Microsoft PowerPoint: Tips and Tricks

Unlike Word, PowerPoint does not provide a Track Changes reviewing option. If you would like to track changes in a presentation, you should have the reviewer review a working copy of the presentation and then compare the two presentations.

Clip Art is a collection of media files (images, videos, audio, and animation files) that Microsoft includes with the PowerPoint application. If your computer has an Internet connection, then you can also access Bing.com to search for images. To insert clip art on a PowerPoint slide, follow the steps below.

Follow these instructions to create a narrated PowerPoint presentation on a Mac.

Using the Slide Number feature in conjunction with the slide master to control which slides show slide numbers is beneficial if your presentation has multiple slide layouts. To enable slide numbers in your PowerPoint presentation using the slide master follow these five steps.

You can start Microsoft PowerPoint in just a few simple steps.

Take text that is in a text box and convert it into columns by following these three steps.

It's easy to add shapes to SmartArt objects and use them to add more information to your PowerPoint presentations.

Using a printed outline can help you stay oriented to your material as you make your presentation. To export an outline from PowerPoint to Word, follow these five steps.

You can save custom themes to apply to future PowerPoint presentations. This makes it easy to give your presentations a consistent look and feel.

You can export notes or handouts in your PowerPoint presentation to Word documents for your own use or for distribution to your audience. Just follow these steps.

Changing your presentation view from color to grayscale is useful if you are going to print black-and-white printouts or if your audience might do so. It only takes a few clicks to view your PowerPoint presentation in grayscale.

It's easy to edit text on a Microsoft PowerPoint slide.

You can specify the resolution of the monitor you are presenting your slide show on based on the configuration you are working with. To configure slide show resolution, follow these four steps.

The following steps will show you how to insert a series of photos into a PowerPoint presentation as an album.

Check your PowerPoint presentation for hidden information, known as metadata, and remove it in just a few simple steps.

Learn the different ways to navigate your PowerPoint slides in a presentation.

PowerPoint may delete slide masters that are not in use. Preserving a slide master ensures that PowerPoint will not delete it. You can preserve a slide master in just a few easy steps.

Ink Equations allows you to "write" equations on a tablet device using a stylus or your finger and then converts them to text. If you are not using a touchscreen device, you can do the same using a mouse. To employ Ink Equations just follow these few steps.

Images can enhance the visual appeal and effectiveness of your presentations. Learn how to insert and remove pictures from a PowerPoint presentation in the steps below.

We'll show you the two most common ways to close a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

You can capture a screenshot of any application window that is not minimized to your task bar and insert it in a PowerPoint slide in a few easy steps.

When you add your name and initials to Microsoft PowerPoint, the information is used throughout your Microsoft Office products. PowerPoint uses this information for assigning comments and for pre-filling data used by some built-in templates. To add your name and initials, just follow these two steps.

Do you want to use a text file or Word document in your PowerPoint presentation? It's easy to import them by following these four steps.

Follow these instructions to create a narrated PowerPoint presentation.

Follow the steps below to add text to a PowerPoint slide.

If you want to apply a particular theme to all of your future PowerPoint presentations, you can make it your default theme. Creating a default theme saves time when creating future presentations.

Setting up a slide show to repeat automatically is useful in situations where the audience may view it at different times. You can set up a slide show to repeat automatically in PowerPoint in just five easy steps.

An action button works similarly to a hyperlink; when you click or mouse over it, it will perform an action such as linking to a web page, playing a sound, or launching a program. To add an action button to your PowerPoint presentation, follow the steps below.

Saving your PowerPoint presentation as an outline is a good way to condense it for distributing to your audience members or for your own use as you prepare to present. To save a presentation as an outline, follow these four steps.

Add a footer to your PowerPoint slides to show date/time, slide number, and custom text.

When creating a new Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, you can choose between creating a blank presentation and creating a presentation from an existing template. A template is a predesigned PowerPoint presentation that you can change to suit your needs. We've outlined the steps for each process below.

You can use a hyperlink or button to link to another presentation so you can quickly access it while you are presenting. To jump to another PowerPoint presentation, just follow these five steps.

After you have inserted audio or video into your PowerPoint presentation, it's easy to adjust the media window size in a few quick steps.

If you want to rehearse presenting your slideshow to make sure the timing is correct, you can use the Rehearse Timings feature.

As in other Microsoft Office applications, PowerPoint includes a spelling checker. Follow these simple steps to check spelling in your PowerPoint presentation.

After creating your speaker notes, you can print them in just four steps.

Just as you can add a theme to your overall presentation, you can also add a theme to a PowerPoint album. To add a theme to your photo album follow the four steps below.

Instead of embedding an audio or video clip in your presentation, you may instead want to link to it. Linking to the file will allow you to edit it independent of PowerPoint, and it can also help keep your presentation's file size down. Follow these simple steps to link to a media clip.

You can rename a section in your PowerPoint presentation in just a few easy steps.

It's easy to save slides from a PowerPoint presentation as graphic files by following the steps below.