Creating Slides Slide Layout To change the slide layout, you must choose format followed by slide layout. See example below: Adding Text To add text to your PowerPoint , choose Insert followed by Text Box, or click the text box icon which is located on the drawing toolbar. Click and drag your mouse anywhere on your slide to create a text box where you can add text. Background Color To change the background color of your slide, choose Format followed by Background. The following screen will appear. Click the drop arrow in the middle of this window to choose a new background color There are three options for your background color. 1. Choose one of the 8 pre-set colors 2. Choose the "More Colors" Option 3. Choose the "Fill Effect Option" The "More Colors" option gives you solid background colors. Choose any of the colors located to the left and apply that color to your slide. The "Fill Effects" window will give even more choices. The gradient tab allows you to choose one, two, or preset colors for your background. You can also change the shading style using the choices on the left. Under this window, you can also choose to apply a texture, pattern, or picture as your background. The final step is to choose either Apply to All or Apply. If you want your background to be applied to every slide you created, choose Apply to All. If you only want the background applied to the slide you are currently working on, choose Apply. Adding a New Slide Once you have finished with the slide you are working on, you can create a new slide by choosing the new slide button in the upper right corner of the PowerPoint window. If that button can not be located, choose Insert followed by New Slide to create a new slide for your presentation. Saving the Presentation To save your presentation, simply choose File followed by Save As. Choose the location on your computer where you would like to save the presentation. Once the presentation is saved once, you simply have to choose File followed by Save in the future.