how to rename powerpoint presentation in laptop

How to Name Slides in PowerPoint [A Step-by-Step Guide!]

By: Author Shrot Katewa

Giving a name to a slide in PowerPoint is one of those things that will not make or break your presentation. However, naming slides in PowerPoint can be really helpful in streamlining your process of presentation design and it will optimize things for you!

To name slides in PowerPoint, click on the “View” tab in PowerPoint. Then, click on the “Outline View” option from the ribbon. Now, in the slide preview section, click on the slide to add the name and start typing. This will add a title name to the slide.

In this article, we shall do a deep-dive in naming slides in PowerPoint. I’ll also share with you a trick wherein you can name all slides together. Plus, we shall also take a look at how naming a slide is different from naming a slide layout!

So, let’s get started!

1. Why Do You Need to Name Slides in PowerPoint?

Let’s begin with the basics. You may wonder, why do you even need to name slides in PowerPoint?

Naming slides in PowerPoint can help you structure your presentation better. It can help you re-organize your slides when using the slide sorter view . Moreover, the slide name helps you know the type of information present on the slide even without opening it.

So yes, naming slides won’t make your presentation look pretty. But, it will surely make it look more organized and help you save quite some time while designing it!

Plus, when creating a hyperlink within the presentation, it is easier to link to the specific slide when the slides have a name assigned to them.

1. How to Name a Slide in PowerPoint? 

Now that we have established that naming slides in PowerPoint can be helpful, let us take a look at the process of how to name a slide in PowerPoint.

To name a slide in PowerPoint, you have to go to the “ Outline view ” option and add the name of the slides in the slide navigation sidebar. The whole process is described in easy steps below.

Step-1: Click on the “View” tab

The first step of the process is to click on the “ View ” tab which is located in the ribbon of your PowerPoint presentation. It is the second to last tab.

Step-2: Select a Slide to Name from the “Outline view”

After you have clicked on the “ View ” tab, click on the “ Outline View ” option which is located in the “ Presentation Views ” section of the “ View ” tab.

Then, choose a slide to which you want to add a name.

Step-3: Add a name to the slide

After you select the “ Outline View ” option in the “ View ” tab, the slide navigation sidebar to the left of your screen will change and the outline of the PowerPoint presentation will appear instead.

Simply type in the name of the slide in the “ Outline view ”, and the slide will be named accordingly.

To go back to the default view of your presentation, click on the “ Normal View ” option under the “ View ” tab.

2. How to Rename a Slide in PowerPoint? 

If you want to rename a slide in PowerPoint, all you have to do is go back to the “Outline view” and change the name of the slide in the slide navigation bar as described in the previous section.

Follow the steps described in the above section and rewrite the name of your preferred slide.

One thing to remember is that when you name a slide, by default a slide title will be added to the slide. You can also edit the text in the “ Slide Title ” of the slide, and it will automatically rename the name of the slide.

3. How to Name All Slides in PowerPoint? 

With the help of the “ Outline view ” option in PowerPoint, you can name all the slides in PowerPoint.

In fact, you can make an entire presentation (content only) using only the slide navigation sidebar of the “ Outline view ” option!

4. How to Name a Slide Layout in PowerPoint? 

A slide layout is different from a simple slide. Slide layouts in PowerPoint are basically preformatted layouts or containers that determine the design of the slide.

Slides layouts are used to create a design template and make it easier for the user to maintain design consistency when adding content.

That said, you can always create your own slide layouts or even rename a layout at your convenience.

This section is going to focus on how to name a slide layout. If you are interested in learning more about slide layouts, check out this article that I wrote earlier.

To name a slide layout in your PowerPoint presentation, you have to go to the “ Slide Master ” view option from the “ View ” tab and change the name of the slide.

The entire process is described step-by-step below.

Step-1: Go to the “Slide Master” view

The first step of this process is to select the “ Slide Master ” view, which is located in the “ Master Views ” section of the “ View ” tab.

The “ Slide Master ” view is the first option in the “ Master Views ” section of the “ View ” tab.

Step-2: Click on the “Rename” option

In this step, select the layout that you want to rename and then click on the “ Rename ” button in the “ Edit master ” section of the “ Slide Master ” tab.

The “ Edit Master ” section is the first section of the “ Slide Master ” view.

Step-3: Give a name to the layout

After you click on the “ Rename ” button, a pop-up window called “ Rename Layout ” will appear at the center of your screen.

Simply type in the preferred name for the layout and then hit the “ Rename ” button and the layout will be named accordingly.

5. How to Display the Slide Name during Slideshow?

Unfortunately, there is no direct way to display the slide name of the slide while in the presentation mode.

However, you can use a simple VBA code to make sure all the slides are displayed with their respective slide name. The whole process is described in simple steps below.

Step-1: Place the footers in the slides

The VBA code that you will be using during this method will cycle through the entire slide and insert the name of the slide in any shape that starts with the word ‘footer’.

So, the first step of this process is to add a footer to the slides that you want the slide name to be displayed in.

If you are not familiar with adding footers in PowerPoint, check out this article where I go in-depth into this topic. You will be able to learn everything about adding and editing a footer.

Once you’re done, you can come back to reading this article.

