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how to make powerpoint presentation 2016

Create a presentation

Create a presentation in PowerPoint

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Create presentations from scratch or start with a professionally designed, fully customizable template from Microsoft Create .

Open PowerPoint.

In the left pane, select New .

Select an option:

To create a presentation from scratch, select Blank Presentation .

To use a prepared design, select one of the templates.

To see tips for using PowerPoint, select Take a Tour , and then select Create , .

Create new PowerPoint

Add a slide

In the thumbnails on the left pane, select the slide you want your new slide to follow.

In the  Home tab, in the  Slides  section, select  New Slide .

In the Slides section, select Layout , and then select the layout you want from the menu.

PowerPoint slide layouts

Add and format text

Place the cursor inside a text box, and then type something.

Select the text, and then select one or more options from the Font section of the Home tab, such as  Font , Increase Font Size , Decrease Font Size ,  Bold , Italic , Underline , etc.

To create bulleted or numbered lists, select the text, and then select Bullets or Numbering .

PowerPoint format text

Add a picture, shape, and more

Go to the  Insert  tab.

To add a picture:

In the Images section, select Pictures .

In the Insert Picture From menu, select the source you want.

Browse for the picture you want, select it, and then select Insert .

To add illustrations:

In the Illustrations section, select Shapes , Icons , 3D Models ,  SmartArt , or Chart .

In the dialog box that opens when you click one of the illustration types, select the item you want and follow the prompts to insert it.

Insert Images in PowerPoint

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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)

  • PowerPoint Tutorials
  • Presentation Design
  • 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.

Example of the six slides you'll learn how to create in this tutorial

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.

In the backstage view of PowerPoint you can create a new blank presentation, use a template, or open a recent file

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

Picture of the different parts of the PowerPoint layout, including the Ribbon, thumbnail view, quick access toolbar, notes pane, etc.

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 PowerPoint Ribbon in the Microsoft Office Suite

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).

Example of the Shape Format tab in PowerPoint and all of the subsequent commands assoicated with that tab

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

The slides pane in PowerPoint is on the left side of your workspace

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 .

Right clicking a PowerPoint slide in the thumbnail view gives you a variety of options like adding new slides, adding sections, changing the layout, etc.

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.

Content added to your PowerPoint slides will only display if it's on the slide area, marked here by the letter A

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 in PowerPoint is located at the bottom of your screen and is where you can type your speaker notes

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 click and drag to resize the notes pane at the bottom of your PowerPoint screen

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 .

Click into your content placeholders and start typing text, just as the prompt suggests

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.

Example of typing text into a content placeholder in PowerPoint

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.

Use the formatting options on the Home tab to choose the formatting of your text

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 .

Hitting the reset command on the home tab resets your slide formatting to match your template

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.

To insert a new slide in PowerPoint, on the home tab click the New Slide command

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.

Opening the new slide dropdown you can see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template

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.

Example of a number of different blank slide layouts inserting in a PowerPoint 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.

Use the icons within a content placeholder to insert things like tables, charts, SmartArt, Pictures, etc.

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.

Example typing bulleted text in a content placeholder in PowerPoint

Slides 3 and 4 only have text placeholders, so I’ll go ahead and add in my text into each one.

Examples of text typed into a divider slide and a title and content slide in PowerPoint

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

A picture placeholder in PowerPoint can only take an image or an icon

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.

To insert a picture into a picture placeholder, click the picture icon, find your picture on your computer and click insert

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.

Example slides using PowerPoint icons and background pictures

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 .

To use Designer on your slides, click the

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 change your slide size, click the Design tab, open the slide size dropdown and choose a size or custom slide size

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.

All PowerPoint presentations start with the default Microsoft Office theme

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 .

On the Design tab you will find all of the default PowerPoint templates that come with the Microsoft Office Suite

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.

Example choosing the Frame PowerPoint theme and the third variant of this powerpoint 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.

To change the background style of your presentation, on the Design tab, find the Background Styles options and choose a style

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)

What our PowerPoint presentation looks like now that we have selected a theme, a variant, and a background style

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.

You can either right-click a PowerPoint slide and select format background or navigate to the design tab and click the format background command

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.

Example of the theme colors we are currently using with 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.).

To change the theme color for your presentation, select the Design tab, open the Colors options and choose the colors you want to use

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.

Example of custom theme fonts that might come with a powerpoint template

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.

To change the default fonts for your presentation, from the design tab, find the fonts dropdown and select the pair of fonts you want to use

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 an animation to an object in PowerPoint, first select the object and then use the Animations tab to select an animation type

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

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 .

