Launching PowerPoint and the Start Screen

Quick reference

• 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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