Step-2: Enable the Developer Mode

As a next step, you want to make sure that you have the developer tab enabled as we will need to use the visual basic editor in the remaining steps and then run the macros.

If you don’t know what it is or whether it is enabled, check out my complete guide on how to enable developer tab in PowerPoint .

Follow the process in that article, enable the developer tab, and come back to this article to continue with the next steps.

Step-3: Open the Visual Basic Editor in PowerPoint

Once you have enabled the developer tab, click on the “ Developer ” tab, and then click on the “Visual Basic” button.

You can also press the “ Alt+F11 ” keys simultaneously. This will open the visual basic editor window directly.

Step-4: Click on the “Module” option

From the Visual Basics Editor window, click on the “ Module ” option which is located in the “ Insert ” tab.

Step-5: Paste the Macro code

Once you’ve opened the pop-up window that appears when you click on the “ Module ” option, simply paste the code given below in that window.

Sub SlideShowName()   ‘Add a text box to display name of slide show.   Dim sld As Slide   Dim shp As Shape   For Each sld In ActivePresentation.Slides     For Each shp In sld.Shapes       If Left(shp.Name, 6) = “Footer” Then          shp.TextFrame.TextRange.Text = ActivePresentation.FullName       End If     Next   Next End Sub

Step-6: Save the presentation

After you have inserted the code for the slide name, simply save the presentation from the “ File ” tab.

Step-7: Click on the “Macros” option

After you have saved the presentation as a ‘.pptm’ file, go to the “ Developer ” tab and select the “ Macros ” option in the “ Code ” section.

Step-8: Click on the “SlideShowName” option

In the last step, all you have to do is to select the “ SlideShowName ” option in the pop-up window and then hit the “ Run ” button. After that, the slide name will be displayed during the presentation mode.

6. How to Name a PowerPoint Presentation? 

To name a PowerPoint presentation, you have to go to the “ Save as ” option in the “ File ” tab. The whole process is described in 2 easy steps below.

Step-1: Go to the “File” tab

The first step of the process is to select the “ File ” tab, which is the first tab in the ribbon of your PowerPoint presentation.

Step-2: Type in the name of the presentation

After you have clicked on the “ File ” tab, you will be taken to a new window. Click on the “ Save As ” option and type in the name of the presentation in the top dialogue box.

After that just hit the “ Save ” button to the right of the dialogue box and the name of the presentation will be saved accordingly.

7. How to Add Your Name as an Author to a PowerPoint Presentation?

The process of adding your name as an author to a PowerPoint presentation is explained in easy steps below.

Step-1: Click on the “File” Tab

The first step of the process is to go to the “ File ” tab as explained in the previous section

Step-2: Type your name in the “Author” box in the “Info” section

In the “ Info ” tab, you will find an option to the right of the screen that says “ Author ” with a box written, “ Add an author ” on it.

Simply type in your name in the “ Author ” box and hit “ Enter ” on your keyboard. After that, your name will be added as an author in that PowerPoint presentation.

More Related Articles

• Working with Slides in PowerPoint! [A Complete Guide!]
• How to Save a Slide as an Image in PowerPoint? [A Quick Tip!]
• Design Ideas Feature in PowerPoint [You Need to Know This Feature!]
• Notes Master in PowerPoint [Know How to Use It Properly!]
• PowerPoint vs Google Slides: Which is Better? [The Ultimate Guide! ]

Credit to benzoix (on Freepik) for the featured image of the article (further edited).

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Renaming a Presentation

To rename a PowerPoint presentation, select it in the Open dialog box and choose Tools, Rename. PowerPoint converts the filename to an edit box in which you can overwrite it, as shown in Figure 2.15 .

Figure 2.15. Rename a presentation something more meaningful.

Another way to rename a selected file in the Open dialog box is by right-clicking and choosing Rename from the menu that appears. You can also print a file or quick view it from this menu, among other things.

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Edit and re-apply a slide layout

If you apply a slide layout to one or more slides in your presentation, and then go back and edit that layout by adding a placeholder, custom prompt text, or completing some other layout-altering action, you must reapply the layout to the slides so that the slides adhere to the updated layout.

Change an existing layout

On the View tab, click Slide Master .

In the thumbnail pane that contains the slide masters and layouts, pick the layout that has closest arrangement of placeholders to how you want your slide to look.

Note:  The slide master is always the top thumbnail, and the other slide layouts are beneath it.

Tip:  If you don't like any of the layouts, pick the Blank Layout and start over by adding placeholders to contain text, pictures, videos, etc.

To change an existing layout, do one or more of the following:

To add a placeholder, on the Slide Master tab, click Insert Placeholder , and then select a placeholder type from the list. Click a location on the layout, and then drag to draw the placeholder.

Add, edit, or remove a placeholder on a slide layout .

To rename the layout, in the thumbnail list of layouts, right-click the layout that you customized, and then click Rename Layout .

In the Rename Layout dialog box, type a new name that describes the layout you’ve just created, and then click Rename .

On the Slide Master tab, click Close Master View .

Apply the updates so that they appear on your slides

In Normal View, in the thumbnail pane, click the slide that you want to reapply the updated layout to.

Note:  To select multiple slides, press and hold the Ctrl key, and then click each slide.

On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click Layout , and then select the layout that you updated in Slide Master View.

What is a slide layout?

What is a slide master?

