A new session of each course opens each month, allowing you to enroll whenever your busy schedule permits!
How does it work? Once a session starts, two lessons will be released each week, for the six-week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends.
Keep in mind that the interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes 2 weeks after each lesson is released, so you’re encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
The Final Exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the Final Exam has been released, you will have 2 weeks plus 10 days to complete the Final and finish any remaining lessons in your course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.
Week One
Lesson 01 - The PowerPoint 2016 Interface
Wednesday
Come explore the basic features of Microsoft PowerPoint 2016! You'll learn about the Ribbon, which replaces the menu and toolbars so common in other programs written for the Windows operating system. You'll find out how to plan a presentation and start the PowerPoint program and practice working with different views, task panes, tabs, and templates.
Lesson 02 - Creating Presentations
Friday
Now that you know the basics of PowerPoint, it's time to create a presentation from scratch. You'll start by choosing a theme for the presentation and create slides with a variety of slide layouts. You'll find out about the Live Preview feature and learn how to save a file so that you can find it later. You'll also create and edit slides in the slide pane and in Outline view. Finally, the lesson will go over the ways to put on a slide show.
Week Two
Lesson 03 - Creating and Editing Tables and Opening and Saving Files
Wednesday
Including tables in your presentation lets you present a lot of information in a little space. So in this lesson, you'll add, revise, and format tables. You'll also learn multiple ways to open a presentation. Then, the lesson will teach you how to preserve different versions of your work by saving with different filenames.
Lesson 04 - Creating and Printing Error-Free Presentations
Friday
This lesson will cover two topics: printing and proofreading. You'll learn to print your presentation as slides, handouts, an outline, and notes pages. This versatility will really help you connect with audience members! To make sure your printed presentation is as close to perfect as it can be, you'll explore the Spelling, AutoCorrect, and Thesaurus features, along with the new Smart Lookup feature.
Week Three
Lesson 05 - Working With Saved and Online Images
Wednesday
You're going to switch gears in this lesson and work with images instead of text, which you'll probably enjoy. You'll see how to embellish your slides with media clips, which could include illustrations, clip art, and photographs. You'll even learn how to download an image from a website and insert the image on a slide.
Lesson 06 - WordArt, Shapes, and SmartArt
Friday
You're going to work with WordArt, Shapes, and SmartArt Graphics in this lesson, which is very exciting. It's fun to transform text into colorful WordArt objects and to draw and fill shapes with color and special effects. You'll learn to group and edit the objects you create and add visual sophistication to your text with SmartArt Graphics.
Week Four
Lesson 07 - Creating and Editing a Chart
Wednesday
In this lesson, you'll create and edit a chart slide to illustrate statistical data. You'll find this lesson easy if you like working with numbers! If you don't enjoy math, that's okay—the lesson will walk you through everything you need to know and do to create a chart slide. It will also show you how to change the look of your chart by using the options on the Chart Tools contextual tab and the chart formatting buttons.
Lesson 08 - Making Global Changes to a Presentation
Friday
Making the same changes to dozens of PowerPoint slides is boring and time-consuming. In this lesson, you'll look at global changes you can make to your slides, handouts, and notes. For example, if you want to increase or decrease the font size on all the slides in a presentation, just make the change on the slide master. You'll also make global changes when you modify your presentation's theme colors or background.
Week Five
Lesson 09 - Creating Links
Wednesday
In this lesson, you'll work with hyperlinks and action buttons. You'll enliven your presentation as you learn to create links from text or objects to other slides, presentations, documents, and web pages. You can even add sounds and 3D effects!
Lesson 10 - Applying Animation to Slides, Text, and Objects
Friday
Have you seen a presentation where text, images, or entire slides fly in from the top or push up from the bottom? That's animation. In this lesson, you'll learn about slide transitions, the options on the Transition tab, and you'll apply animation to text and objects on slides and the slide or layout master with the options on the Animations tab. You'll then find out how to add sound effects, such as chimes and whooshes, to slide transitions. Perhaps most important, you'll also learn how to avoid overdoing these effects!
Week Six
Lesson 11 - Applying Advanced Animation Effects to Text and Objects
Wednesday
You already know how to apply animation to your slides as they transition. Now it's time to apply advanced animation effects to text and objects on slides and slide and layout masters. With the animation commands and the Animation Pane, you'll add and reorder animated text and objects on slides. You'll also add an audio clip to your presentation.
Lesson 12 - Sharing and Saving Your Presentations, Including OneDrive and Office Online
Friday
Now that you know so much about creating PowerPoint presentations, you'll focus on different ways to save and share them. You'll see how easy it is to export your presentation as a PDF file, so it'll be accessible on computers that don't have PowerPoint 2016. You'll learn to open, edit, and share your presentation online with a Windows OneDrive account and PowerPoint Online and how to turn your presentation into a video.