The Animations tab allows you to adjust the effects and timings of your animations in PowerPoint

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

You can see the animations applied to your objects by the little numbers in the upper right-hand corner of the objects

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 slide, select the slide, navigate to the transitions tab in PowerPoint and select your transition

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 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.

Click the file tab, select Save As, choose where you want to save your presentation and then click save

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.

The save shortcut is control plus s in PowerPoint

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.

The print shortcut is control plus P in PowerPoint

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

In the Print dialog box, make your selections for how you want to print your PowerPoint presentation, then click 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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6 Simple Parts for Beginners to Create a PowerPoint Presentation

Last Updated: December 19, 2022 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 4,307,622 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.

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.

Step 1 Open 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.

Step 2 Select a template.

  • 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.

Step 3 Select a theme if possible.

  • Skip this step if your selected template has no themes available.

Step 4 Click Create.

  • If you're creating a PowerPoint presentation for which an elaborate title slide has been requested, ignore this step.

Step 2 Add a title.

  • 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.

Step 3 Add the subtitle.

  • You can also just leave this box blank if you like.

Step 4 Rearrange the title text boxes.

  • You can also click and drag in or out one of a text box's corners to shrink or enlarge the text box.

Step 1 Click the Insert tab.

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

Step 2 Click New Slide ▼.

  • Clicking the white slide-shaped box above this option will result in a new text slide being inserted.

Step 3 Select a type of slide.

  • Title Slide
  • Title and Content
  • Section Header
  • Two Content
  • Content with Caption
  • Picture with Caption

Step 4 Add any other slides that you think you'll need.

  • 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.

Step 1 Select a slide.

  • Skip this step and the next two steps if your selected slide uses a template that doesn't have text boxes in it.

Step 3 Add text to the slide.

  • 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.

Step 4 Format the slide's text.

  • 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.

Step 5 Add photos to the slide.

  • Photos in particular can be enlarged or shrunk by clicking and dragging out or in one of their corners.

Step 7 Repeat this for each slide in your presentation.

  • 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

Step 1 Select a slide.

  • 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

Step 1 Review your PowerPoint.

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

Step 5 Make any necessary changes before proceeding.

  • 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

Community Answer

Video . By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube.

  • 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

how to make powerpoint presentation 2016

  • Your PowerPoint presentation (or some features in it) may not open in significantly older versions of PowerPoint. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 1
  • Great PowerPoint presentations avoid placing too much text on one slide. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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Create a Powerpoint Handout

  • ↑ 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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10 Tips for Making Better PowerPoint Presentations with Office 2016

Microsoft PowerPoint continues to set new standards. New features in PowerPoint 2016 manifest its top spot as the best option for smart and creative presentations.

Most of us don't get what Microsoft PowerPoint is all about.

Like any presentation tool, it is meant to enhance what the presenter is saying. It is not a tool to do all the job for the presenter.

If the latter had been true, TED Talks would have killed scores of audiences around the world. Death by PowerPoint bloodies the hands of a bad presenter.

"Your slides should be a billboard not a document!" - Lee Jackson (Author)

A PowerPoint presentation needs to work with the creative constraints of short attention spans. Not unlike the billboards designed to catch the eyes of speeding motorists. But, PowerPoint creators have the luxury of multiple slides to make a point. And some wonderful creative tools that have become better with the enhancements in Microsoft Office 2016 .

So, let's dive into these new creative tools in PowerPoint 2016 and see how they can help you make better presentations .

Save Time with PowerPoint Designer

Suffering from "presentation block"?

With Microsoft PowerPoint 2016, you can banish both annoyances. Any presentation starts with the hunt for a suitable template or theme . Or creating a nice one from scratch. But you may not be a designer.

Drop the first image into a fresh slide and PowerPoint Designer automatically offers several design ideas. The recommendation engine works with 12,000+ creative designs created by graphic artists.

Microsoft says:

Designer applies cloud intelligence to analyze and identify the most compelling portion of your images to determine which blueprints work best with your content.

You can also open it from Ribbon > Design > Design Ideas .

Design Ideas in PowerPoint

If you don't find it useful, go to File > Options > General .  Uncheck the box that says Enable PowerPoint Designer .

The time-saving assistance isn't only about dropping a pretty graphic on a slide. Designer uses cloud intelligence to analyze and highlight the most compelling portion of your images. Try it. It's different from our old habit of selecting a pre-made template.

PowerPoint Designer

General tip – Right now, PowerPoint Designer recognizes a few simple slide types. As further updates arrive, the recommendations will get better with different slide types.