Add placeholders to contain text, pictures, videos, etc.

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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)

• PowerPoint Tutorials
• Presentation Design
• January 22, 2024

In this beginner’s guide, you will learn step-by-step how to make a PowerPoint presentation from scratch.

While PowerPoint is designed to be intuitive and accessible, it can be overwhelming if you’ve never gotten any training on it before. As you progress through this guide, you’ll will learn how to move from blank slides to PowerPoint slides that look like these.

Table of Contents

Additionally, as you create your presentation, you’ll also learn tricks for working more efficiently in PowerPoint, including how to:

• Change the slide order
• Reset your layout
• Change the slide dimensions
• Use PowerPoint Designer
• Format text
• Format objects
• Play a presentation (slide show)

With this knowledge under your belt, you’ll be ready to start creating PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, you’ll have taken your skills from beginner to proficient in no time at all. I will also include links to more advanced PowerPoint topics.

Ready to start learning how to make a PowerPoint presentation?

Take your PPT skills to the next level

Start with a blank presentation.

Note: Before you open PowerPoint and start creating your presentation, make sure you’ve collected your thoughts. If you’re going to make your slides compelling, you need to spend some time brainstorming.

For help with this, see our article with tips for nailing your business presentation  here .

The first thing you’ll need to do is to open PowerPoint. When you do, you are shown the Start Menu , with the Home tab open.

This is where you can choose either a blank theme (1) or a pre-built theme (2). You can also choose to open an existing presentation (3).

For now, go ahead and click on the  Blank Presentation (1)  thumbnail.

Doing so launches a brand new and blank presentation for you to work with. Before you start adding content to your presentation, let’s first familiarize ourselves with the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint interface

Here is how the program is laid out:

• The Application Header
• The Ribbon (including the Ribbon tabs)
• The Quick Access Toolbar (either above or below the Ribbon)
• The Slides Pane (slide thumbnails)

The Slide Area

The notes pane.

• The Status Bar (including the View Buttons)

Each one of these areas has options for viewing certain parts of the PowerPoint environment and formatting your presentation.

Below are the important things to know about certain elements of the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint Ribbon

The Ribbon is contextual. That means that it will adapt to what you’re doing in the program.

For example, the Font, Paragraph and Drawing options are greyed out until you select something that has text in it, as in the example below (A).

Furthermore, if you start manipulating certain objects, the Ribbon will display additional tabs, as seen above (B), with more commands and features to help you work with those objects. The following objects have their own additional tabs in the Ribbon which are hidden until you select them:

• Online Pictures
• Screenshots
• Screen Recording

The Slides Pane

This is where you can preview and rearrange all the slides in your presentation.

Right-clicking on a slide  in the pane gives you additional options on the slide level that you won’t find on the Ribbon, such as  Duplicate Slide ,  Delete Slide , and  Hide Slide .

In addition, you can add sections to your presentation by  right-clicking anywhere in this Pane  and selecting  Add Section . Sections are extremely helpful in large presentations, as they allow you to organize your slides into chunks that you can then rearrange, print or display differently from other slides.

The Slide Area (A) is where you will build out your slides. Anything within the bounds of this area will be visible when you present or print your presentation.

Anything outside of this area (B) will be hidden from view. This means that you can place things here, such as instructions for each slide, without worrying about them being shown to your audience.

The  Notes Pane  is the space beneath the Slide Area where you can type in the speaker notes for each slide. It’s designed as a fast way to add and edit your slides’ talking points.

To expand your knowledge and learn more about adding, printing, and exporting your PowerPoint speaker notes, read our guide here .

Your speaker notes are visible when you print your slides using the Notes Pages option and when you use the Presenter View . To expand your knowledge and learn the ins and outs of using the Presenter View , read our guide here .

You can resize the  Notes Pane  by clicking on its edge and dragging it up or down (A). You can also minimize or reopen it by clicking on the Notes button in the Status Bar (B).

Note:  Not all text formatting displays in the Notes Pane, even though it will show up when printing your speaker notes. To learn more about printing PowerPoint with notes, read our guide here .

Now that you have a basic grasp of the PowerPoint interface at your disposal, it’s time to make your presentation.

Adding Content to Your PowerPoint Presentation

Notice that in the Slide Area , there are two rectangles with dotted outlines. These are called  Placeholders  and they’re set on the template in the Slide Master View .

To expand your knowledge and learn how to create a PowerPoint template of your own (which is no small task), read our guide here .

As the prompt text suggests, you can click into each placeholder and start typing text. These types of placeholder prompts are customizable too. That means that if you are using a company template, it might say something different, but the functionality is the same.

Note:  For the purposes of this example, I will create a presentation based on the content in the Starbucks 2018 Global Social Impact Report, which is available to the public on their website.

If you type in more text than there is room for, PowerPoint will automatically reduce its font size. You can stop this behavior by clicking on the  Autofit Options  icon to the left of the placeholder and selecting  Stop Fitting Text to this Placeholder .

Next, you can make formatting adjustments to your text by selecting the commands in the Font area and the  Paragraph area  of the  Home  tab of the Ribbon.

The Reset Command:  If you make any changes to your title and decide you want to go back to how it was originally, you can use the Reset button up in the Home tab .

