how to save a powerpoint presentation

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How to Save a PowerPoint Presentation

Last Updated: May 26, 2022

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 53,237 times. Learn more...

A PowerPoint presentation is an excellent way of presenting information or ideas to an audience. The software is easy to use and offers a lot of cool effects for your slideshows, too. But, what's all the use of this if you don't even know how to save your finished PowerPoint? This wikiHow will teach you how to save your file.

Design your PowerPoint presentation.

• You don't have to wait until you're totally finished to save your work. It can help to save along the way, too, to ensure you don't lose any progress.

Open the File menu when you're ready to save.

Choose the Save or Save As option.

Decide where to save the presentation.

Name and save your presentation.

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Save in PowerPoint

Save your presentation to OneDrive

When you save your files to the cloud, you can share and collaborate with others, and get to your files from anywhere - on your computer, tablet, or phone.

Select File > Save As .

Select OneDrive .

Save personal files to OneDrive - Personal , and work files to your company OneDrive. You can also save to another location, like your device.

When you're online, AutoSave is always on and saves your changes as you work. If at any time you lose your Internet connection or turn it off, any pending changes will sync as soon as you’re back online.

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PowerPoint  - Saving Presentations

Powerpoint  -, saving presentations, powerpoint saving presentations.

PowerPoint: Saving Presentations

Lesson 4: saving presentations.

/en/powerpoint/creating-and-opening-presentations/content/

Introduction

Whenever you create a new presentation in PowerPoint, you'll need to know how to save in order to access and edit it later. As with previous versions of PowerPoint, you can save files to your computer . If you prefer, you can also save files to the cloud using OneDrive . You can even export and share presentations directly from PowerPoint.

Watch the video below to learn more about saving and sharing PowerPoint presentations.

Save and Save As

PowerPoint offers two ways to save a file: Save and Save As . These options work in similar ways, with a few important differences.

• Save : When you create or edit a presentation, you'll use the Save command to save your changes. You'll use this command most of the time. When you save a file, you'll only need to choose a file name and location the first time. After that, you can just click the Save command to save it with the same name and location.
• Save As : You'll use this command to create a copy of a presentation while keeping the original. When you use Save As, you'll need to choose a different name and/or location for the copied version.

About OneDrive

Most features in Microsoft Office, including PowerPoint, are geared toward saving and sharing documents online . This is done with OneDrive , which is an online storage space for your documents and files. If you want to use OneDrive, make sure you’re signed in to PowerPoint with your Microsoft account. Review our lesson on Understanding OneDrive to learn more.

To save a presentation:

It's important to save your presentation whenever you start a new project or make changes to an existing one. Saving early and often can prevent your work from being lost. You'll also need to pay close attention to where you save the presentation so it will be easy to find later.

• If you're saving the file for the first time, the Save As pane will appear in Backstage view .

• The Save As dialog box will appear. Select the location where you want to save the presentation.

• The presentation will be saved . You can click the Save command again to save your changes as you modify the presentation.

You can also access the Save command by pressing Ctrl+S on your keyboard.

Using Save As to make a copy

If you want to save a different version of a presentation while keeping the original, you can create a copy . For example, if you have a file named Client Presentation you could save it as Client Presentation 2 so you'll be able to edit the new file and still refer back to the original version.

To do this, you'll click the Save As command in Backstage view. Just like when saving a file for the first time, you'll need to choose where to save the file and give it a new file name .

To change the default save location:

If you don't want to use OneDrive , you may be frustrated that OneDrive is selected as the default location when saving. If you find this inconvenient, you can change the default save location so This PC is selected by default.

Using AutoRecover

PowerPoint automatically saves your presentations to a temporary folder while you are working on them. If you forget to save your changes or if PowerPoint crashes, you can restore the file using AutoRecover .

To use AutoRecover:

• Open PowerPoint. If autosaved versions of a file are found, the Document Recovery pane will appear.

By default, PowerPoint autosaves every 10 minutes. If you are editing a presentation for less than 10 minutes, PowerPoint may not create an autosaved version.

If you don't see the file you need, you can browse all autosaved files from Backstage view . Just select the File tab, click Manage Presentation , then choose Recover Unsaved Presentations .