Learn with Tell Me

Still feel lost on the Ribbon?

Microsoft Office 2016 introduced the "Tell Me" assistant to help you navigate through the many options. The Tell Me What to Do box is located above the right side of the Ribbon. Type what you want to do in this box, and PowerPoint points you to the Ribbon button that lets you do it.

Tell Me

Let's say you want to organize multiple PowerPoint windows on the desktop by cascading them. Type "windows" and Tell Me displays the Cascade Windows command (originally located under the View tab).

Tell me is a time saver and a timely confusion killer.

Power Search with Bing "Insights"

Looking for more information or creative inspiration?

Highlight a keyword and right-click to use the Bing-powered Smart Lookup in PowerPoint 2016 (Insights) to bring in search results from the web. A panel opens on the right with results from the web and Wikipedia.

Smart Lookup Panel opens on the right.

You don't have to leave PowerPoint for looking up simple information. Make error free presentations quickly by checking the facts or the vocabulary you will use on your slides. Use it for creative inspiration or for finding RGB values of colors.

You can also use Smart Lookup from the Ribbon > Review tab.

Smart Lookup

Smart Lookup is also a part of the new Tell Me feature.  Enter keywords into the Tell Me box and select Smart Lookup from the dropdown suggestions.

General tip – try to avoid using it for image searches. Finding images to insert with the right Creative Commons license is almost impossible via the search pane.

Ink Your Equations

Remember the struggles with math on the slides?

Working with math equations is easier in PowerPoint now with both the keyboard and the stylus. From the Ribbon, go to Insert > Equation > Ink Equation . For touch-enabled devices, you can use your finger or a touch stylus to write math equations by hand. You can also use the mouse in the Write box. The Office software converts it into text.

Ink Equation

As the Ink Equation editor brings the fight with mathematical expressions to an end, it can be an effective teaching tool if you broadcast your presentation to a remote audience. Or pair it with one of the creative uses of Google Chromecast .

General Tip -- Use the Tell Me box to quickly get to the Ink Equation editor. Type Ink in the box.

Smoothly Animate with Morph Transitions

Found Motion Paths too difficult to apply?

Morph Transitions in PowerPoint 2016 is designed to make animations easier. Simply explained, Morph allows you to move an object from Point A to Point B. To move objects effectively, you'll need to have two slides with at least one object in common. An easy way is to duplicate the slide and then move the object on the second slide to a different place. You can also copy and paste the object from one slide and add it to the next.

Then, with the second slide selected, go to Transitions > Morph .

Applying Morph in PowerPoint

PowerPoint estimates the difference between the two slides and applies a smooth animation between them. Play around with movement and transitions. You can use Morph to move objects, change colors, shrink or zoom into a particular view.

The Microsoft Mechanics video demonstrates Morph (and PowerPoint Designer):

The direct transitions of Morph can be powerful tool to explain business processes or steps. Morph Transitions is an easier way to animate without the use of complicated motion paths. But unlike motion paths, the transition takes the shortest direct route.

For example, you cannot show the curved flight path of a butterfly with a morph transition. For more complicated animations, revert to the use of motion paths.

Note: This feature is only available if you have an Office 365 subscription .

Tell Beautiful Stories with Six New Chart Types

Stumped when you have to tell stories with data?

Data visualization today is not only about displaying datasets. Effective visualizations send a message and help us recognize shapes and patterns. As we are wired to visualize information far faster than we can read it, using the right chart type in PowerPoint puts us at an advantage.

Six new charts types -- Box and Whisker, Treemap, Sunburst, Histogram, (and within Histogram options, Pareto), and Waterfall – give the presenter more flexibility.

New Chart Types

This Microsoft Office blog article shows how to use the new Treemap and Sunburst charts to breakdown hierarchical data.

General Tip -- For a given set of numbers, Microsoft Office allows you to change the chart types. But ask yourself why is the chart important for the audience. If possible, simplify the data and look beyond charts.

More Options with Preset Shapes

Do you long for more preset shape formats?

Remember how the Merge Shapes feature helps you draw your own custom shapes? The feature to save your own custom shapes is still missing, but PowerPoint 2016 gives us another incremental improvement with five more rows of preset Shape styles. Draw a shape in your slide and apply a new preset style to the shape. PowerPoint 2016 makes it easier for the creatively challenged.

Access the shapes and the Quick Styles from the Drawing group on the Home Tab. Alternatively, you can also go to the Insert tab and draw a shape. This again brings up the Shape Styles under a Drawing tab.

