Slide Basics

About Slides

Slides contain placeholders, which are areas on the slide that are enclosed by dotted borders. Placeholders can contain many different items, including text, pictures, charts, and more. Some placeholders have placeholder text, or text that you can replace. They also have thumbnail-sized icons that represent specific commands such as Insert Picture, Insert Chart, and Insert Clip Art. In PowerPoint, hover over each icon to see the type of content you can insert in a placeholder.

PowerPoint slide with placeholders

About Slide Layouts

The placeholders are arranged in different layouts that can be applied to existing slides, or chosen when youinsert a new slide. A slide layout arranges your content using different types of placeholders, depending on what kind of information you might want to include in your presentation.

In the example above, the layout is called Title and Content and includes title and content placeholders. While each layout has a descriptive name, you can also tell from the image of the layout how the placeholders will be arranged.

Slide layout menu

Customizing Slide Layouts

To Change the Layout of an Existing Slide:

1. Select the slide you wish to change.
Selecting a slide
2. Click the Layout command in the Slides group on the Home tab. A menu will appear with your options.
Layout command
3. Choose a layout from the menu. The slide will change in the presentation.
Choosing a layout

To Delete a Placeholder:

You can easily customize your layout by deleting unwanted or "extra" placeholders from any slide.

1. Position your mouse on the dotted border of the placeholder so it changes to a cross with arrows .
2. Click the border to select it.
A selected placeholder
3. Press Backspace or Delete on your keyboard. The placeholder will be removed from the slide.

To Add a Text Box:

Text boxes allow you to add to your current layout, so you can place text wherever you want on your slide.

1. From the Insert tab, click the Text Box command. 
Text Box command
2. Your cursor will turn into an upside-down cross .
Text Box cursor
3. Click, hold, and drag your mouse to draw a text box. A text box will appear.
A text box

Explore our Text Basics lesson to learn more about inserting and using text boxes in PowerPoint 2010.

To Use a Blank Slide:

For more control over your content, you may prefer a blank slide (a slide without placeholders) over one of the existing layouts. Blank slides can be customized by adding your own text boxes, pictures, charts, and more.

• Select Blank from the menu of layout options.

Choosing a blank slide