Introduction

By the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

• Add text to placeholders
• Use a design template
• Open a presentation

Adding text to placeholders

You learned about the blank presentation option in the previous lesson. You can easily add text to a blank presentation by working with dotted boxes called placeholders.

Placeholders identify where the text will appear in a slide. There are also placeholders for objects such as clip art and charts.

To add text to placeholders in a blank presentation:

• Open PowerPoint.
• The PowerPoint dialog box appears.
• Choose Blank presentation.
• The New Slide dialog box appears.
• Choose Title Slide.
• Click Click to add title in the placeholder and type a title.
• Click Click to add subtitle in the other placeholder and type a subtitle.

Using design templates

Design templates in PowerPoint are slides with the background and colorful designs already formatted. Simply add the text and layout to the slide. Once you select a template, every slide in your presentation will have the same look.

To use the design template option:

• Open PowerPoint.
• The PowerPoint dialog box appears.
• Click OK.
• Choose Design Template.
• Click on the template name to see a preview in the small box to the right.
• Once you have chosen the design you want, click OK.

• When the New Slide dialog box appears, choose an AutoLayout for your first slide.

It's a good idea to start with a design template and then create your presentation. If you have already created a blank presentation, you can easily apply a design template to that presentation. Open your presentation, choose FormatApply Design Template, choose a design, and click Apply. All of the slides will have the same design.

Opening an existing presentation

After you have created a presentation, you'll need to know how to open it.

To open an existing presentation:

• Start PowerPoint.
• The PowerPoint dialog box appears.
• Choose Open an Existing Presentation.
• Choose the presentation you want.
• Click OK.

OR

If the PowerPoint application is already open:

• Choose FileOpen.
• Choose the presentation you want.
• Click OK.

Challenge!

• Open My First Presentation, which is the presentation you created in the previous lesson.
• Type My First Presentation in the title placeholder.
• Type Using the Computer in the subtitle placeholder.
• Apply a design template by choosing FormatApply Design Template.
• Save your changes.