By default, PowerPoint saves your new blank presentation in your personal Templates folder (to view the contents of this folder, click Start, Run, enter ). To make this change for all the users in your organization, you must copy the Blank Presentation design template file into the personal Templates folder for each user. |
With a Blank Presentation file in the correct location, all "blank" presentations whether created via the New Presentation task pane or using the New icon on the Standard toolbarwill be based on that file.
Learning objectives.
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
At WorldCorp, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations are used company-wide for a variety of purposes, such as presenting quarterly sales data or providing training for new sales personnel. As part of the Microsoft 365 suite, PowerPoint has characteristics similar to those of other programs such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel . PowerPoint is divided into various tabs, which appear across a ribbon that helps you organize your actions.
In general, creating a storyboard or outline of a presentation , as outlined in the previous section, is a great starting point, and this is the approach we will use to build My Life in a Snapshot . To get started, this section provides an overview of the PowerPoint program, with a review of several tabs within the ribbon that you will use to develop your first slideshow from scratch. As we start using the primary elements of PowerPoint, you will begin to develop an understanding of how the program works with examples to provide context.
The vast capabilities of PowerPoint enable WorldCorp employees to present complex ideas, facts, and figures in the form of easily digestible visuals. Allowing users to create visual representations of information on the blank canvas slides can allow viewers to interpret, engage with, and expound on what they’re seeing.
Let’s begin by using the blank canvas approach to crafting a presentation.
Open PowerPoint and choose a blank presentation (the first option). You should see a screen that looks like Figure 6.5 , with an arrow highlighting the desired choice. If you want to open an existing presentation, select Open from the left sidebar and search for the file. Another option is to start with a PowerPoint template —a predesigned set of slides that you can use as a starting point for creating a new PowerPoint presentation. Templates include a defined layout and color scheme, and they often include sample text and images that you can replace with your own content. Using template s is a way to save time and ensure consistency in the design of your presentation. Like many organizations, WorldCorp has a preset template that is often used for external communications, such as presentations for clients. However, for the My Life in a Snapshot presentation, you are not restricted to using the template, as this is an internal presentation and is more informal.
In this example, you will start with a blank presentation. After opening this blank document (by double-clicking on Blank Presentation ), you should save it to your computer or to the cloud using a file name that is identifiable to the content of the presentation. As seen in Figure 6.5 , select the Blank Presentation option on the Home screen indicated by the arrow.
In a blank presentation, the initial slide PowerPoint provides is blank except for two placeholders: one for the title and one for the subtitle. When you choose a blank presentation, none of the design elements are defined in advance. The Title Slide layout that is provided by PowerPoint can quickly be altered. Most presentations should have a title. Additionally, the program opens to the Home tab found within the ribbon, as seen in Figure 6.6 . Now, the blank canvas is ready for you to craft My Life in a Snapshot for your team at WorldCorp.
Many companies tend to already have a theme developed for use with company presentations. A presentation’s theme refers to the overall design and layout of the slides, including elements such as color scheme, font choices, and graphic elements. Themes are useful because they give you an easy way to create a consistent presentation by using preset fonts and color schemes. If you had chosen a theme instead of a blank presentation, the initial slide would show the same elements, but with the design features of the theme applied. A theme can also include predesigned slide layouts, which can be used to create a cohesive and consistent look throughout the presentation.
Within the New tab, as seen in Figure 6.7 , selecting a theme allows the designer to set the tone and style of the presentation, which can help to engage the audience and convey the message more effectively. Themes can be either built-in or custom-made, depending on the software you are using. PowerPoint offers numerous themes that you can apply and search for in the search window.
Another option that users have is to select a template instead of just a theme. Unlike a theme, a template is a blueprint of a group of slides that can help meet the topic of a presentation. Templates can contain layouts, fonts, colors, and background styles much like a theme. Much like a résumé template in Word, for instance, a template in PowerPoint prompts the user, suggesting sections and topics to include. As an example, a classic conference presentation might have a specific cadence and style. Slides will be arranged to meet the needs of a conference with suggested slides and topics to include. Theme and template options are worth considering and searching for, especially if a theme matches the overall type of presentation you plan to create.
There are benefits to creating a PowerPoint presentation from a theme. First, this approach provides consistency . The program will offer multiple slides with various concepts, all using the same color pattern, style, and texture. A theme allows users to focus on the presentation message without distraction from differing designs, although it does not necessarily guarantee that they will understand the message. Additionally, starting with a theme ensures that all the slides in the presentation will have a professional aesthetic design and layout, making it look polished. Aesthetics is the study of how things look and how we perceive and respond to them. It can also refer to the overall look and feel of something—for example, the aesthetics of a website or a building.
PowerPoint themes often include a multitude of predesigned slide layouts, which can save time and effort in creating your presentation. You can click into the various text boxes or image boxes to provide the required content, copying the desired layouts that work best for you and deleting those that don’t.
Marketing toolkits.
Most companies now offer their internal stakeholders Marketing Toolkits to use. Marketing Toolkits provide users with the logos, color schemes, outlines, photo depositories, and ideas on what the company is looking for when designing marketing materials. Digital presentation information is almost always included in the toolkit.
With advances in cell phone technology and social media’s growing presence in our lives, companies can now maximize their marketing reach by enlisting their entire workforce into marketing. By providing accessible content for creators and guidelines, any employee can now be a part of promoting their employer.
Not all employees will embrace a Marketing Toolkit. It is only as effective as leadership and the culture of the company allow. See if any companies you know have a Marketing Toolkit online. Does the company toolkit offer guidelines for PowerPoint presentations? Presentations to external stakeholders can be a valuable marketing opportunity.
The themes that PowerPoint provides can be customized to reinforce your company’s image and message by matching the company’s branding and style. The visual design and layout of themes can be chosen to convey the message or tone of the presentation in a more effective way, which can make it more engaging for the audience. These themes can also be easily modified to include different colors, fonts, and graphics, allowing you to personalize the presentation while still maintaining a consistent design.
Themes are helpful, but to learn PowerPoint more deeply, you will also need to learn how to create a presentation from scratch. Start by getting to know the Home tab . The tools found on the Home tab are used to create the general structure of the slideshow, as seen in Figure 6.8 . As an introduction to this group of tools, we will review five key commands, which are circled in the figure: New Slide , Layout tab , the tools in the Font command group, the tools in the Paragraph command group, and Design Ideas .
Using the outline laid out in Figure 6.9 , you can create a slideshow from a blank document to present to the team. From here, you can see how a well-planned presentation of ideas can be created in the form of a PowerPoint slideshow.
Following the outline in Figure 6.9 , the presentation requires five distinct groups of information arranged in numerical order with subtopics. In PowerPoint, you will want to add five slides, each of which will represent one of these groups. To do this, go to the New Slide command group and, with your mouse, select the green button on New Slide four times. (Reminder: PowerPoint provides the first slide by default.) Note that you can change the layout at any time after creating a slide. For this exercise, any layout will do to get started. The default layout provided is fine.
Once complete, there should be five slides listed in the thumbnail pane on the left side of the screen. ( Figure 6.10 shows the first two of five.) You can then use the thumbnail feature to click in and out of individual slides as we develop and edit content that meets the storyboard criteria.
Now that you have created five new slides, you can edit and format them. It’s a good idea to use the same steps to edit and format each. For example, you might create a step called “adding text,” ensuring that every slide that needs text will receive text. The first slide, which is similar to a cover page for the presentation, requires a standard title and subtitle, and these are provided by default.
The next command in the Home tab (see Figure 6.8 ) is Layout tab . When you open the drop-down menu in Layout, you will see that PowerPoint offers nine basic layout options, which are designed to provide variety, balance, and consistency to each presentation design. (One of the options is “blank.” This layout gives you a blank, white canvas to build from, enabling you to design an infinite number of layouts.) For your WorldCorp presentation example, use the default layout Title Slide for the first slide. A title slide is a slide layout that provides space for a title and a subtitle. (Note that you are not using a template here.)
To add your content, click into each text box provided (it says “Click to add title” and “Click to add subtitle”). Start by typing “My Life in a Snapshot” in the first text box. In the second text box, type your name, followed by your title at WorldCorp and your geographic location, as seen in Figure 6.11 .
Next, in the thumbnail panel, select each slide and change the layout for the rest of the slides. Depending on the content of your presentation, it can be helpful to have different layouts on different slides. This presentation will use three different layouts to accommodate different types of information. Follow along by selecting each slide from the thumbnails, then selecting the Home tab, followed by selecting the layout option from the ribbon. You can choose to have information on the slide presented in a different way by changing the slide layout. For example, you could have two groupings of text side by side, as is shown in Figure 6.12 , or have the content on the slide grouped all in one area. Make sure to change the layout setting so it accurately reflects the recommendations found in Figure 6.12 .
Font choice plays a big role in PowerPoint presentations. Each letter, number, or symbol on a slide can be adjusted to a specific design. Using these options allows you to make your text more visually appealing. The process for selecting or changing a font is similar to the way you change a font’s details in Word. In PowerPoint, however, you will often have much less text to manipulate than in a Word file, and the text is usually much larger so an audience can easily view the information from a distance.
When you change font characteristics, be sure to choose what will best meet the audience’s needs. There are a few easy rules of thumb to follow when you create text for a presentation to a large audience. One of them is what’s known as the seven-seven rule —that each slide should have no more than seven lines of text and each line of text should have no more than seven words. This will help prevent you from relying on punctuation or sentence structure to convey your message. When it’s necessary to communicate via paragraphs of text, Word may be a better tool to distribute those types of communication either as handouts along with the presentation or in lieu of the presentation altogether. But, remember, this is only a rule of thumb. It is acceptable to deviate by a few words or lines based on the message and content of the presentation. The point is to keep the slides clear and simple and not to distract from the presenters themselves. Best practices can be a great help in keeping the audience front and center in your mind and staying focused on the purpose of your presentation.
Fill in the required text as displayed in Figure 6.13 . As with changing the layouts, click on each thumbnail, select the required text box, change the font to meet your needs (including the type and color of the font), and adjust the font size as needed. Type the required information (this will be your chance to start explaining who you are to your team), and then make sure to review your work for any errors. Take your time. Word choice can be a challenging task. Make sure that every slide is accounted for. Then, you’re ready to move on to the next step of designing My Life in a Snapshot .
A variety of presentation styles are available, so be sure to take note of the things you like and dislike in the presentations you attend as you develop your own style preferences. Consider the contrast between the text and the background. How easy is it to read the text while listening to a presenter? Does the text work both compressed on a laptop screen (as in a Zoom call) and displayed on a 176-inch projector screen designed for a room full of people? You will notice that the font size and choice are large and easy to read in this project. Later, as you explore the many available options, you are likely to find that the text font needs to match the theme of the presentation.