Fresh Shape Presets in PowerPoint

Though, you can finetune any shape with the Format Shape options, the variety of Quick Shape Styles makes creating stylish presentations a bit breezier.

General Tip -- The new presets with transparent and semi-transparent fills are useful for creating neat overlays over another image.

Show Them Better with Screen Recordings

Wondering how to record high-quality screencasts?

There is an industry standard tool like Camtasia and then there are many lightweight screen recorders , too. PowerPoint's native screen recording utility is a one-touch process. Camtasia takes some learning. Try PowerPoint's Screen Recording feature with a bit of creativity and you can avoid the boring static screenshots.

Go to Insert > Screen Recording .

Screen recording with PowerPoint

Click the Select Area button and drag across the area you want to record. Click the Record button.

Use the Windows button + Shift + Q shortcut to stop the recording and insert the video on your current slide.

PowerPoint gives you a whole slew of Video Tools to format and present your screencasts.

General Tip -- PowerPoint screencast slides are ideal for how-to tutorials and training courses. A single dynamic slide can be more effective and less time consuming than making multiple static slides with fancy graphics. If you missed a few opportunities to use Screen Recording in the updated PowerPoint 2013, it's time to set the "record" straight now!

Present on Larger High-Def Screens

Hate the black bars on the top and bottom of your slides?

This is another little, but useful feature that continues from PowerPoint 2013. When you export your presentation as a video, you can create a file with resolution as high as 1920 x 1080 and display it cleanly on an HDTV, projector, or a computer monitor.

Export High-Def Video

Remember, you can also design slides with the widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9 used on such displays. If you show a slide in this aspect ratio on a standard 4:3 screen you will get black bars on the top and bottom.

General Tip – Find out the dimension of the presentation screen beforehand. This could make all the difference.

Resolve Conflicts

Can't make up your mind on two slides?

PowerPoint 2016 has beefed up the collaboration options. When two or more people work on the same slide, it can lead to two slides with a few, conflicting differences. The conflict resolution feature will pop up automatically and display the two slides side-by-side. Compare them visually, select the best one, and restore team harmony.

Combine Old Tips with the New for Better Presentations

Presenting in front of an audience is an old game. The newer features in PowerPoint 2016 won't make you radically change the way you prepare, but make the process just a little bit easier. New features like the new Office themes are superficial and the management of version history is available only for files stored with OneDrive for Business or SharePoint.

What are your favorite professional presentation tips for designing slides or giving them? Which among the new tools in PowerPoint 2016 do you see yourself using more? Write to us in the comments!

Simon Sez IT

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how to make powerpoint presentation 2016

Creating a New Presentation in PowerPoint 2016

During this Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 training tutorial video, you will learn how to create a new presentation from scratch. You will also know more about choosing from among the vast selection of templates, which now have new enhancements.

Like what you see? Get our complete Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 video training course. Click here to learn more. >>

Okay so we’re in module three and this is section two where we’re going to talk about creating a new presentation.

Now I know a lot of you may have worked in PowerPoint before and you may have actually edited a presentation someone else created but I want to show you how to create one from scratch just so you know how to do it. So what I’m going to do is flip over to PowerPoint now and show you how to create a new blank presentation. So hold on a second.

Okay. Normally when you open PowerPoint it opens you to a new blank presentation. You can see that it’s white paper, black text. So I do have the ability to apply a design which I’ll show you in a second or if you were creating a new one from scratch here you could go to File and then go down to New this way and here you can see all of your themes or templates. So if you wanted to start with one of these you certainly could. Remember all those guidelines we talked about as far as colors and text? Think about those when you’re picking your particular theme.

So if you look at this one, for example, Main Event, that looks like something you’d use if you were trying to actually make a statement or something you want people to remember. Whereas one of these like Mesh or Damask those are a little more subtle. So just kind of keep that in mind.

Now let’s say this. Let’s say we did have a blank presentation, which by the way I could have chosen right here but because we’re already in one I’m just going to hit the Back button up at the top.

So we’re on this blank presentation and let’s say that I’ve got ten slides. It really doesn’t matter how many slides you have in here. When you go up to the tab that says Design at the top here are your designs or your themes you can pick from. Make sure to click the scroll bar to make sure you can see all of them. Now let’s say you pick one. I’ll just start with this one. And let’s say you like this one but you really wish the background was a different color. Notice now you’ve got the Variants over to the right. Now this is a new feature in 2016. But you see how there are several different variants I can pick from? So let’s say I click on the blue and now I’ve changed that.

