Home / Non-Accredited / Microsoft Office & Computer Skills / Microsoft PowerPoint Beginners to Advanced (2 days)
Quick Look Course Summary:Microsoft PowerPoint Beginners to Advanced (2 days)
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Next Public Course Date:
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Length: 2 day(s)
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Price (at your venue): 1 Person R 10,326 EX VAT 3 Person R 7,594 EX VAT 10 Person R 5,537 EX VAT
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Certification Type:Non-Accredited
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Locations & Venues: Off-site or in-house. We train in all major city centres throughout South Africa.
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Microsoft PowerPoint Beginners to Advanced (2 days)
In two days a team goes from a blank slide to owning the organisation's template, assembling long decks and finalising presentations that are ready to send.
Two days of practical PowerPoint training that take a team from first principles to full control of the program. It is the quickest way to standardise how a department builds slides: everyone learns the same views, layouts, theme rules and shortcuts on day one, and on day two the same people learn to build the template, manage the long board pack and run the review cycle. One booking, one facilitator, one way of working.
Day one is the Beginners day: the window and views, creating and saving presentations, slides and layouts, themes and consistent design, text and SmartArt, pictures and icons, tables and charts (including a chart brought across from Excel), simple transitions and animation, video, Presenter View, sharing and exporting. Each delegate builds and presents a short deck before the day ends.
Day two is the Advanced day and nothing from day one is repeated: the slide master and custom layouts, handout and notes masters, saving a corporate template, Word outlines and reused slides, sections, slide size and custom shows, print set-up, precise alignment and formatting, imported Excel data, trimmed video, motion-path animation and timing, then comparing and merging versions, inspecting, protecting and exporting the final file. Delegates bring a real deck on day two and rebuild it on the template they created.
Why this course
For your organisation
- A whole team on one standard in two days
- A corporate template built on the course and owned by your own staff
- Board packs and tender pitches assembled, reviewed and finalised without rework
- Consistent, professional decks for clients, boards and staff
- Two consecutive days off the floor instead of two separate disruptions
For your delegates
- A complete path from first slide to template owner
- Day one habits reinforced immediately on day two
- Your own presentation rebuilt on your own template
- Confidence with the features colleagues ask for help with: masters, sections, custom shows, merging
- Printed workbooks for both days to refer back to
What delegates will be able to do
- Create, save and structure a presentation using the right views and layouts
- Apply themes, colours and fonts consistently and align content precisely
- Format text, lists and SmartArt, and insert and style pictures, icons, shapes, tables and charts
- Add transitions, animation, video and audio with restraint and present with Presenter View
- Share, co-author and comment on a presentation and export it to PDF or video
- Build a slide master with custom layouts and handout and notes masters, and save it as the organisation's template
- Assemble long presentations from Word outlines and other decks, organise them with sections and custom shows, and set up printing
- Control animation paths, timing and sequence, and trim and time video
- Compare and merge versions, resolve comments, and inspect, protect and export the final presentation
Who should attend
Teams and individuals who need to go from new or self-taught to fully capable in one booking: administrators and PAs, marketing and communications staff, bid and tender teams, trainers, analysts and managers who present to boards and clients. No previous PowerPoint training is needed for day one; day two builds directly on it. Delegates who already have the basics can book Microsoft PowerPoint Advanced (1 day) on its own.