Next, consider the text. Is this the appropriate content to display? As an example, in Figure 6.14 , you can compare the options for our closing slide choice. Is the use of a graphic image of a question mark the best option, or would a written question, as in the center image, be more effective? In some cases, a combination of pictures and text may work best. There is no perfect answer—PowerPoint gives you many options. But at some point, you will need to make decisions. No matter how creative the formatting of the text, a combination of content may be a better option when deciding what layout and kinds of content to use.
Both the font and the paragraph options have functionality only when a text box has been selected. As with the paragraph options, Office offers a helpful array of choices for line spacing, adding bullets, numbering, aligning text, and adding or removing columns. If the default bullet points or line spacing options provided in the text box layouts are incorrect or missing, this can be a place to add or change the required element. You can make changes within a text box either by selecting the entire text box or by selecting only the location you want to change.
The latest option group Microsoft has built into the newest PowerPoint versions is the Design Ideas tab (also called the Designer tab in different versions of PowerPoint). (Refer again to Figure 6.8 .) This is an on/off button that provides advanced slide layouts and “smart” options when turned on. The Design Ideas feature increases the options available to you as the content creator of My Life in a Snapshot —or any presentation you may be called on to create.
Select the first slide in your presentation, which is typically the title slide , and type in the title of the presentation. As the title is added, you can see how quickly a few words can shape an entire slide. Turn on the Design Ideas option in the Home tab . You will notice several options to the right of the screen. These options are often unique to the words and layout you provide. In this step, select an option that fits your personality, and the transformation will occur. An example is provided in the comparison Figure 6.15 from an employee who started not too long ago in WorldCorp’s South Asian Marketing division. The image on the left was the general text the WorldCorp team member typed into the default Title Slide layout. The image on the right is the option they chose that best matched their personality, which was created and offered by the designer in PowerPoint. Keep in mind that the Design Ideas option is available for only one slide at a time.
Because the Design Ideas option was turned on, it reviewed the text within the text boxes and considered several complete design options that could apply. Starting with a very limited bit of information, the Design Ideas option could add multimedia content (3D models, pictures, background themes); alter the text alignment, color, size, and formatting; change the layout; and create an entire theme representing the keywords on the page. It could even add simple animations, such as a snowflake background with snowflakes gently falling. Having these action components is like having an entire production team on call to quickly merge your ideas with existing collaborative content to make exquisite slides.
Instead of using the Design Ideas feature, you may want to design your PowerPoint yourself. The wide range of design options in PowerPoint allows you to change the overall look and feel of your presentation, quickly and easily. By using the built-in template s, color schemes, and slide layouts, you can transform the roughed-out text that you added earlier to polished, professional-looking presentation slides without spending much time and effort on design. (You will learn more about this process in the chapter on Giving Presentations ). Rather than using the Design Ideas feature, which only formats a single slide at a time, the Design tab provides a collection of tools for altering color schemes and layout designs for all of the slides at once. For example, you could change your entire color palette with just a few clicks of the mouse, applying the design to all the slides according to their predefined layout. Additionally, the option to change the slide layout makes it easy to organize the information in a way that is easy for the audience to follow and understand.
In summary, the Design tab in PowerPoint will help to make the process of creating a presentation faster, easier, and more professional-looking, by allowing you to communicate your message in the best possible way for your audience. Building new content for presentations is like building anything else: To do a professional job, you need professional tools, and you need to know how to use them.
Now it’s time to select the design and variation recommended in Figure 6.16 . The first command group on the Design tab focuses on themes. Each theme is unique and modifiable. We have a particular theme we want you to use for the remainder of your slides. Hold down the Control key on your keyboard (Ctrl). With your mouse, select slides 2, 3, 4, and 5 from the thumbnails. Go to the top of the screen and choose the theme circled in Figure 6.16 . The theme will be applied to only the slides you selected. Your uniquely designed title slide will remain. Remember to save your work. You will quickly notice how themes and variations can elevate your design.
For more ideas, you can turn to the Design Ideas pane at the right of the slide area, as shown in Figure 6.16 . (Note that in this figure, the Design Ideas option is called Designer.) For even more ideas, click on See More Design Ideas at the bottom of the pane. This can be accomplished by selecting a particular slide. On the ribbon on the Design tab, the Designer/Design Ideas option will illuminate on the far-right side. Click on the icon and then scroll down, and you can click again on See More Design Ideas. If you have Microsoft 365, your app will be updated as designers add new themes.
The next command group on the Design tab is titled Variants. Variants are essentially modifications you can make within a single theme. These provide a way to add a different overall look. This group initially displays four different color schemes to use with your theme. It lets you change the color combinations, font, or background, or add special effects. For every theme you choose, you can alter the color scheme and font combination (title and regular text). Make sure in your slideshow for My Life in a Snapshot that you have selected both the theme and the corresponding variation of the theme.
Figure 6.17 displays other variant settings that you can customize, including fonts, effects, and background styles. These options can be accessed in the Design tab, within the Variants ribbon, using the down arrow option. Colors, Fonts, Effects, and Background Styles all become options with a multitude of choices.
Selecting the arrow to the right for Colors extends a drop-down list that displays many preset color scheme possibilities, plus a Customize Colors option that allows you to change all of the colors in a scheme. The Font variant lets you pick different fonts for title text and body text. The Effects variant, or Artistic Effects, applies a graphic effect or filter to your slides, such as making them look like a sketch or a painting. Effects can be applied to a single slide or to all slides within the presentation.
The last command group on the Design tab is Customize , which gives options to change the slide size and format the background appearance. You won’t need to use this option for your first presentation, but it is a helpful tool to learn for your future presentations. The slide size command offers two principal choices of aspect ratio , which is the relationship of the slide’s width to its height: standard (compatible with older screen sizes), with an aspect ratio of 4:3, and widescreen (for today’s HD environment), with an aspect ratio of 16:9 ( Figure 6.18 ).
Also found in the Customize group of commands is the Format Background command. Click on it and you will see the menu as shown in Figure 6.19 . This command lets you change the background of a slide by changing the fill to a solid color, gradient fill, pattern fill, and so on. Select fill and then hover over each of the circles to see the available color and background options.
Format Background contains all the options for changing the background: Solid fill, Gradient fill, Picture or texture fill, and Pattern fill. Each option has its own set of elements to adjust. Solid fill is just that—choose a solid color for your background. Gradient fill lets you choose the way the color is spread across the slide, the intensity or transparency of the color, and the shape the background effect follows as it moves across the slide. Finally, you can fill the background with a pattern or a photo.
There are many ways to customize a theme to meet your specific needs. Different color combinations, fonts, effects, and background styles are all elements you can use to customize your presentation. Even small changes may be transformative.
The next tab to review is the View tab. To have a basic understanding of PowerPoint , you will need to know the general purpose of several view options. Within the View ribbon, there are seven command groups. The first three are circled in Figure 6.20 , starting with Presentation Views .
When creating slides, you will typically work with the Normal View , the default view that PowerPoint opens within a new presentation ( Figure 6.21 ). The large window shows the current slide, and the other slides are shown as thumbnails down the left side of the window. The large window gives you plenty of room to focus on developing content and layout for each slide while you can also jump in and out of each slide through the thumbnails.
Outline View shows a list of the slides on the left, highlighting the text rather than the actual slides as pictures. In Outline View, you can scroll through the text of each slide rather than having to jump in and out of individual slides. This can be a great aid when reviewing or organizing text, as seen in Figure 6.22 . (You may have noticed that we changed our title slide to match the theme of the rest of the slides. Now the presentation has a more consistent design.)
Slide Sorter is an option that lays out slides in order, allowing you to move them around with a drag-and-drop of the mouse. This view is useful when you want to add or delete a slide or change their order.
For example, suppose a team member creates a photo album to introduce themselves, with each slide consisting of a single photo. If they select thirty photos, creating an album with thirty slides, Slide Sorter View can help them edit the album by adding or deleting a photo and by arranging the photos in the desired order. In My Life in a Snapshot, with only five slides to edit, this view would be overkill. But with a larger presentation with many more slides, a Slide Sorter View can be a helpful option.
Notes view (or Notes Page ) displays a single slide with the notes below the text or image. These notes are typically designed for the speaker. They may be reminders, citations, or any various notes that the presenter wants to have at their fingertips. This can be handy when a user wants to add or edit a large amount of text. If, for example, they have a lot of text on a slide but are not sure yet which words might be best to highlight for the audience, this area of notes can provide a collection place for content.
The Reading View displays slides one at a time, as they would appear in a slideshow. Utilizing the View option allows you to take any one of the five slides and adjust the size of text boxes and change alignments—all while seeing most of the screen.
The Master Views option group may be a bit advanced for this introductory review, but we will provide a brief example. Within this group, the Slide Master is simply a template of the slide, breaking apart the individual components of the slide layout. This is a time-saving method for creating professional and consistent presentations. You can start with one of the PowerPoint themes or a blank slide, add or change the colors, add borders, change the font, and change or create a layout of your own. You can insert text boxes and object placeholders. When you do this on a master slide, you create a template that unifies the slides in a slideshow. When you have completed a slide that you want to keep as a master slide, select File, Save As, choose a location, and, in file type, choose PowerPoint Template. This is now a Master Slide template that you can use repeatedly.
Handouts Master and Notes Master are specialized viewing modes for specific tasks. The Handouts Master options allow developers to create a template for the PowerPoint printed handout for audience members. Slides can be arranged; titles, dates, and notes can be laid out. Within the Notes Master option group, the view of the slides and printable notes can be arranged as you desire.
This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.
Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.
Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/workplace-software-skills/pages/1-chapter-scenario
© Jan 3, 2024 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.
Five tips to set yourself apart.
Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).
I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.
Improve your practice.
Enhance your soft skills with a range of award-winning courses.
August 3, 2018 - Dom Barnard
For many people the thought of delivering a presentation is a daunting task and brings about a great deal of nerves . However, if you take some time to understand how effective presentations are structured and then apply this structure to your own presentation, you’ll appear much more confident and relaxed.
Here is our complete guide for structuring your presentation, with examples at the end of the article to demonstrate these points.
If you’ve ever sat through a great presentation, you’ll have left feeling either inspired or informed on a given topic. This isn’t because the speaker was the most knowledgeable or motivating person in the world. Instead, it’s because they know how to structure presentations – they have crafted their message in a logical and simple way that has allowed the audience can keep up with them and take away key messages.
Research has supported this, with studies showing that audiences retain structured information 40% more accurately than unstructured information.
In fact, not only is structuring a presentation important for the benefit of the audience’s understanding, it’s also important for you as the speaker. A good structure helps you remain calm, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences.
Generally speaking, there is a natural flow that any decent presentation will follow which we will go into shortly. However, you should be aware that all presentation structures will be different in their own unique way and this will be due to a number of factors, including:
Before choosing the presentation’s structure answer these questions first:
When reading the points below, think critically about what things may cause your presentation structure to be slightly different. You can add in certain elements and add more focus to certain moments if that works better for your speech.
This is the usual flow of a presentation, which covers all the vital sections and is a good starting point for yours. It allows your audience to easily follow along and sets out a solid structure you can add your content to.
