Inserting and Developing an Outline

PP07S-1.1.4

Outlining your content is a great way to create a presentation. You can outline and organize your thoughts right in PowerPoint or insert an outline you created in another program, such as Microsoft Word. If you prefer to develop your own outline, you can create a blank presentation, and then type your outline in the Outline pane of Normal view. As you develop an outline, you can add new slides and duplicate existing slides in your presentation. If you already have an outline, make sure the document containing the outline is set up using outline heading styles. When you insert the outline in PowerPoint, it creates slide titles, subtitles , and bulleted lists based on those styles.

Enter Text in the Outline Pane

In the Outline pane of Normal view, click to place the insertion point where you want the text to appear.

Type the title text you want, pressing Enter after each line.

To indent right a level for bullet text, press Tab before you type. Press Shift+Tab to indent left a level.

Add a Slide in the Outline Pane

In the Outline pane of Normal view, click at the end of the slide text where you want to insert a new slide.

Press Ctrl+Shift, or click the Home tab, click the New Slide button arrow, and then click a layout.

Did You Know?

You can delete a slide. In the Outline or Slides pane or in Slide Sorter view, select the slide you want to delete. Press Delete, or click the Delete button in the Slides group on the Home tab.

Duplicate a Slide

In the Outline pane of Normal view, click the slide you want to duplicate.

Timesaver

To select slides in a sequence, click the first slide, hold down the Shift key, and then click the last slide. To select multiple slides, use the Ctrl key.

Click the Home tab.

Click the New Slide button arrow.

Click Duplicate Selected Slides .

The new slide appears directly after the slide duplicated .

Insert an Outline from Another Program

In the Outline pane of Normal view, click the slide after which you want to insert an outline.

Click the Home tab.

Click the New Slide button arrow, and then click Slides from Outline .

Locate and select the file containing the outline you want to insert.

Click Insert .

Did You Know?

You can open an outline from another program in PowerPoint. Click the Office button, click Open, click the Files Of Type list arrow, click All Outlines, and then double-click the outline file you want to open.

Moving and Indenting Text

PP07S-2.2.5, PP07S-2.2.6

Body text on a slide typically contains bulleted text, which you can indent to create levels. You can indent paragraphs of body text up to five levels using the Increase List Level and Decrease List Level buttons . In an outline, these tools let you demote text from a title, for example, to bulleted text. You can view and change the locations of the indent markers within an object with text using the ruler. In PowerPoint, pressing Enter within an object with text creates a paragraph. You can set different indent markers for each paragraph in an object ( New! ).

Change the Indent Level

In Normal view (Outline pane or slide), click the paragraph text or select the lines of text you want to indent.

Click the Home tab.

Click the indent level option you want:

Click the Increase List Level button to move the line up one level (to the left).

Click the Decrease List Level button to move the line down one level (to the right).

Display or Hide the Ruler

In Normal view, click the View tab.

Select the Ruler check box to display it, or clear the Ruler check box to hide it.

Did You Know?

You can use the Ruler with shape text. When you select a text object and then view the ruler, the ruler runs the length of just that text object, and the origin (zero point) of the ruler is at the box borders, starting with the upper left.

Change the Indent

Display the ruler.

Select the text for which you want to change the indentation.

Change the indent level the way you want.

To change the indent for the first line of a paragraph, drag the first-line indent marker.

To change the indent for the rest of the paragraph, drag the left indent marker.

To change the distance between the indents and the left margin, but maintain the relative distance between the first-line and left indent markers, drag the rectangle below the left indent marker.

Did You Know?

You can use the mouse to increase or decrease list level text. Move the mouse pointer over the bullet you want to increase or decrease, and then when it changes to a four-headed arrow, drag the text to the left to increase the level or to the right to decrease the level.

You can show or hide formatting in Outline pane. In Outline pane, right-click a slide icon, and then click Show Text Formatting. Turning off formatting is useful for viewing more slides.