how to make power point presentation on mobile

How To Make a PowerPoint Presentation On Your Phone (Tips & Tricks)

Are you looking for a convenient way to create a presentation on the go? With the help of your phone, you can easily create and share professional-looking PowerPoint presentations.

In this article, we’ll provide tips and tricks on how to make a PowerPoint presentation on your phone.

We’ll cover downloading Microsoft PowerPoint, creating a new presentation, adding content to your presentation, customizing your presentation, saving your presentation, and sharing your presentation.

Plus, we’ll discuss the benefits of making a presentation on your phone.

Read on to learn more!

Table of Contents

Short Answer

Making a PowerPoint presentation on your phone is possible with the right app.

Microsoft PowerPoint for Android and iOS is the official PowerPoint app and works for making presentations on your phone.

You can create and edit presentations, add transitions, animations, and more.

Additionally, you can access PowerPoint presentations from OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box.

Once you’re finished, you can easily share your presentation with others.

Downloading Microsoft PowerPoint

Creating a PowerPoint presentation on your phone is easier than ever with the help of the Microsoft PowerPoint app.

To get started, youll need to download the app on your phone.

The app is available for both iOS and Android devices, and its free to download from the App Store or Google Play Store.

Once the app is downloaded, open it and youll be ready to start making your presentation.

When you first open the app, youll be asked to sign in with your Microsoft account .

If you dont have an account, you can create one for free.

Once youre signed in, youll be taken to the home screen where you can begin creating your presentation.

The app also offers a variety of features to help you make a great presentation.

You can access templates for different types of presentations, or you can start from a blank slide.

Youll also find a range of tools and features to help you customize the presentation.

From adding text, images, and videos, to animating your content and adding transitions and other effects, the app has everything you need to make your presentation look professional and engaging.

With the Microsoft PowerPoint app, making a presentation on your phone is now easier than ever.

So, if youre looking for a quick and easy way to share your ideas, make sure to give it a try.

Creating a New Presentation

Creating a new presentation on your phone using the Microsoft PowerPoint app is easy and straightforward.

After you’ve downloaded and opened the app, simply tap on the ‘Create’ button on the home screen.

This will open up a new blank presentation where you can start adding text, images, videos, and other content.

You can even customize the slides with animations, transitions, and other effects.

When you create a new presentation, you have the choice of two different layouts: a traditional slide-by-slide presentation or a more creative storyboard format. With the storyboard format, you can add multiple slides with different content in each one, and the app will automatically arrange them into a cohesive, eye-catching presentation.

Once you’ve finished creating your presentation, you can save it and share it with anyone you want.

Whether you’re presenting to a group or just sending a few slides to a colleague, the Microsoft PowerPoint app makes it easy to create a professional-looking presentation on your phone.

Adding Content to Your Presentation

Adding content to your presentation is the most important part of creating a successful PowerPoint presentation on your phone.

To start, first choose the layout of your slides you can use a blank slide, a template, or you can customize the layout.

Once you have the layout chosen, you can start adding your content.

Text is the most common type of content to add to a presentation.

To add text, simply tap the text box icon on the top of the screen and start typing.

You can customize the font, size, color, and style of the text to match your presentations theme.

Images, videos, and audio are also important components to a successful presentation.

To add an image, tap the image icon on the top of the screen and select the image you would like to add.

You can also make videos and audio recordings directly in the app.

To do this, tap the video/audio icon and then select the recording option.

Once you have added all of your content, you can customize the presentation with animations, transitions, and other effects.

To add an animation, tap the animation icon and select the type of animation you would like to add.

To add a transition, tap the transition icon and select the type of transition you would like to add.

By adding content, customizing the presentation with animations and transitions, and saving the presentation, you can create an engaging and interesting PowerPoint presentation on your phone.

With the Microsoft PowerPoint app, making a presentation is now easier than ever.

Customizing Your Presentation

Once youve created your slides, its time to customize them to make your presentation look professional and engaging.

The Microsoft PowerPoint app offers a variety of tools to help you do this.

You can use the text and design tools to change the font, size, and color of your text to make your slides more visually appealing.

You can also add animations, transitions, and other effects to make your presentation more dynamic.

For example, you can animate text or images to make them appear on the screen with a dramatic entrance.

You can also add a transition between slides to create a smooth flow from one slide to the next.

The Microsoft PowerPoint app also offers a variety of templates and themes to choose from.

You can select a theme that matches the tone of your presentation, or create your own custom template.

This will give your presentation a cohesive look and help to keep your audience engaged.

When youre finished customizing your presentation, dont forget to save it.

You can save it as a file, or you can even upload it to the cloud to make it easier to share with others.

Now youre ready to share your presentation and impress your audience.

Saving Your Presentation

Once youve finished creating your PowerPoint presentation on your phone, its time to save and share it.

Microsoft PowerPoint makes it easy to save your presentation to the cloud, so that you can access it from any device.

To save your presentation, tap the Save button in the upper right-hand corner of the app.

Youll be prompted to choose a location to save your presentation, such as iCloud Drive or OneDrive.

Select the location of your choice and then tap Save.

You can also save your presentation in a variety of formats, such as PowerPoint, PDF, and JPEG.

To choose a format, tap the Export button in the upper right-hand corner of the app.

Select the format you want and then tap Export.

Your presentation will then be saved to your device in the format you selected.

Once youve saved your presentation, you can easily share it with anyone who has a Microsoft account.

To share your presentation, tap the Share button in the upper right-hand corner of the app.

Youll be prompted to enter the email addresses of the people you want to share your presentation with.

Enter the email addresses of your recipients and then tap Share.

Your presentation will then be shared with the people you specified.

Now that youve saved and shared your presentation, you can rest assured that your ideas and information will be seen by your intended audience.

With the Microsoft PowerPoint app, you can easily create an engaging and professional presentation on your phone.

Sharing Your Presentation

Once you have created your PowerPoint presentation on your phone, you’ll want to share it with others.

Fortunately, sharing a presentation from your phone is a simple process.

With the Microsoft PowerPoint app, you can upload your presentation to the cloud and then share it with anyone you choose.

This allows you to quickly and easily share your presentation with friends, family, colleagues, or anyone else who needs to see it.

You can also save the presentation directly to your phone, and then use an app like Dropbox or Google Drive to upload it.

This makes it easy to share your presentation with anyone you want.

You can also share your presentation directly via email or social media, or embed it in a website or blog post.

With so many options available, you’ll be able to share your presentation with anyone you want in no time.

Benefits of Making a Presentation on Your Phone

Creating a presentation on your phone has many benefits.

For one, its convenient and easy to do.

You can quickly and easily create a presentation wherever you are, without having to lug around a laptop or tablet.

You can also save time by creating the presentation on your phone and then sharing it with anyone you want.

Additionally, the Microsoft PowerPoint app makes the process simple and straightforward.

With the apps intuitive interface, you can easily add text, images, videos, and other content to your presentation.

You can also customize the slides with animations, transitions, and other effects.

Finally, you can save the presentation and share it with anyone you want, allowing you to share your ideas with the world.

With the Microsoft PowerPoint app, creating a presentation on your phone is now easier than ever.

Final Thoughts

Creating a PowerPoint presentation on your phone is a great way to quickly and easily share your ideas with others.

With the Microsoft PowerPoint app, it’s now easier than ever to create a professional-looking presentation in just a few steps.

So why wait? Download the app now and start making presentations on the go!

James Wilson

James Wilson has extensive knowledge in the information technology industry.His second love, besides dealing with computers, is smart home technology. He is continually updating information to better comprehend this problem and has a deep understanding of the apartment’s support system.

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Presentation Tips: How to make mobile friendly presentations

• Presentation design

Welcome back to our article series on practical and short tips to help you create better presentations. 

So far, we’ve tackled the issue of compressing presentations , followed by some tips on how to make a presentation printer friendly. Now we’re going to dive into yet another topic that is often overlooked when creating a presentation and that is making sure your presentation is mobile friendly.

Why is this important?

We’re living in a world where smartphones have become ubiquitous (and for some people, their smartphone is even more than that, as it’s almost become an extension of their body). In 2020, for the first time ever, mobile internet traffic surpassed desktop traffic.

More and more businesses adopt a mobile first approach when it comes to their website, apps and overall user experience of their clients. So why don’t we apply the same logic to presentations too?

Whether we’re sending a presentation through email (either before or after a meeting), holding an online meeting or giving a webinar, high chances that someone from the audience will view it on their mobile device.

So here are some simple tips on how to create your own mobile-friendly presentation.

1. Larger Text Size

This is probably the most important guideline out of all and it makes sense why. If the text size is too small, your presentation is unreadable and people will stop paying attention.

So make sure your text sizes are large enough to be viewed on a mobile screen. But how large is “large enough” you may be wondering? 

Well I’ve done this quick experiment with various font sizes on my own phone to test it out. 

I put different sized-lines and took the picture from how I would see it. Feel free to judge yourself and see what is the smallest size that your eyes are comfortable with.

As a rule of thumb, I’d go with at least a 60 point size for headlines and a 30-32 point size for body content. You could probably get away with a bit smaller text, but I wouldn’t go smaller than 20 points.

