Chapter 16. Editing and Formatting Presentations
After you create a presentation, you’ll most likely want to modify its appearance. Fortunately, modifying and organizing slides, content, and presentations in PowerPoint is easy using automated tools, the Slide Sorter, and slide masters.
When you finish with your presentation, you can print it for a final review or create handouts from your slides.
Applying a New Slide Layout
If you don’t like the slide layout you applied to a slide—or you selected the wrong layout—you can apply a new layout easily.
Click the Home tab.
Click the Layout button.
Select a slide layout from the gallery.
PowerPoint applies the new layout to your slide.
Tip: Slide Size
In addition to changing the slide layout, you can change the slide size. In PowerPoint 2016, the default slide size is widescreen (16:9) to match the dimensions of most computers and projectors. If you prefer, you can change your slide size to 4:3 by clicking the Slide Size button on the Design tab. 
Applying a New Theme
When you create a presentation, PowerPoint automatically applies a theme: a coordinated set of colors, fonts, and effects. However, you can easily change the existing theme in a matter of seconds.
Click the Design tab.
Click one of the themes in the Themes group.
If none of the themes in the Themes group suit your needs, click the down arrow on the right side of the Themes box to display a gallery of additional themes.
Select the theme you want to use.
Select a variant to apply to your theme.
PowerPoint applies this new theme and its color variant to your presentation.
Tip: Preview a Theme
Pause your mouse over each theme to preview it in your presentation.
Formatting a Slide’s Background
You can further customize your theme by applying, removing, and modifying its background. In addition to specific color backgrounds, you can also add special effects such as shading, patterns, textures, and pictures.
Click the Design tab.
Click the Format Background button.
Click the Fill icon to make changes to your background fill color, such as applying a solid, gradient, picture, texture, or pattern fill.
Specify the kind of fill you want to apply—such as a solid, gradient, or pattern—and select from the options that display at the bottom of the pane.
Tip: Make the Right Changes
The Format Background pane includes numerous options for customizing your background’s fill, effects, and pictures. Before making changes, be sure to review all the available options and make changes that truly enhance your presentation.
Note: Format Effects and Pictures
You can also click the Effects icon or Picture icon to make additional background changes. Be aware that these formatting options are available for some, but not all, backgrounds.
Select the Hide background graphics check box to hide the graphics included with your presentation theme. PowerPoint removes these objects but retains the original colors.
PowerPoint previews your changes in the Slide pane.
Click Apply to All if you want to apply this format to all slides in your presentation.
Click the Close button to close the Format Background pane.
Tip: Starting Over
If you don’t like the formatting options you applied, click the Reset Background button to start again.
Organizing Your Presentation with Slide Sorter View
Slide Sorter view displays smaller versions of your slides in several rows and columns. If you have a lot of reorganization to do, it’s usually easier to accomplish this task in Slide Sorter view than in Normal view.
Click the Slide Sorter button on the lower-right corner of the PowerPoint window.
Select a slide you want to move. PowerPoint displays a red border around it.
Drag the slide to its new location.
Tip: View Slide Detail
To view a particular slide in more detail, double-click it to open it in Normal view.
PowerPoint displays the slide in its new location.
Tip: Deleting Slides
To delete a slide, select it and press the Delete key on your keyboard.
Tip: Delete Multiple Slides
To select multiple slides to delete, press Ctrl, select the slides, and then press the Delete key.
Copying and Moving Slides from One Presentation to Another
Using Slide Sorter view, you can copy or move slides from one presentation to another.
Open both the source and destination presentations in Slide Sorter view.
In one of the presentations, click the Arrange All button on the View tab.
Note: Presentation Themes
If each presentation uses a different theme, moving a slide changes its formatting to that of the new presentation, and the Paste Options button displays. To retain the formatting of the source presentation, click the down arrow to the right of the Paste Options button and choose Keep Source Formatting. Remember, however, that the best presentations use a consistent theme throughout.
PowerPoint displays both presentations in different window panes in Slide Sorter view.
Drag and drop slides between presentations to copy them.
Click the Save button for any presentation you changed.
Click the Close button in the upper-right corner of the presentation you no longer want to view.
Click the Maximize button in the upper-right corner of the presentation you want to keep active.
Tip: Move a Slide
To move a slide, select it, press Ctrl+X on your keyboard, position the mouse in the new destination location, and press Ctrl+V. The slide is removed from the source presentation and inserted into the destination presentation.
Deleting a Slide
If you no longer need a slide or make a mistake and want to start again, you can delete it.
Click the Normal button in the lower-right corner of the window if you aren’t already using Normal view.
Select the slide you want to delete, and press the Delete key on your keyboard.
Tip: Delete Multiple Slides
To delete multiple consecutive slides, press the Shift key on your keyboard, select the first and last slides in the range, and press the Delete key. To delete multiple nonconsecutive slides, hold the Ctrl key, select the slides, and press the Delete key.
Note: Other Deletion Options
You can also delete slides in Slide Sorter view or Outline view. You can access these views on the View tab.