Now keep this in mind. If you’ve already put several slides in your presentation and let’s say you had changed your fonts for some reason. Maybe you made them larger or a different color, moved them to the right or left. Anything you had manually changed you’re going to see that a design or a theme may override that. So it’s best to pick your design or themes up front so you don’t have to go back through the whole presentation and look through all those things and make sure it looks correct.

So that’s how you’re going to do it. You can start with white paper, black text or pick a design and go from there.

So what we’re going to do is I want to move into section three and talk to you a little bit about actually working with the slides.

Simon Calder

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Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA.He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!

START LEARNING Creating a New Presentation in PowerPoint 2016 ON SIMONSEZIT.COM

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PowerPoint 2016  - Presenting Your Slide Show

Powerpoint 2016  -, presenting your slide show, powerpoint 2016 presenting your slide show.

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PowerPoint 2016: Presenting Your Slide Show

Lesson 12: presenting your slide show.

/en/powerpoint2016/printing/content/

Introduction

Once your slide show is complete, you'll need to learn how to present it to an audience. PowerPoint offers several tools and features to help make your presentation smooth, engaging, and professional.

Optional: Download our practice presentation .

Watch the video below to learn more about presenting your slide show.

Presenting a slide show

Before you present your slide show, you'll need to think about the type of equipment that will be available for your presentation. Many presenters use projectors during presentations, so you might want to consider using one as well. This allows you to control and preview slides on one monitor while presenting them to an audience on another screen.

To start a slide show:

There are several ways you can begin your presentation:

clicking the Start From Beginning command on the Quick Access Toolbar

To advance and reverse slides:

You can advance to the next slide by clicking your mouse or pressing the spacebar on your keyboard. Alternatively, you can use or arrow keys on your keyboard to move forward or backward through the presentation.

You can also hover your mouse over the bottom-left and click the arrows to move forward or backward.

hovering the mouse to access navigation buttons in Slide Show view

To stop a slide show:

You can exit presentation mode by pressing the Esc key on your keyboard. Alternatively, you can click the Slide Show Options button in the bottom-left and select End Show .

ending a slide show

The presentation will also end after the last slide . You can click the mouse or press the spacebar to return to Normal view.

returning to PowerPoint after the final slide

Presentation tools and features

PowerPoint provides convenient tools you can use while presenting your slide show. For example, you can change your mouse pointer to a pen or highlighter to draw attention to items in your slides. In addition, you can jump around to slides in your presentation or access other programs from your taskbar if needed.

To show the taskbar:

Sometimes you may need to access the Internet or other files and programs on your computer during your presentation. PowerPoint allows you to access your taskbar without ending the presentation.

  • Locate and select the Slide Options button in the bottom-left corner.

showing the Taskbar

Slide options

You can also access any of the menu items above by right-clicking anywhere on the screen during your slide show.

opening the Slide options menu

To skip to a nonadjacent slide:

You can jump to slides out of order if needed.

clicking the See All Slides button

  • The selected slide will appear.

To access drawing tools:

Your mouse pointer can act as pen or highlighter to draw attention to items in your slides.

  • Locate and select the Pen Tools button in the bottom-left corner.

selecting the Pen tool

You can also use the laser pointer feature to draw attention to certain parts of your slide. Unlike the pen and highlighter, the laser pointer will not leave markings on your slides. To use the laser pointer, select it from Pen Tools, or press and hold the Ctrl key and the left mouse button.

selecting the Laser Pointer

To erase ink markings:

erasing ink on slides

When you end a slide show, you'll also have the option to Keep or Discard any ink annotations made during your presentation. If you keep ink markings, they'll appear as objects on your slides in Normal view.

deciding to keep or discard annotations

Presenter view

If you're presenting your slide show with a second display—like a projector—you can use Presenter view . Presenter view gives you access to a special set of controls on your screen that the audience won't see, allowing you to easily reference slide notes , preview the upcoming slide , and much more.

To access Presenter view:

Start your slide show as you normally would, then click the Slide Options button and select Presenter View . Alternatively, you can press Alt+F5 on your keyboard to start the slide show in Presenter view.

opening presenter view

Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn more about using Presenter view.

Presenter View

End Slide Show

Click here to end the presentation.

Display Settings

From here, you can customize your d isplay settings , including the option to duplicate—or mirror—the slide show on two screens and swap the monitors if Presenter view is appearing on the wrong screen.

Show Taskbar

Click here to show the taskbar and access other programs without closing the presentation.

Here, you can see how long you've been giving the presentation. You can also pause and restart the timer if necessary.

