Creating and editing slides

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. You have a school project presentation due tomorrow. How do you add slides, change them and put them in the right order? Today we will learn how to create and edit slides, step by step.

Let us start from the beginning. Open PowerPoint and choose Blank Presentation. You can also pick a theme, which is a ready design, or a template, which is a ready design with sample content. The shortcut for a new presentation is Ctrl+N. The first slide always comes with the Title Slide layout.

A new slide has placeholders. A placeholder is a box with a dotted border that holds a place for content. It shows a hint like, Click to add title, or Click to add text. Click inside the box and simply start typing. If you leave a placeholder empty, it does not show during the slide show.

A layout is the arrangement of placeholders on a slide. Title Slide has a title and a subtitle, for the first slide. Title and Content has a title and one content box, for points or a picture. Two Content has two boxes side by side, for comparing things. Section Header shows a big heading to start a new part. Blank has no placeholders at all, useful for one large picture.

There are several ways to add a slide. On the Home tab, click New Slide, and use its arrow to choose a layout. The shortcut Ctrl+M adds a new slide right after the current one. Ctrl+D duplicates the selected slide, which is an exact copy you can change. In the thumbnail pane on the left, click a slide and press Enter to add a slide below it.

You can change a layout even after adding content. Select the slide in the thumbnail pane. On the Home tab, click Layout. Pick a new layout, like Two Content. Your existing text moves into the new placeholders, so you do not lose it.

Editing text on a slide is much like editing in a word processor. Click in the box and press Ctrl+A to select all its text. Ctrl+B makes text bold, and Ctrl+I makes it italic. Ctrl+Shift with the greater than key makes the font bigger. Ctrl+Z undoes your last change. Ctrl+H opens Replace, to change a word on every slide at once.

Most content slides use bullet points. Press Enter at the end of a point to start a new bullet. Press Tab at the start of a point to move it one level in, as a sub point. Press Shift+Tab to move it back out. Keep each bullet short, and start them all in the same way.

Now let us organise the slides. To reorder, drag a thumbnail to a new place, which is easiest in Slide Sorter view. To delete, select a slide and press the Delete key. To copy, use Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+V. To hide a slide without deleting it, right click and choose Hide Slide, and it will be skipped in the show. To group slides, right click between them and choose Add Section.

Next, the look of your slides. On the Design tab, click a theme to apply it to every slide. Variants give you a different colour set for the same theme. Format Background lets you set a solid colour, a gradient or a picture. You can apply it to only the selected slide, or click Apply to All.

Two final habits. Type what you want to say in the Notes pane below the slide. The audience does not see these notes during the show. Press Ctrl+S to save the file, which PowerPoint saves as .pptx. Save often, so a power cut does not wipe out your work.

Let us pause and predict. In a ten slide presentation, slide four is hidden using Hide Slide. You press F5 and move forward one slide at a time. Which slide appears after slide three? Slide five, because a hidden slide is skipped in the show. It is still in the file, and you can unhide it any time.

Let us revise what we learned today. Placeholders hold content, and a layout arranges them. Ctrl+M adds a slide, and Ctrl+D duplicates one. You can change a layout from the Home tab at any time. Reorder, hide and group slides easily in Slide Sorter view. Use the Design tab for themes, and save often with Ctrl+S. Now make a five slide presentation about your school, using these steps.