Jump Start Series: 8 Ways to Launch PowerPoint from Windows 10


About this lesson

Do You Know the Eight Ways to Start PowerPoint?

Windows have different tricks to start PowerPoint, but you may only be using one or two techniques.

Why Do I Need to Know More than One?

Speed!  If your hands are on the keyboard, then use one technique; if on the mouse, there are other techniques; and there are even ways to launch PowerPoint with a SINGLE click.

Is this for PowerPoint Only?

While we focus on launching PowerPoint, these tricks will work for ALL SOFTWARE installed on your Windows 10 computer.

Topics

Topics covered (with video timestamp)

  • Intro 0:00
  • #1 Keyboard Start 0:36
  • #2 Mouse Start 1:15
  • #3 Menu Browse 1:55
  • #4 Alphabet Trick 2:36
  • #5 Data File Click 3:20
  • Explanation of Windows Terminology of Start Menus vs Task Bar 4:19
  • #6 Pin to Start Menu 5:20
  • #7 Pin to Task Bar 6:36
  • #8 Cortana Voice Start 7:31
  • Wrap Up 8:24

Details

Subject Microsoft PowerPoint

Software Compatibility Windows 10 and all software installed

Level Foundation

Course Completed Complete

PDF Files There are not any files associated with this lesson.

TRAINING SERIES VIEW ALL

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Transcript

Rought Video Training Transcript for “How to Launch PowerPoint – 8 Ways”

 

There are at least eight ways to launch PowerPoint or any Microsoft product. 

Do you know them all? 

And more importantly, do you need to know them all? 

I guarantee you at least two or three of these techniques may improve your daily productivity. 

But only if you’re working on a Windows computer, if you’re working on a Mac, you may want to skip this video. 

So let’s find out and go power up. 

Number one the keyboard 

This is my favorite way because I typically work on the keyboard all the time. Let’s see how this is going to work. We’re going to do is you’re going to hit the Windows key on your keyboard and then just start typing away the name of the program in our case POW for PowerPoint and it shows up at the top of the list once is identified a unique item, we hit enter and bingo the software fires up. 

This is my favorite way because I say I work on the keyboard all the time. I don’t have to take my hands off. Windows key type the first letters the Program and off we go. 

Number two Keyboard Mouse Combo

The second technique is a similar technique to our previous keyboard, but we’re not going to do a combo use of the mouse and the keyboard. 

If I have got my mouse in my hand. I go ahead and use this technique as a way to go. What we’ll do is we’ll click on the Windows icon or if you see it a search bar and what you can do there is once again type in the first letters of your software POW and PowerPoint shows up because it’s unique. 

I hit enter and off we go. It is that simple. This is probably one of my top two or three methods. That I use if I have my hands already on the mouse. 

Number three. 

This is how to kick back to the old-fashioned way of using Windows, you know, that is all mouse-centric. 

You’re gonna click on the Windows icon and what you’ll then do is start to search through the list on my particular case. I’ve got lots of programs, so I need to scroll scroll scroll. I’ll use the mouse scroll. Eventually, I get down to the P’s I’ll find PowerPoint and once I find PowerPoint I can click it and launch it simple enough. 

It works and I actually use it if I’m not sure what the name is I can’t type it in or if I have a bunch of programs that kind of start with the same name, but is it a little laborious to get through which brings us to number four.

Number Four, which is actually a speeded-up version of number three in that we’re going to use a shortcut of knowing the alphabet of our programs. 

Here’s what I mean. We’re going to go once again down to the bottom, we’ll click the little icon. Now instead of scrolling through it, we click one of the letters any letter then you can click P in our case for Power. Point. You’ll see PowerPoint and can launch it. 

So it’s a speedway of scrolling through a long list. It works and once again I do have some software programs that begin with the same vendor name so the typing them out that doesn’t work as well. I can easily search through my list by just clicking on the alphabet letter. 

Number five is another one of my favorites. 

It works if you happen to have the file directory system open and you’re searching for a very specific file that you want to run. What’s going to happen is that you’re going to locate the data filed the one to work with double click on it and the associated program is going to launch. 