Before you start delivering your talk, introduce yourself to the audience and clarify who you are and your relevant expertise. This does not need to be long or incredibly detailed, but will help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. It gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help establish your ethos so the audience will trust you more and think you’re credible.
Read our tips on How to Start a Presentation Effectively
In the introduction you need to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation whilst gaining the audience’s interest and confidence. It’s sometimes helpful to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped to help filter down your topic:
In this section also explain:
The way you structure your introduction can depend on the amount of time you have been given to present: a sales pitch may consist of a quick presentation so you may begin with your conclusion and then provide the evidence. Conversely, a speaker presenting their idea for change in the world would be better suited to start with the evidence and then conclude what this means for the audience.
Keep in mind that the main aim of the introduction is to grab the audience’s attention and connect with them.
The main body of your talk needs to meet the promises you made in the introduction. Depending on the nature of your presentation, clearly segment the different topics you will be discussing, and then work your way through them one at a time – it’s important for everything to be organised logically for the audience to fully understand. There are many different ways to organise your main points, such as, by priority, theme, chronologically etc.
When planning your presentation write a list of main points you want to make and ask yourself “What I am telling the audience? What should they understand from this?” refining your answers this way will help you produce clear messages.
In presentations the conclusion is frequently underdeveloped and lacks purpose which is a shame as it’s the best place to reinforce your messages. Typically, your presentation has a specific goal – that could be to convert a number of the audience members into customers, lead to a certain number of enquiries to make people knowledgeable on specific key points, or to motivate them towards a shared goal.
Regardless of what that goal is, be sure to summarise your main points and their implications. This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there.
Follow these steps:
Conclude your talk by thanking the audience for their time and invite them to ask any questions they may have. As mentioned earlier, personal circumstances will affect the structure of your presentation.
Many presenters prefer to make the Q&A session the key part of their talk and try to speed through the main body of the presentation. This is totally fine, but it is still best to focus on delivering some sort of initial presentation to set the tone and topics for discussion in the Q&A.
The above was a description of a basic presentation, here are some more specific presentation layouts:
Use the demonstration structure when you have something useful to show. This is usually used when you want to show how a product works. Steve Jobs frequently used this technique in his presentations.
This structure is particularly useful in persuading the audience.
As well as incorporating stories in your presentation , you can organise your whole presentation as a story. There are lots of different type of story structures you can use – a popular choice is the monomyth – the hero’s journey. In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge – they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.
Storytelling for Business Success webinar , where well-know storyteller Javier Bernad shares strategies for crafting compelling narratives.
Another popular choice for using a story to structure your presentation is in media ras (in the middle of thing). In this type of story you launch right into the action by providing a snippet/teaser of what’s happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. This is engaging because you’re starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious – they’ll want to know how you got there.
The remaining method structure is good for situations where you’re presenting your perspective on a controversial topic which has split people’s opinions.
When delivering presentations it’s important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand how everything links together and why it’s all relevant. This can be done using speech transitions which are words and phrases that allow you to smoothly move from one point to another so that your speech flows and your presentation is unified.
Transitions can be one word, a phrase or a full sentence – there are many different forms, here are some examples:
Signify to the audience that you will now begin discussing the first main point:
Move from one point to a similar one:
Internal summarising consists of summarising before moving on to the next point. You must inform the audience:
You can move your body and your standing location when you transition to another point. The audience find it easier to follow your presentation and movement will increase their interest.
A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:
Slides are a useful tool for most presentations: they can greatly assist in the delivery of your message and help the audience follow along with what you are saying. Key slides include:
There are some presenters who choose not to use slides at all, though this is more of a rarity. Slides can be a powerful tool if used properly, but the problem is that many fail to do just that. Here are some golden rules to follow when using slides in a presentation:
Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should follow a 10-20-30 rule :
Here are some additional resources for slide design:
Group presentations are structured in the same way as presentations with one speaker but usually require more rehearsal and practices. Clean transitioning between speakers is very important in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this consists of:
From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.
Having examples of great presentations will help inspire your own structures, here are a few such examples, each unique and inspiring in their own way.
This presentation by ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt demonstrates some of the most important lessons he and his team have learnt with regards to working with some of the most talented individuals they hired. The simplistic yet cohesive style of all of the slides is something to be appreciated. They are relatively straightforward, yet add power and clarity to the narrative of the presentation.
Since being released in 2009, this presentation has been viewed almost four million times all around the world. The message itself is very powerful, however, it’s not an idea that hasn’t been heard before. What makes this presentation so powerful is the simple message he is getting across, and the straightforward and understandable manner in which he delivers it. Also note that he doesn’t use any slides, just a whiteboard where he creates a simple diagram of his opinion.
Here’s an example of a presentation given by a relatively unknown individual looking to inspire the next generation of graduates. Rick’s presentation is unique in many ways compared to the two above. Notably, he uses no visual prompts and includes a great deal of humour.
However, what is similar is the structure he uses. He first introduces his message that the wisest man he knew was a third-grade dropout. He then proceeds to deliver his main body of argument, and in the end, concludes with his message. This powerful speech keeps the viewer engaged throughout, through a mixture of heart-warming sentiment, powerful life advice and engaging humour.
As you can see from the examples above, and as it has been expressed throughout, a great presentation structure means analysing the core message of your presentation. Decide on a key message you want to impart the audience with, and then craft an engaging way of delivering it.
By preparing a solid structure, and practising your talk beforehand, you can walk into the presentation with confidence and deliver a meaningful message to an interested audience.
It’s important for a presentation to be well-structured so it can have the most impact on your audience. An unstructured presentation can be difficult to follow and even frustrating to listen to. The heart of your speech are your main points supported by evidence and your transitions should assist the movement between points and clarify how everything is linked.
Research suggests that the audience remember the first and last things you say so your introduction and conclusion are vital for reinforcing your points. Essentially, ensure you spend the time structuring your presentation and addressing all of the sections.
By: Author Shrot Katewa
If you want to make great presentations, and you are not a design wizard, slide layouts can come in really handy! It is a great place to start designing your presentation. If you are beginning your journey with PowerPoint, you may wonder, what is slide layout in PowerPoint?
Slide Layouts in PowerPoint are pre-created slide designs that allow you to quickly and easily add text, headings, images, tables, etc. By default, PowerPoint provides 9 slide layouts (including a blank slide). PowerPoint also allows you to easily add, edit and delete slide layouts.
So, where can you find these slide layouts? How do you format them? Well, in this article, I will share with you all the basic details that you need to know in order to get started with using and understanding the slide layouts in PowerPoint!
So, let’s get started!
A slide on PowerPoint can contain several elements including text, shapes, tables, images, headers, footers. In fact, there may be more than one same type of element present on a single slide. When you start creating a presentation, you are basically using some of these elements to share an inspiring story or an important piece of information.
However, the aesthetics of the slide are determined by how well you lay out these elements on the slide. If you have fairly good design skills, you will easily be able to create an aesthetically pleasing slide! For the rest of us, slide layouts are the way to go!
In Microsoft PowerPoint, a “Slide Layout” refers to the way certain elements (such as text box, image, table, etc) are arranged on the slide. A slide layout is a pre-designed slide format with placeholders that allow you to add text, images, and other elements quickly to the slide.
Using slide layout and master slides, you can also control the color scheme of the presentation, type of fonts, effects, background, headers, footers, and other aspects of presentation design.
This functionality in PowerPoint that allows various pre-created designs to be added to a presentation is often leveraged by corporations. Organizations often create templates and not only control the way presentations look and feel, but also save time for their employees by providing them with various slide design options out of the box!
Pre-set slide layouts are amazing as they allow you to create or use PowerPoint presentation templates. These are pre-designed slide bundles that not only look great on a presentation even when used by a non-designer but also save time for the user of these templates.
For this article, I will be using one of the presentation templates from Envato Elements . With Envato Elements, you get access to thousands of presentation designs with unlimited downloads so you never run out of options again. Plus, you get free previews so you know exactly what you’re getting before buying! It is also very affordable.
To get quick access to the different layouts of your PowerPoint presentation, click on the ‘Layout’ button in the ‘Slides’ section of the ‘Home’ tab . By clicking on the ‘Layout’ button you will see the various slide layouts present in your presentation.
To get complete access to all the Slide Layouts in your PowerPoint so that you can edit them, you have to go to the ‘Master Views’ section under the ‘View’ tab. The whole process is described in the steps mentioned below.
Step-1: Go to the ‘View’ Tab
The first step is to go to the ‘View’ tab which is the second to last tab in the ribbon of your PowerPoint.
Step-2: Go to the ‘Slide Master’ view
In the next step, all you have to do is click on the ‘Slide Master’ view option in the ‘Master Views’ section which is located in the ‘Views’ tab.
By clicking on the ‘Slide Master’ viewing option, you will be taken to the Slide Layout view of the PowerPoint presentation.
Related Article – Slide View Options in PowerPoint! [A Complete Guide!]
Here, you will notice that the menu options change. Furthermore, you now have access to the different shape, image and text placeholders present on the slide. You will be able to move these placeholders and get complete access to the slide layout.
You can change the Slide Layout of a slide in your PowerPoint presentation by using the Quick access ‘Layout’ option in the ‘Home’ tab of the ribbon. The process is described in 2 easy steps below.
Step-1: Select the Slide first
At first, you have to go to the slide you want to change the layout of and then click on the ‘Layout’ button in the ‘Slides’ section of the ‘Home’ tab. This will open a drop-down menu of all the slide layouts in your presentation.
Step-2: Click on Layout and Select a Different Layout
After clicking on the ‘Layout’ button, from the drop-down menu, simply select the layout that you want the slide to change into and the layout of that slide will be changed instantly.
Applying slide layout to all slides could mean a couple of things –
Whatever the case may be, we shall understand both in greater detail below –
There are certain changes that you sometimes need to apply to all slides. For instance, adding a slide number, adding a company disclaimer, or a company logo.
To apply a change to all slide layout, you will have to edit the ‘Master Slide’ .
You will first need to access the “ Master Slides ” using the “ Slide Master View “. To do that, simply click on “ View “, then click on “ Slide Master “. (as described in the previous sections)
It is the first slide in the ‘Slide Master’ view option which you can find, as discussed earlier, in the ‘Views’ tab.
By applying a change to the ‘Master Slide’ the change will be added to all the other slides in the presentation as well. After going to the ‘Slide Master’ views, follow the simple steps described below.
In the following example, I’m going to add a “Star” (that shall act as a logo) to the top-right corner of the master slide.
Step-1: Apply the change in the ‘Master Slide’ layout.
To apply slide layout to all the slides, make the change that you want to have on the ‘Master Slide’ . In this case I have added a star on the top right corner of the Slide.
Step-2: Send the applied changes to the background
To keep the change, you have made on the background of every slide as a layout, ‘Right click’ on the objects and click on the ‘Send to back’ option from the drop-down menu.
That way, the object will be applied to the background of all the slides and the texts will be visible on top of the logo or the element added.
