Free demo · Microsoft PowerPoint · Lesson 2 · Introduction · Slides & layouts

Slides, layouts and placeholders

A presentation is a stack of slides. Each slide has a layout, and each layout is a set of placeholders you click and fill.

Summer camp 2026

MAVI Foundation · June 2026

  1. 1Home › New Slide (Ctrl+M): a Title and Content layout
  2. 2Click the title placeholder: the prompt text vanishes
  3. 3Type the title · Ctrl+Enter jumps to the next placeholder
  4. 4Type bullets in the content placeholder: Enter next bullet, Tab indent
  5. 5Home › Layout › Two Content: the text stays, the boxes change
  6. ✓Drag thumbnails to reorder · type speaker notes in the notes bar
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  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. Enrol

Tip: press → or Space to step through, ← to go back, R to replay.

About this lesson

Every PowerPoint slide uses a layout such as Title Slide, Title and Content, Two Content, Comparison, Section Header or Blank. A layout is a set of placeholders: dashed boxes that show prompt text until you click and type. Typing in placeholders rather than loose text boxes keeps the deck consistent, lets you swap the layout at any time with Home › Layout, and feeds the outline, the thumbnails and the Designer. New Slide (Ctrl + M) adds a slide after the current one; drag thumbnails in the left pane to reorder, and use the notes bar under the slide for speaker notes that only you see in Presenter View.

Key points

  • Layouts are sets of placeholders
  • New Slide, Layout and Ctrl + Enter
  • Reorder in the thumbnail pane, add speaker notes