Insert More Slides into Your Presentation

Now that you have your title slide filled in, it’s time to add more slides. To do that, simply go up to the  Home tab  and click on  New Slide . This inserts a new slide in your presentation right after the one you were on.

You can alternatively hit Ctrl+M on your keyboard to insert a new blank slide in PowerPoint. To learn more about this shortcut, see my guide on using Ctrl+M in PowerPoint .

Instead of clicking the New Slide command, you can also open the New Slide dropdown to see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template. Depending on who created your template, your layouts in this dropdown can be radically different.

If you insert a layout and later want to change it to a different layout, you can use the Layout dropdown instead of the New Slide dropdown.

After inserting a few different slide layouts, your presentation might look like the following picture. Don’t worry that it looks blank, next we will start adding content to your presentation.

If you want to follow along exactly with me, your five slides should be as follows:

• Title Slide
• Title and Content
• Section Header
• Two Content
• Picture with Caption

Adding Content to Your Slides

Now let’s go into each slide and start adding our content. You’ll notice some new types of placeholders.

On slide 2 we have a  Content Placeholder , which allows you to add any kind of content. That includes:

• A SmartArt graphic,
• A 3D object,
• A picture from the web,
• Or an icon.

To insert text, simply type it in or hit  Ctrl+C to Copy  and Ctrl+V to Paste  from elsewhere. To insert any of the other objects, click on the appropriate icon and follow the steps to insert it.

For my example, I’ll simply type in some text as you can see in the picture below.

Slides 3 and 4 only have text placeholders, so I’ll go ahead and add in my text into each one.

On slide 5 we have a Picture Placeholder . That means that the only elements that can go into it are:

• A picture from the web

To insert a picture into the picture placeholder, simply:

• Click on the  Picture  icon
• Find  a picture on your computer and select it
• Click on  Insert

Alternatively, if you already have a picture open somewhere else, you can select the placeholder and paste in (shortcut: Ctrl+V ) the picture. You can also drag the picture in from a file explorer window.

If you do not like the background of the picture you inserted onto your slide, you can remove the background here in PowerPoint. To see how to do this, read my guide here .

Placeholders aren’t the only way to add content to your slides. At any point, you can use the Insert tab to add elements to your slides.

You can use either the Title Only  or the  Blank  slide layout to create slides for content that’s different. For example, a three-layout content slide, or a single picture divider slide, as shown below.

In the first example above, I’ve inserted 6 text boxes, 3 icons, and 3 circles to create this layout. In the second example, I’ve inserted a full-sized picture and then 2 shapes and 2 text boxes.

The Reset Command:  Because these slides are built with shapes and text boxes (and not placeholders), hitting the  Reset button up in the  Home tab  won’t do anything.

That is a good thing if you don’t want your layouts to adjust. However, it does mean that it falls on you to make sure everything is aligned and positioned correctly.

For more on how to add and manipulate the different objects in PowerPoint, check out our step-by-step articles here:

• Using graphics in PowerPoint
• Inserting icons onto slides
• Adding pictures to your PowerPoint
• How to embed a video in PowerPoint
• How to add music to your presentation

Using Designer to generate more layouts ideas

If you have Office 365, your version of PowerPoint comes with a new feature called Designer (or Design Ideas). This is a feature that generates slide layout ideas for you. The coolest thing about this feature is that it uses the content you already have.

To use Designer , simply navigate to the  Design tab  in your Ribbon, and click on  Design Ideas .

NOTE: If the PowerPoint Designer is not working for you (it is grey out), see my troubleshooting guide for Designer .

Change the Overall Design (optional)

When you make a PowerPoint presentation, you’ll want to think about the overall design. Now that you have some content in your presentation, you can use the Design tab to change the look and feel of your slides.

For additional help thinking through the design of your presentation,  read my guide here .

A. Picking your PowerPoint slide size

If you have PowerPoint 2013 or later, when you create a blank document in PowerPoint, you automatically start with a widescreen layout with a 16:9 ratio. These dimensions are suitable for most presentations as they match the screens of most computers and projectors.

However, you do have the option to change the dimensions.

For example, your presentation might not be presented, but instead converted into a PDF or printed and distributed. In that case, you can easily switch to the standard dimensions with a 4:3 ratio by selecting from the dropdown (A).

You can also choose a custom slide size or change the slide orientation from landscape to portrait in the Custom Slide Size dialog box (B).

To learn all about the different PowerPoint slide sizes, and some of the issues you will face when changing the slide size of a non-blank presentation,  read my guide here .

 B. Selecting a PowerPoint theme

The next thing you can do is change the theme of your presentation to a pre-built one. For a detailed explanation of what a PowerPoint theme is, and how to best use it,  read my article here .

In the beginning of this tutorial, we started with a blank presentation, which uses the default Office theme as you can see in the picture below.

That gives you the most flexibility because it has a blank background and quite simple layouts that work for most presentations. However, it also means that it’s your responsibility to enhance the design.

If you’re comfortable with this, you can stay with the default theme or create your own custom theme ( read my guide here ). But if you would rather not have to think about design, then you can choose a pre-designed theme.

Microsoft provides 46 other pre-built themes, which include slide layouts, color variants and palettes, and fonts. Each one varies quite significantly, so make sure you look through them carefully.

To select a different theme, go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon, and click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Themes section .

