Become a PowerPoint pro: 7 must-know tips and tricks
Microsoft’s PowerPoint is extremely popular in schools, universities, and the corporate world, but it has never been as popular with home users. Not surprising since it’s all about creating presentations, something a private person doesn’t have to do very often.
So, if you suddenly find yourself needing to make a PowerPoint presentation and have no idea how to make it good, rest assured that you aren’t alone and there’s hope for you.
These days, PowerPoint is more than just a basic slideshow—it can be used to create video presentations with voice-over narration, and it even has an AI-based helper called Designer that gives suggestions on how to make your presentation better.
Here are several smart tips and tricks you can use to improve your PowerPoint presentations and come off as a pro.
1. Customize Quick Access
Have you noticed that PowerPoint—and the other apps in Microsoft 365 for that matter—have a small, narrow toolbar at the very top of the application window? By default, you’ll find shortcut buttons for toggling Auto Save and basic actions like Save, Undo, Repeat, etc.
This nifty toolbar also comes with some app-specific actions that you may or may not use frequently. In PowerPoint, for example, there’s a shortcut to start slideshows from the beginning.
This toolbar is called Quick Access and you can actually customize what actions show up here. You can add frequently used actions while removing the ones you never use.
This can make it easier to find important functions that you would otherwise have to rummage around the ribbon to find.