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As with many Microsoft 365 programs, PowerPoint can take some getting used to. Here are seven things I’ve learned over the years which, had I known about them earlier, would have saved me a lot of time and helped me hit the ground running with slick, professional slides.
The Slide Master Saves Time and Aids Consistency
One of my main PowerPoint bugbears is seeing slides with different layouts and color schemes, so when I’m creating a slideshow, I like to make sure my viewers don’t have the same experience. The best way to ensure your slides are consistent is byusing the Slide Master—and doing so will also save you lots of time.
You can use the Slide Master on a blank PowerPoint presentation or a Microsoft template. However, if you have already amended some slides in the Normal view (such as font colors), some changes you make in the Slide Master will not apply to these slides.
In the View tab on the ribbon, click “Slide Master.”
You will then see a new Slide Master tab on the ribbon, and your thumbnail pane on the left of your screen will change to a new view.
The top slide thumbnail is the master slide, and all related layouts are displayed underneath. Any formatting changes you make to the top slide—such as font colors, borders, or images—will be duplicated in the remaining slides. In this example, I’ve added a green border to the slide’s text area and changed the title font to blue. I have also moved the slide title area to the right and added a small image to the left, and you can see all these changes applied to the other slide thumbnails below.
You can also make changes to specific slide types. For example, if I wanted the title layout slide to have a yellow background, I would move down to the second thumbnail in the screenshot above and change that slide layout only.
When you have made all the necessary changes, click “Close Master View” in the Slide Master tab, or “Normal” in the View tab.
Then, in the Normal view, to add a new slide, click the “New Slide” drop-down option in the Home tab and choose from the newly designed layouts.
You Can Remove Image Backgrounds
If you have a busy slide with lots of objects, your image backgrounds can take up some valuable space. Instead, you may edit the images tokeep the foreground only—as a result, your slide will appear less cluttered to your audience, and you’re keeping only the focal point of your photos.
First, upload your image to PowerPoint. To do this, in the Insert tab on the ribbon, click “Pictures,” and then choose the appropriate location.
Now, with your image selected, head to the Picture Format tab, and click “Remove Background.”
PowerPoint will then attempt to identify which parts of your picture are the foreground and which parts are the background, keeping the former and removing the latter. The part it intends to remove will be highlighted in purple.
If you’re happy with which parts of your picture are to be removed, click “Keep Changes” in the Background Removal tab. However, sometimes, PowerPoint’s background recognition might not work perfectly well, as in my screenshot above. In this case, I would click “Mark Areas To Remove,” and use the freehand pen to tell PowerPoint where the rest of the background is. Each time I click and then unclick, the image will update accordingly.
If you make any mistakes when drawing out your area, simply press Ctrl+Z (undo) to bring back the part you just removed. Luckily, you don’t have to be perfectly accurate with where you draw your areas to remove—this process is satisfyingly intuitive.
When you’re done, click “Keep Changes.”
You will then see the new image with only the foreground retained. Simply select, copy (Ctrl+C), and paste (Ctrl+V) the image if you want to use it somewhere else in your presentation.
Cropping Images Is Surprisingly Easy
Is your image too big? Or do you just want to make the background smaller? PowerPoint lets you do this in just a few clicks.
Select your uploaded image and, in the Picture Format tab, click the “Crop” drop-down arrow. You will then see five options.
Whichevercropping option you choose, simply click anywhere away from the image once you’re happy, and your amendments will apply to your pic. Press Ctrl+Z to undo this, or click the Crop icon again to revert the image to its original shape or amend the dimensions.
PowerPoint Has a Presenter View
If you’re presenting your PowerPoint on a projector or screen, when you press F5, you will automatically see thePresenter Viewon your primary screen and the slideshow on the other. In this screenshot, the Presenter View is on the left (my laptop screen), and the slideshow is on the right (my second screen).
The Presenter View is great for showing you what the next slide or animation will be, but the best use of this tool is the notes section. When preparing your presentation (before you press F5), click “Notes” under a given slide, and type some comments into the area that appears.
Then, when you press F5, you’ll see these notes in the Presenter View.
The Designer Feature Instantly Professionalizes Your Slides
While you’re able to use Excel’s many templates to help you choose your slide layouts, I prefer to use theDesigner tool, mainly because it designs your slide based on what you type.
Open a blank PowerPoint presentation and head to your title slide. Then, in the Home tab on the ribbon, click “Designer.” You’ll then see some nice designs appear in a sidebar on the right, which you might choose to click through to find a suitable layout.
But wait! Don’t jump straight into a design. First, try typing a title into your first slide—in our example, we’ll type Technology—and see how the design suggestions change to suit your theme.
Add a sub-heading to your title slide, and see the design suggestions update again. Once you see an appropriate design, simply click your choice. When you create new slides, the rest of the presentation will be designed to match your title slide.
The Selection Pane Makes Animating Much Easier
If you have lots of objects—such as images and text boxes—on one slide, it can sometimes be confusing which object is which when adding and organizing your animations. In my screenshot below, you can see that the images are labeled with random numbers, so identifying the individual pictures and their animations can be difficult.
Instead, I find that naming the objects individually makes this process a lot clearer. In the Home tab on the ribbon, click the “Select” drop-down arrow, and choose “Selection Pane.” You’ll then see the Selection Pane appear on the right, listing all the objects on that particular slide.
From here, you can rename the objects by double-clicking the placeholder names and typing your preferred object name.
Now, when you reopen the Animation Pane via the Animation tab on the ribbon, you’ll find it much easier to organize your animations.
Useful Keyboard Shortcuts
Do you have only a few hours to create your PowerPoint presentation? There are manykeyboard shortcuts you may use in PowerPoint, but speed up the process by learning and using these handy ones:
Add a new slide
Format the font
Copy the selected object’s formatting
Paste the copied formatting to the selected object
Duplicate the selected slide
Jump to the next slide
Go back to the previous slide
Preview your slideshow
F5
⌘+Shift+Return
Whether you’re a PowerPoint newbie or a power user, hopefully, some of these tips will make your life a little easier. As well as these hints, there are some other traps you might fall into when creating your presentation, so ensure youavoid making these common PowerPoint mistakes.