If you want to apply a particular slide layout to all slides, follow the below mentioned steps –
Step 1 – Select All Slides
The first step is to select all the slides. To do that, first click on any one slide. Then, press the “ Ctrl+A ” (Cmd+A for Mac) key combination on your keyboard to select all slides.
Step 2 – Change the Slide Layout
The next step is simply choosing the layout that you want to apply to all slides. To do that, first click on “Home”. Then, click on “Layouts” and choose a layout from the array of slide layouts presented by PowerPoint.
As soon as you select a slide layout, PowerPoint will apply it to all slides.
The default PowerPoint Slide Layout is the style of layout that the Microsoft PowerPoint software provides you out-of-the-box when you open a new PowerPoint file.
The default layout consists of 9 styles of slides which are:
To edit a slide Layout, you have to use the ‘Slide Master’ view as discussed earlier in the article and follow the simple steps given below.
Step-1: Go to the layout you want to change in the ‘Master Slides’ view
The first step is to go to the ‘Slide Master’ view in the ‘View’ tab and click on the Layout that you want to edit.
Step-2: Make the preferred edits to the layout
Now, all you have to do is make the preferred edits in the selected layout. After making the edits, the element of the layout will be changed accordingly in the ‘Layout’ option in the ‘Slides’ section of the ‘Home’ tab and all the slides that are using that layout.
Related Article – How to Edit Background Graphics Using Slide Master in PowerPoint!
To create a new slide layout in PowerPoint, go to the ‘Slide Master’ view in the ‘Views’ tab in the ribbon and follow the 2 easy steps described below.
Step-1: Click on the position where you want to add the new slide layout
At first you have to click on the position where you want to add the new slide layout in the ‘Slide Navigation’ bar.
Step-2: ‘Insert Layout’ button at the ‘Edit Master’ section.
After you have clicked on the position where you want to add the new slide layout, all you have to do is click on the ‘Insert layout’ button located in the ‘Edit Master’ section of the ‘Slide Master’ view.
To insert a blank slide layout in PowerPoint, add a new layout and follow the simple steps given below.
Step-1: Select all the elements in the new slide layout
After inserting a new slide layout, select all the elements that are on the slide layout. You can do that by holding the ‘Left’ mouse button at one corner of the slide and dragging the selector cursor over all the elements of the slide.
Alternatively, you can also ‘left click’ on the elements one by one while holding the ‘Ctrl’ button on your keyboard or click on one of the elements in the slide layout and press the ‘ Ctrl + A ’ buttons on the keyboard of your computer.
Step-2: Delete the elements or object present on the slide
Finally, delete all the elements that you have selected on the new slide layout. You can do that by clicking on the ‘Backspace’ button or the ‘Delete’ button on the keyboard of your computer while keeping all the elements of the new slide layout selected. That way, the new slide layout will be blank.
Step-3: Rename the Slide Layout and Exit Slide Master
The last step is to rename the slide master so that you can easily identify the newly created slide layout in the layout menu. Once that’s done, simply click on “ Close Master View ” to exit the slide master.
In PowerPoint, there are 16 different types of slide layouts that you can apply to your presentation. All 16 of these layouts are divided into 4 categories. The categories and types of slide layouts is listed below.
Credit to psh.vector (on Freepik) for the Featured Image of this Article
Tips for setting up Slide Layouts
Jump to a Section
PowerPoint's built-in slide layouts give you the versatility and creativity you need to create slideshows that communicate your message clearly and effectively. Here are a few tips to help you use slide layouts in your workflow and structure information that reaches your audience.
These instructions apply to PowerPoint 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010; PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, PowerPoint Online, PowerPoint for Mac, PowerPoint for iPhone, and PowerPoint for Android.
When you first open PowerPoint, your screen resembles the image above and includes these areas:
When you open a new presentation in PowerPoint, the first slide is the Title slide and contains text placeholders. To customize this slide layout, select the placeholder text and enter a new title and subtitle.
To add a new slide to your presentation, select Home > New Slide . This adds the Title and Content slide layout. This is the default slide layout and it contains placeholders for a title, bullet text, images , and illustrations.
If you need a different type of slide, select the New Slide down arrow . This opens a menu that contains nine different slide layouts. Choose one of these slide layouts to add it to your presentation.
When you select Home > New Slide , a new slide is added using the current slide layout. For example, if the current slide on the screen uses the Picture With Caption slide layout, the new slide will also be of that type.
The Title and Content slide layout contains placeholders for a title, a bullet list, images, and illustrations.
To add bullet text to this slide, select the bullet placeholder and enter your new text. Each time you press Enter , a new bullet appears for the next line of text.
To add content other than text to the Title and Content slide layout, select an icon from the set of six content types. The different types of content that can be inserted in this slide layout include a table, chart , SmartArt graphic, pictures, online pictures, and video.
If you've created a slide and you don't like the layout, change it to one of the nine different slide layout choices in PowerPoint. Display the slide you want to change in the Slide Pane and select Home > Layout (in PowerPoint 2019, select Slide Layout ) to see the list of available slide layouts. The current slide layout is highlighted. Select a different slide layout and the current slide takes on this new slide layout.
Here's a description of each of the built-in slide layouts:
The Slides Tab is located on the left side of the PowerPoint screen. The default setting is Normal and shows thumbnail views of the slides in your presentation. If you'd rather see an outline of your presentation, select View > Outline View .
Each time you add a new slide, a miniature version of that slide appears in the Slides Tab on the left side of the screen. Select a thumbnail to place that slide in the Slides Pane for editing.
You're not limited to the layout of a slide as it first appears in PowerPoint. You may add, move, and remove text boxes and other objects at any time on any slide.
If no slide layout suits your specific needs, insert a Blank slide and add text boxes or other objects to fit the information you want to convey.
Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day
Delivering a captivating presentation is an art that requires more than just confidence and oratory skills. From the design of your slides to the way you carry yourself on stage, every little detail contributes to the overall effectiveness of your presentation. For those who wish to master this art, getting familiar with the associated terminology is a great place to start.
In this article, we’ll explore “30 Presentation Terms & What They Mean,” shedding light on the key terms and concepts in the world of presentations. Whether you’re a professional looking to refine your skills, a student aiming to ace your next presentation, or just someone curious about the subject, this guide is sure to provide you with valuable insights.
Dive in as we explore everything from slide decks and speaker notes to body language and Q&A sessions.
Each term is elaborated in depth, giving you a comprehensive understanding of their meanings and applications. This knowledge will not only make you more comfortable with presentations but will also empower you to deliver them more effectively.
Download thousands of PowerPoint templates, and many other design elements, with a monthly Envato Elements membership. It starts at $16 per month, and gives you unlimited access to a growing library of over 2,000,000 presentation templates, fonts, photos, graphics, and more.
Fully animated.
New & innovative.
Startup pitch deck.
Explore PowerPoint Templates
A slide deck, in its most basic sense, is a collection of slides that are presented in sequence to support a speech or presentation. The slides typically contain key points, graphics, and other visual aids that make the presentation more engaging and easier to understand.
Beyond merely displaying information, a well-crafted slide deck can tell a story, create an emotional connection, or illustrate complex concepts in a digestible way. Its design elements, including the choice of colors, fonts, and images, play a significant role in how the presentation is received by the audience.
Speaker notes are a feature in presentation software that allows presenters to add notes or cues to their slides. These notes are only visible to the presenter during the presentation. They can include additional information, reminders, prompts, or even the full script of the speech.
While the audience sees the slide deck, the speaker can use these notes as a guide to ensure they cover all necessary points without memorizing the entire speech. It’s essential to use speaker notes strategically – they should aid the presentation, not become a script that hinders natural delivery.
A template is a pre-designed layout for a slide deck. It typically includes a set design, color scheme, typefaces, and placeholders for content like text, images, and graphs. Templates can significantly reduce the time and effort required to create a professional-looking presentation.
While templates can be incredibly helpful, it’s important to choose one that aligns with the theme, purpose, and audience of the presentation. Customizing the template to match your brand or topic can further enhance its effectiveness.
In the realm of presentations, a transition refers to the visual effect that occurs when you move from one slide to the next. Simple transitions include fade-ins and fade-outs, while more complex ones might involve 3D effects, wipes, or spins.
Transitions can add a touch of professionalism and dynamism to a presentation when used correctly. However, overuse or choosing flashy transitions can be distracting and detract from the content. The key is to use transitions that complement the presentation’s tone and pace without overshadowing the message.
Animation is the process of making objects or text in your slide deck appear to move. This can involve anything from making bullet points appear one by one, to having graphics fly in or out, to creating a simulation of a complex process. Animation can add interest, emphasize points, and guide the audience’s attention throughout the presentation.
While animations can make a presentation more engaging, they must be used judiciously. Excessive or overly complex animations can distract the audience, complicate the message, and look unprofessional. As with transitions, animations should support the content, not detract from it.
Multimedia refers to the combination of different types of media — such as text, images, audio, video, and animation — within a single presentation. Incorporating multimedia elements can make a presentation more engaging, cater to different learning styles, and aid in explaining complex ideas.
However, it’s important to ensure that multimedia elements are relevant, high-quality, and appropriately scaled for the presentation. Additionally, depending on the presentation venue, technical considerations such as file sizes, internet speed, and audio quality need to be taken into account when using multimedia.
In the context of presentation design, white space (or negative space) refers to the unmarked portions of a slide, which are free of text, images, or other visual elements. Despite its name, white space doesn’t necessarily have to be white — it’s any area of a slide not filled with content.
White space can give a slide a clean, balanced look and can help draw attention to the most important elements. It can also reduce cognitive load, making it easier for the audience to process information. Good use of white space is often a key difference between professional and amateur designs.
Aspect ratio is the proportional relationship between a slide’s width and height. It’s typically expressed as two numbers separated by a colon, such as 4:3 or 16:9. The first number represents the width, and the second represents the height.
The choice of aspect ratio can affect how content fits on the screen and how the presentation appears on different displays. For instance, a 16:9 aspect ratio is often used for widescreen displays, while a 4:3 ratio may be more suitable for traditional computer monitors and projectors.
The grid system is a framework used to align and layout design elements in a slide. It’s comprised of horizontal and vertical lines that divide the slide into equal sections or grids.
The grid system aids in creating visual harmony, balance, and consistency across slides. It can guide the placement of text, images, and other elements, ensuring that they’re evenly spaced and aligned. It’s an important tool for maintaining a professional and organized appearance in a presentation.
Readability refers to how easy it is for an audience to read and understand the text on your slides. It involves factors such as font size, typeface, line length, spacing, and contrast with the background.
Ensuring good readability is crucial in presentations. If your audience can’t easily read and understand your text, they’ll be more likely to disengage. Large fonts, simple language, high-contrast color schemes, and ample white space can enhance readability.
An infographic is a visual representation of information, data, or knowledge. They’re used in presentations to communicate complex data in a clear, concise, and engaging way. Infographics can include charts, graphs, icons, pictures, and text.