2. Less is more

Due to the small size of mobile devices, you definitely don’t want to overcrowd your slides. Keep them simple, uncluttered and follow the cardinal rule of “1 idea = 1 slide”. I’d take that one step further and say even “1 sub-idea = 1 slide”

What do I mean by that? Well, let’s say you have a slide called “5 Success Factors for X” and typically you’d add all 5 points on your slide, along with some accompanying graphics like icons or numbers or pictures (we hope that by this point, you stopped using bullet points in your presentations).

But in a mobile version, after enlarging your text to be the minimum readable size, you might want to split those 5 points into 2 slides, or even have one success factor per slide. 

If you’re worried that your presentation will get too long in this case, then don’t. In the end, your audience will still see the same amount of content in the same amount of time, so why not at least space out that content for a better understanding?

3. Large images

When adding images to your presentation, make sure they are large enough so that the audience doesn’t have to squint to see them.

Ideally the image should occupy the whole slide and work as a background with minimal content on top of it. But if you need to add more than one image, make sure that each image takes up at least a quarter of the slide.

Because of this, I don’t recommend using more than 4 images on your slide, and if you need to use more (for example to showcase multiple products), just remember guideline #2 and split it up across multiple slides.

4. Show & tell, don’t write

As a result of guideline #2, you’d have to keep your slide content to a minimum. When thinking whether to keep a certain word or phrase, think of it from this perspective: is this something I can visually illustrate or represent with an image or icon?

Graphics don’t even have to be a literal representation of the content, but can be more subtle and indirect in order to cover more of the slide content while you explain the context

5. Make a higher contrast

Contrast is one of design’s key principles, and it plays an even bigger role on a smaller screen size. 

Make sure your slide content, whether it’s text, graphics, images or charts, has enough contrast between its different parts. Contrast doesn’t refer just to color contrast, but also contrast in size or placement.

A good way to tell if your presentation has enough contrast is to slightly squint your eyes when viewing your presentation on your mobile. If some colors get blended together or if pieces of text look the same when they shouldn’t (eg. a main point and a sub-point), then you have to increase the contrast of those elements.

6. Clean & simple charts & diagrams

Charts and diagrams can easily become overwhelming on small screens if you’re not careful. A standard chart in Powerpoint would have both axes, it would have a legend, a slide title, maybe some data labels or some trend lines and so on. If you have all of these elements, then it can become over cluttered and people won’t be able to properly distinguish them.

Try and think of any unnecessary elements and remove them. Remember that less is more. For example, if you have a bar chart, you should keep either your vertical axis or your data labels, you shouldn’t keep both.

7. No fancy stuff

For the purpose of a simpler and seamless viewing experience, don’t overdo it with animations and transitions. In fact, if they don’t serve a real useful purpose, just take them out completely (I’d argue that 80-90% of animations are useless beyond just being flashy and we rarely use them).

Without animations and transitions you will also make sure that who is viewing the presentation will have a minimum risk of the presentation lagging. Another way to achieve this is to just save your presentation as a PDF and send it like that.

Creating a mobile friendly doesn’t require a huge amount of extra work, you just have to keep these tips in mind from the very beginning.

Following these guidelines will help your presentation stand out from a mobile viewer’s perspective, giving them a better overall experience. And that in turn will better reflect back on you, as you’ll be perceived as a professional that has a high attention to details, cares about the audience and does not let things to chance. 

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5 Simple Rules for Mobile-Friendly PowerPoint Designs

July 23, 2014 / Blog, Features, Insight, PowerPoint Tips mobile-friendly, mobile-viewing, powerpoint designs

Sites like SlideShare and Brainshark enable you to share your PowerPoint decks online, helping you gain a larger audience.

Sharing your content online is an effective marketing technique and it’s something that you should definitely consider. However, your message could easily get garbled if your PowerPoint designs are not optimized for mobile viewing.

Here are some reasons on why you should optimize your layout for mobile, and how to do it:

Why Design Matters

According to a study conducted by Statista Dossier, worldwide mobile internet usage was at 73.4 percent in 2013. If their figures stand, 90 percent of people will be accessing online content through mobile devices by 2017.

Judging by these numbers, and perhaps your own fast-paced lifestyle, it’s likely that your presentation will be viewed through screens a lot smaller than you prepared it on. As a visual aid, your deck should always complement your key points.

Don’t get left behind on the trend. Leverage this to your advantage with mobile-friendly PowerPoint designs.

How to Ensure Mobile-friendly PowerPoint Designs

It doesn’t take a lot of work to make sure that your PowerPoint designs are presentable on mobile devices. All you have to do is follow these five simple rules:

1. Readability

The average screen size of mobile phones is 3.3 inches . That’s significantly less room than the screen on your laptop where you first built your PowerPoint presentation. Keep this in mind while building presentations that you intend to share online. Make sure that the font type and size that you use is extremely readable. You don’t want to have your target audience to squint just to read what you’re trying to say.

2. High-Contrast Colors

Another way to increase the readability of your PowerPoint designs for smaller screens is by using high-contrast colors. Use either a dark background with light-colored text or vice versa. Similarly, avoid using colors that are too bright unless you’re planning to use it as an accent color.

3. Minimal text

Don’t overwhelm your target audience with too much text. Don’t try to discuss too many concepts in one go. Explaining complicated concepts will require more sentences and paragraphs. If you feel like there’s something in your content that needs further explanation, simply link to other resources instead.

4. Powerful images

Visualize your key points with powerful images, but remember to limit yourself to using only 1-2 per slide. Too many images might cause your presentation to lag.

5. Simplicity

Likewise, don’t complicate your PowerPoint designs with too many graphics and animation. You can still add some animations and transitions, but keep them to a minimum. Aim for a seamless viewing experience.

Keep your discussion simple and straight forward. You might as well make an eBook instead of a PowerPoint presentation if you’re planning on a drawn out deck.

Make sure your content is visually appealing and readable, for a better mobile experience. Not sure how to start on your deck’s mobile-friendly layout? Contact our SlideGenius experts today for a free quote !

“ Mobile Internet .” Statista . Accessed July 23, 2014.

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9 best PowerPoint apps and tools for Android

Published on March 22, 2024

Presentation software is a powerful tool in the workplace. It’s especially true for PowerPoint, the most popular presentation software. It helps freshen up lectures, organize information in an easily deliverable way, and is generally accessible to most people. There are a lot of options as well. You can find presentation software on computers and smartphones.

Additionally, some tools make each platform easier. We have a bit of everything on this list. Here are the best PowerPoint apps and tools for Android.

The best PowerPoint apps and tools:

Andropen office, google home, google slides, microsoft powerpoint.

• Remote desktop apps

Unified Remote

Price: Free / $12.99

AndrOpen Office is likely the best bet for Linux users. It fully supports OpenOffice file formats and includes Writer, Calc, and Impress. Impress is the presentation software. It can also read PowerPoint files as well. In terms of PowerPoint apps, it does pretty well. You can create a slideshow, add graphics, add text, and the basic stuff like that. The free version is more usable than the first free version of most paid software. The app also works perfectly with niche functions like Samsung DeX. It’s not quite as powerful as Microsoft PowerPoint, but it’s close enough for most people.

Price: Free / $2.99 per item

Clicker works a lot like ASUS Remote Link. It lets you connect to your computer and use your phone as a presentation clicker. It also seems to work on Mac, Linux, Windows, iOS, and Android. That should cover just about everybody. In any case, the workflow for this one is pretty obvious. You create your PowerPoint on your computer, where you have full access to all of the tools. Then, you use this app to present the PowerPoint at your meeting. There is also remote trackpad functionality, Samsung S-Pen support, and space to keep notes for your speech. There aren’t many presentation clicker apps like this one, so it’s nice to see that at least one is really good.

Price: Free

Google Home is an out-of-the-box idea. You use it with a Chromecast to mirror your phone screen to a display. You can then use your phone to present your PowerPoint. This lets you work on your PowerPoint either on desktop or mobile. You must put the project on your mobile phone, use Google Home to mirror it, and begin your presentation. Chromecasts are small, easy to carry, and very easy to use. It lets you use the presentation space’s existing resources without carting in some extra equipment. Plus, the app is free.

Google Slides is the presentation app from the Google Drive office suite. It’s largely considered the top or at least second-best option in terms of PowerPoint apps. You can mess with your presentation on your phone or desktop via the web. Plus, Google Drive has live collaboration tools and many other features. Your presentation is stored in the cloud, so you can access and download it whenever you want. Plus, it can read, edit, and save PowerPoint files for excellent cross-product functionality. It’s also, far and away, the best free option available. That makes it great for students without access to a Microsoft Office account.

Price: Free / $9.99 per month

Microsoft PowerPoint is the top one or two PowerPoint apps in the world. It’s so good that people refer to presentation apps as PowerPoint apps. The mobile version is more functional than its desktop equivalent, even if the desktop variant is more powerful. On top of the usual presentation features, the app also includes a Presenter Coach function to help you prepare for your speech. Luckily, Microsoft has adapted nicely to the times. You can start fresh or edit existing PowerPoint presentations that you started on your computer. The full functionality is available with an Office 365 subscription. The good news is the subscription unlocks both the desktop and mobile versions of PowerPoint with just a single subscription. You also get Microsoft OneDrive space to store and transport your PowerPoints.

