Mastering Microsoft PowerPoint 2019 & 365 Training Tutorial

The picture shown is the initial screen that appears when you create a new blank presentation in PowerPoint 2019 or 365. This presentation view is called “Normal” view and it is the default view of a new presentation in PowerPoint. However, it is only one of many possible presentation views. Learn about 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 on which you are working appears towards the center of this bar. In PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, the Microsoft Search Bar may also appear here. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

The primary tool you use in PowerPoint is the Ribbon. This object lets you perform all the commands available in the program. The Ribbon is divided into tabs. Within these tabs are different groups of commands. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Unlike other primary tabs in the Ribbon, clicking the “File” tab in the Ribbon opens a view of the file called the Backstage view. This view lets you perform all your file management. This includes functions like saving a file, opening an existing file, and creating a new file. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

The Quick Access toolbar appears above the Ribbon, by default. To place it below the Ribbon, if desired, click the “Customize Quick Access Toolbar” button at the right end of the toolbar. Then select the “Show Below the Ribbon” command from the drop-down menu that appears. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Because of the increased use of tablets, PowerPoint contains a mode that gives you easier access to the buttons and commands in the Ribbon and Quick Access toolbar. This mode is called touch mode. When you enter touch mode in PowerPoint, you enlarge the Ribbon and Quick Access toolbar. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Depending the number of slides added to the presentation and the current slide’s magnification level, scroll bars may appear at the right side of the slide thumbnails pane and both vertically and horizontally along the right and bottom sides of the current presentation slide. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

When working on a PowerPoint presentation, you may find you are frequently switching presentation views. To change the presentation view in PowerPoint, 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 about this and more during this lecture.

The Zoom slider in PowerPoint appears in the lower-right corner of the application window in the Status Bar. You use this tool to change the magnification level of the slide. This does not modify the slide at all, but only changes your perception of how close or far away it appears onscreen. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

The Status Bar in PowerPoint appears at the bottom of the application window as a long, thin, horizontal bar in which you find objects such as the Zoom slider and the presentation view buttons. The Status Bar shows the various statuses monitored in PowerPoint, like the magnification level, the current slide number, and total count of slides. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

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

If you are new to PowerPoint, then you may be wondering what a “keyboard shortcut” is. A keyboard shortcut lets you press a combination of keyboard characters to execute a command instead of clicking a button in the Ribbon or the Quick Access Toolbar. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

After opening PowerPoint, a list of files appears in the “Recent,” “Pinned” and “Shared with Me” lists at the right side of the “Home” screen. You can click each list’s title to view its files. A “pinned” file is one you pinned to the “Pinned” list for easy access, regardless of how long it has been since it was opened. To pin a recently-opened file, hover over its name in the “Recent” list. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

If you have multiple presentations open and want to close only the one you are working on, then either click the “x” in the upper-right corner of the application window or click the “File” tab in the Ribbon and then click the “Close” command at the left side of the Backstage view to close the presentation window. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To create a new presentation in PowerPoint after you first open it and show the startup “Home” screen, click the type of presentation to create in the listing of available themes that appears at the right side of the “Home” screen. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To save a presentation for the first time in PowerPoint, click the “File” tab in the Ribbon. Then click the “Save As” command in the command panel at the left side of the Backstage view. To the right of the command panel, a list of available locations for you to save the file appears. The locations vary, depending on the Office subscriptions and services available to your Microsoft account. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

AutoRecover in PowerPoint helps you attempt to recover unsaved presentation files. If you want to see if PowerPoint has automatically saved a copy of an unsaved presentation on which you were working, click the “File” tab in the Ribbon and then click the “Open” command at the left side of the Backstage view.  Learn about this and more during this lecture.

