The Content Placeholder and Bullet Levels

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About this lesson

Use placeholders to quickly add content to your slides including text, diagrams, and charts – so that you can later change the location and proportions of these objects, often with a single mouse click.

Lesson versions

Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:

2010, 2013, 2016, 2019/365.

Exercise files

Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ PowerPoint presentations from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

The Content Placeholder and Bullet Levels.pptx
2.1 MB The Content Placeholder and Bullet Levels - Solution.pptx
1.9 MB

Quick reference

The Content Placeholder and Bullet Levels

Using layouts and placeholders to control the location and alignment of slide content.

When to use

To add and place various content on slides.

Instructions

To add new content to a slide

  • Right-click a slide, and then click the Layout menu item and select a specific layout.
  • Either:
    • Click within the content placeholder and type or paste text, or
    • Choose one of the six content icons to add that type of content within the placeholder.

To move content such as an image to a placeholder

  • Apply a layout to the slide that contains a content placeholder.
  • Select the image and cut it to the clipboard using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+X.
  • Select the boundary of a content placeholder with the pointer.
  • Paste the image from the clipboard using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+V.

Also note:

Placeholders on a slide can be reset by right-clicking the slide, and select Reset Slide. Layouts and placeholders can be customized in the Slide Master, available on the View tab on the ribbon.

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  • 00:04 When you build a presentation, something that will drive the audience absolutely
  • 00:08 crazy is to have various objects on slides that jump around in location.
  • 00:13 Now I've seen presenters at conferences with material on the their slides that
  • 00:16 jumps around.
  • 00:17 And I feel like yelling out to them, layouts and placeholders, please.
  • 00:22 An underutilized feature of PowerPoint is what's called layouts.
  • 00:25 And layouts govern the placeholders that are contained within them.
  • 00:29 So let's switch to reading view, which allows us to run
  • 00:32 the presentation in a slideshow mode and it's contained in a window.
  • 00:37 Now, notice as I scroll through these slides, so they contain one or
  • 00:41 more images on the slide and the image location's change.
  • 00:45 And if I didn't have a fade transition between slides,
  • 00:48 it would lock even jumpier.
  • 00:51 Now, fortunately, there are some very easy ways to fix this.
  • 00:55 So let's, first of all, explore what a layout is and
  • 00:57 the placeholders that are contained within them.
  • 01:00 On this blank slide, right click on the slide, select layout and
  • 01:05 here are the various layouts that are available.
  • 01:08 The current layout is a blank layout and it's highlighted.
  • 01:12 So let's go to a title and content layout and select that.
  • 01:17 Now, immediately, the slide updates
  • 01:19 with a content placeholder on the slide in which we can add some title
  • 01:24 text as well as a content placeholder where we can add one of seven items.
  • 01:29 Which is text, or any of the six little icons to insert a table, a chart, a smart
  • 01:34 art graphic, a picture from a computer, a picture from online, or a video.
  • 01:41 So let me insert some text in this content placeholder, I click within it.
  • 01:45 And the blinking cursor tells me that it's ready to receive my text.
  • 01:49 So I'll add in some text, VENUE ONE, press Enter,
  • 01:54 VENUE TWO, press Enter, and VENUE THREE.
  • 01:59 Now, typing in this placeholder,
  • 02:00 we can also use keyboard shortcuts to manipulate the text further.
  • 02:04 So, for example, select the start of the sentence or
  • 02:07 the line, Tab, demotes the text and Shift + Tab promotes it.
  • 02:12 But, also, and this also works in Microsoft Word, Shift + Alt
  • 02:17 together with a down arrow, moves a bullet point down on the line.
  • 02:23 And Shift + Alt + right arrow demotes it.
  • 02:26 Shift + Alt + up, moves it up.
  • 02:28 And Shift+Alt+left, promotes it, and
  • 02:30 that's a fast way of editing text in PowerPoint.
  • 02:34 So Tab to demote, Shift + Tab to promote, as well as those Shift, Alt and
  • 02:38 arrow keys.
  • 02:40 Now let's quickly pop over to the outline pane and see that again.
  • 02:43 Select the start of the line or the sentence, Tab demotes,
  • 02:46 Shift + Tab promotes.
  • 02:48 And that's a simple way to use your keyboard not only to enter text throughout
  • 02:51 the presentation but to build the entire storyboard.
  • 02:57 So let's go back to the previous view and
  • 02:59 look at fixing those images that jump around.
  • 03:02 So when we have a slide with one picture on it, if we click Layout and
  • 03:06 select Title and Contents, select the picture.
  • 03:10 Ctrl + X cuts the picture and places it on the clip board.
  • 03:12 Select the placeholder, Ctrl + V and that picture is resized and
  • 03:17 constrained within that placeholder.
  • 03:19 On a slide where there are two pictures, we'll select a two content layer.
  • 03:25 Cut the picture with Ctrl + X, select the place holder, paste which is Ctrl + V.
  • 03:30 Cut the other picture, paste.
  • 03:34 And we can do exactly the same for our next slide as well.
  • 03:38 So cut that picture, paste,
  • 03:42 cut that picture, paste.
  • 03:47 And know when we view our slideshow,
  • 03:49 even though the picture aren't perfectly the same size,
  • 03:53 they will still fit very well on the slide and its a fantastic feature.
  • 03:57 So for some final really good news, say, we wanted to manipulate this image for
  • 04:03 some reason, we move it around and we could apply various effects to it.
  • 04:07 And then we think to our self,
  • 04:09 it doesn't really balance the rest of our presentation.
  • 04:12 We can simply right click on the slide, go to reset slide, and there it is back to
  • 04:17 our original, and we can commence again without destroying a whole slide.
  • 04:22 In fact, if you ever go to the slide pane here,
  • 04:24 select all over the slides with Ctrl + A.
  • 04:27 And fix all of those slides together as well,
  • 04:29 at such a powerful feature of PowerPoint.
  • 04:32 So this awesome feature of PowerPoint layouts and
  • 04:34 placeholders to hold your content and various types of content that you can add
  • 04:38 as well as using the keyboard shortcuts to manipulate text.
  • 04:41 It's really an investment well spent of your time
  • 04:44 to explore these features and use them

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