PowerPoint is Microsoft’s software for creating presentations. It has been part of the Office Pack since the early 1990s. Although there are now alternatives to PowerPoint to create an online presentation, the software remains the most widely used tool, especially at work and in schools. Like most of the tools in the Microsoft Office suite, PowerPoint is easy to learn but full of more or less hidden features. We have therefore gathered here 25 tips to know to master the software. You’ll know how to remotely present a slide show, keep your custom fonts, compress images, include a YouTube video and convert a PowerPoint into a Word or PDF document!
Keyboard shortcuts to control a PowerPoint slideshow
On PowerPoint, we can distinguish two steps: the “creation” mode and the “slideshow” mode. The first one corresponds to the creation of the slideshow, the second to its presentation. To start a slide show, simply press the F5 key. Then, to move from one slide to another, simply use the directional arrows, Space, Enter or mouse keys. You can also:
Reach a specific slide: 42 + ENTER to reach slide 42.
Pause an automatic presentation: S
Stop a presentation: ESCAP
Go back to the beginning of the presentation: simultaneous left and right clicks for 2 seconds
Display cursor: A or = =
Change the cursor: CTRL+P, A or E.
Display the list of slides: CTRL+S
How to read a slideshow without buying PowerPoint?
PowerPoint is a paid tool. If you have the software, you can create beautiful presentations. But how do you do this if your interlocutor does not have PowerPoint? Don’t worry, your viewers don’t need to buy the software: just go to the Windows website to download the PowerPoint viewer. It’s totally free, and it allows you to view all slideshows created with Microsoft PowerPoint 97 and later versions. Practical!
Customize slides with slide masks
On PowerPoint, within the Ribbon Home tab, you can add a new slide. Several templates are available: title slide, title and content, section title, two contents, comparison etc. Feel free to use these templates to quickly format your presentation! Another advantage: if you wish, you can modify the templates afterwards. In other words, once your presentation is created, click on the View tab, then Slide Mask: you can then modify all the slides in a few clicks.
Insert a graph or flowchart on PowerPoint
Inserting a graph is very easy: if you know how to do it in Word or Excel, you shouldn’t have any problems. Click on the Insert tab, then on one of the illustrations of your choice:
Shapes: a square, a rectangle, an arrow, a star… In short, simple shapes to illustrate your PowerPoint document.
SmartArt: more complex graphics, allowing you to represent a list, a flowchart, a hierarchy, a pyramid or a cycle.
Graph: a histogram, a curve, or a bar graph… PowerPoint even allows you to use Excel data to format a series of data!
Add a text box on PowerPoint
If the template used is not completely suitable, you can add a text box. Simply use the Insert tab, then Text box. You can customize the size of this area, add a header or footer.
Insert the current date or time on a presentation
Dating a PowerPoint presentation is very easy. Go to the Insert tab, then Date and time. Several options are available. You can:
Include the current date (fixed or automatic update)
Include time (fixed or automatic update)
Add slide number
Add a footnote
You can apply these settings to all slides or to the active slide.
Customize your PowerPoint presentation with themes
The Ribbon Creation tab allows you to customize the appearance of your presentation. Many themes are available and allow the style of a presentation to be adapted to the context and audience. To go further, you can also change the colours, fonts and effects used. If you wish, you can also save the active theme to use as a template later. Useful when your company regularly makes presentations! For more info pop over to this site.
Set up the PowerPoint slideshow
There are many options to set up a slideshow on PowerPoint. Simply use the Overview tab to display the available options. You can launch a slide show from the current slide, create a custom panorama (which does not display all slides), configure the slide show (no transition, full screen or windowed mode, main or secondary monitor etc.).
Present a PowerPoint slideshow remotely
If you want to present a PowerPoint slideshow remotely, there are several solutions. Via the software directly, there are two ways. You can use the Slideshow tab, then Play Slideshow, or via the File tab, Save and Send, then Play Slideshow. A practical feature to broadcast a slideshow remotely!
