Locked lesson.
About this lesson
We'll examine the different ways to launch PowerPoint and run through the functionality available on the Start Screen.
Exercise files
Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ PowerPoint presentations from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.
powerpoint-301-exercise.docx47.9 KB powerpoint-301-exercise solution.docx
47.5 KB 03-01-Training-Presentation.pptx
1.8 MB
Quick reference
Launching PowerPoint and the Start Screen
When to use
The start screen should be used when you first launch PowerPoint and want to create a new presentation, choose a template or open an existing presentation.
Instructions
Once PowerPoint has been downloaded and installed on your PC, you can launch it from the search box in the task bar.
Windows 10/8.1/8 Users
Click in the search box and type PowerPoint. If installed, the app will appear at the top of the menu. Click on the app to launch.
Pin PowerPoint to the Taskbar
To launch PowerPoint with one-click from the taskbar, pin the application.
Right-click on the app in the menu. Select the Pin to taskbar option from the contextual menu. This will pin the app permantely to the taskbar at the bottom of the screen until you choose to remove it. Click on the icon to launch.
The Start Screen
When you open PowerPoint for the first time, the Start Screen will appear. From here, you'll be able to create a new presentation, choose a template, and access your recently edited presentations. You can also search for presentations you have saved using the search bar.
The Search Bar
Type a full or partial keyword into the search box to search for a file. Search will look for files saved to your local drives and any attached file storage applications like OneDrive. Click the X to clear the search.
Recent
The recent lists shows the last presentations you accessed. The number of recent files you see in this list is controlled by a setting in PowerPoint options. You can display a maximum of 50 recent presentations. The recent list is dynamic. This means it will change and update depending on your activity.
Pinned
If you have presentations or templates that you use frequently, you can pin them to the top of the list. Pinning a file also adds it to the Pinned area. To pin a presentation, hover your mouse over a file in the recent list and click the drawing pin icon. Click the drawing pin icon again to unpin a file and remove it from the pinned list.
Shared with me
Files that have been shared with you by others will show in this list. Files will stay in this list until the owner of the file removes your access.
Hints & tips
- If you prefer, apps can be pinned to the start menu instead of the task bar.
- To see more templates, click the More themes button.
- When searching for a file in the search box, click Show more results to see the whole list.
- If you don't want to see the New section, click the down-arrow next to the section to minimize.
- 00:04 Now, before we get into creating our first PowerPoint presentation,
- 00:08 we need to launch PowerPoint.
- 00:10 Now, that seems like a really simple thing, but if you have maybe just
- 00:14 installed PowerPoint and you're not used to using Microsoft products,
- 00:18 you might not be sure where to go in order to open the application.
- 00:22 Now, just bear in mind that this process might differ depending on the operating
- 00:27 system that you're using.
- 00:29 So I'm using Windows 10, and the version of PowerPoint that I'm going to
- 00:33 be using throughout this course is basically the latest version, so
- 00:37 PowerPoint 2019, which is also the same as PowerPoint for Microsoft 365.
- 00:42 So we're going to pick this process up from the point of installation.
- 00:45 So we've installed PowerPoint onto our PC, however, you've done that,
- 00:49 where do we find the application?
- 00:52 Well for me, it's fairly straightforward, let's jump down to our taskbar
- 00:56 at the bottom and you'll see that I have a search bar.
- 00:59 And all I need to do is type in what I'm looking for,
- 01:02 in this case, PowerPoint, and you should see a pop-up in the list,
- 01:05 as long as you've got it installed on your PC.
- 01:08 Now, I don't want to have to go through this process every time I want to open up
- 01:12 PowerPoint.
- 01:14 So a quick tip is to pin it down to your taskbar, so if you right-click your mouse
- 01:19 on the PowerPoint app, you'll see a little menu shoot out to the side and
- 01:23 you're looking for an option that says Pin to taskbar.
- 01:27 Now, mine says Unpin because I've already pinned it down there.
