How to use PowerPoint: A beginner’s guide

My toxic trait is forcing my friends and family into having PowerPoint parties—which are really just an excuse for me to do a full-blown slideshow on why Samwise Gamgee is the best character in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. If you haven’t been roped into a PowerPoint party yet, trust me, it’s around the corner. 

I can’t come up with a topic for you, but I can definitely help you with the whole creating a PowerPoint part. Even if you just need to use PowerPoint for work (which, while much less fun, is probably more likely), here’s everything you need to know about how to use PowerPoint. 

Table of contents:

What is PowerPoint?

Microsoft PowerPoint is a popular presentation app that lets users create slides from a template or from scratch, adding images, videos, transitions, and animations.

If you have a paid Microsoft 365 subscription, you can use the desktop app. But anyone can use PowerPoint online—which has a few key differences—for free.

What is PowerPoint used for?

PowerPoint can be used for anything from traditional meeting presentations to school reports and recreational nerd-outs (see: PowerPoint parties).

Here are a handful of ways you can use PowerPoint:

• Giving slide presentations

• Creating basic animations and infographics

• Creating digital portfolios

• Displaying looping information on monitors or kiosks

How to use Microsoft PowerPoint step by step

If you’ve ever used other Microsoft tools like Word or Excel, you’re probably already familiar with PowerPoint’s navigation layout. It includes several tabs across the top of your screen, each offering plenty of ways to add, edit, and collaborate on content with your team. 

I recommend experimenting with all of the features PowerPoint has to offer, but we’ll get started with the step-by-step process of creating your first PowerPoint presentation.

How to add slides in PowerPoint

To create a new file, start by clicking +New and choosing a theme. You can start with a blank slate or pick a built-in template.

From the Home tab, you can add new slides by clicking the arrow next to New Slide and choosing a layout.

Click into a text box to add or edit text. Format your text by choosing from the options in the toolbar. You can also add other content (like tables and charts, images, icons, and more) from the Insert tab.

How to add transitions in PowerPoint

Transition effects can add a bit of pizzazz to your slides. From the slide you want to edit, click the Transitions tab. Choose a transition effect from the menu (click the arrow next to the menu to see more options).

Adjust the options at the right of the toolbar to choose a sound effect, transition duration, and whether the transition will trigger on a mouse click or after a certain number of seconds. If you want to use the same transition settings for all your slides, click Apply to All. 

How to add presenter’s notes in PowerPoint

The best slides are simple and uncluttered—but if you’re giving a presentation, odds are good that you need more in-depth notes than the few bullet points on the screen. That’s where presenter’s notes come in.

The default view in PowerPoint allows you to click into the Notes pane and add notes below every slide. If this option isn’t visible to you, click the Notes button at the bottom of your screen to unhide the feature.

When you give your presentation in presenter view (more on that below), you’ll be able to see your notes alongside the slide deck, while the audience will only see the slides in full-screen view.

How to use presenter view in PowerPoint

Not that I have any personal experience completely bombing a presentation I hadn’t practiced, but take it from me: it’s best to practice presenting your slides before you’re in front of a live audience. Here’s how to share a PowerPoint presentation as smoothly as possible.

How to present a PowerPoint with notes

First, adjust your presentation settings. In the Slide Show tab, select Set Up Slide Show. 

This dialog box lets you decide whether the show will be full screen or in a window, looped continuously, and whether to advance slides manually or using your custom timings. You can also customize which slides will be included in the show. 

The most important thing is to make sure the Monitors setting looks right. You’ll want to make sure the main presentation screen appears as an option, and that it’s selected.

When everything looks right, click OK to close that dialog box. Select Presenter View in the menu bar to start the slideshow.

The presentation should begin, with split screens for the presenter and the audience. Here’s what your screen will look like, with the slide on one side and your notes on the other:

That way, you can click through the show while referring to your notes, while your audience only sees the slides on their screen or monitor.

How to present a PowerPoint on Zoom

If you’re giving a remote presentation, your options depend on whether you have two monitors available to you. If you’re using two monitors, just pick the one you want your audience to see—and make sure that one is selected in the Monitors settings (see above).

If you only have one monitor, you can use the following trick:

1. From the Slide show tab, click Play from Start.

2. When the full-screen presentation begins, click the three dots and select Use Presenter View. 

   

3. This will open a new full-screen window showing the presenter view. 

4. In Zoom, share the screen with the slides. 

That way, you’ll be able to toggle back to your presenter view screen and continue with the show, while your Zoom participants will only see your slides.

Bonus: Advanced PowerPoint tips and tricks

I’ve barely scratched the surface of what you can do with PowerPoint (there are literal books written about it), and the more you play around with its features, the more creative you can get with presentations. But as you experiment with the tool, here are a few more tips that can help you get the most out of PowerPoint.

Learn PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts

The less you have to use your mouse or trackpad, the faster your work goes. These PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts can help simplify your presentation workflows.

For even more shortcuts, I recommend perusing Microsoft’s official keyboard shortcuts list for all devices.

Use Microsoft Copilot with PowerPoint

If you have a Copilot for Microsoft 365 or Copilot Pro license, you can use Copilot in PowerPoint to do things like:

• Create a slide presentation based on a prompt

• Add an individual slide based on a prompt

• Create a presentation from an existing PDF or Word document

• Summarize an existing presentation

• Organize a presentation into a coherent structure

The AI feature can make it easier (and faster) to create quality presentations, even with limited PowerPoint experience. To get started, open the Copilot sidebar (from the Home toolbar) and input a prompt. Or, learn more about how to use Copilot.

Save all your PowerPoint presentations in one easily accessible location

PowerPoint automatically saves files in OneDrive, so with Zapier’s OneDrive integration, you can be sure that all your presentations end up where you want them. For example, you can automatically send all new OneDrive uploads to another cloud storage provider.

Or, if you want to save PowerPoint files that come to you via email, you could set up a custom Zap (our word for automated workflows) to have Zapier watch for emails that come in with the filename:pptx OR filename:ppt, then copy them to OneDrive (or any other cloud storage provider) so you can open them in PowerPoint anytime.

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This article was originally published in August 2018 by Matthey Guay. The most recent update was in August 2024.