Flexible, easy to use—and even fun—Microsoft PowerPoint® is a dynamic and practical application that can help you improve your presentations by enhancing them with visual elements, so your audience better understands and engages with the information you are providing. The Great Courses has partnered with ITProTV to bring you 33 lessons that will introduce you to both the fundamentals and lesser-known tricks to making phenomenal presentations using PowerPoint.
Microsoft PowerPoint Essentials
Join The Great Courses and the Microsoft Office experts at ITProTV to learn how to navigate and utilize the many tools and techniques PowerPoint has to offer.
Rated 1 out of
5
by
jlyons from
Terrible presentation and a waste of time
I agree with the 9 people who gave this course 1 or 2 stars. It is awful. I give history courses that use PowerPoint and I had hoped to learn some useful tips and ideas. But I really didn't. I would bet the presenter, Vonne Smith, would have been fine if she had not had to engage with the useless host. She seemed to know her stuff. I had forgotten until I read one of the negative reviews that the presentation was given on a Mac. For crying out loud! Can't the Teaching Company afford a Windows box? I have a whole lot of Teaching Company courses and they all range from very good to great. This is the first course I have seen that is an embarrassment. I was thinking of trying one of the othr office MS Office product courses like Excel, but now I'm not going to risk the money.
Date published: 2023-04-01
Rated 1 out of
5
by
Doren from
Disappointed
75% girly chit chat and giggling 25% usable content. This is not up to the GC quality I've become accustomed to.
Date published: 2022-10-10
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Mary Margaret from
An easy to understand course!
The presenter did a fine job. I started using some of the tips right away, even though I've been doing PowerPoints for years.
Date published: 2022-03-07
Rated 1 out of
5
by
powell from
Not helpful at all.
I have purchased many Great Courses and this is the first one that I am disappointed in. The banter between the instructors is unhelpful. Graphics would have been helpful in the transcript.
Date published: 2022-03-05
Rated 1 out of
5
by
Jac43 from
PowerPoint Essentials
I have purchased over 20 courses from The Great Courses. This course is, by far, the most unprofessional presentation I have ever experienced. I am shocked that TGC would sell such a product.
Date published: 2021-07-29
Rated 2 out of
5
by
Gleek01 from
Disappointed
The information being presented is fine, but the presenter and host do not add anything to the course. I've watched Great Courses many courses, and the lecturers are not only presenting material they have mastered, their presentation style is polished and professional. The presenter in this series does not impress me in any way. Her demeanor is not what I've come to expect from the Great Courses. I'll grit my teeth and try to get the course, but it will be painful.
Date published: 2021-03-05
Rated 4 out of
5
by
marioacuario from
Getting fun with PowerPoint
A good basic course on PowerPoint. I found useful the lectures on transitions, animations, printing and presentation.
I did not like the presence of the “Host” (besides the instructor) who did not add any value to the teaching and only distracted.
Date published: 2021-01-04
Rated 4 out of
5
by
Mimi4452 from
A basic course, as advertized
I have found this course to be useful. It is basic, as it is supposed to be and geared to someone who just figured out what the PPT icon looked like. The subject matter is deadly dull unless somehow the instructor shows some life, and I think she does just fine. I have used PowerPoint for at least 20 years, and know just enough to really mess up slides. So I bungle through and manage. I learned 7 things in the first three lectures (so basic I was convinced I wouldn't need to listen at all) and then decided to pay attention and learn at least three new things each lecture. So far, so good. If you want to learn where features are and how they are supposed to work, get the course. Open up a PP file and practice things as you go along.
Date published: 2020-12-26
Overview
Trailer
01: Overview
PowerPoint 2016 is the popular application within the Office suite to create on-screen presentations. This series starts at the very beginning by exploring the PowerPoint environment, how to add slides to a presentation, insert text and images into slides, and create tables and charts. The series continues by enhancing a presentation with design themes, animation, and transitions, then concludes with preparing and delivering a robust presentation. This series is specifically for the Windows operating system with PowerPoint 2016 locally installed.
9 min
02: Introduction to PowerPoint
Vonne and Aubri introduce PowerPoint 2016 Essentials for the Windows operating system series. In this episode, they define PowerPoint, discuss the Office 365 suite and subscription plans, and review the course setup.
20 min
03: PowerPoint Basics
Vonne and Aubri introduce basic concepts in PowerPoint such as launching the application, opening and closing files, and differentiating between save and save as. They also discuss basic window manipulation such as minimize, maximize, restore down, dock multiple windows, and title bar shortcuts.
24 min
04: PowerPoint Interface
In this episode, Aubri and Vonne explore the PowerPoint interface. They explain the functionality and location of the ribbon, quick access toolbar, the backstage view, and the status bar.
25 min
05: Navigate a Presentation and Views
Aubri and Vonne demonstrate how to navigate a presentation in PowerPoint. They explore the nuances of the slide pane, the navigation pane, and the speaker notes. They also cover how to switch to and exit different views such as normal, outline, slide sorter, and master slides as well as presentation mode.
32 min
06: Create a Presentation
In this episode, Vonne and Aubri demonstrate how to create a new presentation and work with slides. They cover the following topics: slide layouts, modify layouts and placeholders, reset slides, add slides, add and modify sections, reorder slides, and delete slides and sections.
29 min
07: Add Text
Aubri and Vonne add text to slides. They show different ways to select text and add text to both content placeholders and text boxes. They also review many of the different Autofit and AutoCorrect options as well as copy and paste options.