While infographics can effectively communicate complex ideas, they must be designed carefully. Too much information, confusing visuals, or a lack of a clear hierarchy can make an infographic difficult to understand. It’s important to keep the design simple and focus on the key message.
To embed in a presentation context means to incorporate external content, such as a video, a document, or a website, directly into a slide. When an object is embedded, it becomes part of the presentation file and can be viewed or played without leaving the presentation.
Embedding can be a useful tool to incorporate interactive or supplementary content into a presentation. However, it’s important to remember that it can increase the file size of the presentation and may require an internet connection or specific software to function correctly.
A palette, in terms of presentations, refers to the set of colors chosen to be used throughout the slide deck. This can include primary colors for backgrounds and text, as well as secondary colors for accents and highlights.
The right color palette can help convey the mood of a presentation, reinforce branding, and increase visual interest. It’s important to choose colors that work well together and provide enough contrast for readability. Tools like color wheel or color scheme generators can be helpful in choosing a harmonious palette.
Vector graphics are digital images created using mathematical formulas rather than pixels. This means they can be scaled up or down without losing quality, making them ideal for presentations that may be viewed on different screen sizes.
Vector graphics often have smaller file sizes than their pixel-based counterparts (raster graphics), which can help keep your presentation file manageable. Common types of vector graphics include logos, icons, and illustrations.
A mood board is a collection of images, text, colors, and other design elements that serve as visual inspiration for a presentation. It helps establish the aesthetic, mood, or theme of the presentation before the design process begins.
Creating a mood board can be a valuable step in the presentation design process. It can help you visualize how different elements will work together, communicate your design ideas to others, and maintain consistency across your slides.
In design, hierarchy refers to the arrangement of elements in a way that implies importance. In presentations, visual hierarchy helps guide the viewer’s eye to the most important elements first.
Hierarchy can be created through the use of size, color, contrast, alignment, and whitespace. Effective use of hierarchy can make your slides easier to understand and keep your audience focused on the key points.
Stock photos are professionally taken photographs that are bought and sold on a royalty-free basis. They can be used in presentations to add visual interest, convey emotions, or illustrate specific concepts.
While stock photos can enhance a presentation, it’s important to use them judiciously and choose images that align with your presentation’s tone and content. Overuse of generic or irrelevant stock photos can make a presentation feel impersonal or unprofessional.
Sans serif refers to a category of typefaces that do not have small lines or strokes attached to the ends of larger strokes. Sans serif fonts are often used in presentations because they’re typically easier to read on screens than serif fonts, which have these small lines.
Some popular sans serif fonts for presentations include Helvetica, Arial, and Calibri. When choosing a font for your slides, readability should be a primary consideration.
A hyperlink, or link, is a clickable element in a slide that directs the viewer to another slide in the deck, a different document, or a web page. Hyperlinks can be used in presentations to provide additional information or to navigate to specific slides.
While hyperlinks can be useful, they should be used sparingly and appropriately. Links that direct the viewer away from the presentation can be distracting and disrupt the flow of your talk.
PDF stands for Portable Document Format. It’s a file format that preserves the fonts, images, graphics, and layout of any source document, regardless of the computer or software used to create it. Presentations are often saved and shared as PDFs to ensure they look the same on any device.
While a PDF version of your presentation will maintain its appearance, it won’t include interactive elements like animations, transitions, and hyperlinks. Therefore, it’s best used for distributing slide handouts or when the presentation software used to create the deck isn’t available.
Raster graphics are digital images composed of individual pixels. These pixels, each a single point with its own color, come together to form the full image. Photographs are the most common type of raster graphics.
While raster graphics can provide detailed and vibrant images, they don’t scale well. Enlarging a raster image can lead to pixelation, where the individual pixels become visible and the image appears blurry. For this reason, raster images in presentations should be used at their original size or smaller.
A typeface, often referred to as a font, is a set of characters with the same design. This includes letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and sometimes symbols. Typefaces can have different styles and weights, such as bold or italic.
The choice of typeface can significantly impact the readability and mood of a presentation. For example, serif typefaces can convey tradition and authority, while sans serif typefaces can appear modern and clean. The key is to choose a typeface that aligns with the purpose and audience of your presentation.
Visual content refers to the graphics, images, charts, infographics, animations, and other non-text elements in a presentation. These elements can help capture the audience’s attention, enhance understanding, and make the presentation more memorable.
While visual content can enhance a presentation, it’s important not to overload slides with too many visual elements, as this can confuse or overwhelm the audience. All visual content should be relevant, clear, and support the overall message of the presentation.
A call to action (CTA) in a presentation is a prompt that encourages the audience to take a specific action. This could be anything from visiting a website, signing up for a newsletter, participating in a discussion, or implementing a suggested strategy.
A strong CTA aligns with the goals of the presentation and is clear and compelling. It often comes at the end of the presentation, providing the audience with a next step or a way to apply what they’ve learned.
In presentations, thumbnails are small versions of the slides that are used to navigate through the deck during the design process. They provide an overview of the presentation’s flow and can help identify inconsistencies in design.
Thumbnails are typically displayed in the sidebar of presentation software. They allow you to easily move, delete, or duplicate slides, and can provide a visual check for overall consistency and flow.
27. interactive elements.
Interactive elements are components in a presentation that the audience can interact with. These could include hyperlinks, embedded quizzes, interactive infographics, or multimedia elements like audio and video.
Interactive elements can make a presentation more engaging and memorable. However, they require careful planning and should always be tested before the presentation to ensure they work as intended.
In the context of presentations, placeholders are boxes that are included in a slide layout to hold specific types of content, such as text, images, or charts. They guide the placement of content and can help ensure consistency across slides.
Placeholders can be especially useful when working with templates, as they provide a predefined layout to follow. However, they should be used flexibly – not every placeholder needs to be used, and additional elements can be added if necessary.
The master slide is the top slide in a hierarchy of slides that stores information about the theme and slide layouts of a presentation. Changes made to the master slide, such as modifying the background, fonts, or color scheme, are applied to all other slides in the presentation.
Master slides can help ensure consistency across a presentation and save time when making global changes. However, it’s important to note that individual slides can still be modified independently if necessary.
In presentations, a layout refers to the arrangement of elements on a slide. This includes the placement of text, images, shapes, and other elements, as well as the use of space and alignment.
Choosing the right layout can make your slides look organized and professional, guide the viewer’s eye, and enhance your message. Most presentation software offers a variety of pre-defined layouts, but these can usually be modified to better suit your content and design preferences.
In order to continue enjoying our site, we ask that you confirm your identity as a human. Thank you very much for your cooperation.
Powerpoint 2016 -, slide basics, powerpoint 2016 slide basics.
Lesson 5: slide basics.
/en/powerpoint2016/saving-presentations/content/
Every PowerPoint presentation is composed of a series of slides . To begin creating a slide show, you'll need to know the basics of working with slides. You'll need to feel comfortable with tasks such as inserting a new slide, changing the layout of a slide, arranging existing slides, changing the slide view , and adding notes to a slide.
Optional: Download our practice presentation .
Watch the video below to learn more about slide basics in PowerPoint.
When you insert a new slide , it will usually have placeholders to show you where content will be placed. Slides have different layouts for placeholders, depending on the type of information you want to include. Whenever you create a new slide, you'll need to choose a slide layout that fits your content.
Placeholders can contain different types of content, including text, images, and videos. Many placeholders have thumbnail icons you can click to add specific types of content. In the example below, the slide has placeholders for the title and content .
Whenever you start a new presentation, it will contain one slide with the Title Slide layout. You can insert as many slides as you need from a variety of layouts.
To change the layout of an existing slide, click the Layout command, then choose the desired layout.
To quickly add a slide that uses the same layout as the selected slide, click the top half of the New Slide command.
PowerPoint presentations can contain as many slides as you need. The Slide Navigation pane on the left side of the screen makes it easy to organize your slides. From there, you can duplicate , rearrange , and delete slides in your presentation.
If you want to create several slides with the same layout, you may find it easier to copy and paste a slide you've already created instead of starting with an empty slide.
Sometimes you may find that a slide layout doesn't exactly fit your needs. For example, a layout might have too many—or too few—placeholders. You might also want to change how the placeholders are arranged on the slide. Fortunately, PowerPoint makes it easy to adjust slide layouts as needed.
Text can be inserted into both placeholders and text boxes . Inserting text boxes allows you to add to the slide layout. Unlike placeholders, text boxes always stay in the same place, even if you change the theme.
If you want even more control over your content, you may prefer to use a blank slide , which contains no placeholders. Blank slides can be customized by adding your own text boxes, pictures, charts, and more.
While blank slides offer more flexibility, keep in mind that you won't be able to take advantage of the predesigned layouts included in each theme.
Once you've arranged your slides, you may want to play your presentation. This is how you will present your slide show to an audience.
You can also press the F5 key at the top of your keyboard to start a presentation.
To change the slide size:.
By default, all slides in PowerPoint 2013 use a 16 - by-9 —or widescreen —aspect ratio. You might know that widescreen TVs also use the 16-by-9 aspect ratio. Widescreen slides will work best with widescreen monitors and projectors. However, if you need your presentation to fit a 4-by-3 screen, it's easy to change the slide size to fit.
By default, all slides in your presentation use a white background . It's easy to change the background style for some or all of your slides. Backgrounds can have a solid , gradient , pattern , or picture fill.
A theme is a predefined combination of colors, fonts, and effects that can quickly change the look and feel of your entire slide show. Different themes also use different slide layouts , which can change the arrangement of your existing placeholders. We'll talk more about themes later in our Applying Themes lesson.
Try applying a few different themes to your presentation. Some themes will work better than others, depending on your content.
/en/powerpoint2016/text-basics/content/
Blank presentation is a presentation without any background. Be brave, choose it and see what happens.
K Aarathi ∙
We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.
By roy masters, save articles for later.
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.
It was like picnicking on the slopes of a smouldering volcano. Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy and I joined the NSW team for a convivial, sober dinner on Monday night at a restaurant only 200 metres from the MCG, in a pre-State of Origin game atmosphere shrouded in smoke and threatening flame.
The “glass houses” comment by Blues coach Michael Maguire – his perception of Queensland hypocrisy in their aggrieved reaction to the high tackle on their fullback Reece Walsh in the first Origin match – has produced clouds of vapour but no real fire.
Maguire and Queensland coach Billy Slater spent a half-decade at the Storm as assistant coach and player respectively, tempering any on the record tit-for-tat exchanges. Yet there is such a simmering intensity about these coaches, they treat the alphabet as if starts with X and ends with O.
The relaxed atmosphere at the team dinner, in East Melbourne’s Il Duca restaurant, followed a more solemn mood at the earlier jumper presentation, held at the nearby team hotel.
Maguire views the Blues jumper as sacred. He waved it repeatedly in front of his team, as three former NSW players living in Melbourne were invited to express what it means to them. Robbie Ross went first, followed by Robbie Kearns and then Ryan Hoffman. Hoffman told the players of a phone call from the QRL in 2002, requesting he commit to the Maroons under one of those contrived attempts by Queensland to alter history and geography.
