Chapter 15. Creating and Managing PowerPoint Presentations
With PowerPoint, you design a series of slides—enhanced with text, images, media, and animation—to create a presentation that you can deliver in person, on the Web, or on mobile devices. PowerPoint simplifies creating an effective, well-designed presentation with easy-to-use tools and color-coordinated themes.
Remember, however, that no matter how easy it is to create a basic series of slides, a great presentation requires strategic content, quality images, and a powerful delivery to truly motivate, inspire, and educate your audience.
Creating a New PowerPoint Presentation
PowerPoint’s professionally designed themes make it easy to create a quality presentation—even for the design challenged.
Click the File tab.
Click New.
Click the theme you want to apply to your presentation.
Note: PowerPoint Themes
A theme is a standalone file with coordinated colors, fonts, and effects to use in a single presentation. Other Microsoft Office 2016 applications—such as Word, Excel, and Publisher—also support themes, which enable you to create a consistent look and feel among Office documents. 
Tip: Search for Other Themes
You can search for other themes and templates online in the Search for Online Templates and Themes box at the top of the New window.
Select the variant you prefer. Every PowerPoint theme has four variants.
Click the Create button.
PowerPoint opens a new presentation with a single slide in the Title Slide layout.
Click to add a title in the placeholder.
Click to add a subtitle in the placeholder.
Tip: Change Your Theme
Don’t like the theme you selected? Browse through other options by clicking the left or right arrows in the theme selection dialog box.
Exploring Normal View
PowerPoint includes several views, which are arrangements of slides and tools on the screen that you use to work with and view your presentation. Normal view is PowerPoint’s default view. This is where you do most of your presentation design, so it’s a good idea to explore this view and get to know its key elements.
Click the Normal icon.
Click in the Slide pane to add text, graphics, tables, charts, and other objects to your presentation.
View images of your slides on the Thumbnails pane. You can rearrange and organize slides here or click a specific slide to display it in the Slide pane.
Click in the Notes pane to type speaker’s notes or notes to yourself about your presentation.
Tip: Another Way to Access Normal View
You can also access Normal view by clicking the Normal View button on the View tab.
Note: Where’s the Notes Pane?
If the Notes pane doesn’t display, click the Notes button at the bottom of the screen.
Adding Slides to Your Presentation
You can add new slides to any open PowerPoint presentation. When you add a new slide, PowerPoint prompts you to select a predesigned slide layout.
Select the slide that precedes the slide you want to add.
Click the Home tab.
Click the lower portion of the New Slide button.
Select a slide layout from the gallery that displays.
Note: Slide Layouts
A slide layout helps you add specific types of content to your slides, such as text, tables, charts, and pictures. Slide layouts include placeholders that enable you to position content in the correct location.
Tip: New Slide Shortcut
Clicking the top portion of the New Slide button adds a slide in the layout of the active slide automatically without opening the gallery. Pressing Ctrl+M also performs this same task.
PowerPoint creates a new presentation with an initial slide in the layout you selected.
Add slide content in the placeholders.
If you selected a layout that includes the content palette, click the button on the palette that matches the type of content you want to insert. PowerPoint opens a dialog box that helps you insert that content type.
Note: Content Palette
The content palette enables you to add a table, chart, SmartArt graphic, picture, online picture, or video to your slide. Pause your mouse over each button on the content palette to view a description of the type of content that button inserts.
Tip: Switch to a New Layout
Didn’t choose the right layout? Click the Layout button on the Home tab to apply a new layout to an existing slide.
Adding a Slide with a Bullet List
Although there is no slide layout specifically for bullet lists, you can create a list easily with the Title and Content layout.
In the Thumbnail pane, select the slide that precedes the slide you want to add.
Click the Home tab.
Click the lower portion of the New Slide button.
Click the Title and Content slide layout.
Click the title placeholder and type your slide title.
Click the starter bullet and start typing your bullet list, pressing the Enter key to move to a new line.
Tip: Other Slide Layout Options
You can also create a bullet list by choosing any of the other slide layouts that include the content palette, including the following: Title and Content, Two Content, Comparison, and Content with Caption.
Adding Sections to Your Presentation
Sections are particularly useful for large presentations where it’s easy to get lost in a sea of slides. You can use sections to define presentation topics or distinguish between presenters, for example.
Select the slide that precedes the Section Header slide you want to add.
Click the Home tab.
Click the lower portion of the New Slide button.
Select the Section Header slide layout.
Tip: Move Sections
PowerPoint makes it easy to rearrange your presentation sections. Right-click the section you want to move and select either Move Up or Move Down from the menu.
Tip: Collapse and Expand Sections
If you have a lot of slides and sections, you might want to collapse them for easier viewing. To do so, right-click the section you want to collapse and select Collapse All from the menu. To expand again, select Expand All from the menu.
On the new slide, type a section title in the placeholder.
Click the Section button, and select Add Section from the menu.
On the left side of the screen, right-click Untitled Section.
Select Rename Section from the menu.
Enter a Section name in the Rename Section dialog box.
Click the Rename button.
Tip: Remove a Section
On the left pane, right-click the section you want to remove, and select Remove Section from the menu. PowerPoint deletes the section marker but not the slides in that section. If you want to remove all the slides in a section and not just the section marker, select Remove Section and Slides from the menu. To remove all sections, select Remove All Sections from the menu.
Creating a Presentation Outline
A solid, well-organized outline helps you achieve the goals of your presentation. In Outline view, PowerPoint organizes outline content in levels. For example, a slide is the first level on your outline. If your slide contains a bullet list, those bullets are the second level. If you have indented bullets, they are the third level of your outline.
Click the View tab.
Click the Outline View button.
Caution: When Not to Use Outline View
Outline view works best for slides that contain a lot of text, such as bulleted lists. Pictures, tables, charts, and other objects don’t display in an outline. If your slides emphasize other types of content, such as graphics and charts, you’ll find it more convenient to rearrange content directly on your slides.
Tip: Delete Content
Select any outline content you want to delete, and press the Delete key on your keyboard. For example, you could delete a single bullet point or one or more slides.
Tip: Collapse and Expand Your Outline
Collapsing hides all slide body text, which can make it easier to organize a long presentation. Right-click the Slide view, and then select Collapse and Collapse All from the menu. To expand again, select Expand and then Expand All.
View an outline of your presentation. Each slide is numbered and followed by a slide icon and the title text.
Type new content, and press the Enter key on your keyboard to move to the next point.
Right-click a slide or slide content, and select Move Up or Move Down to move your selection.
Right-click slide content, and select Promote to change the selected text’s outline level to the previous higher level.
Right-click slide content, and select Demote to change the selected text’s outline level to the next lower level. Demoting a slide title moves the text of the selected slide to the previous slide.
Tip: Import an Outline
If you create an outline in another application, such as Microsoft Word, you can import it into PowerPoint. Click the lower portion of the New Slide button, and select Slides from Outline.