33 min
08: Slides from Outline and Reuse Slides
Vonne and Aubri demonstrate different ways to add slides and content into a presentation by using the Slides from Outline and Reuse Slides commands.
24 min
09: Format Text: Basics
In this episode, Vonne and Aubri format text in slides. They cover character level formatting such as font, size, color, and character spacing. They also review some basic paragraph alignment, the format painter, and vertical alignment of a text frame.
35 min
10: Format Text: Bullets and Spacing
Vonne and Aubri concentrate on paragraph level formatting. They explore how to format and customize bullets as well as control line and paragraph spacing. They also review indents, tabs, hyphenation, and columns.
30 min
11: Images: Basics
Vonne and Aubri discuss the basic concepts of images, covering file types, resolution, image size, and alternate text. They also demonstrate how to size images using Paint.
29 min
12: Images: Insert
Aubri and Vonne show how to insert images into a presentation in PowerPoint. They cover insert from file, online, and screenshot as well as how to use the Snipping Tool.
27 min
13: Images: Format, Part 1
In this episode, Vonne and Wes show how to format images - specifically covering how to move, resize, rotate, crop, position, and reset images.
31 min
14: Images: Format, Part 2
Vonne and Wes continue to format images in this second part of the episode. They cover picture styles, color and other corrections, and artistic effects. They also cover how to remove background, change picture, save as picture, and the all important compress picture command.
29 min
15: Shapes: Add and Format
Wes and Vonne discuss adding and formatting shapes to a PowerPoint presentation. They show how to resize and rotate shapes, format gradient fills, format outlines, and add text to shapes. They also demonstrate how to edit shapes by the yellow dot in certain shapes and the edit points command.
30 min
16: Shapes: Multiple Shapes
In this episode, Vonne and Aubri show how to duplicate, select, order, align, group, and merge multiple shapes. They also talk about ruler guides and how to turn on and off automatic alignment (smart guides).
26 min
17: Icons and 3D Models
Vonne and Aubri demonstrate how to insert and format icons and 3D model in a slide. These two features are available to Office 365 subscribers only.
22 min
18: Tables: Introduction
Aubri and Vonne introduce tables in PowerPoint. They review basic terminology and show examples of different options for formatting tables. They also demonstrate all the different mouse cursors and how to select parts of a table.
21 min
19: Tables: Create and Format
In this episode, Aubri and Vonne insert and format tables. They cover how to change row height and column width, align text in cells, merge and split cells, and modify cell margins. They also demonstrate how to format cell fills and borders individually and overall with table styles and style options.
34 min
20: Charts: Introduction
Vonne and Aubri introduce and review the anatomy of charts. They identify parts of a chart such as data series, category axis, legends, data labels, and data tables. They also show examples of how to format charts with styles as well as formatting individual elements. Finally, they demonstrate how to select chart items.
24 min
21: Charts: Create
In this episode, Vonne and Aubri insert charts into a presentation. They show how to enter data into a datasheet, edit chart data, add chart elements individually or choose from a quick layout, and change chart types.
29 min
22: Charts: Format
Aubri and Vonne format chart elements in PowerPoint. They use chart styles as well as formatting individual elements with fills and outlines. Vonne gives some tips and tricks to formatting specific chart elements.
28 min
23: Charts: Pie Charts
Vonne and Aubri take a deeper dive into pie charts. They demonstrate options specifically for pie charts including formatting data labels, exploding pie pieces, and creating pie of pie type charts.
26 min
24: SmartArt
In this episode, Vonne and Aubri create SmartArt. They explore different layouts, how to add and modify information in the SmartArt graphic, change layouts, apply styles, and reset graphics to default formatting. They also show how to convert an existing list to a SmartArt graphic.
26 min
25: SmartArt: Organization Chart
Vonne and Aubri take a closer look into the organization chart SmartArt layout. They demonstrate how to add shapes, promote and demote, and format with styles.
23 min
26: Design Themes
In this episode, Aubri and Vonne discuss design themes, variants of themes, templates, and slide size.
30 min
27: Designer
Aubri and Vonne explore the cool options available with PowerPoint Designer for Office 365 subscribers.
13 min
28: Transitions
In this episode, Vonne and Aubri demonstrate how to enhance a presentation with slide transitions. They cover transition options, automatically advance slides, and the Morph transition.
29 min
29: Animations
Vonne and Aubri enhance a presentation with animations. They discuss the different types of animations, animation options, the animation pane, triggers, reordering animation, and motion paths.
36 min
30: Photo Album
In this episode, Vonne and Aubri show how to create a stylish photo album. They demonstrate how to edit an album and review all the different options available for formatting to create the final slide show.
25 min
31: Proof
Always proof your work! In this episode, Vonne and Aubri demonstrate how to check spelling and grammar as well as how to use the thesaurus, Smart Lookup, translate, and find and replace.
27 min
32: Prepare and Print
Vonne and Aubri discuss how to be fully prepared for presenting a presentation, including being prepared for all the things that could go wrong. They show the various options for printing slides and handouts as well as exporting to different file types for distribution.
27 min
33: Present a Slide Show
In this episode, Vonne and Aubri demonstrate how to present a slide show. They cover how to use the Presenter View, annotate slides during a presentation, switch pointer options, and lots of shortcuts for controlling slide presentations.
32 min