- 01:31 But once you pin,
- 01:32 you'll then see it appear at the bottom where I have all of these different icons.
- 01:37 So as you can see, I'm a big fan of pinning applications because I have
- 01:40 everything pinned down here.
- 01:43 And it just makes the application super easy to access with one click.
- 01:47 Now, when PowerPoint launches for the first time,
- 01:50 it's going to launch you into the Start screen.
- 01:53 And the Start screen is unique in many ways because you'll only ever see it when
- 01:57 you first start up PowerPoint.
- 01:59 Now, the interface has three main parts, we have our menu running down
- 02:03 the left-hand side, which has our Home, New and Open icons.
- 02:07 We then have a new section at the top,
- 02:09 which is where you would go to create a new blank PowerPoint presentation or
- 02:14 even if you wanted to load up a template that you'd use recently.
- 02:18 That's what you can see at the top there, so we have blank presentation,
- 02:22 followed by templates that I've used.
- 02:24 Now, this area at the top is dynamic in many respects,
- 02:27 meaning that it changes depending on your activity.
- 02:31 So if I was to open up a new template,
- 02:33 that's going to jump to the front of that list behind the blank presentation.
- 02:37 So just be aware that that changes depending on what you're doing.
- 02:41 Now, underneath that, we then have a Search bar, so
- 02:45 this is if you are trying to find a particular file on your PC.
- 02:49 So if I can't remember where I've saved my roadmap presentation,
- 02:53 I can simply type in a keyword and if PowerPoint can find it,
- 02:57 it's going to pop it up in that list below.
- 03:00 And you can open that template simply by clicking on the file.
- 03:03 And if you want to clear that search and run another one,
- 03:06 just click on the little cross and you can start afresh.
- 03:10 And then, underneath there, we have three separate sections, Recent,
- 03:14 Pinned and Shared with Me.
- 03:16 Now, Recent will show you all of the presentations that you've accessed
- 03:21 recently, and for me, that means the last ten.
- 03:24 Now, if you want to see more presentations,
- 03:26 you can change the setting in the PowerPoint options,
- 03:30 which will show you the last 20, up to the last 50 presentations that you accessed.
- 03:35 And I'll show you a little bit later on in the course how you can change
- 03:38 that setting.
- 03:39 But just remember that this list is also dynamic,
- 03:42 it's very much controlled by your activity.
- 03:46 So when I start opening other presentations,
- 03:48 this list is going to update and put the most recent at the top.
- 03:52 Now, if you find that a little bit annoying because there's always a specific
- 03:56 presentation that you access, you might want to consider pinning it.
- 04:00 And you can pin any of these presentations that you see in this list simply by
- 04:05 hovering your mouse over.
- 04:07 And then, you've got a couple of icons in the middle there and
- 04:11 one of them is a little drawing pin icon, and you can pin to this list.
- 04:15 And what that means is that the presentation will now appear
- 04:18 in this Pinned section along with anything else that you've pinned.
- 04:22 And it's really just a quick way of being able to access your most important files.
- 04:28 And, of course, if you no longer want that pin, you just click on the drawing pin
- 04:31 icon again, and that's going to remove it from the list.
- 04:34 And then, finally on this Start screen, we have a Shared with Me area.
- 04:38 So if one of your colleagues, or somebody else shares a PowerPoint presentation with
- 04:43 you, instead of hunting around in your emails for
- 04:45 a link to that presentation, if you've opened it,
- 04:48 then you'll be able to see it underneath this Shared with Me section.
- 04:52 So really, this whole area is just a quick way of accessing your files.
- 04:58 Now, there's some other icons in this left-hand menu that we haven't discussed
- 05:02 yet but we're going to be using those In the next few lessons.
- 05:05 But when it comes to the Start screen, that is pretty much it,
- 05:08 I think we're almost ready to dive into our first presentation.
- 05:12 So I'm quickly going to grab a coffee and I'll meet you right back here.
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