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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 4,325,961 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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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)
- PowerPoint Tutorials
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- 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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17 PowerPoint Presentation Tips From Pro Presenters [+ Templates]
Published: April 26, 2024
PowerPoint presentations can be professional, attractive, and really help your audience remember your message.
If you don’t have much experience, that’s okay — I’m going to arm you with PowerPoint design tips from pro presenters, the steps you need to build an engaging deck, and templates to help you nail great slide design.
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Buckle up for a variety of step-by-step explanations as well as tips and tricks to help you start mastering this program. There are additional resources woven in, and you’ll find expert perspectives from other HubSpotters along the way.
Table of Contents
How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation
Powerpoint presentation tips.
Microsoft PowerPoint is like a test of basic professional skills, and each PowerPoint is basically a presentation made of multiple slides.
Successful PowerPoints depend on three main factors: your command of PowerPoint's design tools, your attention to presentation processes, and being consistent with your style.
Keep those in mind as we jump into PowerPoint's capabilities.
Getting Started
1. open powerpoint and click ‘new.’.
A page with templates will usually open automatically, but if not, go to the top left pane of your screen and click New . If you’ve already created a presentation, select Open and then double-click the icon to open the existing file.
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Creating PowerPoint Slides
3. insert a slide..
Insert a new slide by clicking on the Home tab and then the New Slide button. Consider what content you want to put on the slide, including heading, text, and imagery.
7. Take advantage of PowerPoint's shapes.
PowerPoint’s shape tools have come a long way. Today’s shapes include a highly functional Smart Shapes function, which enables you to create diagrams and flow charts in no time.
These tools are especially valuable because paragraphing and bullet lists are boring to look at — you can use shapes to help express your message more clearly.
8. Create custom shapes.
When you create a shape, right click and press Edit Points to create custom shapes that fit your specific need. For instance, you can reshape arrows to fit the dimensions you like:
- Finally, PowerPoint Live is a new tool that enables you to do more seamless presentations during video calls and may be a better overall match for doing presentations remotely. Check out this video:
11. Try Using GIFs.
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15. Embed multimedia.
PowerPoint allows you to either link to video/audio files externally or to embed the media directly in your presentation. For PCs, two great reasons for embedding are:
- Embedding allows you to play media directly in your presentation. It will look much more professional than switching between windows.
- Embedding also means that the file stays within the PowerPoint presentation, so it should play normally without extra work (except on a Mac).
If you use PowerPoint for Mac it gets a bit complicated, but it can be done:
- Always bring the video and/or audio file with you in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation.
- Only insert video or audio files once the presentation and the containing folder have been saved on a portable drive in their permanent folder.
- If the presentation will be played on a Windows computer, then Mac users need to make sure their multimedia files are in WMV format.
- Consider using the same operating system for designing and presenting, no matter what.
16. Bring your own hardware.
Between operating systems, PowerPoint is still a bit jumpy. Even between differing PPT versions, things can change. The easiest fix? Just bring along your own laptop when you're presenting.
The next easiest fix is to upload your PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides as a backup option — just make sure there is a good internet connection and a browser available where you plan to present.
Google Slides is a cloud-based presentation software that will show up the same way on all operating systems.
To import your PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides:
- Navigate to slides.google.com . Make sure you’re signed in to a Google account (preferably your own).
- Under Start a new presentation , click the empty box with a plus sign. This will open up a blank presentation.
- Go to File , then Import slides .
- A dialog box will come up. Tap Upload.
- Click Select a file from your device .
- Select your presentation and click Open .
- Select the slides you’d like to import. If you want to import all of them, click All in the upper right-hand corner of the dialog box.
- Click Import slides.
When I tested this out, Google Slides imported everything perfectly, including a shape whose points I had manipulated. This is a good backup option to have if you’ll be presenting across different operating systems.
17. Use Presenter View.
In most presentation situations, there will be both a presenter’s screen and the main projected display for your presentation.
PowerPoint has a great tool called Presenter View, which can be found in the Slide Show tab of PowerPoint. Included in the Presenter View is an area for notes, a timer/clock, and a presentation display.
For many presenters, this tool can help unify their spoken presentation and their visual aid. You never want to make the PowerPoint seem like a stack of notes that you’re reading off of.
Use the Presenter View option to help create a more natural presentation.
Pro Tip: At the start of the presentation, you should also hit CTRL + H to make the cursor disappear. Hitting the “A” key will bring it back if you need it.
Your Next Great PowerPoint Presentation Starts Here
Now that you have these style, design, and presentation tips under your belt, you should feel confident to create your PowerPoint presentation.
But if you can explore other resources to make sure your content hits the mark. After all, you need a strong presentation to land your point and make an impression.
With several templates to choose from — both in PowerPoint and available for free download — you can swiftly be on your way to creating presentations that wow your audiences.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
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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.
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