Using Slide Masters
Slide masters help you achieve uniformity by storing data about a presentation’s theme and slide layouts, such as colors, fonts, effects, background, placeholders, and positioning—and applying it consistently throughout your presentation.
Click the View tab.
Click the Slide Master button.
If you want to change the entire presentation’s design, click the slide master thumbnail.
If you want to edit the master for a specific slide layout, click the thumbnail for that layout.
PowerPoint displays the Slide Master contextual tab by default, where you can change the theme, colors, fonts, effects, and background styles.
Click the slide master editing screen.
Click the Format tab to makes changes to shapes and WordArt.
Click the Close Master View button on the Slide Master tab to save your changes and return to your presentation.
Note: Slide Masters
Each presentation contains at least one slide master. Editing a slide master is optional and suited to experienced users. One popular reason to edit a slide master is to add your company logo to all slides.
Inserting a Hyperlink to the Web
Inserting hyperlinks to external websites is a common use of PowerPoint’s hyperlink feature. Inserting a hyperlink makes it easy to open a specific website or page during a presentation without having to manually enter its URL. You can add a hyperlink to text or to an object such as an image or shape.
On the Slide pane in Normal view, select the text or object you want to link.
Click the Insert tab.
Click the Hyperlink button.
Type the URL into the Address field.
Click the OK button.
Tip: Insert Hyperlink Shortcut
Pressing Ctrl+K is another way to open the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.
Caution: URL Tips
Be sure to type the URL exactly as it appears, including uppercase and lowercase letters and all special characters (such as the tilde [~]). If you can, go to the site, copy the URL from the Address field in your browser, and paste it into this field.
Inserting a Hyperlink to Another Slide in Your Presentation
In addition to linking to websites, you can also link to other slides in your presentation. Creating links to other slides helps you customize your slideshow so that you can move quickly to the slides you need.
In Normal view, select the text or object on the slide you want to link.
Click the Insert tab.
Click the Hyperlink button.
Click the Place in This Document button.
Select the slide to which you want to link.
Click the OK button.
Tip: Removing Hyperlinks
After inserting a hyperlink, you might decide that you don’t want it or that you need to link a different object instead. To remove a hyperlink, right-click it and select Remove Hyperlink.
Tip: Testing Hyperlinks
Before you present to an audience, test all your hyperlinks to make sure that you set them up correctly. The last thing you want during your presentation is a surprise when you click a hyperlink.
Adding Headers and Footers
If you plan to print your presentation—or create a PDF to distribute to participants—you can add headers and footers to your slides, notes, and handouts.
Click the Insert tab.
Click the Header & Footer button.
Click the Notes and Handouts tab on the Header and Footer dialog box.
Click the Date and time check box to print the date and/or time on each page, and select a formatting option from the drop-down list.
Click the Page number check box to print a page number on the lower-right corner of each page.
Click the Header check box to print a header on the upper-left corner of the page.
Click the Footer check box to print a footer on the lower-left corner of the page.
Click the Apply to All button to close the dialog box.
Tip: Preview Headers and Footers
You can preview your changes on the right side of the Header and Footer dialog box.
Creating Handouts in Microsoft Word
You can export the slides and notes from your PowerPoint presentation to Microsoft Word, where you can use Word’s formatting to create more sophisticated handouts.
Click the File tab.
Click Export.
Click Create Handouts.
Click the Create Handouts button.
Select a page layout option for your handouts.
Select the Paste option button if you want to paste the slides into your Word document.
Select the Paste link option button if you want to update your Word document whenever you make changes in PowerPoint.
Click the OK button to open a Microsoft Word document in the layout you specified.
Note: Preview Handout Layouts
The Send to Microsoft Word dialog box displays preview images of each page layout.
Printing Your Presentation
PowerPoint enables you to print more than just slides. You can also print notes to remind yourself of what you want to say while presenting, handouts to give to your audience, and outlines to help you proof your content. PowerPoint also includes numerous customization options for printing auxiliary materials.
Click the File tab.
Click Print.
Select the number of Copies you want to print.
Select your Printer from the drop-down list.
Tip: Green Printing Alternatives
Consider a greener alternative to printing your presentation by saving it as a PDF and distributing it to your audience on the Web or on a company file-sharing site. Learn more at “Saving as a PDF or an XPS Document” on page 22. That way, you need to print only for personal review, not wide distribution.
Tip: Scroll and Zoom
Below the slide, you can click the left and right arrows to scroll through the presentation. You can also use the zoom control to reduce or enlarge the size of the slides.
Select the slides you want to print. Your options include Print All Slides, Print Selection, Print Current Slide, or Custom Range.
Select the print layout you want to use. Options include Full Page Slides, Notes Pages, Outline, or nine Handout layouts.
Specify whether you want to collate your printouts (print in consecutive order). This option is valid only if you choose to print more than one copy of your presentation.
Specify color options for your printed presentation. You can print in color, grayscale, or pure black and white.
Click the Print button to print your formatted presentation to the printer you selected.
Note: Print Preview
Preview the way your presentation will display when printed on the right side of the Print window. Any changes you make to your presentation settings are reflected in this view, so you can verify before printing whether the choices you make work for you.