Course outline
Day 1 – Beginners: building and presenting a clean deck
Getting started and building the structure
- The start screen, recent files and the PowerPoint window: ribbon, Quick Access Toolbar and the views you will actually use
- Creating a new presentation from a blank file or a theme; saving, AutoSave and saving to OneDrive
- Adding, duplicating, hiding and deleting slides; choosing the right layout for each slide
- Typing a whole deck quickly in Outline view and reordering it in Slide Sorter view
- Planning a management report deck before you open PowerPoint
Design that stays consistent
- Applying a theme and its variants to a deck
- Theme colours, fonts and effects, and why you should not override them slide by slide
- Backgrounds, and placeholders versus loose text boxes
- Aligning objects with grids, guides and Smart Guides
- Designer suggestions and when to accept them
- Keeping the organisation's branding consistent across every slide
Text, SmartArt, pictures, tables and charts
- Text boxes, fonts, size, alignment, spacing and lists that can be read from the back of the room
- Turning a list into a SmartArt process diagram or an organisation chart
- Headers, footers, slide numbers and dates
- Inserting pictures and stock images; cropping, transparency, filters and picture styles; shapes and icons
- Inserting and formatting a table
- Creating a chart, choosing the right chart type, and bringing a chart across from Excel
Movement and media
- Transitions, and the Morph transition for a before-and-after slide
- Simple entrance animations and reading the Animation Pane
- Inserting video and audio and adding captions
- Rehearsing timings and recording a narration
- The tender-pitch rule: movement only where it helps the message
Presenting, sharing and finishing
- Presenter View, speaker notes, the laser pointer and ink
- A self-running presentation for the reception screen
- Sharing via OneDrive, co-authoring and comments with @mentions
- Exporting to PDF and video
- The Accessibility Checker and the keyboard shortcuts worth learning
- Closing exercise: build and present your own short deck
Day 2 – Advanced: templates, control and finishing
The slide master and your corporate template
- How the slide master, layouts and placeholders fit together
- Changing the master theme, background and placeholder formatting once for the whole deck
- Creating and modifying custom layouts: a title slide, a section divider, a two-chart slide, a quote slide
- Fixing the handout master and the notes master
- Saving a template the whole organisation can use, and keeping it under control
- Repairing a deck that was built with loose text boxes
Assembling and managing a long presentation
- Starting a deck from a Word outline
- Reusing slides from other presentations without bringing their formatting along
- Sections: creating, renaming, collapsing and reordering a 60-slide board pack
- Slide size for widescreen, older projectors and A4 printing; file properties
- Hiding slides and building custom shows so one deck serves several audiences
- Slide show options: looping, browsing at a kiosk, pen colour and monitors
- Printing slides, notes pages and handouts in colour or greyscale
Precise formatting, data and media
- WordArt styles, text in multiple columns, hyperlinks and action buttons
- Shape and text box styles; ordering, aligning, distributing and grouping objects; the Selection Pane
- Picture styles and effects; cropping a picture to a shape; matching corporate colours with the eyedropper
- Importing tables and charts from Excel and reformatting them to the template; chart types, legends and styles
- Converting lists to SmartArt, adding and reordering shapes, recolouring to the brand
- Video and audio: trimming start and stop times, playback options, window size and timing
Transitions and animation with precision
- Transition effect options, duration and advance settings
- Animating objects and text; effect options and motion paths
- Timing, delays and triggers; reordering animations in the Animation Pane
- A build sequence for a process diagram, done well
Reviewing, finalising and protecting
- Comments and a review workflow with several authors
- Comparing two versions and merging only the changes you want
- Inspecting a presentation for hidden notes, comments and personal data before it leaves the building
- Protecting a presentation: mark as final, open read-only, password
- Embedding fonts and media so the deck opens correctly on another machine
- Exporting to PDF, video, a PowerPoint Show file and Word handouts
- Closing exercise: rebuild your own deck on your new template
How it is delivered
Two consecutive days, 08:30-16:00 each day. In person at your offices anywhere in South Africa, at a BOTI venue, or live online. One delegate or a group of up to 20, each on their own laptop with PowerPoint installed; laptops with the software can be supplied on request. Printed workbooks and exercise files for both days. Delegates bring one real presentation for day two. Taught on the Microsoft 365 version of PowerPoint; PowerPoint 2024 and 2021 users will find the screens almost identical. We deliver it at your offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and anywhere else in South Africa, at a BOTI venue in Johannesburg, or live online for teams in different places.
What our clients say
“The facilitator effectively encouraged participation and used practical examples, discussions and interactive activities to ensure that the concepts were understood and could be applied in the workplace.”
“The training was very informative and practical, leaving our employees feeling confident in their ability to leverage Excel more effectively.”
“The training courses were efficiently scheduled and planned around our timetable. We were impressed by the quality of training. I look forward to working with Business Optimization Training Institute in the future.”
Frequently asked questions
Can you run this course at our offices?
Yes. Most groups are trained at the client's premises anywhere in South Africa – Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and smaller centres. We can also host it at a BOTI venue or run it live online.
Can we book the two days separately, or a week apart?
Yes to both. Day one is sold on its own as Microsoft PowerPoint Beginners (1 day) and day two as Microsoft PowerPoint Advanced (1 day). Many clients run the two days a week apart so delegates can practise in between; just book the pair.
Is it accredited?
No. It is a non-accredited short course and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance. If you need an accredited route, ask us about BOTI's End User Computing skills programmes (QCTO accreditation pending).
Do delegates need their own laptops?
Ideally each delegate works on their own laptop with PowerPoint installed, so they practise on the set-up they use at work. If that is not possible, laptops with the software can be supplied on request.
Can you use our own corporate template and real presentations?
Yes. Send us your template and one or two typical decks beforehand. Day one exercises use them, and on day two each delegate rebuilds a real deck on the template they create.
How many people can attend?
From one delegate to a group of about 20. Smaller groups get more one-to-one time at the screen. The price per delegate drops as the group grows – see the price table or ask us for a quote.