Remote Desktop apps

Price: Free / Varies

Remote desktop apps are a slightly archaic but very functional method of presenting stuff. These apps let you connect directly to your desktop computer, mirroring everything on your mobile phone. There are usually tools to let you navigate around. Thus, you can connect to your computer and give a presentation straight from your phone without moving any files. You can also use these to work on your PowerPoints straight from your computer, so you don’t lose any functionality by being on a smartphone or tablet. We have Microsoft Remote Desktop linked since it covers most use cases, but others are available, too.

Price: Free / $1.99 per item

Unified Remote is another app that lets you control your computer remotely. It works a lot like the ASUS Remote Link. You connect to your computer and can use the app to navigate the UI, as a mouse and keyboard, and there is a built-in presentation setup. This one is different because it has dedicated “remotes” for many specific apps, like Google Chrome, Spotify, Winamp, and, you guessed it, Microsoft PowerPoint. Downloads are available for Windows, Mac, Linux (Debian and RPM distros), Raspberry Pi (ARMv6 and MIPS), and others. That makes it suitable for just about everybody.

Price: Free / $3.99 per month / $29.99 per year

WPS Office is just one of many alternative office apps that double as PowerPoint apps. WPS Office has a writer, spreadsheet, and presentation function. The presentation function lets you read and edit PowerPoint files, so it’s a good start there. The app includes various layouts, animations, transitions, and other effects. Additionally, it lets you draw on slides or use a built-in digital laser pointer during your presentation, which is a nice little feature. WPS Office is free to use if you don’t mind the occasional annoying advertisement.

Zoho Show is one of the few reasonably good standalone PowerPoint apps. It’s not connected to an entire office suite, and it’s not a clicker or a remote desktop app. It’s an app dedicated to making presentations. It includes a bunch of stuff, including various types of charts, over 100 shapes, different formatting options, filters, animations, and other stuff. There are also templates to help you get started. It’s not quite as powerful as some competitors. At the time of this writing, the developers are still working on incorporating stuff like music into the app. However, this is an excellent alternative to Google Slides if you need a quick, free option.

If we missed any great presentation or PowerPoint apps and tools, tell us about them in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists.

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How to Make PowerPoint Presentation on Mobile Phone

PowerPoint is a great tool for making slideshows, whether for work, school, or personal use. But sometimes you don’t have access to a computer or laptop, and you must make a presentation on the go.

That’s where PowerPoint for Android comes in handy. It lets you create, edit, and present your slides from your mobile device. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Download and install Microsoft PowerPoint from the Google Play Store. It’s free to download and use.

2. Open the app. You’ll need a Microsoft account to sign in and access some features.

3. Tap the plus icon at the right corner to create a new presentation.

4. You can choose from various templates or start with a blank slide.

5. To add text to your slide, tap on the text box and type your content. You can use the formatting toolbar at the top to change the font size, color, alignment, and style of your text. You can also add bullet points, numbered lists, and indents .

6. To add images to your slide, tap on the picture icon on the toolbar and select an image from your gallery, camera, or online sources.

7. You can rotate and crop using the handles and options on the screen.

8. To add shapes or tables to your slide, tap on the insert icon on the toolbar and choose what you want to add.

9. You can customize the color, size, and style of your elements using the options on the screen.

10. To add notes to your slide, tap on the Notes icon. You can use these notes as reminders or cues when you present your slides.

11. To save your presentation, tap the three dots in the upper right corner and choose where you want to save it. You can save it locally on your device or online on OneDrive.

12. To present your slides, tap on the present icon on the toolbar.

With just a few clicks and taps here and there, users can create professional-looking PPTs on a mobile phone without needing access to desktop computers or laptops. Making it perfect for anyone who wants to give a quick yet effective presentation anytime anywhere!

About The Author

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The 5 Best Apps to Make Slideshow Presentations on Your iPhone

There are lots of high-quality iPhone apps to choose from if you need to make a slideshow presentation from your phone.

Back in the day, creating a slideshow presentation meant turning on the PC and opening PowerPoint. Now, with so many great apps out there, you can create an impressive presentation right from your iPhone. Whether you need a slideshow for school, work, or just personal use, you have plenty of options.

When you’re done, you can send your slideshow presentation to your PC or share it straight from your device. If you’re wanting to know how to create a slideshow presentation on your

iPhone, this list will show you all the best apps to try.

1. Microsoft PowerPoint

The most popular program for creating slideshows, Microsoft PowerPoint, has an official app for iPhone. Like the desktop version, you can create a new PowerPoint and edit each slide. Add your pictures, text, and transitions to make it your own. With all the same features that are available on a desktop, nobody will be able to tell you made it on your iPhone.

Microsoft PowerPoint syncs with OneDrive, so if you use Outlook for school or work you can find your PowerPoint in your OneDrive account. You can also share and edit your PowerPoint presentation on the go, and even add new collaborators.

Aside from OneDrive, Microsoft PowerPoint also syncs with Box, Dropbox, Edmodo, and more. With Microsoft PowerPoint, you get all the features you want in one app.

Download: Microsoft PowerPoint (Free, subscription required)

2. Google Slides

A popular alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides has many of the same features with a major difference. That is, Google Slides is totally free and doesn’t require any subscription. All you need is a free Google account to access Google Slides.

Related: Microsoft PowerPoint vs. Google Slides: Which One Should You Be Using?

Google Slides also makes it easy to make a slideshow presentation on your iPhone. With great templates, plenty of effects, and easy editing, you can create something impressive in minutes.

Google Slides is also better for collaborating than Microsoft PowerPoint. The reason is that not everyone has Microsoft 360 or wants to pay for a subscription. Whereas most people have a Google account or can make one for free in under a minute. To collaborate with others, all you need to do is enter their email and they will get invited to edit the slideshow. Google Slides also syncs with your Google account, so you can access your slideshow on any device with access to Google.

For these reasons, Google Slides is a must-try if you’re looking to create a slideshow on your iPhone.

Download: Google Slides (Free)

Keynote is Apple’s presentation software, designed to compete with Microsoft PowerPoint. Keynote comes pre-installed on all iOS devices running the latest version iOS, so there’s a good chance you already have this app.

Like Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides, you can create a slideshow using a template and add your own text, images, and transitions. Keynote comes with 40 templates pre-installed, giving you plenty of options to choose something unique. Keynote also has some notable features that differentiate it from the competition. For example, there’s a feature called Instant Alpha that will remove the backgrounds from an image. You can also import live videos and photos to your slideshow.

Keynote is also the best slideshow app for rehearsing your presentation. Keynote has a built-in timer that shows you the time, presentation notes, and the slide on one page. You can rehearse your slides and see how long it takes to make sure you hit your time limit.

Related: The Best Slideshow Maker Apps

With all these features, Keynote is a great app to create your next slideshow. However, the collaboration feature isn’t as strong as Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides. So if you need several collaborators, one of the other options might work better.

Download: Keynote (Free)

Canva is one of the most popular graphic design apps in the App Store right now. With Canva, you can create flyers, brochures, and even logos. However, most people aren’t aware that Canva has a powerful Slideshow feature as well.

With many great slideshow templates available, you are sure to find something that stands out and will impress your audience. In fact, Canva has thousands of slideshow templates available—more than any other slideshow app. After you find your template, you can easily add your photos and text.

Since Canva has many customization features for photos, you can edit your images before importing them to your slideshow as well. Once your slideshow is completed, you can access it through the Canva website or save it to your device.

Canva is the best choice for a slideshow app if you don’t have any collaborators and want to make something truly unique. It works great for school projects, creative presentations, and showcasing your art or photographs.

Download: Canva (Free, in-app purchases available)

5. Adobe Spark Page

Adobe Spark Page is a beginner-friendly Adobe app that allows you to make impressive web pages, newsletters, and slideshows. Most Adobe apps like Photoshop or Premiere have a steep learning curve. For this reason, the name Adobe can scare off beginners. Thankfully, Adobe Spark Page is an exception.

Related: How to Make a Slideshow on iPhone

With a simple-to-use interface and dozens of premium theme combinations, you can make a slideshow right from your iPhone. The slideshow presentations made with Adobe Spark Page are simple, professional, and look great on large screens. All creations made on Adobe Spark Page are available on your Adobe account so you can access your slideshows anywhere. You can also create a public access link and share it over text or email.

While lacking some features like collaboration, it’s still a great slideshow app that’s simple and easy to use on the go. As long as you don’t need collaborators, this app is a must-try.

Download: Adobe Spark Page (Free, in-app purchases available)

Want to Make a Slideshow Presentation on iPhone? There Are Options

With so many apps available for creating a slideshow on your iPhone, you can certainly find something that fits your needs. Whether you need a professional slideshow for work or a creative slideshow for a class, there’s an iPhone app for you out there. Who knows, maybe you won’t ever need to make a slideshow on your computer again.

