Applying slide layouts

A slide layout is a predefined slide that contains formatting (font, paragraph, styles, and so on) and placeholders (these are the text boxes that you type text on a slide into) that are positioned for you on the slide as a default. In addition, a slide layout could contain placeholders for images, charts, SmartArt, and header and footer placeholders. These layouts make it easier and faster to construct a presentation without the hassle of you having to build a blank slide from scratch. You are able to create custom layouts or choose from the 12 different slide layouts in PowerPoint 2019.

When creating a new presentation in PowerPoint, the first slide is based on the Title Slide layout. Click on File | New | Blank Presentation. To add a new slide, simply press the Enter key on the keyboard, or right-click and choose New Slide… from the shortcut menu. Every new slide that's inserted is based on the Title and Content Slide layout.

If you continue to click on New Slide or press Enter on the keyboard, new slides will insert based on the Title and Content slide.