Current Slide

This is the current slide being shown to the audience.

Slide Options

Here, you can access the same slide options you would find in normal presentation mode, including the Pen Tools and See All Slides buttons.

Advance and Reverse Slides

Use the arrows to move forward and backward through your presentation.

Here, you'll see any speaker notes for the current slide. You can use the Increase and Decrease buttons below to make the notes larger or smaller.

Here, you can preview the next slide that will appear in the presentation.

Slide show setup options

PowerPoint has various options for setting up and playing a slide show. For example, you can set up an unattended presentation that can be displayed at a kiosk and make your slide show repeat with continuous looping.

To access slide show setup options:

clicking Set Up Slide Show

  • The Set Up Show dialog box will appear. From here, you can select the desired options for your presentation.

Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn about various options for setting up and playing a slide show.

setting custom options for slide show playback

Here, you can choose a show type .

Show Options

Here, you choose playback settings and disable certain features if desired.

Show Slides

Here, you can choose which slides you want to show during the presentation. All is selected by default, but you can choose to show only certain slides or use any custom shows you have created from your original presentation.

Advance Slides

If you have set timings in your slide show, they will play automatically. However, if you want to disable the timings and control the slides yourself, select Manually .

Multiple Monitors

If you have more than one monitor, you can choose which one to display the slide show on. It's usually best to leave this setting on Automatic .

To advance slides automatically, you'll need to customize the slide timing on the Transitions tab. Review our lesson on Applying Transitions to learn how.

setting automatic slide advancement

  • Open our practice presentation .
  • In the Set Up Slide Show options, change the pen color to purple.
  • Start your slideshow, then access Presenter view .
  • Advance to slide 8.
  • Use the pen tool to circle the fundraising amounts for the 2015-2016 school year. These are the amounts over the green bars.

Presenting Challenge

/en/powerpoint2016/lists/content/

A collage of colorful PowerPoint designs organized into tidy rows

5 golden rules of PowerPoint design

february 6, 2024

A smiling woman with blonde hair, glasses, and a leopard print cardigan poses with her hands on her hips in front of an olive green background.

by Deb Ashby

Wondering how to design the perfect PowerPoint presentation? It's easier than you think–just follow five simple rules to get started:

1. Consider using templates

When building a slide deck, it’s important to maintain consistency throughout. We want to ensure we are using consistent font styles, colors and themes. This can be tricky when designing from scratch, so why not start from a template?

Microsoft Create contains hundreds of pre-made, customizable PowerPoint templates, which means you don’t have to start from scratch and the fonts and colors are already set for you.

Simply choose a template from the gallery, customize it as needed, and you are done!

Screenshots of slides in a branded PowerPoint presentation, in hues of navy, maroon, and brown.

2. No walls of text

We’ve all seen PowerPoint presentations where slides contain too much text. The human brain struggles to listen and read at the same time. If you are presenting to an audience, keep the text on slides to a minimum.

Consider employing the “5-5-5" rule. No more than 5 lines, no more than 5 words, no more than 5 minutes. Think short and sharp memory joggers instead of rambling paragraphs.

Where possible, consider replacing text with visuals to represent your point. People remember images more than words.

A minimalist, black and white PowerPoint template

3. Be mindful of colors and fonts

No one wants their audience to leave with a headache after an hour of straining to read slides. We need to ensure that our presentation is easy to read for everyone – even for those in the nosebleed seats at the back! Think about the font you are using. Is it appropriate for the presentation? What about the font size? Can people at the back easily read? What about people with visual impairment? Ensure all text is at least 24pts.

When it comes to color, ensure all slides have good contrast. Dark backgrounds should have light font and vice versa.

4. Use animation sparingly

Animation can really liven up an otherwise flat presentation. However, it should be used thoughtfully and sparingly. Too much of the wrong type of animation with objects flying in and zooming around the screen, while fun, can look confusing and unprofessional.

Animation should be subtle. With every animation you add, ask yourself, "Is this going to enhance my presentation or distract from it?"

5. Engage your audience

When presenting to an audience, there is usually an awkward time before the presentation begins while the speaker waits for everyone to arrive. During this time, people may start scrolling on their phones or get distracted with work emails, and it can be hard to pull the audience back.

To avoid this issue, work to grab your audience's attention before the presentation even starts. Instead of just having the title slide on the screen, consider creating "kiosk slides." These are a series of slides that contain a combination of interesting things for the audience to look at or engage with. Maybe you have an interesting image? A funny quote or fun facts? Or maybe there is a question you want them to think about prior to the session?

