Overview
Great presentations aren’t just about bullet points and clip art—they’re about communicating ideas clearly and keeping your audience engaged. This course teaches you the essential PowerPoint skills you need to create professional presentations that look polished and deliver your message effectively.
You’ll learn to work with slides, layouts, and themes to maintain visual consistency, add and format text and images, use transitions and animations purposefully, and present with confidence using Presenter View. Whether you’re pitching to clients, training employees, or presenting project updates, you’ll build the foundational skills needed to create presentations that work.
Format: 2 Days | VILT
Who Should Attend
- Business professionals who create presentations regularly
- Anyone wanting to move beyond basic PowerPoint skills
- New employees needing to create company presentations
- Educators and trainers developing course materials
- Team members responsible for client-facing presentations
What You’ll Learn
- Create and organize slides using layouts and sections
- Apply themes and customize colors and fonts consistently
- Work with text, including formatting and alignment
- Insert and format images, shapes, and icons
- Create basic charts and SmartArt diagrams
- Add transitions and animations that enhance presentations
- Present effectively using Presenter View and speaker notes
Course Outline
Module 1: PowerPoint Fundamentals
- Understanding the PowerPoint interface and views
- Creating presentations from blank and templates
- Adding, deleting, and rearranging slides
- Using slide layouts: Title, Title and Content, Section Header
- Working in Normal, Outline, and Slide Sorter views
- Saving presentations in different formats
Module 2: Working with Text
- Adding text to placeholders and text boxes
- Formatting text: fonts, sizes, colors, and effects
- Creating effective bullet points and numbered lists
- Adjusting line spacing and paragraph alignment
- Using the Format Painter for consistent formatting
- Best practices for readable text on slides
Module 3: Themes and Design Consistency
- Applying and changing presentation themes
- Customizing theme colors and fonts
- Understanding master slides and layouts
- Applying backgrounds: solid colors, gradients, and images
- Using slide masters for consistent headers and footers
- Creating variations within a single theme
Module 4: Working with Images and Graphics
- Inserting pictures from files and online sources
- Resizing, cropping, and positioning images
- Applying picture styles and effects
- Removing image backgrounds for cleaner layouts
- Adding shapes: rectangles, circles, arrows, and callouts
- Formatting shapes with fills, outlines, and effects
- Using icons and stock images from PowerPoint’s library
Module 5: SmartArt and Charts
- When to use SmartArt vs. manual shapes
- Creating SmartArt for processes, hierarchies, and relationships
- Converting bullet points to SmartArt graphics
- Formatting and customizing SmartArt
- Inserting charts from Excel or creating new ones
- Formatting chart elements: titles, legends, data labels
- Choosing appropriate chart types for your data
Module 6: Tables and Data
- Creating tables to organize information
- Adding and deleting rows and columns
- Formatting tables with styles and colors
- Adjusting cell alignment and spacing
- Inserting Excel tables and maintaining links
- When to use tables vs. SmartArt vs. text
Module 7: Transitions and Animations
- Adding slide transitions for smooth flow
- Setting transition timing and effects
- When to use transitions (and when not to)
- Animating text and objects on slides
- Animation timing: on click vs. automatic
- Using animation to reveal information progressively
- Animation Pane for managing multiple animations
- Keeping animations professional and purposeful
Module 8: Presenting and Sharing
- Adding speaker notes for reference during presentations
- Using Presenter View to see notes while presenting
- Rehearsing timings and using the timer
- Setting up slide shows: from beginning, from current slide
- Using laser pointer and pen tools during presentations
- Printing handouts and notes pages
- Exporting to PDF for sharing
- Sharing presentations via email and cloud storage
Prerequisites & Technical Requirements
- Basic computer skills and comfort with Windows or Mac
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 or later (Office 365 recommended)
- No prior PowerPoint experience required
Customization Options
This course can be tailored to your organization’s presentation needs and branding standards. We can incorporate your company templates and themes, work with your typical presentation types—whether sales pitches, training materials, or executive briefings—and adjust examples to reflect your industry. If your team focuses on specific features like data presentations or storytelling, we can emphasize those areas.