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Useful Powerpoint Functions

Updated: Jan 1

Microsoft's Powerpoint has been around for a long time, since 1990 (1) to be exact. If you're like me and grew up using the software in school, you'll know it's a really helpful tool for presentations but it can also be a pain to try and get things right and look good. Now that I'm working as a designer in a corporate company, I've recently found myself using Powerpoint more. Below are some of the functions that I find really useful in creating presentations that look good and doing it quickly!

 

01 Slidemaster

View > Slidemaster

pathfinder tool diagram

If you've ever worked on a whole Powerpoint presentation, only for someone to come back and tell you to change the entire design, then this is the right function to use. It allows you to edit the overall theme which can then be applied to the entire presentation which includes colours and fonts. You can then create different template pages that can be easily inserted and edited.


The elements on the master slide can’t be moved around so you don’t need to worry about accidentally shifting things when you edit your content. This is perfect for inserting things such as headers, footers, logos and background images.


The colours and fonts also apply for things such as graphs and charts, so it ensures your entire presentation is cohesive. A good tip is to set this up first before doing up the presentation!

 

02 Smart Art

Insert > Smart Art

Blend tool diagram

Adding diagrams doesn't always have to be difficult and time consuming. Powerpoint has its Smart Art function which allows you to choose from a range of different types of diagrams. Once you've inserted it, you can easily add in your content as well as change the colours. This saves time as you don't have to manually draw out or conceptualise how to represent your information. However the downside is that there are some limitations to the arrangement of the diagram. If the information you want to represent is relatively simple then this will work well for you.

 

03 Edit Points

Shape Format > Edit Shape > Edit Points

appearance panel image

The edit points function gives you a bit more freedom and creativity with the standard shapes in Powerpoint. It allows you to drag and manipulate points on a shape to give you a somewhat more customised shape. If you use Adobe Illustrator, think of the pen tool where you can drag points around! This is great if you want to add something a bit more unique to your presentation. Under ‘edit shape’ you can also change the shape to a different preset Powerpoint shape.

 

04 Crop Image to Shape

Picture Format > Crop > Crop to Shape

edit colour image

This function allows you to crop your photo to any of the shapes available in Powerpoint, you can use this to create interesting and varied layouts. Don't just stick to the regular size of the photo you insert, instead play around with the different shapes and layout within the page. You might come up with something much more interesting!

 

05 Change Text Case

Home > Change Case

Sometimes when doing layouts, you may want to make something ALL CAPS in order to give it emphasis, or maybe you're copying text from somewhere, it's all caps and you want to change it to sentence case. There's no need to waste time and re-type the whole thing (which I have been guilty of doing). The 'change case' function allows you to just highlight the text, and change the case of the entire thing at a click of a button!


You can choose from sentence case, lower case, upper case, captalize each word and toggle case.

 

06 Type in a Shape

Create a Shape > Select Shape > Start Typing

Creating a shape then a text box is one way of placing text on your shape but when you move things around sometimes you miss things out. There's an easier way of putting text on a shape! All you have to do is click on the shape and start typing for the text to be set inside the shape.


Use align text on the home tab to align the text to the top, middle or bottom of your shape. Now when you move around the shape, the text will always be there too.

 

07 Arrange Objects

Shape Format (or picture format) > Arrange

This function is really helpful when you are inserting a lot of objects into your slide and you want to have control over the position of things. It allows you to send objects backward or forward, so for example you have just inserted a photo into the slide but you want it below some shapes that you've drawn, you can send it backward so it is placed below existing objects.


You can also align objects (in relation to the slide or in relation with other objects). For example, in the image above, the top row of circles is all messed up and out of alignment. Because I want to ensure that the elements are aligned to each other (not necessarily the slide). I ticked 'Align selected objects' then 'Align Middle' and 'Distribute Horizontally'. Try out the different options to see how they work!

 

I hope you found these Powerpoint functions useful and it will help you to elevate your presentations as well as save you time. The functions mentioned above are:

  1. Slidemaster

  2. Smart Art

  3. Edit Shape Points

  4. Crop Image to Shape

  5. Change Text Case

  6. Type in a Shape

  7. Arrange Objects

Let me know in the comments what your experience with Powerpoint has been! Is it generally a positive or negative experience? References

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerPoint

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