Microsoft PowerPoint Online in Outlook

In order to access and be able to use PowerPoint Online, as mandatory requirement you need to have an Outlook or Microsoft account. So, to enter your credentials after having your account you can visit the URL address https://outlook.live.com and type in your email address and password.

When you have entered your credentials properly, the next thing you will see is the Outlook´s home page showing to you, as the main page of the email service where you can see your inbox, folder lists, and message´s content when they are selected among other important information as settings and obviously the possibility to compose new emails to send one or several receipts.

Also, within the homepage of your platform you will be able to see an “Applications” button placed at the top left of the screen, allowing you Microsoft to access its different services and products at just one option away. By clicking on “Applications” you will see a list with all the platforms to be used completely online in the browser of your choice.

In this list, all you have to do is selecting the “PowerPoint Online” option by scrolling depending on the size of your screen in the device used. By clicking on it, a new browser page or tab will be opened with PowerPoint Online ready to be enjoyed.

Picking templates for new presentations and opening created ones

Now that you have opened PowerPoint Online with your Outlook account, you will be able to create new presentations and also upload the ones you already have in local and online cloud storage as OneDrive or DropBox. Also, you have the possibility to select the available templates for new presentations and also to use the blank option to release all of your creativity.

In this sort of Power Point Online home screen there is a general menu placed at the left, where you will be able to see your recently opened documents and .PPT files, as well as showing you the possibility to open presentations stored in your OneDrive personal cloud or DropBox.

Continuing, at the right of this type of home screen you will be able to see the different templates available for using, and by just clicking in them you can start creating your presentation almost instantly. In the same way, in case you have a presentation saved in the local storage of the device or computer you are using, you can do it with the “Upload a presentation” option.

In this case we will click in the “New Blank Presentation” option to open a completely empty template to work with, although the others result quite useful in many specific cases and purposes.

Making a new presentation from scratch with the available tools in PowerPoint Online

We have chosen the template to use in our new PowerPoint Online presentation, and now all we need to do is starting to add the things we want using the available tools. As an overview of the layout, at the right we have the viewing panel where we can see and edit the selected slide, and on the left there is the slide list from where we can select the one we need to modify.

Now, in order to start modifying and adding different effects and elements into the slides, we have available an option panel with eight main tabs addressing different purposes and actions to perform.

In first place we have the “File” tab, and by clicking on it we will have access to different options regarding saving, opening, renaming, printing and sharing of presentations and files. Also, in this menu the user can know about the software and obtain help to use it.

In second place we have the “Home” main tab, giving us options to redo and undo actions, paste and copy content and text, duplicate slides; modify text in terms of effects as adding italic, bold, underline and others as colors; to include paragraph options to organize content as bullets, indent and numbers; drawing and arranging shapes with quick styles and more.

By using the third main tab “Insert” we can get into the presentation new slides, default or customizable tables, to add pictures and shapes, using SmartArt, Office Add-ons, hyperlinks, text box, comments and local and online videos.

For example, to use the option “New Slide” we can insert another slide with other template that you choose.

To add an image to the presentation, you just have to click on the slide you are working on and then select the option “Picture”, and by doing so a window allowing you to search the file to insert will be opened. Now the image is included and can be modified and moved in the slide for best convenience.

When you enter an image on a slide and you click on it for further use and edition, a new main tab will be opened as “Format” in order to add effects and modifications to the image.

Moving on to the fourth main tab “Design”, in here we can choose to change between different layouts and templates to apply, as well as editing color, slide size and background.

The next main tabs corresponds to “Transitions” and “Animations” as effects we can include when slides get in and out between each other, such as how they appear or fade and if they got cut or pushed. Of course, transition and animation timing can also be controlled using these tabs.

Lastly, we have the “Review” tab to check availability for example, as well as the “View” main tab to run the presentation and see how it performs in terms of effects and included content as sound and images. From the “View” tab users can also manage options regarding zoom, viewing space, speed and more parameters.