Microsoft PowerPoint Course: Level 1

Microsoft PowerPoint. Build the story, present with presence and inspire your audience.

COVID-19 update: arrangement of our courses

We are now delivering courses both online and in-person. Please check the delivery format for each class before you enrol.

Please note that course materials for all classes (excluding prescribed textbooks) are shared electronically within 48 hours of a course starting. Printing is not available.

Aims

This Microsoft PowerPoint training course aims to provide new PowerPoint users with the essentials skills needed to create, edit and present professional looking presentations using text, tables, diagrams, charts and pictures as well as providing presentations tips.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• work with the basic features of PowerPoint
• create a new presentation
• work with presentations
• insert text into a slide and apply basic formatting
• work with the various slide layouts
• create and work with SmartArt graphics
• draw and format shapes
• navigate a slide show in PowerPoint
• use a range of printing techniques
• follow the procedures for using various forms of Help
• create brilliant presentations.

Content

Getting to know PowerPoint

• Starting PowerPoint
• Understanding the start screen
• Creating a new blank presentation
• The PowerPoint screen
• How microsoft powerpoint works
• Using the ribbon
• Using ribbon keytips
• Showing and collapsing the ribbons
• Understanding the backstage view
• Accessing the backstage view
• Using shortcut menus
• Understanding dialog boxes
• Launching dialog boxes
• Understanding the quick access toolbar
• Adding commands to the QAT
• Understanding the status bar
• Customising the status bar
• Exiting safely from PowerPoint

Your first presentation

• Creating presentations in PowerPoint
• Creating a presentation
• Applying theme variants
• The save as place
• The save as dialog box
• Typing text into a slide
• Inserting new slides
• Typing text using the outline pane
• Applying slide transitions
• Saving a presentation
• Previewing a slide show
• Closing a presentation

Working with presentations

• The open place
• The open dialog box
• Opening a presentation
• Opening multiple presentations
• Switching between open presentations
• Understanding presentation views
• Changing presentation views
• Navigating a presentation
• Using the zoom tool
• Opening a recent presentation

Working with text

• Editing text
• Checking spelling and grammar
• Understanding font formatting
• Applying font formatting
• Applying paragraph formatting
• Changing bullet and numbering styles
• Moving and resizing placeholders
• Applying wordart to text
• Converting text to smartart

Slide layouts

• Understanding slide layouts
• Inserting a title slide
• Inserting a title and content slide
• Inserting a section header slide
• Inserting a table
• Inserting a picture with caption slide
• Inserting a chart
• Changing the slide layout

SmartArt

• Understanding smartart
• Inserting a smartart graphic
• Inserting text into smartart
• Adding shapes below
• Adding shapes above
• Adding shapes before and after
• Adding an assistant
• Promoting and demoting shapes
• Switching smartart right to left
• Resizing smartart
• Changing the smartart layout
• Applying a colour scheme
• Applying a smartart style
• Deleting smartart shapes

Shapes

• Drawing shapes
• Resizing shapes
• Editing shapes
• Positioning shapes
• Arranging shapes
• Merging shapes
• Formatting shapes
• Using the eyedropper
• Copying shapes
• Aligning shapes using the ribbon
• Aligning objects using the smart guides
• Inserting and formatting text
• Connecting shapes
• Grouping shapes
• Rotating shapes

Preparing for presentations

• Using slide sorter view
• Reusing slides
• Adding sections
• Adding notes to your slides
• Slide numbers
• About hyperlinks
• Creating an internal hyperlink
• Creating a hyperlink to another presentation
• Creating a hyperlink to another application
• Keyboard shortcuts for navigating slide shows
• Using resume reading
• Presenting a slide show

Printing you presentation

• Understanding printing
• Previewing slides
• Printing slides
• Printing handouts
• Printing notes pages
• Printing the outline

Getting help

• Understanding how help works
• Accessing the help window
• Navigating the help window
• Using the office website
• Googling help
• Printing a help topic

Brilliant presentations

• Make it readable
• The four pillars of great design
• Perfect presentation layouts
• Presenting polished presentations
• Presentation methods and hardware

Intended audience

Suitable for beginners. Assumes little or no knowledge of the software.

Prerequisites

You should be familiar with the basic functions of a computer operating system such as navigating the environment using a mouse and keyboard, starting applications, copying and pasting objects, formatting text, creating folders, opening files, saving files, familiarity with the accessing the Internet and use of common web browsers. If you do not have these skills, we recommend attending Basic Computer Skills Course and Effective Internet Use before attempting this course.

Delivery style

Delivery options:

• Presenter-taught computer-based training in a computer lab on University premises.
• Online training via the platform Zoom.

Materials

You will be provided with a link to access and download your own personalised eBook prior to class.

Teaching instructions and materials for this course are specifically tailored to Windows PC users.

Additional information

Face-to-face classes

These classes run in a computer lab and you do not need to bring your own device.

Please bring a USB flash drive to class if you would like to make a copy of your work or any relevant class materials. Alternatively, you can save these to a cloud storage space or email them to your personal email address.

Online classes

If you are attending an online class, you will need your own device.

Recommended operating system: Windows
Recommended software for PC: MS Office 2016, 2019, 365