Create these slides and have them automatically cycle round before the presentation starts.

A PowerPoint presentation for a whitepaper proposal.

Related topics

Don't start your work presentations by simply saying 'hello.' Here's how to be more engaging in the conference room.

  • I'm a public-speaking expert, and I've trained many executives and senior teams.
  • I tell all of them to stop starting work presentations with a salutation or a "hello."
  • Instead, you should engage your audience by telling a story or asking a question.

Insider Today

I'm sure you've sat through plenty of presentations where the presenter starts with a polite salutation like, "Hello, thank you for having me here today," or, "I am so glad to be here" — often followed by their name and professional résumé . Sometimes, if it's an internal meeting, you get the same salutations followed by an agenda slide with bullet points and the presenter narrating it.

As a public-speaking coach who has worked with many executives and senior teams, I know how to make work presentations more engaging. Here's how you should change your approach.

If you stick to your old ways, you aren't leaving a memorable first impression

Your audience is thinking three things when you walk into that conference room or onto that stage: Who is this person, why should I care, and how are they going to solve my problem?

Let's face it: Most people are more interested in how you will solve their problem than in you and your professional résumé. So let's flip the script a bit. Start with the solution to their problem, briefly talk about yourself for credibility, and then give them a reason to care.

Instead, try to capture their attention

Begin your presentation with a hook or a story — something that grabs their attention right from the start. For instance, your hook might be, "Did you know this?" or "What if that?" It could also be a short story that humanizes your services or products.

Most presentations are predictable; wouldn't it be better for both your time and your audience if you could introduce an element of surprise?

Some might feel it rude not to thank the organizer or greet the audience, so I suggest finding another place in your presentation for this. Here's a good structure:

Intro: "What if you could be a more confident and credible presenter? What if you could engage with your audience so they remember your products or services?"

Credibility: "My name is Meridith, and I've been coaching entrepreneurs and executives on how to speak with spark for over a decade, and I am really excited to be here. I want to thank [insert name] for inviting me to share the afternoon with you."

Solution: "Today, I will give you three ways to make your audience remember your products and services, helping you stand out in a competitive market. Let's get this party started!"

You could also try to form a personal connection

Often, presentations lack a personal touch. Try sharing a relevant personal anecdote or experience that relates to your topic. This not only makes your work presentation more relatable but also helps to establish a deeper connection with your audience.

For example, you could say: "When I was younger, I often hid in the back of the classroom, hoping the teacher wouldn't call on me because I didn't want to sound stupid or have the wrong answer. Later in life, I discovered acting and improv comedy . It was through the practice of these two art forms that I developed my confidence and learned how to engage more courageously with others. Today, I will give you solutions for how you can also better engage your audience with spark."

Try to encourage interaction

At the very least, you should try to engage your audience from the beginning — whether in person or on virtual calls. You can ask a thought-provoking question or propose a challenge that involves them directly. This approach shifts the dynamic to more interactive and engaging sessions.

If you implement any of these suggestions, you can make your presentation memorable and impactful immediately. And you'll most likely get a larger return on your investment of time and energy.

In today's fast-paced world, where attention spans are increasingly shorter than ever, it's crucial to grab and hold your audience's attention from the very beginning. By doing so, you set the stage for a more engaging and productive interaction. So challenge yourself to break free from presentation norms and embrace a style that resonates deeply with your audience and leaves a lasting impression.

how to make powerpoint presentation 2016

Watch: A public speaking champion reveals 3 keys to nailing your business presentation

how to make powerpoint presentation 2016

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  1. How to Create a New Presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint 2016

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  2. PowerPoint 2016 Beginner Tutorial

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  3. How to create a Basic Presentation in Ms PowerPoint 2016

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  4. PowerPoint 2016: Creating and Opening Presentations

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  6. Apply a Different Slide Layout

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  1. Create a presentation in PowerPoint

    Open PowerPoint. In the left pane, select New. Select an option: To create a presentation from scratch, select Blank Presentation. To use a prepared design, select one of the templates. To see tips for using PowerPoint, select Take a Tour, and then select Create, . Add a slide

  2. Microsoft PowerPoint 2016

    440K subscribers Subscribe Subscribed 1.8K 612K views 8 years ago A Quick Full Guide for Microsoft Office 2016 [VOICE + TEXT] **THANKS FOR 1100 LIKES!♥** Get into a new Way of Learning Microsoft...

  3. How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)

    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.

