Objects on a PowerPoint slide

Text. Text objects are placeholders to which you add the content of your presentation. A text placeholder contains the bullet points that make up the message of the slide. Text objects are linked to the presentation outline. Changes to the outline appear in the slide and vice versa.

Pictures. Pictures include both photographs and clip art.

Drawn shapes. Using the tools on the Drawing toolbar, particularly the AutoShapes, you can add shapes to a slide and create your own graphics, diagrams, and clip art. Most shapes allow you to add text to the shape. There is even a text box, which is not much more than an invisible rectangle shape that is immediately ready to hold text. Text added to shapes, and text boxes, are simply graphic elements (labels). They are not linked to the presentation outline and therefore should not be used to contain "body" text of the presentation.

Embedded objects. Embedded objects are created, edited, and managed by an application other than PowerPoint, but are stored as part of the PowerPoint slide and presentation. Some of the most popular embedded objects are Excel charts and worksheets, Word tables, and organization charts.

Placeholders. When you apply a slide layout to a slide, placeholders are created which will allow you to easily add certain types of objects, such as text, charts, diagrams, tables, clip art, pictures, and videos.

The Insert menu. The Insert menu is the "granddaddy" of object insertion options. From the Insert menu, particularly the Insert → Object command, you can insert just about every conceivable type of object onto a PowerPoint slide.

The Paste command. A simple way to add an object that you have created elsewhere to a slide in a presentation is to copy the object and paste it onto the slide.