For this tutorial, let’s select the  Frame  theme and then choose the third Variant in the theme. Doing so changes the layout, colors, and fonts of your presentation.

Note: The theme dropdown area is also where you can import or save custom themes. To see my favorite places to find professional PowerPoint templates and themes (and recommendations for why I like them), read my guide here .

C. How to change a slide background in PowerPoint

The next thing to decide is how you want your background to look for the entire presentation. In the  Variants area, you can see four background options.

For this example, we want our presentation to have a dark background, so let’s select Style 3. When you do so, you’ll notice that:

• The background color automatically changes across all slides
• The color of the text on most of the slides automatically changes to white so that it’s visible on the dark background
• The colors of the objects on slides #6 and #7 also adjust, in a way we may not want (we’ll likely have to make some manual adjustments to these slides)

Note: If you want to change the slide background for just that one slide, don’t left-click the style. Instead, right-click it and select Apply to Selected Slides .

After you change the background for your entire presentation, you can easily adjust the background for an individual slide.

Inside the Format Background pane, you can see you have the following options:

• Gradient fill
• Picture or texture fill
• Pattern fill
• Hide background

You can explore these options to find the PowerPoint background that best fits your presentation.

D. How to change your color palette in PowerPoint

Another thing you may want to adjust in your presentation, is the color scheme. In the picture below you can see the Theme Colors we are currently using for this presentation.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own color palette. By default, the Office theme includes the Office color palette. This affects the colors you are presented with when you format any element within your presentation (text, shapes, SmartArt, etc.).

The good news is that the colors here are easy to change. To switch color palettes, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab in the Ribbon
• In the Variants area, click on the  dropdown arrow  and select  Colors
• Select  the color palette (or theme colors) you want

You can choose among the pre-built color palettes from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

As you build your presentation, make sure you use the colors from your theme to format objects. That way, changing the color palette adjusts all the colors in your presentation automatically.

E. How to change your fonts in PowerPoint

Just as we changed the color palette, you can do the same for the fonts.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own font combination. By default, the Office theme includes the Office font pairing. This affects the fonts that are automatically assigned to all text in your presentation.

The good news is that the font pairings are easy to change. To switch your Theme Fonts, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Variants  area
• Select  Fonts
• Select  the font pairing you want

You can choose among the pre-built fonts from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

If you are working with PowerPoint presentations on both Mac and PC computers, make sure you choose a safe PowerPoint font. To see a list of the safest PowerPoint fonts, read our guide here .

If you receive a PowerPoint presentation and the wrong fonts were used, you can use the Replace Fonts dialog box to change the fonts across your entire presentation. For details, read our guide here .

Adding Animations & Transitions (optional)

The final step to make a PowerPoint presentation compelling, is to consider using animations and transitions. These are by no means necessary to a good presentation, but they may be helpful in your situation.

A. Adding PowerPoint animations

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust animations engine designed to power your creativity. That being said, it’s also easy to get started with basic animations.

Animations are movements that you can apply to individual objects on your slide.

To add a PowerPoint animation to an element of your slide, simply:

• Select the  element
• Go to the  Animations tab in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  animation  you want

You can add animations to multiple objects at one time by selecting them all first and then applying the animation.

B. How to preview a PowerPoint animation

There are three ways to preview a PowerPoint animation:

• Click on the Preview button in the Animations tab
• Click on the little star  next to the slide
• Play the slide in Slide Show Mode

To learn other ways to run your slide show, see our guide on presenting a PowerPoint slide show with shortcuts .

To adjust the settings of your animations, explore the options in the  Effect Options ,  Advanced Animation  and the  Timing  areas of the  Animation tab .

Note:  To see how to make objects appear and disappear in your slides by clicking a button,  read our guide here .

C. How to manage your animations in PowerPoint

The best way to manage lots of animations on your slide is with the Animation Pane . To open it, simply:

• Navigate to the  Animations tab
• Select the  Animation Pane

Inside the Animation Pane, you’ll see all of the different animations that have been applied to objects on your slide, with their numbers marked as pictured above.

Note: To see examples of PowerPoint animations that can use in PowerPoint, see our list of PowerPoint animation tutorials here .

D. How to add transitions to your PowerPoint presentation

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust transition engine so that you can dictate how your slides change from one to the other. It is also extremely easy to add transitions to your slides.

In PowerPoint, transitions are the movements (or effects) you see as you move between two slides.

To add a transition to a PowerPoint slide, simply:

• Select the  slide
• Go to the  Transitions tab in the Ribbon
• In the Transitions to This Slide area, click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  transition  you want

To adjust the settings of the transition, explore the options in the  Timing  area of the Transitions tab.

You can also add the same transition to multiple slides. To do that, select them in the  Slides Pane  and apply the transition.

E. How to preview a transition in PowerPoint

There are three ways to preview your PowerPoint transitions (just like your animations):

• Click on the Preview  button in the Transitions tab
• Click on the little star  beneath the slide number in the thumbnail view

Note:  In 2016, PowerPoint added a cool new transition, called Morph. It operates a bit differently from other transitions. For a detailed tutorial on how to use the cool Morph transition,  see our step-by-step article here .

Save Your PowerPoint Presentation

After you’ve built your presentation and made all the adjustments to your slides, you’ll want to save your presentation. YOu can do this several different ways.

