How to Caption in PowerPoint

Powerpoint helps you create dynamic presentations.

Powerpoint is a great tool for making visual presentations to clients, co-workers, students or other groups. Though Powerpoint presentations are often narrated by the presenter, there may be times when background noise, hearing impairments or other challenges prevent clear verbal presentation. In cases like these, adding a caption to your presentation overcomes these limitations. Captions are a series of words placed at the bottom of the slide to present dialogue relevant to the slide.

Instructions

1. Create a slide master for your presentation by clicking on “View” and choosing “Slide Master” under the “Master Views” options. You will be presented with a number of slide masters here, including one theme master, which is at the top of the list, and layout masters, which include any but the theme master.

2. Click to select the theme master slide. In the Slide Master tab, set your default font style, size and color under “Edit Theme.” Select from the pre-prepared “Themes” menu or the “Fonts” and “Colors” menus. These settings will apply to your entire presentation.

3. Select the layout master you prefer and remove all footer information if your captions are going to be extensive. This frees up more space on your slide. If not, leave this information in place.

4. Insert a placeholder text box into the master slide by selecting “Slide Master,” choosing “Insert Placeholder” and selecting the text box icon. Click on the master slide where you would like the caption to appear and drag the box using your mouse to the size that you desire. You can move or resize the text box as needed by clicking on the edge of the text box.

5. Click “Close Master View” to return to your presentation. You can now create new slides using your master layout side by clicking “New Slide” and selecting the master layout that you have been working on. For any slides that already exist, you can apply this new master by right-clicking on the slide, selecting “Layout” and choosing your layout master.

6. Select the caption text box in each slide as you work on your presentation and type the text as you would like it to appear to your audience. If you would like to modify your font style, size or color, you can do so from each slide individually at this point. Changes here will only affect each individual slide rather than the entire document.

Tips & Warnings

• Using multiple layout masters, you can create a variety of captioning styles from which to choose.

References

• Microsoft Office; Add Captions, Annotations, or Subtitles to Presentations; Glenna Shaw