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• PowerPoint Presentations

Simple Steps to Make a PowerPoint Presentation

Last Updated: April 28, 2024 Fact Checked

Creating a New PowerPoint

Creating the title slide, adding a new slide, adding content to slides, adding transitions, testing and saving your presentation.

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA . Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Darlene has experience teaching college courses, writing technology-related articles, and working hands-on in the technology field. She earned an MA in Writing from Rowan University in 2012 and wrote her thesis on online communities and the personalities curated in such communities. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 4,323,772 times. Learn more...

Do you want to have your data in a slide show? If you have Microsoft 365, you can use PowerPoint! PowerPoint is a program that's part of the Microsoft Office suite (which you have to pay for) and is available for both Windows and Mac computers. This wikiHow teaches you how to create your own Microsoft PowerPoint presentation on a computer.

How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation

• Open the PowerPoint app, select a template and theme, then like “Create.”
• Click the text box to add your title and subtitle to create your title slide.
• Click the “Insert” tab, then “New Slide” to add another slide.
• Choose the type of slide you want to add, then add text and pictures.
• Rearrange slides by dragging them up or down in the preview box.

Things You Should Know

• Templates make it easy to create vibrant presentations no matter your skill level.
• When adding photos, you can adjust their sizes by clicking and dragging in or out from their corners.
• You can add animated transitions between slides or to individual elements like bullet points and blocks of text.

• If you don't have a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, you can use the website instead of the desktop app. Go to https://powerpoint.office.com/ to use the website version.
• You can also use the mobile app to make presentations, though it's easier to do this on a computer, which has a larger screen, a mouse, and a keyboard.

• If you don't want to use a template, just click the Blank option in the upper-left side of the page and skip to the next part.

• Skip this step if your selected template has no themes available.

• If you're creating a PowerPoint presentation for which an elaborate title slide has been requested, ignore this step.

• You can change the font and size of text used from the Home tab that's in the orange ribbon at the top of the window.

• You can also just leave this box blank if you like.

• You can also click and drag in or out one of a text box's corners to shrink or enlarge the text box.

• On a Mac, you'll click the Home tab instead. [1] X Research source

• Clicking the white slide-shaped box above this option will result in a new text slide being inserted.

• Title Slide
• Title and Content
• Section Header
• Two Content
• Content with Caption
• Picture with Caption

• Naturally, the title slide should be the first slide in your presentation, meaning that it should be the top slide in the left-hand column.

• Skip this step and the next two steps if your selected slide uses a template that doesn't have text boxes in it.

• Text boxes in PowerPoint will automatically format the bulk of your text for you (e.g., adding bullet points) based on the context of the content itself.
• You can add notes that the Presentation will not include (but you'll still be able to see them on your screen) by clicking Notes at the bottom of the slide.

• You can change the font of the selected text by clicking the current font's name and then clicking your preferred font.
• If you want to change the size of the text, click the numbered drop-down box and then click a larger or smaller number based on whether you want to enlarge or shrink the text.
• You can also change the color, bolding, italicization, underlining, and so on from here.

• Photos in particular can be enlarged or shrunk by clicking and dragging out or in one of their corners.

• Remember to keep slides uncluttered and relatively free of distractions. It's best to keep the amount of text per slide to around 33 words or less. [2] X Research source

• Slide content will animate in the order in which you assign transitions. For example, if you animate a photo on the slide and then animate the title, the photo will appear before the title.
• Make your slideshow progress automatically by setting the speed of every transition to align with your speech as well as setting each slide to Advance . [3] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source

• If you need to exit the presentation, press Esc .

• Windows - Click File , click Save , double-click This PC , select a save location, enter a name for your presentation, and click Save .
• Mac - Click File , click Save As... , enter the presentation's name in the "Save As" field, select a save location by clicking the "Where" box and clicking a folder, and click Save .

Community Q&A

• If you save your PowerPoint presentation in .pps format instead of the default .ppt format, double-clicking your PowerPoint presentation file will prompt the presentation to open directly into the slideshow view. Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 0
• If you don't have Microsoft Office, you can still use Apple's Keynote program or Google Slides to create a PowerPoint presentation. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Your PowerPoint presentation (or some features in it) may not open in significantly older versions of PowerPoint. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 2
• Great PowerPoint presentations avoid placing too much text on one slide. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=DBDCE00C929AA5D8!252&ithint=file%2cpptx&app=PowerPoint&authkey=!AH4O9NxcbehqzIg
• ↑ https://www.virtualsalt.com/powerpoint.htm
• ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/set-the-timing-and-speed-of-a-transition-c3c3c66f-4cca-4821-b8b9-7de0f3f6ead1#:~:text=To%20make%20the%20slide%20advance,effect%20on%20the%20slide%20finishes .

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• Presentation Hacks

5 Tips to Create a Mobile Friendly Presentation

• By: Caitlin McGuire

We live in a mobile-based culture. With $1,000 computers in our pockets, the average audience member expects that your presentation is not only available on their mobile device but also optimized for their mobile device.

As a presenter, you’re probably focused on creating an engaging slide deck, but you may not be thinking about how it will look on a mobile device for your audience members on the go. That’s why we’ve put together 5 tips to optimize your slide deck for not just a big screen, but the small screen as well.

Use Larger Fonts While smaller font size may be okay on a large display, it will only get smaller when it’s viewed on a mobile display. By selecting a larger font size, you ensure your audience can read it on the presentation screen and also on the go with their mobile device.

Export as a PDF Viewing a presentation in PowerPoint on a mobile device can be clunky and difficult to navigate. By exporting your presentation as a PDF, your audience can quickly open the file and follow along on their mobile device.

Keep Charts Easy to Read Perhaps the most difficult part of a presentation to view on a mobile device are charts that are complicated and filled with finite data. If you are looking to keep your presentation mobile friendly, be sure to keep your charts easy to read – more data does not always make your points clearer and easier to digest.

Use Visuals When Possible On a mobile device, text can be difficult to read, especially in-depth content. That’s why you should replace text-based content with visual displays whenever possible. Along with giving your audience the ability to comprehend more quickly, you also create a larger retention rate across your audience.

Design in a Mobile Friendly Resolution In regards to screen resolution, each device is a bit different: the resolution for a large display is different than that of a small, mobile device. When designing in a way that is optimized for a mobile device, select the highest resolution you can. This allows your presentation to look great on any display.

As a presenter living in the digital age, optimizing your presentation is a vital part of your design. However, as you create your design, optimizing for mobile may not be at the forefront of your mind. Implementing these 5 tips will not just leave your presentation looking good on the big screen but on the small screen as well. That means your audience can take your presentation with them when they leave, spreading your mission even further and faster than you thought possible.

Unsure of where to start your next presentation design? Contact our team today to find out how we can create a powerful design that will leave your audience wowed.

Caitlin McGuire

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How-To Geek

6 ways to create more interactive powerpoint presentations.

Engage your audience with cool, actionable features.

Quick Links

• Add a QR code
• Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)
• Embed a Live Web Page
• Add Links and Menus
• Add Clickable Images to Give More Info
• Add a Countdown Timer

We've all been to a presentation where the speaker bores you to death with a mundane PowerPoint presentation. Actually, the speaker could have kept you much more engaged by adding some interactive features to their slideshow. Let's look into some of these options.

1. Add a QR code

Adding a QR code can be particularly useful if you want to direct your audience to an online form, website, or video.

Some websites have in-built ways to create a QR code. For example, on Microsoft Forms , when you click "Collect Responses," you'll see the QR code option via the icon highlighted in the screenshot below. You can either right-click the QR code to copy and paste it into your presentation, or click "Download" to add it to your device gallery to insert the QR code as a picture.

In fact, you can easily add a QR code to take your viewer to any website. On Microsoft Edge, right-click anywhere on a web page where there isn't already a link, and left-click "Create QR Code For This Page."

You can also create QR codes in other browsers, such as Chrome.

You can then copy or download the QR code to use wherever you like in your presentation.

2. Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)

If you plan to send your PPT presentation to others—for example, if you're a trainer sending step-by-step instruction presentation, a teacher sending an independent learning task to your students, or a campaigner for your local councilor sending a persuasive PPT to constituents—you might want to embed a quiz, questionnaire, pole, or feedback survey in your presentation.

In PowerPoint, open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, and in the Forms group, click "Forms". If you cannot see this option, you can add new buttons to the ribbon .

As at April 2024, this feature is only available for those using their work or school account. We're using a Microsoft 365 Personal account in the screenshot below, which is why the Forms icon is grayed out.

Then, a sidebar will appear on the right-hand side of your screen, where you can either choose a form you have already created or opt to craft a new form.

Now, you can share your PPT presentation with others , who can click the fields and submit their responses when they view the presentation.

3. Embed a Live Web Page

You could always screenshot a web page and paste that into your PPT, but that's not a very interactive addition to your presentation. Instead, you can embed a live web page into your PPT so that people with access to your presentation can interact actively with its contents.

To do this, we will need to add an add-in to our PPT account .

Add-ins are not always reliable or secure. Before installing an add-in to your Microsoft account, check that the author is a reputable company, and type the add-in's name into a search engine to read reviews and other users' experiences.

