The Inexpensive, Easy-to-Use Design Tool You (Probably) Don't Use For Designing

Are you a non-designer that needs to create on-the-fly graphics and resources? Don’t have a huge budget to get a design tool like Canva or Adobe Creative Suite? Well, what if we told you that you probably already have a super powerful graphic design tool on your desktop that you must likely aren’t using for this purpose. What to know what it is?

PowerPoint! That’s right – PowerPoint can do way more than create presentations. From social media graphics, lobby displays, and videos, PowerPoint is an amazing graphic design tool, especially if you can’t afford to purchase software for this purpose. Want the inside scoop on how to design with PowerPoint? Here are six ways you can begin designing in PowerPoint today.

#1 Creating Custom Shapes

PowerPoint allows you to create custom shapes by combining and editing existing shapes. This can be useful for creating unique graphics and icons. Start by going to the Insert tab and selecting Shapes. Choose a shape from the dropdown menu and draw it on your slide by clicking and dragging the cursor.

To create a custom shape, you can combine multiple shapes. Select the shapes you want to combine by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking each shape. Then, go to the Shape Format tab, click Merge Shapes and choose from the options, which include: Union, Combine, Fragment, Intersect, or Subtract.

You can further customize your shape by editing its points. Right-click the shape and select Edit Points. This allows you to adjust the shape's outline by dragging the points.

Once you have your custom shape, you can apply various styles and effects. Use the Shape Format tab to add fill colors, outlines, shadows, and other effects to enhance your shape.

Want to convert text to shapes? Good news! You can do that too. Converting text to shapes in PowerPoint allows you to manipulate and edit text as if it were a graphic element.  Start by typing the text you want to convert into a text box. Go to the Insert tab, click Text Box, and type your text. Next, create a shape that will serve as a helper shape. Go to the Insert tab, click Shapes, and choose a rectangle or any other shape. Draw the shape on your slide, making sure it is larger than your text box. Here's a super helpful video from Leila Gharani that illustrates how to do this. 

Once you have your shape drawn, place the shape behind your text box. To do this, right-click the shape, select Send to Back, and then position it behind the text box. Select both the text box and the shape by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking each element. The order of selection is important; select the shape first and then the text box.

With both elements selected, go to the Shape Format tab, click Merge Shapes, and choose Intersect. This will convert your text into a shape that takes on the properties of the helper shape. Your text is now a compound vector shape, which is a shape that will retain its sharpness whether it is big or small. You can resize your vector, fill it with color, gradient, or even an image. You can also right-click it and select Edit Points to adjust the shape's outline.

#2 Removing Backgrounds from Images

You can easily remove the background from images in PowerPoint, which is helpful for creating clean and professional-looking graphics.

Start by inserting the image you want to edit. Go to the Insert tab, click Pictures, and select the image from your computer. When you click to select your image, this will bring up the Picture Format tab in the ribbon.

In the Picture Format tab, click on Remove Background. PowerPoint will automatically try to determine the background areas to remove. The areas marked in magenta are the ones that will be removed. You can adjust the selection by using the Mark Areas to Keep and Mark Areas to Remove options. Click on these options and then click on the areas of the image to refine the selection. Once you are satisfied with the selection, click Keep Changes. The background will be removed, leaving only the desired part of the image.

#3 Applying Blur Effects

One of the most powerful design tools you can use are special effects on images and elements in your design. PowerPoint offers blur effects that can be applied to images to create a sense of depth and focus, and this effect is super easy to use on images.

Start by inserting the image you want to edit. Go to the Insert tab, click Pictures, and select the image from your computer. When you click on the image to select it, this will bring up the Picture Format tab in the ribbon.

In the Picture Format tab, click on Artistic Effects. From the dropdown menu, select Blur. You can adjust the intensity of the blur effect by clicking on Artistic Effects Options and using the slider to increase or decrease the blur level. Pro-tip: If you want to apply the blur effect to a specific part of the image, you can use the Crop tool to isolate the area you want to blur. After cropping, apply the blur effect.

#4 Creating Drop Shadows

Similar to the blur effects, adding drop shadows to objects can make them stand out and create a sense of depth. PowerPoint allows you to customize drop shadows to suit your design needs. To create a drop shadow, click on the object (shape, text box, image, etc.) to which you want to add a drop shadow. This will bring up the Format tab in the ribbon, which you will look for the Shape Effects or Picture Effects dropdown menu (depending on the type of object). Click on it and select Shadow from the list of effects.

PowerPoint offers several preset shadow styles. You can choose from options like Outer, Inner, and Perspective shadows. Be sure to hover over each option to see a preview of how it will look on your object.

If you want to further customize the shadow, click on Shadow Options at the bottom of the shadow styles menu. This will open a pane where you can adjust the shadow's color, transparency, size, blur, angle, and distance. 

#5 Design Infographics

With its chart, SmartArt, and icons features, PowerPoint is great for designing data-driven infographics that visually represent complex information. PowerPoint offers a variety of templates that can serve as a starting point for your infographic. Go to the File tab, click New, and search for "infographic" to find templates. You can also use SmartArt, which is a powerful tool in PowerPoint that allows you to create diagrams and charts easily. Go to the Insert tab, click SmartArt, and choose a layout that fits your data. You can customize the colors, shapes, and text to match your design.

If your infographic includes data, you can insert charts to represent it visually. Go to the Insert tab, click Chart, and select the type of chart that best represents your data. You can customize the chart's appearance to fit your design. PowerPoint also has a built-in library of icons, shapes and images that you can use to enhance your infographic. Go to the Insert tab, click Icons or Pictures, and choose the elements that fit your design. You can also use external images and icons if needed.

To ensure your infographic looks professional, use the styles, alignment and distribution tools. Consistency is key in infographic design. Use the same fonts, colors, and styles throughout your infographic to create a cohesive look. You can use the Format Painter tool to quickly apply the same style to multiple elements.

To align your design, simply select the elements you want to align, go to the Format tab, and use the Align and Distribute options to arrange them evenly.

Planning to present your infographic? You can add animations to make it more engaging. Go to the Animations tab, select the element you want to animate, and choose an animation effect. You can customize the timing and order of the animations to fit your presentation.

#6 Design Posters, Flyers, and More!

PowerPoint's versatile layout and design tools make it easy to create professional-looking documents for various purposes in any print size. Whether its posters, flyers, social media graphics, storyboards, videos or even courses – you can create so many designs right in PowerPoint.

The first thing you want to do to create a design is start by setting up the slide size to match the dimensions of your poster or flyer. Go to the Design tab, click Slide Size, and choose Custom Slide Size. Enter the dimensions you need for your design.

Don’t want to create a flyer from scratch? PowerPoint offers various templates that can serve as a starting point. Simply go to the File tab, click New, and search for common designs like "poster" or "flyer" or “social media” to find templates. You can also just use and resize a standard presentation template for your design needs. 

Want to add custom colors to your design? Use the Format Background option to add a solid color, gradient, or image as the background of your poster or flyer. Go to the Design tab, click Format Background, and choose your desired background style. Be sure to use the tips above for adding effects, text, pictures, and icons to your design. 

No matter what your design needs are, PowerPoint will give you user-friendly design features and tools that will allow you to create visually appealing designs and graphics that won’t break your budget. 

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