Exporting presentations

By default, PowerPoint presentations are saved in the .pptx file type. However, there may be times when you need to use another file type , such as a PDF or PowerPoint 97-2003 presentation . It's easy to export your presentation from PowerPoint to a variety of file types.

• PDF : This saves the presentation as a PDF document instead of a PowerPoint file.
• Video : This saves the presentation as a video.
• Package for CD : This saves the presentation in a folder along with the Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer, a special slide show player anyone can download.
• Handouts : This prints a handout version of your slides.
• Other file type : This saves in other file types, including PNG and PowerPoint 97-2003 .

To export a presentation:

In our example, we'll save the presentation as a PowerPoint 97-2003 file.

• Click the File tab to access Backstage view .

You can also use the Save as type drop-down menu in the Save As dialog box to save presentations in a variety of file types. Be careful to choose a file type others will be able to open.

Sharing presentations

PowerPoint makes it easy to share and collaborate on presentations using OneDrive . In the past, if you wanted to share a file with someone you could send it as an email attachment. While convenient, this system also creates multiple versions of the same file, which can be difficult to organize.

When you share a presentation from PowerPoint, you're actually giving others access to the exact same file . This lets you and the people you share with edit the same presentation without having to keep track of multiple versions.

In order to share a presentation, it must first be saved to your OneDrive .

To share a presentation:

• Open our practice presentation .
• Use Save As to create a copy of the presentation. Name the new copy Saving Challenge Practice . You can save it to a folder on your computer or to your OneDrive .
• Export the presentation as a PDF file.

/en/powerpoint/slide-basics/content/

How to Save a Copy of a PowerPoint? [Step-by-Step Guide!]

By: Author Shrot Katewa

When creating a presentation using PowerPoint, you may be used to saving the presentation from time to time in order to prevent any data loss. But, what if you want to create another copy of your presentation? How do you save a copy of your PowerPoint presentation?

In this article, we shall understand the process of saving a copy of any PowerPoint presentation in a step-by-step manner. Plus, we shall also take a look at how to save a presentation as a read-only file! That, and much more!

So, let’s get started!

1. How to Save a Copy of a PowerPoint Presentation?

Let’s address the elephant in the room straight away! How do you create a copy of a PowerPoint presentation?

Microsoft PowerPoint offers a “Save A Copy” feature which allows you to save the changes in your PowerPoint presentation in a separate copied file rather than the original file.

In some versions of Microsoft PowerPoint, the “Save A Copy” option is replaced by the “Save As” option. However, the features available through both options are fully identical.

Let’s understand the process of saving a copy of a PowerPoint presentation in further detail –

1a. How to Save a Copy of PowerPoint to Desktop?

To save a copy of a PowerPoint presentation on your desktop, follow the 3 simple steps.

Step-1: Click on the “File” tab

The first step is to click on the “File” tab. It is located on the left corner of the menu ribbon at the top of the screen. This will open the “File” menu.

Step-2: Click on the “Save A Copy” option

Depending on the version of your Microsoft PowerPoint, you have to click on the “Save A Copy” or the “Save As” option from the sidebar located on the left side in the “File” menu.

Step-3: Click on the “Save” button

In the “Save A Copy” screen, you can click on the “Save As Options” box and save a copy of your presentation in several different formats. Then all you have to do is click on the “Save” button beside the “Save As Options” box to save a copy of your presentation.

1b. Shortcut to Save a Copy of a PowerPoint Presentation

In Microsoft PowerPoint, you can also save a copy of your presentation using the keyboard shortcuts. All you have to do is press the “Alt+F2” keys (Cmd+Shift+S on Mac) on your keyboard.

This will directly open the “Save As” dialog box where you can click on the “Save as type” box to change the file format.

Make sure that you choose the correct location for saving the file from the navigation pane. Give an appropriate name to the file. Finally, click on the “Save” button.

2. How to Save a Copy of a Read-Only PowerPoint Presentation?

By saving the “Read-Only” version of a PowerPoint presentation , you can avoid any accidental edits in the original presentation file. A “Read-Only” PowerPoint file will force the user to create a copy of the presentation if any changes are made.

Thus, the original file is maintained as-in. To save a PowerPoint presentation as a read-only copy, follow the easy steps mentioned below –

Step-1: Click on the “File” Tab

In the menu ribbon located at the top of the screen, click on the “File” tab. In the sidebar located on the left side of the “File” menu, click on the “Info” option.

