Imagine you have three minutes to tell the class about your favourite hobby. Would you rather stand there with nothing behind you, or have big pictures and key words up on the screen to help you? Most people choose the screen. Today you make your first slide show.
In this post:
- What presentation software is
- Starting a presentation and adding slides
- Design (themes) and layouts
- Inserting text, text boxes, shapes, images and charts
- Running your slide show
- What makes a good slide
- Two activities, a project and a quiz
What is presentation software?
Presentation software helps you make a slide show: a set of pages, called slides, that you show on a screen while you talk. Popular programs are Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, LibreOffice Impress and Apple Keynote. They all work in much the same way.
Image source: File:LibreOffice Impress 7.1.2 (released in 2021-04, running on Linux and GNOME with the default icon set).png (Wikimedia Commons)
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Getting started
- Open PowerPoint and click Blank Presentation. A title slide appears.
- Click in the dotted boxes, called placeholders (“Click to add title”), and type.
- Add a slide with Home → New Slide (or Ctrl + M).
- Save it like any other file: File → Save As. PowerPoint files end in .pptx.
Design and layout
- Design (theme): the Design tab has ready-made themes that set the background, colours and fonts for every slide at once. Pick one and stick with it, so your slides look like they belong together.
- Layout: Home → Layout changes how the placeholders are arranged on one slide: Title Slide, Title and Content, Two Content, Picture with Caption, Blank and more.
Inserting things onto a slide
| To add… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Text | Click in a placeholder and type. Each press of Enter makes a new bullet point. |
| A text box | Insert → Text Box, then drag on the slide to draw the box and type. Good for labels and captions anywhere on the slide. |
| A shape | Insert → Shapes, choose arrows, stars, circles or boxes, then drag to draw. You can type inside most shapes. |
| An image | Insert → Pictures (then This Device), find the picture and click Insert. Drag a corner to resize. |
| A chart | Insert → Chart, choose a type such as Column, then type your own numbers into the small spreadsheet that opens. |
Show time!
- Press F5 to start the show from the first slide, or Shift + F5 to start from the slide you are on. (You can also use the Slide Show tab.)
- Click, or press the right arrow or Space bar, to move on. The left arrow goes back.
- Press Esc to stop the show.
What makes a good slide?
- Few words. Use key points, not paragraphs: about six short lines at most. You do the explaining.
- Big text: at least 24 point, so the back row can read it.
- Pictures that help explain your point.
- Strong contrast: dark text on a light background, or light text on a dark one.
- Look at your audience, not at the screen, and do not read the slides word for word.
Watch: slide basics
This video shows how to add slides, choose layouts and type into placeholders in PowerPoint. Listen for what a placeholder is.
Video: PowerPoint: Slide Basics – LearnFree – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZfcVbKJs1E
Activity: presentation words
Try it: match the word to its meaning
Choose the meaning of each word.
| Slide | |
| Theme (design) | |
| Layout | |
| Placeholder | |
| Text box | |
| Chart | |
| Slide show |
Activity: good habit or bad habit?
Try it: sort the slide habits
Drag each card into the right box (or tap the card, then tap the box).
Good habit 👍
Bad habit 👎
Project: “All About Me” in five slides
Plan your slides on paper first, then build them. Use a theme, and include at least one text box, one shape, one image and one chart somewhere in the show.
| Slide | What to put on it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Title slide: “All About Me” and your name |
| 2 | My family and where I live (with a picture you are allowed to use, or one you drew) |
| 3 | My favourite things: food, music, sport (bullet points) |
| 4 | A chart, for example the hours you spend on homework, sport and screens each week |
| 5 | My goals for Form 1, in a shape or text box |
| Rubric | 1 – Getting there | 2 – Good | 3 – Excellent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content | Some slides missing | All five slides | All five slides, clear and interesting |
| Design | Hard to read | Readable, mostly matching | One theme, strong contrast, neat |
| Inserted objects | One or two | Three | Text box, shape, image and chart all used well |
| Presenting | Reads from the screen | Some eye contact | Confident, looks at the audience |
Self-check quiz
Click the best answer. You get feedback straight away; only your first click counts towards your score.
1. What is a slide?
2. Which key starts the slide show from the beginning?
3. What does a theme do?
4. You want a picture on one side and bullet points on the other. What should you change?
5. How do you add a graph of your own numbers?
6. Which is the best advice for slides?
Related posts on islandclass.org
- Presentation Software – notes
- Video Series: Using Powerpoint presentation Software – seven short videos
- Presentation Software – Classroom Instructions – class task
Next: Bringing Slides to Life: Transitions and Animations
Syllabus link: Forms 1–3 ICT curriculum, Module 3, Objective 3.5 – create a simple presentation.
Attributions to media used in this post:
- LibreOffice Impress 7.1.2 screenshot.png – The Document Foundation – MPL 2.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)
- Video: PowerPoint: Slide Basics – LearnFree (YouTube)
Updates
2026/10/21
– Fixed the activity code so its buttons keep working.
© 2026 Vedesh Kungebeharry. All rights reserved.