To embed a web page, add the Web Viewer add-in ( this is an add-in created by Microsoft ).

Go to the relevant slide and open the Web Viewer add-in. Then, copy and paste the secure URL into the field box, and remove https:// from the start of the address. In our example, we will add a selector wheel to our slide. Click "Preview" to see a sample of the web page's appearance in your presentation.

This is how ours will look.

When you or someone with access to your presentation views the slideshow, this web page will be live and interactive.

4. Add Links and Menus

As well as moving from one slide to the next through a keyboard action or mouse click, you can create links within your presentation to direct the audience to specific locations.

To create a link, right-click the outline of the clickable object, and click "Link."

In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, click "Place In This Document," choose the landing destination, and click "OK."

What's more, to make it clear that an object is clickable, you can use action buttons. Open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, click "Shape," and then choose an appropriate action button. Usefully, PPT will automatically prompt you to add a link to these shapes.

You might also want a menu that displays on every slide. Once you have created the menu, add the links using the method outlined above. Then, select all the items, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then use Ctrl+V to paste them in your other slides.

5. Add Clickable Images to Give More Info

Through PowerPoint's animations, you can give your viewer the power to choose what they see and when they see it. This works nicely whether you're planning to send your presentation to others to run through independently or whether you're presenting in front of a group and want your audience to decide which action they want to take.

Start by creating the objects that will be clickable (trigger) and the items that will appear (pop-up).

Then, select all the pop-ups together. When you click "Animations" on the ribbon and choose an appropriate animation for the effect you want to achieve, this will be applied to all objects you have selected.

The next step is to rename the triggers in your presentation. To do this, open the "Home" tab, and in the Editing group, click "Select", and then "Selection Pane."

With the Selection Pane open, select each trigger on your slide individually, and rename them in the Selection Pane, so that they can be easily linked to in the next step.

Finally, go back to the first pop-up. Open the "Animations" tab, and in the Advanced Animation group, click the "Trigger" drop-down arrow. Then, you can set the item to appear when a trigger is clicked in your presentation.

If you want your item to disappear when the trigger is clicked again, select the pop-up, click "Add Animation" in the Advanced Animation group, choose an Exit animation, and follow the same step to link that animation to the trigger button.

6. Add a Countdown Timer

A great way to get your audience to engage with your PPT presentation is to keep them on edge by adding a countdown timer. Whether you're leading a presentation and want to let your audience stop to discuss a topic, or running an online quiz with time-limit questions, having a countdown timer means your audience will keep their eye on your slide throughout.

To do this, you need to animate text boxes or shapes containing your countdown numbers. Choose and format a shape and type the highest number that your countdown clock will need. In our case, we're creating a 10-second timer.

Now, with your shape selected, open the "Animations" tab on the ribbon and click the animation drop-down arrow. Then, in the Exit menu, click "Disappear."

Open the Animation Pane, and click the drop-down arrow next to the animation you've just added. From there, choose "Timing."

Make sure "On Click" is selected in the Start menu, and change the Delay option to "1 second," before clicking "OK."

Then, with this shape still selected, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then Ctrl+V (paste). In the second box, type 9 . With the Animation Pane still open and this second shape selected, click the drop-down arrow and choose "Timing" again. Change the Start option to "After Previous," and make sure the Delay option is 1 second. Then, click "OK."

We can now use this second shape as our template, as when we copy and paste it again, the animations will also duplicate. With this second shape selected, press Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, type 8 into the box, and continue to do the same until you get to 0 .

Next, remove the animations from the "0" box, as you don't want this to disappear. To do this, click the shape, and in the Animation Pane drop-down, click "Remove."

You now need to layer them in order. Right-click the box containing number 1, and click "Bring To Front." You will now see that box on the top. Do the same with the other numbers in ascending order.

Finally, you need to align the objects together. Click anywhere on your slide and press Ctrl+A. Then, in the Home tab on the ribbon, click "Arrange." First click "Align Center," and then bring the menu up again, so that you can click "Align Middle."

Press Ctrl+A again to select your timer, and you can then move your timer or copy and paste it elsewhere.

Press F5 to see the presentation in action, and when you get to the slide containing the timer, click anywhere on the slide to see your countdown timer in action!

Now that your PPT presentation is more interactive, make sure you've avoided these eight common presentational mistakes before you present your slides.

Critical PowerPoint Shortcuts – Claim Your FREE Training Module and Get Your Time Back!

How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)

• PowerPoint Tutorials
• Presentation Design
• January 22, 2024

In this beginner’s guide, you will learn step-by-step how to make a PowerPoint presentation from scratch.

While PowerPoint is designed to be intuitive and accessible, it can be overwhelming if you’ve never gotten any training on it before. As you progress through this guide, you’ll will learn how to move from blank slides to PowerPoint slides that look like these.

Table of Contents

Additionally, as you create your presentation, you’ll also learn tricks for working more efficiently in PowerPoint, including how to:

• Change the slide order
• Reset your layout
• Change the slide dimensions
• Use PowerPoint Designer
• Format text
• Format objects
• Play a presentation (slide show)

With this knowledge under your belt, you’ll be ready to start creating PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, you’ll have taken your skills from beginner to proficient in no time at all. I will also include links to more advanced PowerPoint topics.

Ready to start learning how to make a PowerPoint presentation?

Take your PPT skills to the next level

Start with a blank presentation.

Note: Before you open PowerPoint and start creating your presentation, make sure you’ve collected your thoughts. If you’re going to make your slides compelling, you need to spend some time brainstorming.

For help with this, see our article with tips for nailing your business presentation  here .

The first thing you’ll need to do is to open PowerPoint. When you do, you are shown the Start Menu , with the Home tab open.

This is where you can choose either a blank theme (1) or a pre-built theme (2). You can also choose to open an existing presentation (3).

For now, go ahead and click on the  Blank Presentation (1)  thumbnail.

Doing so launches a brand new and blank presentation for you to work with. Before you start adding content to your presentation, let’s first familiarize ourselves with the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint interface

Here is how the program is laid out:

• The Application Header
• The Ribbon (including the Ribbon tabs)
• The Quick Access Toolbar (either above or below the Ribbon)
• The Slides Pane (slide thumbnails)

The Slide Area

The notes pane.

• The Status Bar (including the View Buttons)

Each one of these areas has options for viewing certain parts of the PowerPoint environment and formatting your presentation.

Below are the important things to know about certain elements of the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint Ribbon

The Ribbon is contextual. That means that it will adapt to what you’re doing in the program.

For example, the Font, Paragraph and Drawing options are greyed out until you select something that has text in it, as in the example below (A).

Furthermore, if you start manipulating certain objects, the Ribbon will display additional tabs, as seen above (B), with more commands and features to help you work with those objects. The following objects have their own additional tabs in the Ribbon which are hidden until you select them:

• Online Pictures
• Screenshots
• Screen Recording

The Slides Pane

This is where you can preview and rearrange all the slides in your presentation.

Right-clicking on a slide  in the pane gives you additional options on the slide level that you won’t find on the Ribbon, such as  Duplicate Slide ,  Delete Slide , and  Hide Slide .

In addition, you can add sections to your presentation by  right-clicking anywhere in this Pane  and selecting  Add Section . Sections are extremely helpful in large presentations, as they allow you to organize your slides into chunks that you can then rearrange, print or display differently from other slides.

The Slide Area (A) is where you will build out your slides. Anything within the bounds of this area will be visible when you present or print your presentation.

Anything outside of this area (B) will be hidden from view. This means that you can place things here, such as instructions for each slide, without worrying about them being shown to your audience.

The  Notes Pane  is the space beneath the Slide Area where you can type in the speaker notes for each slide. It’s designed as a fast way to add and edit your slides’ talking points.

To expand your knowledge and learn more about adding, printing, and exporting your PowerPoint speaker notes, read our guide here .

Your speaker notes are visible when you print your slides using the Notes Pages option and when you use the Presenter View . To expand your knowledge and learn the ins and outs of using the Presenter View , read our guide here .

You can resize the  Notes Pane  by clicking on its edge and dragging it up or down (A). You can also minimize or reopen it by clicking on the Notes button in the Status Bar (B).

Note:  Not all text formatting displays in the Notes Pane, even though it will show up when printing your speaker notes. To learn more about printing PowerPoint with notes, read our guide here .

Now that you have a basic grasp of the PowerPoint interface at your disposal, it’s time to make your presentation.

Adding Content to Your PowerPoint Presentation

Notice that in the Slide Area , there are two rectangles with dotted outlines. These are called  Placeholders  and they’re set on the template in the Slide Master View .

To expand your knowledge and learn how to create a PowerPoint template of your own (which is no small task), read our guide here .

As the prompt text suggests, you can click into each placeholder and start typing text. These types of placeholder prompts are customizable too. That means that if you are using a company template, it might say something different, but the functionality is the same.

Note:  For the purposes of this example, I will create a presentation based on the content in the Starbucks 2018 Global Social Impact Report, which is available to the public on their website.

If you type in more text than there is room for, PowerPoint will automatically reduce its font size. You can stop this behavior by clicking on the  Autofit Options  icon to the left of the placeholder and selecting  Stop Fitting Text to this Placeholder .