In this case here, we’re going to search through my folder for some of my tutorials. We’ll look through PowerPoint. I’ll gather that I have to have a flood subfolders, hopefully going to the subfolders. I’ll find the file that I want to work with my double click on it and bingo. 

Our point not only launches but it launches with this specific program. This is one of my top three choices if I’m looking for a very specific file. Sometimes I have a variety of different projects with different name versions and so here. I can locate the specific data file and save the trouble of launching PowerPoint and then finding the file. 

It’s a quick way to get running. Number six and seven are productivity tips. Basically, what we want to do is find some of our most commonly used software and put them a clicker to away but before we can do that, we need to understand some of the naming conventions that Windows uses. 

For example, the first one down here is the taskbar. It’s the very bottom of your screen. The next item to understand is something called the app list. We’ve actually been using this as we’ve scrolled up and down. I’ve just never called up the app list, but that’s the windows official name. 

The next item is the start menu which is on the right side of the screen that houses a variety of software programs that are just a click away with an icon as opposed to scrolling up and down through the app list. What we’re gonna do is learn how to take a specific app in our case we’re working with PowerPoint and we’re gonna add it to the start menu and we’ll also add it to the taskbar and see which we prefer to work with. 

Let’s go ahead and get started. Number six pinning to the start menu By default many or programs may already be there so in this particular example, I’m gonna demonstrate one how to use the start menu then how to take an icon off and how to put it back on again. 

So, let’s go. We’re gonna see that when we click on the Windows icon we’re gonna the right side we find PowerPoint already installed on our start menu. Click it and off we go. Let’s do this again though. I’m gonna have us take it off the start menu. I’m gonna click on it. 

I’ll go up to it right click on it, and then we’re gonna go ahead and remember. From the start menu. Now, we’re gonna be able to add it back in so we can go up to find PowerPoint right click on it and tell it to pin to start. You may on some computers have to choose more and then go to pin to start and this situation PowerPoints now there and it’s often running with the single, click once. 

You get to the start menu. I used to love this technique and the reason why is that the Start menu can be rearranged you can group things together you can move up and down you can change the size of the icons which goes beyond this particular tutorial but eventually I found that I use one of the other three techniques much more often including number seven, this is the fastest of the mall we’re gonna do a similar thing, but in this case instead of adding it to the start menu. 

I’m gonna have us add it to the taskbar and fine but it’s just gonna be a click away watch how we do this we’re gonna once again. Locate PowerPoint or it could be any Windows program once we located we’ll right click on it and we’re then gonna say pin to taskbar and when we do that it’s gonna show up on the bottom of the screen or a taskbar is you know, I’ll see but you’ve got PowerPoint loaded through there in addition to a variety of other software programs that I use all the time in fact. 

I have four or five programs that I use daily in fact multiple times throughout the day and I find that by putting it down on my taskbar is just a single click away and off I go. This is my favorite way for my most used software programs. Number eight though is my least favorite way, it’s using the Cortana voice technique to launch applications it can work but it requires a fair amount of configuration to make sure that your microphones set up your computer set up and you’ve got Cortana properly configured it can be done, but once you’ve done it it is pretty slick, let’s try it out. 

“Hey, Cortana open PowerPoint”. 

“Okay. I’ll open PowerPoint.” 

So it’s cool but I’m not sure. I like my computer listening to me all the time, however, if you use Windows did you dictation might as well uses a way to launch your applications. 

With that, you’ve now seen all eight ways if this video was helpful go ahead and like it likes encourages me to make more free videos for you and please subscribe to our channel because that encourages us to grow and create additional content. 

If you like this and you want to leave a comment below go ahead and do so and if you do all these techniques or you know, an additional technique as we did and cover shortcuts on desktops add them to the comments below. Share this with others if you think it might help them and go ahead and take a look at our PowerPoint school on YouTube to learn more about how to use PowerPoint and to become a power user go ahead and take a look at some of the videos up here and over here for some suggestions and also remember to subscribe to our videos with that power up.