Hoffmans’s father, Jay, played three games for Queensland in the pre-Origin days, suggesting Ryan was eligible under a Maroon-invoked father/son rule. But Ryan told the players his younger life was dedicated to representing NSW and he was forever a Blue. A former Storm premiership player, he said that when he watches Melbourne games, he is emotionally invested but when NSW plays, he slips his 2014 Origin winning ring on his finger.
Didn’t get Origin … Mitchell Pearce with NSW coach Craig Bellamy in 2008. Credit: Tim Clayton
Bellamy, having won only two games in his three-year term as NSW Origin coach, admitted he did not understand Origin until his tenure was almost over. “Throw out the technical and the tactical,” he advised the Blues who listened in respectful silence. “Focus on the physical,” he said, meaning to concentrate on the effort plays.
Then followed the almost tearful presentation of jumpers to the Origin debutants: fullback Dylan Edwards by his partner Nadine and two young daughters, and bench back Connor Watson by his mother, Jodie.
While there was an almost religious solemnity to the jumper presentation and a more relaxed feeling at the dinner, volcanic clouds hang over Wednesday night’s game.
No player on either side will risk a high shot resulting in a send-off but there will be fiery exchanges, mainly on NSW’s left side where the combination of Jarome Luai and Latrell Mitchell have bought into Maguire’s Blue brotherhood ethos.
The Blues were shocked by the vitriol from the Queensland bench in Sydney when NSW centre Joseph Suaalii was sent off for his hit on Walsh . It wasn’t just Maroons assistant coach Nate Myles who ridiculed Origin rookie Suaalii as he left the field. The Blues trainer told the NSW coaching staff that the Queensland bench exploded in anger and abuse.
When there is collective abuse of a player whose dismissal so early in a match is almost certain to guarantee victory, it reflects the pent-up anger reserved for Origin matches.
It was reminiscent of the end of an Origin match in Sydney 30 years ago.
On that occasion, following a match-winning try in the corner by Mark Coyne in the last minute of play, Queensland half Allan Langer pushed over a despondent NSW hooker Ben Elias and spewed out a lava flow of abuse.
Still, it was the first game of the series and is further relevant to today, insofar as the second match in 1994 was also played at the MCG.
Queensland lost their cherished underdog tag, as they have for Wednesday’s match. The bookies can’t split the two teams, but the Maroons will be the crowd favourites. Victorians cheers for Queenslanders, partly because they holiday there and also by reason of their perception Sydney is the power centre of Australia.
Being cast as top dogs does not sit comfortably with Queensland Origin teams, evident by their record of losing four of the five Origin matches at the MCG. The 1994 MCG game was a snorefest, evincing cries of “boring” from the crowd. But thirty years later, the citadel of sport in Melbourne is set to rumble as up to 90,000 people watch a combustible encounter that will be anything but a picnic.
Watch State of Origin exclusively Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now
Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter .
Your changes have been saved
Email Is sent
Please verify your email address.
You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.
Richard Linklater is a filmmaker who has succeeded by adding a level of emotional authenticity to his projects that is rarely seen in mainstream Hollywood films. Movies like Boyhood , the Before trilogy, and even Dazed and Confused reject the standard narrative arcs that audiences have come to expect; rather, these films feel like “slice of life” projects that focus on realistic conversations between characters that feel like real people. While Linklater’s latest film Hit Man has its roots in the noir caper genre , it certainly offers a more intimate understanding of the world of assassins compared to stylized films like John Wick or Mr. & Mrs. Smith . It’s refreshing to see such a confident reworking of a popular genre, but the assassin film was flipped on its head already by the 1997 romantic comedy thriller Grosse Pointe Blank .
Even during an era where studio films tended to feel more inventive, Grosse Pointe Blank didn't really fit into any one genre. It was a comedy that wasn't afraid to take itself seriously and featured characters that most audiences would consider to be morally despicable. However, Grosse Point Blank has endured because it feels like the sort of film that the industry simply doesn’t make anymore. The tone is relaxed, the filmmaking is clever, and the story coasts on the effervescent star power of its two dynamic leads. As weird as the premise is, Gross Pointe Blank actually feels like a somewhat mature continuation of the themes established in many coming-of-age films . Grosse Pointe Blank merges romance, suspense, dark humor, and interesting philosophical questions into a subversive reimagining of the world of espionage.
Martin Blank is a hitman for hire. When he starts to develop a conscience, he botches a couple of routine jobs. On the advice of his secretary and his psychiatrist, he decides to attend his ten-year high school reunion in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.
Grosse Pointe Blank centers on a depressed assassin who begins to question his life choices after feeling “lost” following a series of recent gigs. Martin Blank ( John Cusack ) routinely goes to therapy to talk about his feelings of disillusionment. His assistant Marcella ( Joan Cusack ) lets it slip that his high school graduating class is throwing a ten-year anniversary reunion and celebration. While he has mixed feelings about attending, Martin decides to travel back to Grosse Pointe after learning that a federal witness he’s charged with assassinating will be in the area. It’s here that he’s faced with his childhood crush Debi Newberry ( Minnie Driver ), who now works as the town’s radio DJ. While there was a moment when the two would have spent the rest of their lives with one another, Martin left Debi on their prom night so that he could enlist in the military.
Does Gary Johnson deserve a happy ending?
While it was released during an era when action cinema was at its peak, Grosse Pointe Blank was one of the first films to capitalize on nostalgia for the 1980s. Callbacks to that decade of popular culture are now more common thanks to Stranger Things and Ready Player One , but Grosse Pointe Blank offers a perfect justification for its references; Martin has to imitate the very different mindset he had while he was in high school a decade earlier, and enjoys reminiscing about memories from the era. In addition to some clever visual callbacks to 1980s-style art and infrastructure, director George Armitage includes a terrific soundtrack of nostalgic needle drops, including Queen ’s “Under Pressure” and Violent Femme ’s “Raisin in the Sun.”
Grosse Point Blank works because it focuses more on the romance than the action . Although Martin initially thinks that returning to his hometown is merely an obligation, he’s forced to reflect on his decisions from the moment that he reunites with Debi; his mind begins to spiral out of control as he wonders what life would have looked like if he didn’t abandon her all those years ago. Although there are some more serious moments when Debi and Martin reflect upon how disappointing their careers have been, the interactions between them are very playful. The electrifying chemistry between Driver and Cusack is somehow just as exciting as any of the shootouts in the film’s third act.
Movies about assassins are nothing new ever since Jean Pierre-Melville 's Le Samouraï helped create the subgenre back in 1967. Grosse Pointe Blank was able to distinguish itself because of its self-awareness. Although it's firmly grounded in the actual dynamics of assassin agencies, Grosse Pointe Blank creates dark humor by treating the specifics of Martin’s profession as rather ordinary. Grocer ( Dan Aykroyd ), the rival assassin who attempts to get Martin to join his union, is depicted as nothing but an obnoxious coworker who overstays his welcome. Martin has become so adjusted to killing people that the ramifications have passed him by; this becomes more funny and shocking when he is forced to admit the truth to Debi, who takes a moment to react to what her lover actually does.
Although it's certainly filled with moments of absurdist comedy , Grosse Pointe Blank also offers a more realistic depiction of espionage , as Martin suffers from the type of midlife crisis anxieties that audiences may find relatable. While Martin’s attempts to justify his lifestyle are used as the butt of a joke, Grosse Pointe Blank offers a fairly straightforward understanding of his morality. In the final sequence, Martin admits that being a hitman is only a job to him. It may allow him to utilize the skills he’s perfected throughout his life, but it's less important than the burgeoning relationship he now has with Debi. It also makes Martin a more relatable character; he's such a charming romantic lead that it's easy to forget what he actually does for a living.
Both Hit Man and Grosse Pointe Blank feel like outliers in Hollywood. They’re both traditionally rewarding romantic comedies that have just enough moral ambiguity and creative set pieces to reach a broader audience. The fact that Grosse Pointe Blank was a mainstream success, and Hit Man is relegated to streaming on Netflix with barely a theatrical release, speaks to the significant ways that the film industry has shifted since the 1990s.
Grosse Pointe Blank is available to rent on Amazon in the U.S.
Rent on Amazon
Themes and templates help you create content that looks attractive and consistent while avoiding lots of manual formatting.
In this article:
What is a theme? | What is a template?
A theme is a predefined set of colors, fonts, and visual effects that you apply to your slides for a unified, professional look.
Using a theme gives your presentation a harmonious appearance with minimal effort. For example:
When you add graphics (tables, shapes, and so on) to your slides, PowerPoint applies theme colors that are compatible with other slide elements.
Dark-colored text is shown on a light background (and vice versa), so that contrast is strong for ease of reading.
Here are four different themes applied to the same slide:
PowerPoint offers several preset themes. They are on the Design tab of the Ribbon on the left side.
Open a slide. On the Design tab, point at a Theme thumbnail to get a preview of how it would affect the look of your slide.
To see the full gallery of themes, click the More button:
When you find a theme you want, click its thumbnail to apply it to all slides in your presentation.
To customize a theme, see Create your own theme in PowerPoint .
A template is a theme plus some content for a specific purpose—such as a sales presentation, a business plan, or a classroom lesson.
So a template has design elements that work together (colors, fonts, backgrounds, effects) along with sample slides and boilerplate content that you augment to tell your story.
You can create your own custom templates and store them, reuse them, and share them with others. See Create and save a PowerPoint template .
You can also find hundreds of different types of free templates for PowerPoint that you can apply to your presentation:
Get pre-built PowerPoint templates at create.microsoft.com
Create.Microsoft.com also has templates for other Office apps. Here are some examples of the free templates available there:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Slides containing content | Contracts | Databases |
| Diagrams | Envelopes |
Expense reports | Fax sheets |
|
Common forms |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Plans |
| Postcards |
Purchase orders | Receipts |
|
|
| Statements |
|
|
|
Here is an example of a one-slide template for an award certificate:
A template like this can include:
1 Subject-specific content, such as "Certificate of Achievement," "Soccer," and the soccer ball image. Generally this text or content is only editable from the slide master.
2 Background formatting, such as pictures, texture, gradient or solid fill color, and transparency. This example shows the light blue solid fill background.
3 Color, fonts, effects (3-D, lines, fills, shadows, etc.), and theme design elements (such as the color and gradient effects inside the word Soccer).
4 Text placeholders that allow people to enter unique information to customize the slide for their needs, such as "Player's name," "Name of coach," "Date of presentation," and any variable, such as the year.
Download free, pre-built templates
Create your own theme in PowerPoint
Create and save a PowerPoint template
Want more options.
Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.
Microsoft 365 subscription benefits
Microsoft 365 training
Microsoft security
Accessibility center
Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.
Ask the Microsoft Community
Microsoft Tech Community
Windows Insiders
Microsoft 365 Insiders
Thank you for your feedback.
Who are the best teams in ea sports™ college football 25.
