There’s no doubt you’ve interacted with Microsoft PowerPoint at some time in your past, whether as a presenter or member of an audience. PowerPoint is one of the most well-known and popular presentation software programs in existence, primarily due to its intuitive, easy-to-use interface and attractive design.
Using Microsoft PowerPoint, professionals can build slide decks that contain key presentation highlights. These highlights can be displayed in written text, bullets, images, and videos. After creating a slideshow, individuals can put the presentation on view using a projector screen that makes it easily visible to a large audience. In short, PowerPoint makes it straightforward for individuals to structure and present information to a group.
People can use PowerPoint on just about any device, whether a PC, Mac, or mobile device. This makes PowerPoint a widely-accessible tool that can be used in various circumstances, including in business and academic settings.
Features of Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint is an incredibly popular presentation tool due to its versatility and ease of use. PowerPoint includes many templates, making it a breeze to create a presentation that will meet any audience’s needs. It’s also very easy for individuals to create and customize a presentation’s appearance entirely from scratch.
Professionals, teachers, and students alike can add styling features to their presentations, including different colors, fonts, images, and backgrounds. Similarly, users can add animations and other cinematic motions to their presentations. In doing so, it’s easy for speakers to both make their presentations visually appealing while also increasing audience engagement. Individuals can also import videos and URL links into their presentation, quickly showing the audience information outside the slide deck.
Individuals who work on a team will also appreciate that it’s easy to collaborate on PowerPoint presentations. Colleagues who use Microsoft 365 can simultaneously collaborate on the same presentation. These changes are tracked over time, making it easy for individuals to see what others have added or subtracted from the presentation while they may have been away. It’s also simple to share and download PowerPoint presentations through email and other communication methods.
When it comes time to prepare the speech for a presentation, Microsoft PowerPoint delivers here. Users can create notes within PowerPoint that are visible to the presenter (but not the audience) when in presentation mode. This helps speakers remember all the information they want to share with the audience without relying on handwritten notes. PowerPoint also has an artificial intelligence tool (Presenter Coach) that helps individuals practice their speech and gives tips on the word choice and overall pacing of a presentation.
Who Uses Microsoft PowerPoint?
Because Microsoft PowerPoint is useful for anyone who needs to give a presentation, people from different backgrounds and industries can benefit from learning this program. This includes individuals in industries like government, education, healthcare, tech, and graphic design, just to name a few.
In particular, PowerPoint is a top-rated tool for students and teachers. Teachers can use PowerPoint to prepare the basic structure of their lesson plans and present educational materials to a class. This is helpful for a wide variety of subjects, whether teaching a class on literature, math, history, or something else entirely.
Similarly, students use PowerPoint when completing and presenting projects to their classmates. This might include an elementary-age student presenting at a science fair or a high schooler completing a report for one of their classes.
Business professionals may also use PowerPoint when presenting organizational projects, finances, or business plans. Users can import information from other Microsoft software, such as Excel. This allows professionals to translate things like charts and graphs into PowerPoint easily. Professionals can thus include both quantitative and qualitative information within their presentation to help make a point.
Professionals can also print out and share the speaker notes and outlines from their presentations. This serves as a great way to ensure team members have all the information they need to make decisions or move forward on a project.
Professional speakers can also use PowerPoint, including individuals who regularly present at business conferences and authors who go on book tours. PowerPoint is helpful in this light because a speaker can use a PowerPoint slide to serve as an attractive backdrop rather than shuffling through slides.
Learn Microsoft PowerPoint
A great way to learn Microsoft PowerPoint is by enrolling in an interactive and hands-on course. NYIM offers several PowerPoint courses both online and in-person at its Manhattan campus. Each of these classes has a maximum number of students to ensure every student can receive individualized attention.
In NYIM’s PowerPoint Bootcamp course, students learn how to use PowerPoint right from the start. This includes creating a basic presentation layout, customizing the text (font and color), and adding images, animations, and layered objects. After individuals have received a basic introduction to the course, they will move on to advanced features, including how to create a reusable Powerpoint template that users can return to again and again. Students will also learn how to import charts from Excel and even record their presentations to show to others in the future.
This course is also broken down into two separate, one-day courses for those who are only interested in the beginner or advanced portion of the class. NYIM’s PowerPoint for Business class is targeted to complete beginners and covers the basics of using this system. The Advanced PowerPoint for Business teaches those advanced features mentioned above. Those concerned primarily with design elements for PowerPoint may also consider NYIM’s PowerPoint Presentation Design class.
Those who would like to pursue a PowerPoint Specialist Certificate may consider NYIM’s PowerPoint Specialist Certification Program. This course includes the two classes discussed above (PowerPoint for Business and Advanced PowerPoint for Business) and two hours of private exam prep tutoring. Additionally, students who enroll in this course receive the official Microsoft Powerpoint Specialist Exam study guide as well as the PowerPoint Certification exam. The course includes a free retake.
