Start using PowerPoint

Let's create a PowerPoint presentation.

This is what you see when you first open PowerPoint 2013.

You can open an existing presentation over here, or create a new one from a template.

Since this is our first time, let's start with a Blank Presentation.

This area over here is the slide pane, where you choose the slide you want to work on.

And this is where you work on it.

By default, PowerPoint adds a blank title slide when you first start.

This area, up here, is called the ribbon, which contains the tools for creating your slides and slide show.

Where do we start? Well, how about here, where it says, "Click to add title".

PowerPoint uses placeholders like this to suggest what to do.

That is it. The first slide is finished.

Now to add the next slide, we'll come up here to the ribbon.

These buttons at the top are called tabs.

When you click a tab, you see the commands and options that are associated with that tab.

And on the HOME tab, there's a group of commands related to slides, including New Slide.

This time, PowerPoint adds a slide with a different layout of placeholders.

Type your slide title at the top. Then, type a list of the things you want to talk about.

PowerPoint automatically formats the text as bullets.

Before we add more slides, let's move down to the status bar, and click this button to open the NOTES pane.

Here you can add notes to use during your presentation.

If you need more room, hold the mouse over the border, until you see a double-headed arrow. Then, drag the border up.

It's usually considered a best practice to keep the amount of text on your slide to a minimum, and fill in all the details with your talk.

Don't worry. The audience can't see the notes. These are just for your reference.

We'll get into the ways to use PowerPoint during your presentation later.

Up next, let's save the presentation file and move on.