Next, you can make formatting adjustments to your text by selecting the commands in the Font area and the  Paragraph area  of the  Home  tab of the Ribbon.

The Reset Command:  If you make any changes to your title and decide you want to go back to how it was originally, you can use the Reset button up in the Home tab .

Insert More Slides into Your Presentation

Now that you have your title slide filled in, it’s time to add more slides. To do that, simply go up to the  Home tab  and click on  New Slide . This inserts a new slide in your presentation right after the one you were on.

You can alternatively hit Ctrl+M on your keyboard to insert a new blank slide in PowerPoint. To learn more about this shortcut, see my guide on using Ctrl+M in PowerPoint .

Instead of clicking the New Slide command, you can also open the New Slide dropdown to see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template. Depending on who created your template, your layouts in this dropdown can be radically different.

If you insert a layout and later want to change it to a different layout, you can use the Layout dropdown instead of the New Slide dropdown.

After inserting a few different slide layouts, your presentation might look like the following picture. Don’t worry that it looks blank, next we will start adding content to your presentation.

If you want to follow along exactly with me, your five slides should be as follows:

• Title Slide
• Title and Content
• Section Header
• Two Content
• Picture with Caption

Adding Content to Your Slides

Now let’s go into each slide and start adding our content. You’ll notice some new types of placeholders.

On slide 2 we have a  Content Placeholder , which allows you to add any kind of content. That includes:

• A SmartArt graphic,
• A 3D object,
• A picture from the web,
• Or an icon.

To insert text, simply type it in or hit  Ctrl+C to Copy  and Ctrl+V to Paste  from elsewhere. To insert any of the other objects, click on the appropriate icon and follow the steps to insert it.

For my example, I’ll simply type in some text as you can see in the picture below.

Slides 3 and 4 only have text placeholders, so I’ll go ahead and add in my text into each one.

On slide 5 we have a Picture Placeholder . That means that the only elements that can go into it are:

• A picture from the web

To insert a picture into the picture placeholder, simply:

• Click on the  Picture  icon
• Find  a picture on your computer and select it
• Click on  Insert

Alternatively, if you already have a picture open somewhere else, you can select the placeholder and paste in (shortcut: Ctrl+V ) the picture. You can also drag the picture in from a file explorer window.

If you do not like the background of the picture you inserted onto your slide, you can remove the background here in PowerPoint. To see how to do this, read my guide here .

Placeholders aren’t the only way to add content to your slides. At any point, you can use the Insert tab to add elements to your slides.

You can use either the Title Only  or the  Blank  slide layout to create slides for content that’s different. For example, a three-layout content slide, or a single picture divider slide, as shown below.

In the first example above, I’ve inserted 6 text boxes, 3 icons, and 3 circles to create this layout. In the second example, I’ve inserted a full-sized picture and then 2 shapes and 2 text boxes.

The Reset Command:  Because these slides are built with shapes and text boxes (and not placeholders), hitting the  Reset button up in the  Home tab  won’t do anything.

That is a good thing if you don’t want your layouts to adjust. However, it does mean that it falls on you to make sure everything is aligned and positioned correctly.

For more on how to add and manipulate the different objects in PowerPoint, check out our step-by-step articles here:

• Using graphics in PowerPoint
• Inserting icons onto slides
• Adding pictures to your PowerPoint
• How to embed a video in PowerPoint
• How to add music to your presentation

Using Designer to generate more layouts ideas

If you have Office 365, your version of PowerPoint comes with a new feature called Designer (or Design Ideas). This is a feature that generates slide layout ideas for you. The coolest thing about this feature is that it uses the content you already have.

To use Designer , simply navigate to the  Design tab  in your Ribbon, and click on  Design Ideas .

NOTE: If the PowerPoint Designer is not working for you (it is grey out), see my troubleshooting guide for Designer .

Change the Overall Design (optional)

When you make a PowerPoint presentation, you’ll want to think about the overall design. Now that you have some content in your presentation, you can use the Design tab to change the look and feel of your slides.

For additional help thinking through the design of your presentation,  read my guide here .

A. Picking your PowerPoint slide size

If you have PowerPoint 2013 or later, when you create a blank document in PowerPoint, you automatically start with a widescreen layout with a 16:9 ratio. These dimensions are suitable for most presentations as they match the screens of most computers and projectors.

However, you do have the option to change the dimensions.

For example, your presentation might not be presented, but instead converted into a PDF or printed and distributed. In that case, you can easily switch to the standard dimensions with a 4:3 ratio by selecting from the dropdown (A).

You can also choose a custom slide size or change the slide orientation from landscape to portrait in the Custom Slide Size dialog box (B).

To learn all about the different PowerPoint slide sizes, and some of the issues you will face when changing the slide size of a non-blank presentation,  read my guide here .

 B. Selecting a PowerPoint theme

The next thing you can do is change the theme of your presentation to a pre-built one. For a detailed explanation of what a PowerPoint theme is, and how to best use it,  read my article here .

In the beginning of this tutorial, we started with a blank presentation, which uses the default Office theme as you can see in the picture below.

That gives you the most flexibility because it has a blank background and quite simple layouts that work for most presentations. However, it also means that it’s your responsibility to enhance the design.

If you’re comfortable with this, you can stay with the default theme or create your own custom theme ( read my guide here ). But if you would rather not have to think about design, then you can choose a pre-designed theme.

Microsoft provides 46 other pre-built themes, which include slide layouts, color variants and palettes, and fonts. Each one varies quite significantly, so make sure you look through them carefully.

To select a different theme, go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon, and click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Themes section .

For this tutorial, let’s select the  Frame  theme and then choose the third Variant in the theme. Doing so changes the layout, colors, and fonts of your presentation.

Note: The theme dropdown area is also where you can import or save custom themes. To see my favorite places to find professional PowerPoint templates and themes (and recommendations for why I like them), read my guide here .

C. How to change a slide background in PowerPoint

The next thing to decide is how you want your background to look for the entire presentation. In the  Variants area, you can see four background options.

For this example, we want our presentation to have a dark background, so let’s select Style 3. When you do so, you’ll notice that:

• The background color automatically changes across all slides
• The color of the text on most of the slides automatically changes to white so that it’s visible on the dark background
• The colors of the objects on slides #6 and #7 also adjust, in a way we may not want (we’ll likely have to make some manual adjustments to these slides)

Note: If you want to change the slide background for just that one slide, don’t left-click the style. Instead, right-click it and select Apply to Selected Slides .

After you change the background for your entire presentation, you can easily adjust the background for an individual slide.

Inside the Format Background pane, you can see you have the following options:

• Gradient fill
• Picture or texture fill
• Pattern fill
• Hide background

You can explore these options to find the PowerPoint background that best fits your presentation.

D. How to change your color palette in PowerPoint

Another thing you may want to adjust in your presentation, is the color scheme. In the picture below you can see the Theme Colors we are currently using for this presentation.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own color palette. By default, the Office theme includes the Office color palette. This affects the colors you are presented with when you format any element within your presentation (text, shapes, SmartArt, etc.).

The good news is that the colors here are easy to change. To switch color palettes, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab in the Ribbon
• In the Variants area, click on the  dropdown arrow  and select  Colors
• Select  the color palette (or theme colors) you want

You can choose among the pre-built color palettes from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

As you build your presentation, make sure you use the colors from your theme to format objects. That way, changing the color palette adjusts all the colors in your presentation automatically.

E. How to change your fonts in PowerPoint

Just as we changed the color palette, you can do the same for the fonts.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own font combination. By default, the Office theme includes the Office font pairing. This affects the fonts that are automatically assigned to all text in your presentation.

The good news is that the font pairings are easy to change. To switch your Theme Fonts, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Variants  area
• Select  Fonts
• Select  the font pairing you want

You can choose among the pre-built fonts from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

If you are working with PowerPoint presentations on both Mac and PC computers, make sure you choose a safe PowerPoint font. To see a list of the safest PowerPoint fonts, read our guide here .

If you receive a PowerPoint presentation and the wrong fonts were used, you can use the Replace Fonts dialog box to change the fonts across your entire presentation. For details, read our guide here .

Adding Animations & Transitions (optional)

The final step to make a PowerPoint presentation compelling, is to consider using animations and transitions. These are by no means necessary to a good presentation, but they may be helpful in your situation.

A. Adding PowerPoint animations

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust animations engine designed to power your creativity. That being said, it’s also easy to get started with basic animations.

Animations are movements that you can apply to individual objects on your slide.

To add a PowerPoint animation to an element of your slide, simply:

• Select the  element
• Go to the  Animations tab in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  animation  you want

You can add animations to multiple objects at one time by selecting them all first and then applying the animation.

B. How to preview a PowerPoint animation

There are three ways to preview a PowerPoint animation:

• Click on the Preview button in the Animations tab
• Click on the little star  next to the slide
• Play the slide in Slide Show Mode

To learn other ways to run your slide show, see our guide on presenting a PowerPoint slide show with shortcuts .

To adjust the settings of your animations, explore the options in the  Effect Options ,  Advanced Animation  and the  Timing  areas of the  Animation tab .

