Simple Steps to Make a PowerPoint 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 4,344,607 times.

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.

1. Open the PowerPoint app, select a template and theme, then like “Create.”
2. Click the text box to add your title and subtitle to create your title slide.
3. Click the “Insert” tab, then “New Slide” to add another slide.
4. Choose the type of slide you want to add, then add text and pictures.
5. Rearrange slides by dragging them up or down in the preview box.

• 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.

Creating a New PowerPoint

• 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.

Click Create . It's in the bottom-right corner of the window. Doing so selects your template and creates your PowerPoint presentation.

Creating the Title Slide

• 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.

Adding a New Slide

• On a Mac, you'll click the Home tab instead. [1] X Research source

On a Mac, click the

• Title Slide
• Title and Content
• Section Header
• Two Content
• Comparison
• Title Only
• Blank
• Content with Caption
• Picture with Caption

Add any other slides that you think you'll need. You can certainly add slides as you go, but adding a few slides up-front will give you an idea of the layout of the presentation as you progress through it.

• 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.

Adding Content to Slides

Select a slide. In the left-hand column of slide previews, click the slide that you want to edit. This will open the slide in the main presentation window.

• 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.

Add photos to the slide. If you want to add a photo to your slide, click the Insert tab, then click Pictures in the toolbar and select a picture.

• 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

Adding Transitions

Select a slide. In the left-hand column of the PowerPoint window, click the slide to which you want to apply a transition.

Click the Transitions tab. It's at the top of the PowerPoint window. This will open the Transitions toolbar near the top of the window.

Review the available transitions. Transitions make your slide pop up in an exciting, eye-drawing manner during your actual presentation; you can see the list of available transitions at the top of the window.

Select a transition to use. Once you decide on a transition, click it to ensure that it is selected. The current slide will use the selected transition.

• 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

Testing and Saving Your Presentation

Review your PowerPoint. Once you've finished adding the bulk of your PowerPoint presentation's content, skim through it slide-by-slide to ensure that you haven't left anything out.

Click the Slide Show tab. This tab is at the top of the window. Doing so opens the Slide Show toolbar.

Click From Beginning . It's in the far-left corner of the toolbar. Your PowerPoint presentation will open in slide show view.

• If you need to exit the presentation, press Esc .

Make any necessary changes before proceeding. When you're done scrolling through the presentation, add any details that you forgot, delete any content that you want to remove, and so on.

• 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

Click the Insert tab and select Audio and then click "Audio from my PC." browse your computer for the audio file you want to set as your background music. After inserting the file, click "Play in Background" on the Playback tab.

Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
Thank you for your feedback.
If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow

Click the Insert tab and select Audio and then click "Audio from my PC." browse your computer for the audio file you want to set as your background music. After inserting the file, click "Play in Background" on the Playback tab.

Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
Thank you for your feedback.
If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow

Click the Insert tab and then click the "Shapes" button. Select the type of arrow you want to insert from the Lines or Block Arrows section. Once you've selected the arrow type, click and drag on the slide to draw the arrow. You can also use an image of an arrow if you want something more stylish.

Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
Thank you for your feedback.
If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow

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.

If you don't have Microsoft Office, you can still use Apple's Keynote program or Google Slides to create a PowerPoint presentation.

Your PowerPoint presentation (or some features in it) may not open in significantly older versions of PowerPoint.

You Might Also Like

4 Easy Ways to Add Music or Audio to Microsoft PowerPoint

2 Simple Ways to Move or Delete a Slide in PowerPoint

How to Insert Slide Numbers in PowerPoint

Easy Steps to Add a Header & Footer in PowerPoint

2 Easy Ways to Change the Background on PowerPoint Slides

How to Duplicate Slides in PowerPoint: Step-by-Step Guide

How to Edit an Image in PowerPoint: The Complete Guide