To start PowerPoint, go to the Start menu, select “Programs”, and then select Microsoft PowerPoint. Please note that the specific location of PowerPoint on your start menu may vary, depending on the machine you use.

When you open up PowerPoint, you will begin in what is called “Normal View”. “Normal View” is a specific arrangement of “workspaces” and “task panes” that appears in the PowerPoint window. In the center of the PowerPoint window you will see a blank presentation workspace, here.

Over to the right, you have a task pane called the New Presentation pane. With the New Presentation pane, you can choose to work on an existing presentation by using the “Open a Presentation” menu, right here, or you can create a new presentation by using the menu labeled “New”, right here.

Over here to the left, you have the Slides pane. This task pane shows you all the slides you’re working on in sequence. This is the first slide, here. The Slides pane will make it easier to insert and delete slides later on.

To return to normal view at any time, just go to “View” and select “Normal”.