you can use the “Format Picture” task pane within PowerPoint to control every aspect of your picture in detail. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To change the fill color and line or border settings for a selected image, click the “Fill & Line” category icon within the “Format Picture” task pane to display the “Fill” and “Line” category groupings. You can click the “Fill” category grouping to expand it, if needed, and display the options that you have for setting a fill color for the selected image. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To apply or change the various visual effects settings for a selected image, click the “Effects” category icon within the “Format Picture” task pane to display the “Shadow,” “Reflection,” “Glow,” “Soft Edges,” “3-D Format,” “3-D Rotation,” and “Artistic Effects” category groupings. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To apply or change the various size and properties settings for a selected image, click the “Size & Properties” category icon within the “Format Picture” task pane to display the “Size,” “Position,” “Text Box” and “Alt Text” category groupings. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To control the clarity, brightness, and contrast of a selected picture, click the “Picture” category icon within the “Format Picture” task pane to display the “Picture Corrections,” “Picture Color,” and “Crop” category groupings. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In PowerPoint, you can use SmartArt to easily incorporate charts and other types of diagrams into presentations without having to individually create all of the shapes and connectors between boxes in a flowchart or diagram. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Once you have selected a SmartArt graphic, you will use the commands found on the “Design” and “Format” tabs of the “SmartArt Tools” contextual tab within the Ribbon to make changes to your selected graphic. You will now learn about the functions found in these two tabs and how they can help you to change the layout and formatting of your SmartArt. Learn this and more during this lecture.

“Slide Show” view is used to display the presentation on or from your computer. You can view either the entire presentation, or just a few slides. This is the best way to view or preview your presentation to ensure it is clear, focused and has the impact on your audience that you want. Learn this and more during this lecture.

A custom show is a subset of slides within a larger presentation that you can define and then play as a mini-presentation. To create a custom show within a larger presentation, first open the presentation within which you want to define a subset of slides as a custom show. Learn this and more during this lecture.

PowerPoint allows you to change the orientation and size of the slides within your presentation. Click the “Slide Size” drop-down button in the “Customize” button group on the “Design” tab in the Ribbon to choose either a “Standard” or “Widescreen” aspect ratio. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can determine what information appears in the header and footer of your slides by clicking the “Header & Footer” button in the “Text” group on the “Insert” tab in the Ribbon. On the “Slide” tab, you can select to include or exclude the date and time, the slide number, and the footer information. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Before you print your presentations, you can use the “Print Preview” function to see how your presentation will actually print on paper. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In PowerPoint 2013, you can access the help feature by clicking the “Microsoft PowerPoint Help” button in the Title Bar to open the “PowerPoint Help” window. In PowerPoint 2016, the “Help” button has been removed from the Title Bar. Learn this and more during this lecture.

New for PowerPoint 2016 is the “Tell me” bar, located to the right of the last tab in the Ribbon. Enter a search term(s) or phrase for what you want to do into the “Tell me” bar to see relevant commands, command locations, suggestions and a “Recently Used” list of commands. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Another set of interconnected new features for 2016 are “Smart Lookup” and the “Insights” pane. The “Smart Lookup” feature is an internal search tool that connects to the power of Microsoft’s Bing online search engine. This will allow you access to the world wide web, without having to leave PowerPoint. Learn this and more during this lecture.