Hey College Football Fans,
Welcome back to the Campus Huddle! This week, we have a special “living” edition of the Campus Huddle, centered around Rankings Week.
So what is Rankings Week?
It’s a time to celebrate various EA SPORTS™ College Football 25 rankings, from the Toughest Places to Play, to the Top Offenses and Defenses, to our final Team Power Rankings before the worldwide launch on July 19. Plus, we’ll have our Sights and Sounds Deep Dive coming Wednesday, showcasing the incredible and unique presentation features coming to EA SPORTS™ College Football 25.
The full Rankings Week schedule can be seen here:
We laid out the significant impact that Homefield Advantage can have on the outcome of games in EA SPORTS™ College Football 25 during our Gameplay Deep Dive Campus Huddle . Audio and in-game modifiers such as blurred routes, incorrect play art, confidence and composure affects, and screen shaking are some of the immersive impacts away teams and players will be forced to contend with.
But not all Homefield Advantages are created equal. The Development Team worked to compile a list of the Top 25 Toughest Places to Play, factoring in historical stats such as home winning %, home game attendance, active home winning streaks, team prestige, and more.
Rankings are subject to change in future updates.
College Football 25 launches worldwide on July 19, 2024. Pre-order the College Football 25 Deluxe Edition* or the MVP Bundle** and play early. Conditions and restrictions apply. See disclaimers for details. Stay in the conversation by following us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , YouTube , and Answers HQ .
Pre-order the MVP Bundle*** to make game day every day, and get both Madden NFL 25 and College Football 25 with exclusive content.
Sign-up for our newsletter to be the first to know about new updates.
College football 25 gameplay deep dive, welcome to college football 25, college football 25 pre-order details.
By: Eric Blinn | Updated: 2024-06-20 | Comments (1) | Related: > TSQL
I'm constantly seeing the NULL in column values. What does that mean? It seems to make some of my queries act strange, and I need to understand it better.
This tip will help you understand what NULL means in the context of the Microsoft Fabric data universe, which includes SQL Server. It will then show how these values can make queries act unexpectedly and how to best interact with NULL values to avoid problems.
NULL isn't a value but rather the absence of a value. That doesn't always make sense to a newcomer. Let's use an example to explain.
I asked four people how much money they had in their wallets. The first person said $2. The second person answered $10. The third person answered $0, no money in their wallet. The fourth person answered that they didn't even have a wallet. If I were recording these answers in a database, it would be disingenuous to record that this fourth respondent had no money in their wallet when they didn't have a wallet at all. This last person's answer is the equivalent of NULL. It's the absence of an answer to the question.
The code below is a SQL Server representation of the story told above.
Variables hold the value NULL when declared and before being set to any value. In this case, NULL, again, indicates the absence of any value.
It is important to understand that NULL is not the same as 0 for numbers or an empty string for character-based data types. It is also not the word "NULL." NULL is completely separate and follows different rules than non-null values.
The ISNULL function will be used throughout this tip. It seemed best to introduce it at the top. It accepts two parameters: a value and a replacement. The function attempts to return the first value, but if that value is NULL, then the second parameter, the replacement, is returned instead.
In this example, the variable is never set and remains NULL. The ISNULL function sees that the variable is NULL and returns the replacement instead.
The next example's variable is set to a value. It wouldn't matter what that value was. It could even be an empty string. Since there is a value in the variable, it is not NULL. Now, the ISNULL function returns that value and ignores the potential replacement text.
Another function largely synonymous with ISNULL is COALESCE, which some people prefer. I'll be using ISNULL in this tip, but you can read about the differences between the two in the following tip: Deciding between COALESCE and ISNULL in SQL Server .
Aggregate functions treat NULL values differently than other values. When using the COUNT function, NULL values are ignored. Remember: There are four rows in the CASH_IN_WALET table. In this snippet, notice that the count of the Amount column that has one NULL value is only 3.
The average function, AVG, also ignores NULL values. The wallets have $12 total divided across four rows. One might expect the average to be $3, but it is not. Since the NULL value is not considered, the $12 is only divided across the three non-null rows and returns $4.
The common warning below will appear in the messages tab when an aggregate function skips a NULL value. In most circumstances, this message can be ignored.
We will see changes in the output if we apply the ISNULL function to the Amount column to exchange NULL values for zeroes before applying the aggregate. First, the average now considers all four rows and returns $3. Second, the messages tab is also clear of any warnings since the NULL values were removed before the aggregation began.
The next demo removes the $0 row from the CASH_IN_WALLET table.
One might expect the minimum Amount value to be the NULL value. Or maybe a zero. Certainly, the person who doesn't even have a wallet is the person with the least amount of money! But, once again, the aggregate function ignores the NULL value and returns the smallest non-null value, $2.
Depending on the scenario, it may make sense to turn the NULL values into another value, often zero. The following query does just that.
Another time that NULL values can cause havoc is when working with string data. This query declares three strings and attempts to concatenate them.
The output does not say "HelloWorld" but instead returns a NULL string. This is because the middle string, @String2, remains a NULL value, meaning that any concatenation that includes @String2 will also be NULL.
If you're following along and your demo did NOT do that, there is a reason. There is a connection-level setting that can be changed to tell SQL Server to treat NULL values like empty strings when doing concatenation. If you run this statement and rerun the previous demo, you'll see this output with the HelloWorld string. If you already saw this output on the first execution, change the OFF to ON and rerun the demo. Now, you should see the NULL value in the results.
Changing this setting to OFF is functionally equivalent to changing the code but with less typing.
The NULL value cannot be compared using normal operators. Consider the query below. We have been working with this table and know that one row has a NULL in the Amount column, yet our query returns zero rows.
The "equals" operator is only functional for non-null values. To search specifically for NULL values, we must use the IS operator instead.
To search for all non-null values, the keyword NOT is added.
There is more to learn about NULLs in comparisons than can be covered in this tip. Read more about it in this tip: SQL Server NOT Equal Operators .
NULL is a value that pops up a lot in SQL Server. Having a solid understanding of how your queries will interact with it is vital to being a good DBA, SQL Programmer, Report Writer, or any other profession that involves structured data.
While basically not incorrect, technically it would be best to state that NULL is an unknown. Jason could have a wallet but he left it at home. In that case, there is something in his wallet, we just don't know what it is. We see this a lot with middle names/initials. NULL doesn't mean the person doesn't have a middle name, they probably just didn't provide it, thus it is unknown. It could be that they don't have a middle name (My dad and one of my brothers don't), or they just didn't provide it. It is unknown. |
Related Content
Learn about SQL NULL values and how SQL Server handles NULL in Queries
SQL Server Cursor Example
SQL CASE Statement in Where Clause to Filter Based on a Condition or Expression
SQL NOT IN Operator
Rolling up multiple rows into a single row and column for SQL Server data
Using MERGE in SQL Server to insert, update and delete at the same time
SQL Server Loop through Table Rows without Cursor
Free Learning Guides
Learn Power BI
What is SQL Server?
Download Links
Become a DBA
What is SSIS?
Related Categories
Change Data Capture
Common Table Expressions
Dynamic SQL
Error Handling
Stored Procedures
Transactions
Development
Date Functions
System Functions
JOIN Tables
SQL Server Management Studio
Database Administration
Performance
Performance Tuning
Locking and Blocking
Data Analytics \ ETL
Microsoft Fabric
Azure Data Factory
Integration Services
Popular Articles
Date and Time Conversions Using SQL Server
Format SQL Server Dates with FORMAT Function
SQL Server CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS Examples for SQL Server
SQL Convert Date to YYYYMMDD
Format numbers in SQL Server
Resolving could not open a connection to SQL Server errors
How to install SQL Server 2022 step by step
SQL Server PIVOT and UNPIVOT Examples
Script to retrieve SQL Server database backup history and no backups
An Introduction to SQL Triggers
List SQL Server Login and User Permissions with fn_my_permissions
How to monitor backup and restore progress in SQL Server
SQL Server Management Studio Dark Mode
Split Delimited String into Columns in SQL Server with PARSENAME
The May global surface temperature was 1.18°C (2.12°F) above the 20th-century average of 14.8°C (58.6°F), making it the warmest May on record. This was 0.18°C (0.32°F) above the previous record from May 2020. May 2024 marked the 48th consecutive May (since 1977) with temperatures at least nominally above the 20th-century average. May had a record-high monthly global ocean surface temperature for the 14th consecutive month.
Interactive graph showing global temperature each May from 1850-2024 compared to the 20th-century average. Use your cursor and hover over a specific year or bar to examine individual years more closely. Warmer-than-average years are red; cooler-than-average years are blue. Image by NOAA Climate.gov, based on data from NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, created with Datawrapper .
The Northern Hemisphere also ranked as the warmest May on record at 1.44°C (2.59°F) above average. The Northern Hemisphere land temperature was also record warm in May (tied with 2020) and the ocean temperature was again record-high by a wide margin (0.25°C/0.45°F warmer than the previous record set in 2020). The Arctic region had its 11th warmest May on record.
May 2024 in the Southern Hemisphere also ranked warmest on record at 0.92°C (1.66°F) above average. The ocean-only temperature for May in the Southern Hemisphere ranked highest on record, while the land-only Southern Hemisphere temperature was 6th warmest on record. Meanwhile, the Antarctic region had its 23rd warmest May, 0.55°C (0.99°F) above average.
Temperatures in May 2024 compared to the 1991-2020 average. Places that were warmer than average are red; places that were cooler than average are blue. Image by NOAA Climate.gov, based on data from NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.
Record warm temperatures covered large parts of the African continent, northern China and Mongolia, areas neighboring the North Sea, and many parts of a region stretching from southern Brazil northward through most of Mexico.
Temperatures were warmer to much-warmer-than-average across much of the Arctic, the eastern U.S. and large parts of Canada, western Europe, the eastern half of Russia, southeast Asia, and much of Australia. In northern and central India and Pakistan, where temperatures for the month as a whole were warmer to much-warmer-than-average, a severe and persistent heat wave struck during the last half of the month.
In contrast, cooler-than-average temperatures covered areas that included western parts of Russia and Kazahkstan, much of the western U.S. and Alaska, and large parts of Greenland. May temperatures were also cooler-than-average in Argentina and Chile, where a succession of polar air masses brought the strongest cold wave in more than 70 years to parts of Chile.
Across the global oceans, record warm sea surface temperatures covered much of the tropical Atlantic and large parts of the Indian Ocean and the equatorial western Pacific as well as parts of the southwest Pacific and Southern Ocean. Record warm temperatures also occurred in the North Sea and neighboring seas in the North Atlantic. Positive anomalies also covered large parts of the northern Pacific. Record-warm temperatures covered approximately 16.1% of the world's surface this May, which was the highest percentage for May since the start of records in 1951, and 11.2% higher than the previous May record of 2016.
Near-average to cooler-than-average temperatures covered large parts of the southeast Pacific, the southwest Atlantic, areas of the southwest Indian Ocean, and parts of the Southern Ocean. Only 0.2% of the world's surface had a record-cold May.