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

To change the placeholders in a slide, you can apply a new slide layout to the slide. When you apply a new slide layout, you determine which placeholders appear in the slide. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Slide sections in PowerPoint let you group slides into sections to help you better organize presentation slides that have distinct and related groups of content. To create a section in PowerPoint, click to select the first slide in a section within the slide thumbnails pane in Normal view or Slide Sorter view. Learn about 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 without macros or code. It is the file type most users create, by default. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

PowerPoint automatically enables the “AutoSave” feature when you save a presentation using the newest file formats to an online destination, like OneDrive or SharePoint. AutoSave saves the file to the online location every few seconds as you work.  Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can reuse slides from other, saved PowerPoint presentations to insert them into a presentation on which you are working. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Normal view in PowerPoint is the default presentation view. To switch to Normal view in PowerPoint, click the “Normal” button in the “Presentation Views” button group on the “View” tab of the Ribbon. This view shows much of your presentation’s content. This view contains many different panes of information you can use to change your presentation’s content. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Outline View in PowerPoint 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 in the presentation. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Slide Sorter view in PowerPoint is mainly used to view and sort the presentation’s slides. To switch to Slide Sorter view in PowerPoint, click the “Slide Sorter” button in the presentation view buttons in the Status Bar. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To open Notes Page view in PowerPoint, click the “Notes Page” button in the “Presentation Views” button group on the “View” tab of the Ribbon. Notes Page view in PowerPoint shows the current slide as a picture at the top of the page and a text box with the associated slide’s notes below it. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You use Slide Show view in PowerPoint to show the presentation or preview the presentation in full screen view. To start a presentation from the beginning in PowerPoint, click the “From Beginning” button in the “Start Slide Show” button group on the “Slide Show” tab of the Ribbon. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Reading view in PowerPoint lets you view the presentation’s content as if using Slide Show view, but within the frame of the application window versus full screen. The options you have for advancing through this view are almost identical to the options when viewing the presentation in Slide Show View. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

This lecture shows you how to add text to slides in PowerPoint. PowerPoint lets you add text to slide placeholders, text boxes, or shapes. You often enter text into the text and title placeholders that are included as elements in the slide layout when creating presentation slides. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

In this lecture, you will learn the basics of how to manipulate slide objects in PowerPoint. These techniques can be applied to shapes, text boxes, placeholders, pictures and many other types of selected objects. To select a slide object in PowerPoint, click it. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To apply font formatting to all text in a text-containing object in PowerPoint, click its border to select its object editing mode. Alternatively, to apply font formatting to only selected text in a text-containing object in PowerPoint, click into the text in the object to place the object into its text editing mode. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To apply paragraph formatting to all text in a text-containing object in PowerPoint, click its border to select its object editing mode. However, note that some paragraph formatting options, like “Increase Indent” and “Decrease Indent,” are not available in this mode. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To customize bulleting or numbering in PowerPoint on a per paragraph basis, first select the paragraphs in the text-containing slide object to change. Selecting the slide object in its object editing mode lets you change all bullets or numbering for all paragraphs in the object. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To apply tabs in PowerPoint to text, first enable the ruler, if needed, by checking the “Ruler” checkbox in the “Show” button group on the “View” tab of the Ribbon. Then select the paragraphs in the text-containing slide object for which to set tab stops in PowerPoint. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To set text options for a text box or placeholder in PowerPoint, select the text box or placeholder in the slide. Then click either the “Text Direction” or “Align Text” drop-down buttons in the “Paragraph” button group on the “Home” tab of the Ribbon. Then click the “More Options…” command in either drop-down menu. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

PowerPoint gives you a spelling tool that can show you possible misspellings in slide text. To check your spelling in PowerPoint, click the “Spelling” button in the “Proofing” button group on the “Review” tab of the Ribbon to open the “Spelling” pane. This pane helps you find spelling errors in your presentation. Learn about 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 or local network. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

PowerPoint lets you insert pictures from various online resources. These include images from Bing and stock images, icons, cutout people, stickers, videos, and illustrations provided by Microsoft. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To select a picture in a PowerPoint slide, click it. When a picture is selected, small white circles, called “resizing handles,” appear on its border. To resize a selected picture, place your mouse pointer over the resizing handle that corresponds to the direction in which to resize the picture until your mouse pointer turns into a double-pointed arrow. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

