How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation from an Article (5 Steps)

By Grant D. McKenzie

Microsoft Powerpoint is used to create visual aids for presentations by businesses, churches, schools and any other organization or individual that give presentations. Powerpoint can also be used to create summaries when a formal presentation is not required. Creating an article summary presentation is an easy process, but it can require quite a bit of effort, especially if the article is extensive. Once completed, it can be distributed as a summary or directly adapted for use with an oral presentation.

Step 1

Write an outline for the article. Use paragraph topic sentences and section subheads to guide you. Mark which paragraphs are attached to which entries in your outline.

Step 2

Open Powerpoint. The title slide should appear by default. Type the title of the article in the "Title" block and type the author's byline and title of the source in the subtitles line.

Step 3

Enter the outline into subsequent slides. Try to use subheads from the article as slide titles as much as possible, because this helps maintain continuity with the article and will make later steps easier. If there are no subheads, divide the article outline into topics and use the topic as the slide title.

Step 4

Copy the portion of the article that corresponds to the portion of the outline on each slide into the "Notes" area under that slide. When you are finished, the slide show will represent the summary and the notes will contain the text of the article.

Step 5

Format the presentation by applying a design template or changing fonts, font sizes and bullet types on the slides. If you are only using the presentation as a summary, you should keep the format very basic. If, however, you are planning an oral presentation, the format will require more effort to keep your audience engaged during the presentation.

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