To save a PowerPoint presentation using your Ribbon, simply:

• Navigate to the  File tab
•  Select  Save As  on the left
• Choose  where you want to save your presentation
• Name  your presentation and/or adjust your file type settings
• Click  Save

You can alternatively use the  Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut to save your presentation. I recommend using this shortcut frequently as you build your presentation to make sure you don’t lose any of your work.

This is the standard way to save a presentation. However, there may be a situation where you want to save your presentation as a different file type.

To learn how to save your presentation as a PDF, see our guide on converting PowerPoint to a PDF .

How to save your PowerPoint presentation as a template

Once you’ve created a presentation that you like, you may want to turn it into a template. The easiest – but not technically correct – way, is to simply create a copy of your current presentation and then change the content.

But be careful! A PowerPoint template is a special type of document and it has its own parameters and behaviors.

If you’re interested in learning about how to create your own PowerPoint template from scratch, see our guide on how to create a PowerPoint template .

Printing Your PowerPoint Presentation

After finishing your PowerPoint presentation, you may want to print it out on paper. Printing your slides is relatively easy.

To open the Print dialog box, you can either:

• Hit Ctrl+P on your keyboard
• Or go to the Ribbon and click on File and then Print

Inside the Print dialog box, you can choose from the various printing settings:

• Printer: Select a printer to use (or print to PDF or OneNote)
• Slides: Choose which slides you want to print
• Layout: Determine how many slides you want per page (this is where you can print the notes, outline, and handouts)
• Collated or uncollated (learn what collated printing means here )
• Color: Choose to print in color, grayscale or black & white

There are many more options for printing your PowerPoint presentations. Here are links to more in-depth articles:

• How to print multiple slides per page
• How to print your speaker notes in PowerPoint
• How to save PowerPoint as a picture presentation

So that’s how to create a PowerPoint presentation if you are brand new to it. We’ve also included a ton of links to helpful resources to boost your PowerPoint skills further.

When you are creating your presentation, it is critical to first focus on the content (what you are trying to say) before getting lost inserting and playing with elements. The clearer you are on what you want to present, the easier it will be to build it out in PowerPoint.

If you enjoyed this article, you can learn more about our PowerPoint training courses and other presentation resources by  visiting us here .

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Video: Rename files

Rename your file with a meaningful, descriptive name, so it's easy to find later.

Rename a file in an online app

Select the file name at the top of the page.

Enter a new name.

Changes are saved automatically in the Office Online apps.

Save a copy with a different name in a desktop app

Select File > Save As .

Select where you want to save the file.

Enter a new file name.

Select Save .

Rename a file in File Explorer or OneDrive

Open File Explorer or OneDrive.

Right-click the file and select Rename .

Enter a new file name and press Enter.

Rename a file

Create accessible filenames

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How to Recover a Deleted or Unsaved PowerPoint File

After hours of piecing together the perfect presentation, disaster happens the next morning as you go present it: It’s gone. No matter how frantically you search File Explorer, your precious PowePoint presentation is gone. Microsoft, though, has your back. As long as you haven’t disabled autorecovery, the file should still be on your machine -- or in the cloud, if you’re an Office365 user. It’s not foolproof, but you can often recover these accidentally deleted files.

Next time, however, you might want to save a redundant copy to the cloud, just in case.

1. Open a blank Microsoft PowerPoint document and click the File tab .

2. Click the Options link at the bottom.

3. Choose the Save option from the left .

4.Once you find the section with a path showing where your autosaved documents go, select and copy it . In my case, it’s here: C:\Users\Bryan\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\PowerPoint\

5. Open File Explorer and paste in the copied file path . Hit enter .

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6. Here, we’ll see the last save of the document I was working on, which starts with the name “MYPRESENTATION.” Click it to open the file .

7. Right click the Microsoft PowerPoint file, and select Open with .

8. Choose PowerPoint, and click Ok .

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A simple guide to slideshows

Learn what slideshows are, how they’re used, common features, and how to choose a slideshow maker. Get started creating your own slideshows today with Microsoft PowerPoint.

What is a slideshow?

What are slideshows used for.

Meetings and presentations

Slideshows are most frequently used to create professional presentations for business meetings, conferences, and educational purposes. A  slideshow program  allows people to organize content, include visuals, and enhance the overall impact of their message.

Visual storytelling

Because slideshows sequentially display engaging visuals, text, and other multimedia, they’re a strong way to tell a cohesive and compelling narrative from start to finish.

Content creation

Slideshows give content creators a versatile and efficient way to organize information, increase visual appeal, and communicate effectively across different contexts.

Photo and video sharing

Slideshow makers are popular for creating photo and video presentations, especially for events like weddings, birthdays, and vacations. People can add transitions, music, and captions to fully bring the photo-sharing experience to life.

Training and tutorials

Slideshows help break down complex information into digestible chunks with the support of visuals and text, making them ideal for instructional materials, tutorials, and training modules.

Collaborative projects

In collaborative settings, teams use slideshow makers to create joint presentations or reports. The best slideshow makers enable multiple contributors to add their content simultaneously, which helps ensure a cohesive and unified presentation.

What are the features of a slideshow creator?

