How Long Does it Take to Learn PowerPoint?

Like many aspiringAdministrators, Business Analysts, or Educators, you might want to learn PowerPoint but worry that it will take too much time. Basic and intermediate PowerPoint skills will only take users a few days of guided study to learn. The program is simple and accessible, which is part of the reason that it has become so popular. More advanced skills may take longer to learn, mainly because they require users to understand other programs like Excel or Access to get the most out of PowerPoint. Of course, this depends on several factors. Keep reading about how you can learn PowerPoint and some resources to help speed the process along.

What is PowerPoint?

Microsoft PowerPoint is the most commonly used presentation software across almost all professional industries. PowerPoint is one of the most important parts of Microsoft’s Office 365 programs, alongside Word and Excel. PowerPoint lets users easily create vibrant and memorable presentations that quickly communicate meaning in a professional setting. Users can add animations, transitions, graphics, and other imagery to their slides, ensuring they produce both communicative and impressive presentations for their audience.

PowerPoint is a slideshow editing tool built to give users the tools they need to organize information, communicate effectively, and produce presentations to deliver through live address or without a presenter. PowerPoint makes the job easier and more efficient, whether you manage important information in advance of a meeting, prepare a sales pitch to a potential client, or compile important workplace policies and procedures in a single place. This versatility has made PowerPoint an industry-standard tool in almost all professional contexts.

Read more about what PowerPoint is and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with PowerPoint?

PowerPoint allows users to create vibrant and memorable visual presentations that can serve a wide variety of purposes. PowerPoint’s advanced features let users integrate dynamic animations and 3D modeled graphics into their designs, allowing them to create more complex presentations than simple text projected onto a screen. Whether you are attempting to keep an audience engaged during a critical seminar or make a sales pitch as memorable as possible, PowerPoint gives you the tools to wow your audience.

Some users will use PowerPoint to create informative slideshows that condense complicated information into a single, easy-to-digest presentation. This makes the program ideal for both instructors and professionals looking to host informational seminars regularly. In fact, many online classes you take will use PowerPoint to provide students with the main takeaways from a lecture. Some users, who need to persuade audiences, such as entrepreneurs meeting with potential investors, will use PowerPoint to create memorable and persuasive presentations that convince their audience to invest in their product.

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Average Time it Takes to Learn PowerPoint

For most professionals, learning PowerPoint won’t take more than a few days of guided training or a few weeks of free-form training. The program's basic features are easy to use, and the most recent versions have enough automated design features to streamline the creation of basic presentations. Learning proper design skills will take longer for users hoping to branch out beyond simple presentations. Still, these skills can also be picked up relatively quickly by dedicated students engaged in professional training.

Other Factors

A few other factors will either speed up or slow the learning process for PowerPoint students. These include prior design training and the kinds of projects users are attempting to build.

Prior Design Experience

For many users, the challenge in learning PowerPoint won’t come from difficulties learning the tools but from learning how to use those tools to make evocative and persuasive presentations. Students with prior experience in visual design will have an easier time learning these skills. Students without this background who still want to learn PowerPoint design should consider enrolling in Noble’s PowerPoint Presentation Design course.

Professional Uses

Some professional uses for PowerPoint are far more involved than others. Data Analysts looking to integrate large amounts of data into complex presentations will need more training than HR professionals compiling contact information and company policy. As with most professional skills, the more elaborate functions a student plans to use, the longer their training will take.

Level of Difficulty, Prerequisites, & Cost 

PowerPoint is a relatively lightweight program that is easy to understand and use. New users can pick up the basic functionalities of the program relatively easily. However, more advanced program features, such as integrating tables and Excel data or importing multimedia content into a PowerPoint presentation, can be more challenging to learn. Students learning PowerPoint will also likely want design and composition training, which some students find more challenging than learning technical skills.

There are no set prerequisites for learning PowerPoint. Students will need basic knowledge of computers, and they will need to have a system that can run PowerPoint. For more advanced PowerPoint skills training, students may need to learn how to use Microsoft Excel.

While there are several professional and educational routes to acquiring Microsoft Office 365 for free, new PowerPoint users may need to obtain the Office suite. There is a free trial of the program available, though once it has expired, new users can expect to need to purchase a full license. There is currently no way to purchase PowerPoint separately from the other Microsoft 365 programs. Users will either need to pay a monthly subscription fee of about seven dollars to access the program's premium version or a one-time purchase fee of about 150 dollars to access the classic Office programs. 

Read about how difficult it is to learn PowerPoint.

Watch a Free PowerPoint Online Course

For students who aren’t ready to enroll in a PowerPoint bootcamp or who just want to learn the basics of the program, free introductory resources may be an ideal place to start. Noble Desktop provides students with a free PowerPoint Presentation Design seminar in which students will learn the fundamental theories of design that go into creating evocative and memorable presentations. No one wants their presentations to bore audiences, and this seminar is designed to ensure that students have the skills required to keep audiences engaged.

Other service providers, such as Udemy and Coursera, offer additional free introductory courses teaching students how to use PowerPoint to design presentations. These courses won’t provide comprehensive skills training, but they are ideal places to start learning the basics of PowerPoint. In addition, Microsoft offers students with free training tutorials on subjects ranging from PowerPoint templates to using 3D models in a presentation.

Read about more free PowerPoint videos and online tutorials.

Learn PowerPoint with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

Professionals looking to learn PowerPoint may consider skills development training through Noble Desktop. These courses, available in person at Noble’s Manhattan campus and through live online instruction, will give students hands-on training in designing and organizing information using PowerPoint. These courses, which expert instructors teach, will provide students with the experience needed to build evocative and memorable presentations. Even in online courses, class sizes are kept small, so students can interface directly with their instructor to receive assistance and feedback. Plus, Noble offers free retakes on all its courses, giving students more opportunities to practice building presentations in a professional environment.

Noble offers a PowerPoint Bootcamp, which teaches students, even those without prior PowerPoint experience, how to design compelling and evocative presentations. In this certificate-granting program, students will learn how to work with PowerPoint layouts, add animations and graphics, and work with layers, charts, graphs, and other objects. Then, students will receive advanced skills training, such as creating reusable PowerPoint templates, utilizing multimedia features in a presentation, and recording a presentation for later use. These skills will take students from novices to PowerPoint experts and prepare them to use the program professionally.

Since PowerPoint is a design program, Noble also offers students a PowerPoint Presentation Design course. This class focuses on the rhetorical and theoretical side of communicating through PowerPoint. In this class, students will learn design principles related to color, typography, graphic images, and other visual design elements. Whereas a bootcamp course teaches students how to use the tool to build presentations, this course will teach students how to design them, giving them the composition and design theories they need to make their presentations memorable and effective.

Key Insights

• PowerPoint is a relatively accessible program for new users to learn. With guided instruction, students can master the intermediate features of the program in only a few days of dedicated training.
• Students looking to use PowerPoint for elaborate and persuasive presentations may want to learn design and composition skills to speed up their learning.
• Not all professional uses of PowerPoint will be as challenging, and many users can entirely bypass learning the most difficult skills.
• Another way to speed up the process is through professional skills training, such as the comprehensive live online and in-person training sessions offered through Noble Desktop.