  4. PowerPoint 2016: Getting Started with PowerPoint

    Introduction PowerPoint is a presentation program that allows you to create dynamic slide presentations. These presentations can include animation, narration, images, videos, and much more. In this lesson, you'll learn your way around the PowerPoint environment, including the Ribbon, Quick Access Toolbar, and Backstage view.

  5. PowerPoint 2016: Creating and Opening Presentations

    To create a new presentation: When beginning a new project in PowerPoint, you'll often want to start with a new blank presentation. Select the File tab to go to Backstage view. Select New on the left side of the window, then click Blank Presentation. A new presentation will appear. To create a new presentation from a template:

  6. How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation: A Step-by-Step Guide

    1. Open PowerPoint. Click or double-click the PowerPoint app icon, which resembles an orange box with a white "P" on it. This will open the PowerPoint templates page. If you don't have a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, you can use the website instead of the desktop app.

  7. The Beginner's Guide to Microsoft PowerPoint

    0:00 / 23:13 Learn everything you need to know to get started using Microsoft PowerPoint! You'll learn all the basics plus more, including: how to choose a design theme...

  8. PowerPoint 101: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners

    Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation design software that is part of Microsoft 365. This software allows you to design presentations by combining text, images, graphics, video, and animation on slides in a simple and intuitive way. Over time, PowerPoint has evolved and improved its accessibility to users.

  9. How to Create a New Presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint 2016

    How to Create a New Presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 Simon Sez IT 481K subscribers Subscribe 17K views 7 years ago Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 Training Tutorials Get my free...

  10. Free PowerPoint 2016 Tutorial at GCFGlobal

    1 Getting Started with PowerPoint Get to know the PowerPoint 2016 interface. 2 Understanding OneDrive Learn all about working with your Microsoft account and OneDrive. 3 Creating and Opening Presentations Learn all about creating and opening presentations. 4 Saving Presentations Learn how to save presentations. Working with Slides 5

  11. PDF Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 Step by Step

    Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 Step by Step is designed for use as a learning and reference resource by home and business users of Microsoft Office programs who want to use PowerPoint to create and present slide presentations and printed materials. The content of the book is designed to be useful for people who have previously used earlier ver-

  12. 10 Tips for Making Better PowerPoint Presentations with Office 2016

    Draw a shape in your slide and apply a new preset style to the shape. PowerPoint 2016 makes it easier for the creatively challenged. Access the shapes and the Quick Styles from the Drawing group on the Home Tab. Alternatively, you can also go to the Insert tab and draw a shape.

  13. Creating a New Presentation in PowerPoint 2016

    Get Started With a Free PowerPoint 2016 Course! Click Here. Okay. Normally when you open PowerPoint it opens you to a new blank presentation. You can see that it's white paper, black text. So I do have the ability to apply a design which I'll show you in a second or if you were creating a new one from scratch here you could go to File and ...

  14. Create and Manage Slides in Microsoft PowerPoint 2016

    Browse to the folder that contains the Word document that contains the slide title and bullet point information. Double-click the document to create a new presentation. Select all the slides in the new presentation, and then on the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the Reset button. Apply the design template you want.

  15. PowerPoint 2016: Presenting Your Slide Show

    PowerPoint has various options for setting up and playing a slide show. For example, you can set up an unattended presentation that can be displayed at a kiosk and make your slide show repeat with continuous looping. To access slide show setup options: Select the Slide Show tab, then click the Set Up Slide Show command.

  16. Learn PowerPoint Office 365 Office 2016: How to Make Presentations

    Learn PowerPoint Office 365 Office 2016: How to Make Presentations Learnit Training 560K subscribers 18K views 7 years ago PowerPoint Training Learn how to make amazing Presentations in...

  17. The 5 golden rules of PowerPoint design

    We've all seen PowerPoint presentations where slides contain too much text. The human brain struggles to listen and read at the same time. If you are presenting to an audience, keep the text on slides to a minimum. Consider employing the "5-5-5" rule. No more than 5 lines, no more than 5 words, no more than 5 minutes.

  18. PowerPoint 2016

    This Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2016 video shows you how to add new slides using the create slide arrow button as well as how to change the layout of a current slide and customize the layout...

  19. How to Start a Work Presentation, Be Engaging: Public Speaking Expert

    An image of a chain link. It symobilizes a website link url. Copy Link I'm sure you've sat through plenty of presentations where the presenter starts with a polite salutation like, "Hello, thank ...

  20. PowerPoint 2016 Tutorial: Creating a Video from a Presentation in

    This is part 12 of the series of tutorials on PowerPoint 2016. In this video we will learn how to create a video from a PowerPoint presentation. For more in...