Slideshow creators vary in what they offer but ideally include:

A library of templates, themes, and images.

If you’re not a designer, this feature is huge. Simply browse the options available in your slideshow maker library to create a polished, professionally designed presentation in a flash. Be sure to confirm that access to the library is free and the images are approved for unrestricted usage.

Audio and video compatibility.

Keeping your audience engaged is key to any successful slideshow presentation. To mix things up, being able to add a multimedia element—like a song or a video clip—will help people stay focused and interested.

Presentation tools.

Handy presenter tools go a long way toward making your slideshow experience seamless. For example, straightforward slide navigation, slideshow keyboard shortcuts, pen and highlighter markup, and adjustable resolution settings.

AI assistance.

With AI revolutionizing content creation, using a slideshow maker that has AI capabilities will enhance efficiency and innovation. Depending on the slideshow app you have, creating an entire slideshow could be as easy as a quick prompt, like “Make a presentation about the benefits of sustainable fashion that has 15 slides.” 

Animations.

Like audio and video, animations give your audience a bit of sensory surprise that can capture their attention. 

Slide transitions.

Add some pizzazz to how you change slides with visual effects like fading, wiping, and zooming. 

Screen recording.

Being able to record your screen in a slideshow maker is helpful when giving an instructional talk, software demonstration, and other types of presentations that require visual aids.

A place to put speaker notes.

Having somewhere to jot a few notes down will help remind you of everything you want to cover as you present.

Different viewing options.

Looking at different views—for example, a presenter view, an audience view, and a high-level view of slide order—is useful when organizing your slideshow’s structure and understanding and preparing for what you’ll see versus what your audience will see.

How do I choose the right slideshow maker?

When choosing a slideshow maker, keep the following questions in mind to make sure you get the most for your money:

Is it scalable with your business?

As your organization grows and changes, it’s important to have flexible technology that adapts to new needs. Having certain features—such as cloud-based collaboration, compatibility with other work apps, and a mobile app—will help ensure that no matter how your business changes, the slideshow maker is up to the task. This also applies to pricing plans. Consider choosing a slideshow app that has a subscription plan (so the software is always up to date), volume-based pricing, or enterprise-level pricing.

Does it have a variety of visual elements?

It’s pretty much a given that a slideshow maker will allow you to add images, but think outside the JPEG box—what other visual elements are available to you? Features like preset themes, free templates, SmartArt, a built-in clip art library, shape tools, background styles, 3D models, and charts and graphs provide diverse ways to switch up how a slideshow looks without relying solely on adding your own images.

Is it easy to use?

You could have the most feature-rich slideshow maker on the market, but if it isn’t easy to use, you probably won’t use it. Or you will, but you’ll be frustrated, waste valuable time, and have difficulty convincing people you work with to use it. As you research slideshow makers, look for videos that show the apps’ interfaces in action to help you decide if they’re intuitive and will have a shorter learning curve.

Does it have collaboration and sharing options?

Because making a slideshow is often a collaborative effort, it’s worthwhile to find a slideshow creator that was designed with this in mind. Pick one that offers editing controls and commenting, as well as the ability to work on a slideshow at the same time as someone else. Having a cloud-based slideshow maker will be key here. You’ll not only save yourself time but also keep things simple by not having multiple versions of the same slideshow.

Explore more about slideshows and slideshow makers

Copilot in powerpoint.

Transform how you make slideshows with the versatile AI in Copilot for PowerPoint.

Improve your presenting skills

Practice presenting with an AI speaker coach to get feedback on body language, repetition, and pronunciation.  

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Read up on tips about how to finesse your slideshows to give your most confident presentations.

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Show your style with PowerPoint templates in more than 40 categories.

How to make a branded slideshow

Create a cohesive visual identity for your brand that goes beyond adding a logo to every slide.

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The benefits of visual aids in slideshows

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Slideshows that reach all learners

Explore the different ways that people learn and how to include all learning styles in your presentations.

Frequently asked questions

How do i make a good slideshow.

Making a good slideshow in PowerPoint is easy:

Plan what you’d like to include in your slideshow.

Launch your slideshow creator.

Choose the theme you’d like.

Import media.

Add text, music, and transitions.

Record, save, and share your slideshow.

Learn more about how to make a slideshow .

How do I add music to a slideshow?

To add music to a slideshow, first make sure that you’re using a slideshow maker with music compatibility. In PowerPoint, follow these steps:

Open your PowerPoint presentation and select the slide where you want to add music.

Click on the Insert tab in the ribbon menu.

Click on the Audio button and select Audio on My PC.

Browse to the folder on your computer where the audio file is located and select it.

Click on the Insert button.

How do I record a slideshow?

The steps for recording a slideshow in PowerPoint will vary depending on the version that you own. Get help with slideshow recording based on your version. 

What types of files can I add to a slideshow?

File compatibility in PowerPoint includes the use of JPEGs, PNGs, TIFFs, GIFs, PDFs, MP3s, WAVs, MIDIs, MPEG-4 Videos, and Windows Media Videos.  

How do I share my slideshow?

To share your PowerPoint slideshow, follow these steps:

Open your presentation and click Share at the top right of your screen.

If your presentation isn't already stored on OneDrive, select where to save your presentation to the cloud.