Step-2: Click on the “Alway Open Read-Only” option

In the “Info” screen, click on the “Protect Presentation” button which is the first button in the left column. In the dropdown menu under “Protect Presentation” , click on the “Always Open Read-Only” option.

Also Read – 7 Ways to Protect Your PowerPoint Presentation from Editing!

Finally, you have to click on the “Save A Copy” option in the sidebar on the left side of the “File” screen. Then click on the “Save” button to save a read-only copy of the PowerPoint presentation.

3. How to Save a Copy of a Shared PowerPoint Presentation?

If your colleague or client has shared a copy of a PowerPoint presentation using PowerPoint for the web or Shared Drive, you can easily download and save a copy of the shared presentation to your device.

Here’s what you need to do –

Step-1: Click on the “Save as” option

In the menu ribbon located at the top of the screen, click on the “File” tab. Then click on the “Save as” option from the “File” menu. Under the “Save As” option, click on the “Download a Copy” option.

Step-2: Click on “Download”

Now all you have to do is click on the “Download” button in the dialog box prompted by Microsoft PowerPoint.

4. How to Save a Copy of PowerPoint Without Notes?

In Microsoft PowerPoint, you can save a copy of the file without the notes.

To do so, you have to first remove the speaker notes, and then use the “Save A Copy” option. Here are 5 quick and easy steps that you can follow in order to save a copy of your PowerPoint file without notes –

In the menu ribbon, click on the “File” tab. Then click on the “Info” option from the “File” menu.

Step-2: Click on “Check for Issues”

In the “Info” screen, click on the “Check for Issues” button. Then click on the “Inspect Document” option from the dropdown menu. This will prompt a dialog box.

Step-3: Click on the “Inspect” option

In the “Document Inspector” dialog box, scroll all the way to the bottom and make sure the “Presentation Notes” option is selected. Then click on the “Inspect” button at the bottom of the dialog box.

Step-4: Click on the “Remove All” option

Once the inspection results are shown in the “Document Inspector” dialog, scroll to the bottom again to find the “Presentation Notes” option.

Then click on the “Remove All” button at the right side of the “Presentation Notes” option. Now all you have to do is click on the “Close” button at the bottom of the dialog box to finish the process.

Step-5: Click on the “Save” option

The final step is to click on the “Save A Copy” option in the sidebar of the “File” menu. In the “Save A Copy” screen, click on the “Save” button to save the presentation without notes.

5. How to Create a Copy of an Existing Presentation in a New PowerPoint File?

To create a copy of an existing presentation, you have to first open a new Microsoft PowerPoint file.

Then you can use the “Reuse Slides” feature to copy the existing presentation. The detailed process is explained in the following steps –

Step-1: Click on the “Reuse Slides” button

In the new PowerPoint presentation, click on the “Reuse Slides” button. It is located in the “Slides” group of the “Home” menu. This will open a sidebar on the right side of the screen.

Step-2: Click on “Choose Content”

In the “Reuse Slides” sidebar, click on the “Search” box.

Then type in the file name of the presentation which you want to copy. Under the thumbnail of the PowerPoint presentation, click on the “Choose Content” option.

Step-3: Click on the “Insert All” option

Now all you have to do is click on the “Insert All” option to copy the entire PowerPoint presentation into the new file.

You can also click on the “Insert Slide” option under each slide thumbnail to copy a few selected slides.

6. How to Save a Copy of PowerPoint Presentation in Other Formats?

Microsoft PowerPoint allows you to save a copy of your presentation in multiple file formats. I’ve written an entire article detailing the various formats in which you can save a PowerPoint presentation.

Make sure you check out the other article on “How to Save a PowerPoint Presentation in Multiple Formats” for all the details!

However, in a nutshell, to save a copy of your presentation in other formats, click on the “Save A Copy” option in the “File” menu. In the “Save A Copy” screen, click on the “Save As Type” box which is the second box in the right column.

Now all you have to do is click on your preferred file format from the dropdown menu. For complete details, make sure you check out the article.

Credit to drobotdean (on Freepik) for the featured image of this article (further edited)

Critical PowerPoint Shortcuts – Claim Your FREE Training Module and Get Your Time Back!

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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