PowerPoint installs with a myriad of layouts; however, if none of the standard layouts available in PowerPoint's Layout gallery quite suits your needs, you can create a new layout from scratch. You create a new layout from within Slide Master view and give it a unique name. (You can learn more about this view in the next task.) When you create a new layout, you add the necessary text- and object-specific placeholders.

Whether working with a predefined layout or a custom one, you can edit the placeholders in a slide's layout. For example, you can resize a placeholder, move it to another location on your slide, or delete it entirely. You can also add as many placeholders to a slide as you need. You can determine exactly what kind of placeholder to add, such as a text box, clip art, chart, or multimedia item. Anytime you add a placeholder element, you can control the size for the content it holds just by defining its dimensions by "drawing" the placeholder on the slide. To do this, you drag the placeholder box to the size you want when inserting the item.

After you have created your custom layout, PowerPoint adds it to the Layout gallery, and you can reuse it throughout your presentation. You can also save the entire presentation as a template to make the custom layout available in new presentations you create using the template.

Tip

Try This!

To resize a placeholder, first click in the placeholder, and then position your mouse pointer over a sizing handle on the placeholder. The mouse pointer changes to a two-headed arrow (

Apply It!

To save a presentation as a template, simply select PowerPoint Template from the Save As Type drop-down menu in the Save As dialog box (click the File tab and click Save As). You can apply the template as a new presentation at any time by clicking the File tab, New, and selecting the template file from the My Templates folder.

You can insert your own custom slide masters into a PowerPoint presentation. By definition, a slide master determines the type of content and positioning of the various placeholders in the slide. Much like a template for controlling a Word document, a PowerPoint slide master is a template upon which all the presentation's slides are based — a pattern, if you will, for all the slides you add to the presentation. Slide masters are a great way to save time formatting and create a unifying look for a long presentation. It makes sure any additional slides you add always share the same look and feel.

You can customize a slide master to suit your presentation needs. Each slide master you add includes a subset of corresponding layouts. When you apply a theme to a presentation, that theme includes predefined slide masters. If you make a change to a slide master, such as increasing the font size for slide titles or adding a footer or graphic, that change is applied to every slide in the presentation.

You work with the slide master in Slide Master view. You can use the specialized tools on this Ribbon tab to delete, create, preserve, or rename masters, or change the placeholders contained in the master layout.

Although you can manually format the slides in your presentation one by one — applying backgrounds, fonts, colors, graphics, and so on — an easier way to streamline the look and feel of the slides in your presentation is to apply a theme. Doing so applies specific colors, fonts, placeholder positions, graphic elements, backgrounds, effects, and other formatting to the slides in the presentation in one quick, easy operation. PowerPoint installs with a large library of ready-to-go themes you can apply. The theme's slide masters determine the positioning of the placeholders and objects for the current theme, saving you time and effort doing it all yourself.

You can apply one theme to all the slides in a presentation to lend a consistent, professional look. Alternatively, you can apply different themes to certain slides. Note that if you do opt to apply a different theme to certain slides, be sure it complements the design used on other slides. Otherwise, the transition from one theme to another as you move from slide to slide can be jarring to viewers.

If you apply a theme to your presentation, but decide that you would prefer to use different colors or fonts with that theme, you can easily change them by selecting a different color theme or font theme. A color theme controls the colors automatically applied to text and objects such as tables and SmartArt diagrams. The font theme dictates the font formatting for all text.

Changing the color theme or font theme can give your presentation an entirely fresh look, even as other theme attributes are retained. Choosing different color and font themes can also help make your presentation more attractive — not to mention readable — when it appears on-screen or in printout form.

In addition to applying a new predefined color theme or font theme to your presentation, you can also create your own custom color and font themes.

You can apply a different color theme to selected slides in your presentation or to the entire show. The font theme, however, must be applied to the presentation in its entirety.

If you opt to apply formatting to your slides manually, or if you customize an existing theme, you can save your formatting choices as a new theme. Doing so enables you to apply the same formatting settings to other presentations in the same way you would apply any other theme.

If you want, you can make the theme you save — or any other theme, for that matter — the default theme. PowerPoint then automatically applies that theme to any new presentations you create. To make a theme the default theme, click the Design tab, click the More button, right-click the theme you want to set as the default, and choose Set as Default Theme.

In addition to saving themes you create for reuse, you can save presentations you create as templates on which subsequent presentations can be based. The template file includes both the presentation design (that is, the theme) and content, such as bulleted lists.

Adding graphic elements, such as clip art or your own personal photos or other images (for example, a company logo) can enhance the slide's appearance and give it some visual impact. This is especially helpful because most people are typically visually oriented by nature. Graphic elements can be placed anywhere on your slide.

After you insert a picture into your slide, you can move and resize it as needed. To move a picture, click it in the slide, rest your mouse pointer over the box surrounding it, click, and drag it to the desired location. Resize a picture by clicking it, and then clicking and dragging any of the resizing handles that appear around the border of the picture. Depending on the picture type, you can also rotate and flip pictures. To rotate a picture, click the object to select it, and then drag its rotation handle, the green circle located at the top middle of the picture.

