Microsoft PowerPoint course

PowerPoint Lesson 1

PowerPoint Basics: Slides, Placeholders, and Saving

First-time setup and success checks

Lesson goal in plain language: Create a basic presentation, move among slide placeholders with the keyboard, and save the file.

Prepare before step 1

  1. Open the correct application, website, or device screen and wait for its name to be announced.
  2. Open PowerPoint manual and review the matching procedure if any command or term is unfamiliar.
  3. Use only fictional, public, disposable, or instructor-provided practice information. Make a copy before changing an important file.
  4. Read all numbered instructions once before performing them so you know the intended final result.

Commands used or referenced

F6, Tab, Ctrl+M, Ctrl+S, Alt+Q, Insert+Spacebar,

For a plus-sign command, hold the modifier key, press and release the final key, then release the modifier. For a sequence, press and release each key in order. Stop after every command and listen for the result.

Work and verify

  1. Perform one numbered instruction and stop. Identify the active window, focused control, selected item, cell, slide, message, field, or device area before continuing.
  2. Compare the result with the lesson goal. A sound alone is not enough; verify the name, state, value, location, permission, or content.
  3. If the result is wrong, press Escape once to leave an unexpected menu, identify focus again, and use Undo only when the change is safely reversible.
  4. Save or synchronize at natural stopping points. Use the required filename PowerPoint-Lesson-1.pptx.
  5. Complete the “Before submitting” checklist from top to bottom. Correct missing items before marking the lesson complete.
  6. Close and reopen the practice item, or return to it from the product’s main screen, to prove you can locate and verify the result independently.

Success standard: Explain what each major command did, show the finished result, and recover from one harmless focus or navigation error without another person naming the next key.

Goal

Create a basic presentation, move among slide placeholders with the keyboard, and save the file.

Skills practiced

Step-by-step instructions

  1. Open Microsoft PowerPoint and create a Blank Presentation.
  2. Press F6 several times and listen as JAWS moves among the slide area, thumbnails pane, notes pane, and ribbon.
  3. Return to the slide area. Press Tab to move between the title and subtitle placeholders.
  4. Type Workplace Technology Training in the title placeholder.
  5. Move to the subtitle placeholder and type Prepared by followed by a fictional name.
  6. Press Ctrl+M to create a new slide.
  7. Type Training Goals in the title placeholder. In the content placeholder, enter Learn keyboard commands, Practice accessible documents, and Complete workplace assignments as separate lines.
  8. Press Page Up and Page Down in the thumbnails pane to review both slides.
  9. Press Ctrl+S and save the presentation as PowerPoint-Lesson-1.pptx.

Keyboard help: Press Alt+Q to search PowerPoint commands when Ribbon KeyTips differ. For JAWS help, press Insert+Spacebar, then J, and search for the task.

Your assignment

Create a two-slide workplace technology training presentation with a title slide and a Training Goals slide.

Save the finished assignment as PowerPoint-Lesson-1.pptx.

Before submitting