This lecture shows you the tools you can use to modify pictures you insert into your PowerPoint presentation slides. After you insert a picture and then click it to select it, either a “Picture Format” contextual tab or a “Format” tab of a “Picture Tools” contextual tab then appears in the Ribbon, depending on your Office version. This tab contains the main functions you use to format pictures. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To make advanced changes to a selected picture in PowerPoint, you can use the “Format Picture” task pane to control every aspect of a picture in detail. To open the “Format Picture” task pane in PowerPoint, click the “Format Picture” launcher button in the lower-right corner of the “Picture Styles” button group on the “Picture Format” contextual tab of the Ribbon. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To change the advanced fill color and line or border settings for a selected picture in PowerPoint, click the “Fill & Line” category icon in the “Format Picture” task pane to show the “Fill” and “Line” category groupings. To show the options for setting the selected picture’s fill color, click the “Fill” category grouping to expand it, if needed. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To apply or change the visual effects settings for a selected picture in PowerPoint, 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 about this and more during this lecture.

To apply or change the various size, position, and other settings for a selected picture in PowerPoint, click the “Size & Properties” category icon within the “Format Picture” task pane to show the “Size,” “Position,” and “Text Box” category groupings. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

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

Alt Text in PowerPoint is a text description of a slide’s picture that helps improve user accessibility. Alt Text in PowerPoint is greatly improved in PowerPoint 2019 and PowerPoint for Office 365. PowerPoint now automatically generates alt text for pictures you insert from your local computer into your document. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

PowerPoint lets you insert various shapes into your slides. To insert shapes into a PowerPoint slide, click the “Insert” tab in the Ribbon. Then click the “Shapes” button in the “Illustrations” button group. A drop-down menu of all the various shapes you can insert then appears. Roll your mouse pointer over the shape to insert. Then click it to select it. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Before formatting a shape in PowerPoint, you must click it to select it. If selecting a text-containing object as a shape, ensure you click its border, so its border appears as a solid, not dashed, line. That indicates the whole shape is selected. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To make advanced formatting changes to a selected shape, use the “Format Shape” task pane. To open the “Format Shape” task pane, click the “Format Shape” launcher button in the lower-right corner of the “Shape Styles” button group on the “Shape Format” contextual tab of the Ribbon. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

WordArt is text that is created and formatted as a shape. Therefore, when formatting WordArt, you can use the formatting techniques applied to standard text, as well as techniques applied to shapes. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

SmartArt in PowerPoint lets you easily incorporate charts and other types of diagrams into presentation slides without individually creating all the shapes and connectors between boxes in a flowchart or diagram.  Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To format SmartArt in PowerPoint after selecting a SmartArt graphic, use the commands on the “SmartArt Design” and “Format” contextual tabs in the Ribbon. The commands and buttons on these two tabs help you to change the layout and formatting of your SmartArt. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To insert a chart directly into a PowerPoint slide, click the “Chart” button in the “Illustrations" button group on the “Insert” tab of the Ribbon. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

There are a few different ways to insert tables into a slide in PowerPoint. To create a basic table by clicking and dragging in PowerPoint, click the “Table” button in the “Tables" button group on the “Insert” tab of the Ribbon to show a drop-down menu. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can embed external files and objects into PowerPoint slides to show them during a presentation. For example, you could insert a Word document as an object into a slide so people could view its information during the presentation. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can insert videos into PowerPoint slides. If inserting a local video, PowerPoint prefers MP4 videos (e.g., .mp4, .m4v, or .mov) encoded with H.264 video and AAC audio. However, it also supports the “.asf,” “.avi,” “.wmv,” and “.mpeg” file types. PowerPoint lets you insert a video from your computer or from online sources. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can insert audio files in PowerPoint to add narration or sounds to presentation slides. Like videos, you can insert sounds from audio files on your computer. In PowerPoint you can insert many types of audio files, like MP4, MP3, WMA and WAV files. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To record an audio file to insert into a PowerPoint presentation slide, first ensure there is a microphone connected to or installed within your computer. Then click the “Audio” drop-down button in the “Media" button group on the “Insert” tab of the Ribbon. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can add a recording of your computer screen, with or without audio, to a presentation slide in PowerPoint by using the “Screen Recording” command. This is helpful if you want to add a demonstration of a specific program into your presentation. Learn about this and more during this lecture.