To otherwise edit a picture — for example, to change the image's brightness, contrast, or color tone, crop it, apply a picture style, add a border, and so on — click the picture to select it, click the Format tab, and use any of the various tools that appear. To learn more tips and techniques for working with graphics in Office 2010, see Chapter 14.

You can insert a SmartArt graphic or diagram to illustrate a process, hierarchy, cycle, or relationship. For example, a diagram can show the workflow in a procedure or the hierarchy in an organization, as illustrated in this task. Using SmartArt graphics, you can create designer-quality graphics that beautifully convey your message with a few clicks of the mouse. PowerPoint offers dozens of SmartArt graphic layouts. Simply insert the graphic you want to use and add any necessary text.

When you insert a SmartArt graphic into your presentation, it has the same visual characteristics (that is, the color, style, and so on) of other content in the presentation. You can, however, change the style or color of the SmartArt graphic, or add effects such as glow or 3-D. You can even animate your SmartArt graphic. To remove any formatting changes you make to a SmartArt graphic, click the Design tab and click Reset Graphic.

You can also find the SmartArt feature in Word and Excel.

To enhance your presentation, you can add video or movie clips to it. For example, if you have composed a presentation for an alumni association meeting, you might include a clip showing the campus. You can set up PowerPoint to play back your video automatically; alternatively, you can choose to play it manually by clicking it. Supported video file formats include AVI (Audio Video Interleave), MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group), and WMV (Windows Media Video).

Video files are always linked to, rather than embedded in, PowerPoint presentations to reduce the size of the presentation file. For this reason, it is wise to first copy the video file into the same folder in which your PowerPoint presentation is stored; this ensures that your presentation can locate the file when necessary.

You can also insert sound clips into your presentation. When you do, PowerPoint adds a small speaker icon to the selected slide. When you position the mouse pointer over the speaker icon, a player control bar appears with buttons for playing the clip. (If the speaker icon clashes with your slide design, and if you have set up the sound to play automatically, you can hide the speaker icon by clicking it, clicking the Playback tab, and selecting the Hide During Show check box.)

New to PowerPoint 2010, you can use the built-in video editor to make simple edits to a video clip in your slide. You can easily remove unwanted portions of a clip so the presentation shows only the information you want to show. You can also assign styles to the clip to create fading edges, 3-D rotation, and more. You can even recolor your video clip to match the theme of your presentation.

Using the Trim Video dialog box, you can trim the front or end of a clip to suit your needs. For example, you may want to end a clip earlier to fit the timing needs of your presentation or cut off an awkward pause at the beginning of a clip. The Trim Video dialog box includes playback controls to view and check your work, move forward and backward frame by frame, as well as details about the length of the clip.

You can use the Video Styles group of effects on the Video Tools Format tab to create an eye-catching border around the clip. You can also find tools on the tab for changing the shape, adding a color border, or assigning a special effect, such as a shadow or reflection. In addition to enhancements, Video Tools include a feature for correcting brightness and color issues with the clip.

By default, items you add to your slides remain static. To add interest, you can animate the items on PowerPoint slides — that is, apply motion to the text or objects in your slide, such as images, bulleted lists, and the like. For example, you might animate a table on your slide to move in from the top of the screen.

The Ribbon's Animations tab contains options for setting up and working with animations in your presentation. You simply select the item in your presentation you want to animate, and then choose the desired animation effect from the tab. PowerPoint previews the animation for you right after you apply it. Another option is to create a custom animation, as outlined here.

Be warned: You should avoid overusing animations. Otherwise, your presentation may seem too busy. Excessive use of animations can overshadow the message of your presentation. By using animations sparingly, you ensure they serve as effective attention grabbers rather than distractions.

Some presentations — for example, presentations that illustrate a process — should rely more on pictures than on text, tables, and graphs. If yours is one such presentation, consider using PowerPoint's Photo Album feature to set it up.

Using Photo Album, you can select the photos you want to include in your presentation and specify the order in which they should appear, as well as select a layout for the slides. Your choices include displaying one, two, or four pictures per slide. You can improve the appearance of your slide show by choosing a frame shape for your photos and applying a theme.

If you think you need more than just photos to communicate your message, you can add picture captions. They can serve as descriptive or humorous labels. Alternatively, they might convey important information about the photos, such as the step or operation a photo depicts. For more extensive textual information, you can insert a text box; text boxes can also be used to insert a blank space in the slide — useful if you want to move the next photo in the album from one slide to the next.

Tip

More Options!

You can edit a photo album presentation via the Edit Photo Album dialog box, which is identical to the Photo Album dialog box. To open it, click the Photo Album arrow and choose Edit Photo Album.

Try This!

To add captions to your photo album presentation, select the Captions Below ALL Pictures check box in the Photo Album dialog box (