Above-average May precipitation occurred across large parts of western and central Europe, central Asia, far northeastern China, Korea, and Japan. Other wetter-than-average areas included the southern half of India, central Australia, and much of the Seychelles and Mauritius. Precipitation was below average in the southwestern U.S., Mexico, Central America, much of Brazil and Argentina, and much of eastern Europe. Other areas with widespread drier-than-average conditions included much of the United Kingdom, Spain and neighboring parts of Morocco and Algeria, northern India and neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan, eastern China, southern and western areas of Australia, and many islands of the South Pacific.
Percent of normal precipitation for global land-based stations in May 2024 compared to a base line of 1961 to 1990. Places that received more precipitation than average are colored green; places that received less precipitation than average are colored brown. Gray areas represent missing data. Image by NOAA Climate.gov, based on data from NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.
For information on 2024's year-to-date temperature ranking, notable climate events, and separate statistics for Earth's land and ocean areas see the full May 2024 monthly report from NOAA NCEI.
Difference from average precipitation around the world in May 2024 compared to the 1979-2020 average. Places that received more precipitation than average are colored blue; places that received less precipitation than average are colored brown. Map by NOAA Climate.gov, based on data provided by the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (University of Maryland).
The dominant tropical rain features this May continue on their seasonal northerly progression and with the continued withering of the El Niño-associated SST [sea surface temperature] maximum in the central Pacific along the Equator, the pattern of anomalies (anomaly means “departure from average”) seems to contain some features of the leftover El Niño and maybe some of a more La Niña type. The Niño 3.4 SST index was just about neutral at the end of May and the climate forecasts have a gradual shift to La Niña over the next few months. In general both the tropical Pacific and Atlantic are cooling somewhat, but are still relatively warm compared to average conditions.
In the tropical central Pacific the rainfall anomaly pattern is mixed but dominated by a broad negative area with a narrow, intense positive anomaly on the north side of the ITCZ [Intertropical Convergence Zone, a band of clouds and storms near the equator]. In the far eastern Pacific negative anomalies are consistent with below average SSTs there, a likely start to La Niña conditions moving westward. To the west over the Maritime Continent a positive anomaly holds forth, especially over land, again more like a La Niña pattern.
The regional positive anomaly on the monthly scale over the Maritime Continent was associated with some heavy rainfall events and deadly floods and landslides in Sumatra and later a devastating landslide in Papua New Guinea with ~200 dead (although there was also mention of an earthquake in the mix, too). Farther north the seasonal Meiyu or Baiu front was active showing positive rainfall anomalies in Indochina, through Japan and beyond.
In the eastern Pacific, there was a lack of tropical cyclones, which usually start to appear in May. The Indian Ocean, however, had tropical cyclone activity both north and south of the Equator this month. Early in the month TC Hidaya slid along the coast of Kenya, producing significant rain there, and later in the month TC Laly hovered near the north point of Madagascar. Both storms contributed to the strong positive rainfall anomaly in these regions (mostly over ocean). Over central Africa a rainfall deficit dominates, as is also the case near the southern tip of the continent.
Heavy rains during the month were also noted in southern India, and near the end of the month TC Remal came up the Bay of Bengal and struck Bangladesh and northeastern India with heavy rainfall and flooding. In summary, as seen in the map, there was an early start to the monsoon season in South Asia.
Over Europe, France and Germany had a surplus of rainfall, while the Iberian Peninsula, eastern Europe and Scandinavia had deficits. The rest of Asia north of the Himalayas was near normal, although northern Afghanistan had floods that reportedly left 300 dead.
In North America, Mexico continued their drought (along with a heat wave) with additional rainfall deficits, while the pattern across the U.S. had wet conditions in the eastern half and dry conditions over the southwest as an extension of the Mexican feature. The rain surpluses in the Southeast led to floods in southern Texas, especially Houston. The general east-west pattern extended north into Canada, with fires making an early season comeback in western Canada.
In South America rainfall surpluses were dominant in the north, with dry conditions across much of Brazil, except for the very strong rainfall feature over southernmost Brazil right at the coast, associated with widespread and long-lasting floods there.
On a global basis the mean surface temperature remains high along with mean global precipitation. In fact, the May 2024 estimate of global observed precipitation is the highest May on record (1983-2024) [Reminder: This statistic is for the satellite record compiled by the Global Precipitation Climatology Project.] This may be a last gasp effect of the El Niño (in addition to the long-term global warming). If the coming months transition to La Niña, it may be interesting to use the change to try to separate the long-term (global warming) from the inter-annual (ENSO) effects on global precipitation.
Help us improve our content
News & features, global climate report for february 2024, global climate report for april 2024, global climate summary for may 2023, maps & data, sst - global, monthly difference from average, temperature - global monthly, difference from average, sst - enso region, monthly difference from average, teaching climate, toolbox for teaching climate & energy, international climate change forum, white house climate education and literacy initiative, climate resilience toolkit, climate at a glance, the global climate in 2011-2015, arctic-global linkages.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Create a presentation. Open PowerPoint. In the left pane, select New. Select an option: To create a presentation from scratch, select Blank Presentation. To use a prepared design, select one of the templates. To see tips for using PowerPoint, select Take a Tour, and then select Create, . Add a slide.
The blank presentation option is one of the more commonly used methods. It offers several blank slides with layouts for text and graphics. To create a blank presentation: Open PowerPoint. A slide featuring a place for a title and subtitle appears by default. You can begin your presentation with this slide or choose a different slide layout.
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.
The Blank presentation option is one of the more commonly used methods. It offers several blank slides, with layouts for text and graphics. To create a blank presentation: Open PowerPoint. A slide featuring a place for a title and subtitle appears by default. You can start your presentation with this slide or choose a different slide layout.
Creating a Blank Presentation. When you start PowerPoint, click on New. Click on the option to create a Blank Presentation. A blank presentation has a white background and black text without any ...
Create the presentation you want to use as the "blank" presentation. Add slides, customize slide masters, and change designs until you're satisfied that the basic arrangement is a good starting point for any new presentations you create. 2. Choose File, Save As. In the Save as Type box, choose Design Template.
A new presentation will appear. To create a new presentation from a template: A template is a predesigned presentation you can use to create a new slide show quickly.Templates often include custom formatting and designs, so they can save you a lot of time and effort when starting a new project.. Click the File tab to access Backstage view, then select New.
In a blank presentation, the initial slide PowerPoint provides is blank except for two placeholders: one for the title and one for the subtitle. When you choose a blank presentation, none of the design elements are defined in advance. The Title Slide layout that is provided by PowerPoint can quickly be altered. Most presentations should have a ...
Select the text. Under Drawing Tools, choose Format. Do one of the following: To change the color of your text, choose Text Fill, and then choose a color. To change the outline color of your text, choose Text Outline, and then choose a color. To apply a shadow, reflection, glow, bevel, 3-D rotation, a transform, choose Text Effects, and then ...
Create a blank presentation. Open PowerPoint. Select one of the Blank Presentation and start typing. Note: Microsoft 365 subscribers will find Design Ideas based on the words you type. You can browse and select a new look.
Present slideshows with confidence. With easy-to-use presenter view, speaker notes, and live captions, Slides makes presenting your ideas a breeze. You can even present to Google Meet video calls ...
Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired ...
Five techniques to improve your use of white space. Tip #1: Increase the margin. Tip #2: Use images with "empty" areas. Tip #3:Leave empty space over a colored background. Tip #4: Use single words instead of sentences. Tip #5: Split your content across multiple slides.
This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there. Follow these steps: Signal that it's nearly the end of your presentation, for example, "As we wrap up/as we wind down the talk…". Restate the topic and purpose of your presentation - "In this speech I wanted to compare…". 5.
The whole process is described in the steps mentioned below. Step-1: Go to the 'View' Tab. The first step is to go to the 'View' tab which is the second to last tab in the ribbon of your PowerPoint. Step-2: Go to the 'Slide Master' view. In the next step, all you have to do is click on the 'Slide Master' view option in the ...
To add a new slide to your presentation, select Home > New Slide. This adds the Title and Content slide layout. This is the default slide layout and it contains placeholders for a title, bullet text, images, and illustrations. If you need a different type of slide, select the New Slide down arrow. This opens a menu that contains nine different ...
6. Multimedia. Multimedia refers to the combination of different types of media — such as text, images, audio, video, and animation — within a single presentation. Incorporating multimedia elements can make a presentation more engaging, cater to different learning styles, and aid in explaining complex ideas.
Creating a Presentation. You have several options to create a PowerPoint presentation. These include: Create a blank presentation from scratch, then add slides and format the presentation. Create ...
The #1 reason you should have a script and practice it isn't so you have a smooth delivery—it's so your presentation is organized, comprehensive, and easy to follow. 💡. Okay. Time to finally reveal my unique approach to scripting and practicing your presentation! 4.
Try applying a few different themes to your presentation. Some themes will work better than others, depending on your content. Challenge! Open our practice presentation. Change the theme of the presentation. Delete slide 7. This slide should be blank. Add a new slide with the Title and Content layout to the end of the presentation.
Design a presentation that blows your audience away with our stunning collection of high-quality slide templates. Free to personalize online so you can collaborate and present with your colleagues. Birthday Presentations. Brainstorm. Father's Day Presentations. Simple. Pride Presentations. Education. Game.
Blank presentation is a presentation without any background. Be brave, choose it and see what happens.
Then followed the almost tearful presentation of jumpers to the Origin debutants: fullback Dylan Edwards by his partner Nadine and two young daughters, and bench back Connor Watson by his mother ...
Bottom line, the goal for Madden NFL 25 is to "look, feel and sound different". From the first time you fire it up at the "press start" screen, to the menus, to new commentary and inside the game from the NFL Draft all the way to the Super Bowl Trophy Presentation, this was the commitment from the team.
Grosse Pointe Blank merges romance, suspense, and dark humor, providing a mature take on espionage themes.; The film deconstructs assassin mythology while offering a realistic depiction of ...
What is a PowerPoint template? A template is a theme plus some content for a specific purpose—such as a sales presentation, a business plan, or a classroom lesson. So a template has design elements that work together (colors, fonts, backgrounds, effects) along with sample slides and boilerplate content that you augment to tell your story.
Plus, we'll have our Sights and Sounds Deep Dive coming Wednesday, showcasing the incredible and unique presentation features coming to EA SPORTS™ College Football 25. The full Rankings Week schedule can be seen here: TOUGHEST PLACES TO PLAY.
This is because the middle string, @String2, remains a NULL value, meaning that any concatenation that includes @String2 will also be NULL. If you're following along and your demo did NOT do that, there is a reason. There is a connection-level setting that can be changed to tell SQL Server to treat NULL values like empty strings when doing ...
On a global basis the mean surface temperature remains high along with mean global precipitation. In fact, the May 2024 estimate of global observed precipitation is the highest May on record (1983-2024) [Reminder: This statistic is for the satellite record compiled by the Global Precipitation Climatology Project.]