Note:  To see how to make objects appear and disappear in your slides by clicking a button,  read our guide here .

C. How to manage your animations in PowerPoint

The best way to manage lots of animations on your slide is with the Animation Pane . To open it, simply:

• Navigate to the  Animations tab
• Select the  Animation Pane

Inside the Animation Pane, you’ll see all of the different animations that have been applied to objects on your slide, with their numbers marked as pictured above.

Note: To see examples of PowerPoint animations that can use in PowerPoint, see our list of PowerPoint animation tutorials here .

D. How to add transitions to your PowerPoint presentation

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust transition engine so that you can dictate how your slides change from one to the other. It is also extremely easy to add transitions to your slides.

In PowerPoint, transitions are the movements (or effects) you see as you move between two slides.

To add a transition to a PowerPoint slide, simply:

• Select the  slide
• Go to the  Transitions tab in the Ribbon
• In the Transitions to This Slide area, click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  transition  you want

To adjust the settings of the transition, explore the options in the  Timing  area of the Transitions tab.

You can also add the same transition to multiple slides. To do that, select them in the  Slides Pane  and apply the transition.

E. How to preview a transition in PowerPoint

There are three ways to preview your PowerPoint transitions (just like your animations):

• Click on the Preview  button in the Transitions tab
• Click on the little star  beneath the slide number in the thumbnail view

Note:  In 2016, PowerPoint added a cool new transition, called Morph. It operates a bit differently from other transitions. For a detailed tutorial on how to use the cool Morph transition,  see our step-by-step article here .

Save Your PowerPoint Presentation

After you’ve built your presentation and made all the adjustments to your slides, you’ll want to save your presentation. YOu can do this several different ways.

To save a PowerPoint presentation using your Ribbon, simply:

• Navigate to the  File tab
•  Select  Save As  on the left
• Choose  where you want to save your presentation
• Name  your presentation and/or adjust your file type settings
• Click  Save

You can alternatively use the  Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut to save your presentation. I recommend using this shortcut frequently as you build your presentation to make sure you don’t lose any of your work.

This is the standard way to save a presentation. However, there may be a situation where you want to save your presentation as a different file type.

To learn how to save your presentation as a PDF, see our guide on converting PowerPoint to a PDF .

How to save your PowerPoint presentation as a template

Once you’ve created a presentation that you like, you may want to turn it into a template. The easiest – but not technically correct – way, is to simply create a copy of your current presentation and then change the content.

But be careful! A PowerPoint template is a special type of document and it has its own parameters and behaviors.

If you’re interested in learning about how to create your own PowerPoint template from scratch, see our guide on how to create a PowerPoint template .

Printing Your PowerPoint Presentation

After finishing your PowerPoint presentation, you may want to print it out on paper. Printing your slides is relatively easy.

To open the Print dialog box, you can either:

• Hit Ctrl+P on your keyboard
• Or go to the Ribbon and click on File and then Print

Inside the Print dialog box, you can choose from the various printing settings:

• Printer: Select a printer to use (or print to PDF or OneNote)
• Slides: Choose which slides you want to print
• Layout: Determine how many slides you want per page (this is where you can print the notes, outline, and handouts)
• Collated or uncollated (learn what collated printing means here )
• Color: Choose to print in color, grayscale or black & white

There are many more options for printing your PowerPoint presentations. Here are links to more in-depth articles:

• How to print multiple slides per page
• How to print your speaker notes in PowerPoint
• How to save PowerPoint as a picture presentation

So that’s how to create a PowerPoint presentation if you are brand new to it. We’ve also included a ton of links to helpful resources to boost your PowerPoint skills further.

When you are creating your presentation, it is critical to first focus on the content (what you are trying to say) before getting lost inserting and playing with elements. The clearer you are on what you want to present, the easier it will be to build it out in PowerPoint.

If you enjoyed this article, you can learn more about our PowerPoint training courses and other presentation resources by  visiting us here .

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Cheat Death by PowerPoint!

How to make a PowerPoint presentation mobile

April 17, 2012 by lmfdesign 2 Comments

Send your decks to people who ask for them

When people ask you to send your PowerPoint files to them, what they’re really saying is “I want to be able to view your presentation at my own convenience.” And there are much better ways of allowing people to do this than releasing your source files.

For more information, please read Why you should never send your PowerPoint decks to people who ask for them

Export your deck as a video

PowerPoint 2010 makes it easy to export your deck as a video. In the File tab on the ribbon select Save & Send then Create a Video. You can set automatic timing for animations and slide transitions so that your presentation advances automatically. You could even record your voiceover and custom audio and insert the audio files into your deck, timing everything so that they play when they need to. Then you email the video file to people, put it on your website, or post it to…

Uploading your video presentation to YouTube is a great way to get exposure for your message. Creating a YouTube channel gives people another way to find out about what you have to say and can help to position you as a thought leader on your particular subject. Plus, it’s easy to see how many times people have watched your video and which ones are most popular, allowing you to create more content to meet the demand.

Brainshark (for companies) and MyBrainshark (for small businesses and individuals) offer a means to create videos of your PowerPoint files without the bother of setting up automatic timing and coordinating audio with video. Brainsharks, as these videos are called, are used by many companies in a variety of ways: training, sales, tutorials. You can create free or pay-per-view Brainsharks, which could become a nice revenue stream if you are a trainer.

You upload a PowerPoint deck then add your voiceover using a phone, a microphone connected to your computer, or by uploading prerecorded MP3 files. While you’re speaking, you view each slide and click through the animation as you go along just as if you were presenting live, and you can re-record the audio as many times as you want. You can add music to your Brainshark, selecting from among the many free music clips they offer or uploading your own.

It’s also possible to add video to Brainshark, either by uploading video files or embedding them in your deck.

As if this all weren’t cool enough, Brainsharks can include clickable links to websites or your email address and can also include polls.

But wait, there’s more! Once you’ve created a Brainshark, you can upload it to your website or post it to YouTube.

Have you ever used one of these methods to present remotely? How did you do it and was it a success?

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When it comes to software, a redundant interface is a good thing. A redundant interface allows you more than one way to do something. Captivate has two methods where you can create a slide show that is mobile friendly.

There is a lot of content that has been written using PowerPoint. Adobe Captivate does a pretty good job when you want to import PowerPoint into your learning. There are two methods of doing this. This blog will quickly show you the two methods.

Create From PowerPoint

The first step is to create the Captivate file from a PowerPoint file. As Figure 1 shows, this is a simple click from the opening dialog box.

Figure 1 – Click the From PowerPoint option and click the Create button

A dialog box opens up where you can select the PowerPoint file. This is followed by a second dialog box that allows you to select which slides you want to import and if they will be advanced by a mouse click or automatically. Once this is done, Captivate will create a slide for each slide from the PowerPoint slide deck.

When you look at the file though, it’s not mobile friendly. So the next step is to click on File > Save as Responsive as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 – Save as Responsive makes the Captivate File mobile friendly

Import PowerPoint

The second method will also work in producing the same results. Start off by creating a Responsive Project as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 – Select  Responsive Project and click the Create button

Once the project has been created, click on the Slides button and choose PowerPoint Slide as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 – Inserting a PowerPoint Slide

Again, you’re presented with a dialog box to choose your PowerPoint file. Then you can select the slides you want within the selected slide deck.

If a majority of your content is coming from a PowerPoint slide deck, it may be best to use the first method to create your Captivate project. If your project has a Captivate based navigation, then the second method may be best as you can insert specific slides in predefined areas of the project.

The key I find is that Adobe Captivate has created a redundant method of importing PowerPoint and you as the developer can choose which method works best for you.

Ok, I followed the first method and created a PowerPoint Captivate project and imported by PP slides. I’m working on a Mac, so I can’t do the second method and create a Responsive Project and then import the PP. I selected maintain aspect ratio when I created the project, and when I use the layout preview in the Captivate project the slides maintain aspect ratio. But when I do a project preview and adjust the size, the slides get squished in from the sides, instead of maintaining their shape. Why is that? Is it just a fault of the preview and the project is fine? Or do I have a setting wrong?

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How to Add a Watermark in PowerPoint

If you are wondering whether you should add a watermark to a PowerPoint presentation, the answer is yes. Naturally, the main purpose of a watermark is to protect your digital property and prevent unauthorized use. Afterall, it is possible for someone to steal your presentation – the presentation you’ve been working so hard on! – and pass it as their own. If you don’t want this to happen, you should watermark your PowerPoint presentation. It’s a great and effective way to safeguard your digital property.

A brand logo in the background of your slides can add a touch of professionalism to your presentation and make it look neat. In addition to this, if you are a freelancer or an owner of a small brand and you need to pitch something to a bigger company, by adding a watermark to your presentation, you will make people at this company remember your brand better. After all, if you want to make your brand name and logo stick in people’s minds, show it to them repeatedly and as often as you can.

With the help of a watermark you can inform people that your presentation is merely a draft or a final version. A textual watermark that says “Confidential” is usually used to show that a presentation contains sensitive information that shouldn’t be shared with anyone else.