Choose a permission level, like Anyone with a link , or maybe just people in your company. You can also control if people can edit or just view the doc. 

Select Apply.

Enter names and a message.

Select Send.

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Unable to log into Microsoft Desktop Apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

I have a paid personal Microsoft 365 subscription plan. I am using a Surface Laptop Go and running Window 11 Home. I downloaded the Microsoft 365 app and installed it on my computer. After installation of the Microsoft 365 app I wasn't able to get into the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint standalone apps on my computer. It asks for my login. When I type my email address, which is my username for my Microsoft account, it just reverts me back to the "Sign in to get started with (whichever app I try to log in)"

I checked my Microsoft account, and I can log into the account. I open the Microsoft 365 app and it opens without issue. I want to utilize the Word, Excel and PowerPoint standalone apps on my computer. Why does the system continue to revert me to the log in window and how do I fix this issue? I attached a screen shot of the login window.

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• Microsoft Agent |

Hi! Michael Finnegan1,  

Welcome to the Microsoft Community!  

I realize that you've encountered a problem with   when logging in to an Office application, it keeps looping through the login page over and over again, and can't log in properly, Account   and I understand how you feel.  

We have had some recent feedback from users on the same subject, so in order to investigate whether this is a widespread problem, I would like to invite you to confirm the following information with me so that I can provide you with a more appropriate help:

1. Have you purchased your Surface device new and downloaded and opened Office applications in Surface for the first time?

2. Have you done a system restore on your Surface?

3. I need to confirm your Office version information with you. Please open your Word > click on Account in the lower left corner and provide me with a screenshot of the complete page . Here is a sample image：

Thank you for your understanding and patience and I look forward to hearing from you.  

Best Regards 

Eddy | Microsoft Community Support Specialist   

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Thanks for your feedback.

Hi, thank you for the response.

1. I did not purchase this new recently. I purchased the laptop a few years ago new. I have been using MS Office on this computer since I purchased the laptop. Recently, I noticed my MS Office app (Word) was not log into my account. I went to log in and it sent me to my MS 365 account. Since then, I have been unable to get into my standalone computer apps.

2. I have not done a system restore.

3. I am unable to get to that far in Word. I keep receiving the attached screen shot. When I try to log into my account the screenshot window keeps appearing and I am unable to go any further in the application.

There are more causes of this problem, so to help you try to fix it as quickly as possible, I'm going to offer you different solutions from different cause perspectives:

1. Please try to reset your Office applications:

Press Windows + R , type in: regedit in the run box that opens and press enter.

Rename the Office folder by locating the following key (right-click on it and select Rename, e.g. rename Office to Officeold)

Then reopen the word document to see if it worked.

Disclaimer : Generally, modifying registry subkeys or work group is intended for advanced users, administrators, and IT Professionals. It can help fix some problems, however, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For further protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click  How to back up and restore the registry in Windows - Microsoft Support  to view the article.  

2. Please try to modify your network configuration:

a. Press the Win logo key + Q key to open the search box, search for CMD, open to find the Command Prompt (, to the administrator) mode to run > in the pop-up command box, enter the following commands in turn (each line after the completion of the run to enter the next one)  

Restart your computer and see if that solves the problem.  

b. Change the DNS  

Press Win logo key + R and type ncpa.cpl  ;.

Click on the name of the network you are now connected to, open the Network Status window, click Properties, and in the Network Properties window double-click  Internet < protocol version 4 (TCP / IPv4).   .

Set the DNS server manually to "4.2.2.1" and "4.2.2.2", restart the computer to see if the problem can be solved.  

c. Clear the Host file (please back it up so that it can be restored in time in the event of an accident) .

Locate: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc to find hosts file cut to the desktop (that is, clear the operation of the host), and then see how the effect.   

3.please try creating a new local administrator account and then try using Office applications under the new account to see if the problem persists:

Create a local user account  

Select Start > Settings > Accounts > Family & other users. (In some versions of Windows you'll see Other users.) 

Select Add someone else to this PC > I don't have this person's sign-in information, and on the next page, select Add a user without a Microsoft account. 

Enter a user name, password, or password hint—or choose security questions—and then select Next. 

Change a local user account to an administrator account  

Select Start  > Settings  > Accounts . 

Under Family & other users, select the account owner name (you should see "Local Account" below the name), then select Change account type. 

Under Account type, select Administrator, and then select OK. 

Sign in with the new administrator account. 

Visit  Create a local user or administrator account in Windows (microsoft.com)  for more details. 

Note: If the new account is normal, please do not delete the old account before backing up the data of the old account to avoid any data loss. 

4.If none of the above works,

Please add an alias with the domain @outlook.com to your Microsoft account subscribed to the Microsoft 365 Family product. , and then please try logging into the Office program under an alias to see if the problem persists:

Please log in to the  Microsoft account | Your profile  > select [Your Info] > select [Account Info] > select [Sign in Preference] and then add an alias account > after successfully adding it, next to the alias that was created, click on [Set as Primary] > and then click on [Sign in Preference] at the bottom and click on [Change Sign in Preference] > choose the new alias and save > Try to log in to Office applications using the new alias.      

For detailed official instructions on how to add an alias, please refer to the following link： Add or remove an email alias in Outlook.com - Microsoft Support

Feel free to post back if you need further assistance.  

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