What’s great about watermarks is that adding a watermark to a PowerPoint presentation is a simple task that isn’t laborious or time-consuming. You’ll be able to do this even if you’re a complete beginner when it comes to watermarking your content. Yet, a watermark on a PowerPoint presentation will bring you a lot of benefits.

What is a Watermark in PowerPoint?

A watermark is some text or an image that is shown on the slides of your presentation. Commonly, a watermark is placed somewhere in the background, behind the content of your slide. It can appear on every slide of your PowerPoint presentation or just on selected ones. It also tends to be quite transparent because your watermark should be visible, yet it shouldn’t distract or interfere in any way with the content of your presentation. Only then it will be able to do its main job.

Generally, there are two types of watermarks: a textual watermark and a logo watermark . The latter is pretty self-explanatory – you use your brand logo as a watermark. Naturally, for this, you actually need to have a brand logo. You need to either create it yourself or hire a designer who can create it for you. In other words, there’s some preparation involved before you get to watermarking.

A textual watermark is basically some text. Sometimes, textual watermarks are paired with icons. But in the majority of cases, people just tend to use their brand name as a watermark. This is an easy and quick way to protect your content because you won’t have to do anything prior to watermarking. Plus, it’s possible to use any text you want. You can write “Confidential” or “Draft”, etc. In a way, with a textual watermark, you will have a bit more freedom.

Of course, you can mix and match your watermarks in PowerPoint. You can watermark one presentation with your logo, then the other one with your brand name. It’s even possible to watermark some slides with a logo and other slides with a textual watermark. It all depends on your needs and preferences.

Without further ado, let’s see how you can insert watermarks in a PowerPoint presentation.

Let’s start with adding a textual watermark in PowerPoint. Here are the simple steps that you need to follow:

This wasn’t very complicated, was it?

How to Add a Logo Watermark in PowerPoint

What if you have a brand logo and you want it to be in the background of your presentation? It’s not that complicated to do this, either. In fact, if you follow these steps, you’ll be able to insert any picture as a watermark in a PowerPoint presentation.

• Once you’re done with editing your logo, go to Slide Master > Close Master View. Now, every slide has your logo in the background!

Here’s a tip!

It’s possible to add a watermark only to certain types of slides. In other words, you can watermark only selected slides in PowerPoint. You can do this in the Slide Master, as well. Here’s how you can watermark selected slides in PowerPoint:

Watermark Photos in PowerPoint

So far we’ve talked about watermarking the slides themselves. But what if there are images in your presentation and you want to protect them with a watermark, too? Let’s see how you can do this:

• Export your watermarked photo to your device. Voila, now you know how to watermark a photo in PowerPoint.

If you realized that you want to make adjustments to your watermark in PowerPoint or if there’s another image that you want to watermark, here’s what you need to do:

• Once you are done, press CTRL + A to select both items. Go to Shape Format > Group > Group. Now you watermarked another image! If necessary, save it to your device in the same way as you saved the first watermarked image.

How to Improve the Protection of your PowerPoint Presentation

As you can see, adding a watermark to a PowerPoint presentation isn’t extremely difficult or complicated. You can add some text or a logo to every slide within a couple of minutes. On top of this, PowerPoint isn’t an advanced software. It’s quite easy to master. If all you require is to insert watermarks in PowerPoint presentations, it’s easy to do this in the program itself; there’s no need to look for any third-party apps.

There’s a downside, though.

Even though the main purpose of a watermark is to protect your content and prevent unauthorized use, PowerPoint watermarks don’t provide as much protection as you might want.

Surely, it’s possible to restrict editing in PowerPoint. There’s a read-only mode, for instance. However, this mode doesn’t offer any encryption and as a result, it won’t take long to disable it. And, obviously, once this mode is disabled, anyone will be able to edit your PowerPoint file. It means that they can easily go to the Slide Master and remove all of your watermarks.

If you want to avoid this, you can save your PPT presentation as a PDF file.

As you may know, contents of a PDF file tend to be challenging to edit, including watermarks . Naturally, it’s impossible to show a PDF file as a presentation. But if you need to share the actual file that contains your presentation with others, it might be a good idea to save a copy of your PowerPoint presentation as a PDF file and share this very file with others, while keeping the editable PPT file only to yourself. This way, no one will be able to remove your watermark.

What’s more, Watermarkly has two browser-based apps for watermarking – one for watermarking photos and the other one for watermarking PDFs . Thus, you won’t have to deal with watermarking your PPT presentation. You can simply convert your presentation to a PDF file, then upload your PDF into our watermarking app and watermark it there. Watermarkly allows you to add both some text and a logo. You’ll be able to upload your own logo file or pick an icon from the Logo Gallery. However, please note that Watermarkly doesn’t support any of the PowerPoint formats. So, you can only watermark your PPT presentation if you save it as a PDF file.

PowerPoint gives you some basic tools for designing a watermark. However, you will have much more room for experimentation with Watermarkly. You will have access to a broader toolkit for editing your watermarks. There’s a tile option that allows you to fill your image or PDF pages with repeated watermarks. This will provide you with maximum protection. Not to mention that it can be quite tedious to create repeated watermarks in PowerPoint because you will need to do it manually. You can also add one of several effects to your watermark. For instance, it can look like a 3D watermark. This cannot be done in PowerPoint.

As another layer of protection, you can actually add a watermark not only to your slides, but to images in your presentation, as well. Removing watermarks from photos is extremely challenging; especially if you follow some tips that will help you improve your watermark protection . If you poured a lot of work into your presentation and want to protect it as much as possible, you should watermark photos before inserting them into your presentation.

Watermarkly’s main advantage is that it has batch-processing. Surely, in PowerPoint, you can add a watermark to every single slide in a matter of a few clicks. But you can watermark only one image at a time. Not to mention that you’ll have to create a separate blank slide for this. If you have a lot of images in your PowerPoint presentation and want to watermark all of them, this will be incredibly time-consuming. On the other hand, in Watermarkly, watermarking a batch of images requires neither much time nor effort.

How to add a Draft watermark to your PowerPoint slide?

This is much easier than it seems. First, you need to open your presentation or create a new one, then open the Slide Master by going to View > Slide Master. Make sure that you are on the very first slide at the top. Next, go to “Insert” and pick the “Word Art”, then select the font style. A text box will now appear on your slide. Type in the word “DRAFT” into the text box. Edit your text – make it bigger or smaller, adjust its angle, reposition it. You can make your text semi-transparent in the Text Options in the Format Shape section. Plus, you can right-click on the text and there will be some editing options in the menu. Finally, exit the Slide Master.

How to create a transparent watermark in PowerPoint?

If you want to make a semi-transparent or almost completely transparent watermark, here’s how you can do it:

• Go to View > Slide Master, then pick the first slide in the thumbnail pane on the left.
• Go to the Insert section and pick the “Word Art”, then choose the font style that you like.
• Enter your text and edit it, if necessary.
• Right-click on the text and select Format Shape.
• In the “Format Shape” section pick the “Text Options” tab, then set the transparency to 80-90% in the “Text Fill”. It’s also a good idea to experiment with the level of transparency here.
• When your watermark looks the way you want it to, close the Format Shape section and exit the Slide master by going to Slide Master > Close Master View.

Now you have a transparent textual watermark in PowerPoint!

How do I insert a logo in a PowerPoint without the background?

It’s perfectly possible to remove the background from your logo in PowerPoint. It can be a white background or a background of any other solid color. Follow these steps:

• Once your logo is imported, click on it to select it.
• Open the Picture Format section in the ribbon.
• Then go to the Color and select the Set Transparent Color in the drop-down menu. This will turn your cursor into an eyedropper.
• Using the eye-dropper, click on the white background that you want to remove. Now, the white color will be set as transparent. And just like that your white background is removed!

However, the downside of this is that all the white areas in your image will become transparent. So, it won’t work if there’s quite a lot of white in your logo, too.

How do I add a background image to a PPT slide?

You’ll be surprised how easy it is. Let’s see how this can be done:

• First, open your presentation or create a new one.
• At the top, select View > Slide Master.
• Select the very first slide in the pane on the left, if you need an image to be on every slide.
• In the ribbon, select the Insert section and click on the “Pictures”. You can import your image from your device as well as use Stock or Online images.
• Import your image, then resize and reposition it. Make any other necessary adjustments to the image.
• Go to Picture Format > Transparency and choose the necessary level of transparency.
• Right-click on the image and pick the “Send to Back” option in the menu.
• Finally, close the Slide Master.

All done! Now, there’s a background image on your PPT slide.

Watermarking your PowerPoint presentation might seem like a complicated and intimidating task. But it’s really not. In fact, it’s not laborious, tedious or time-consuming. It can take you just a couple of minutes to add a watermark to every slide in your PowerPoint presentation. Moreover, if you add a new slide, your watermark will appear on it automatically. You can write any text in your watermark. You can watermark your presentation with a logo, which will make you look like a true professional. It’s a great idea to watermark photos in your PowerPoint presentation, too. This way, you won’t have to worry about anyone stealing your presentation or the visual content in it. Watermarking is an important skill to master as it will benefit you and your work greatly.