What is Microsoft PowerPoint? A Beginner's Guide to Creating Presentations in M365 E3/E5

About this article
Rather than treating Microsoft PowerPoint as just "software for making pretty slides," this beginner's guide organizes how to use it for work—covering structured explanations, co-authoring, presenter notes, accessibility, and VBA. This information is based on Microsoft's official documentation as of September 17, 2026, and distinguishes clearly between E3/E5 and the web vs. desktop versions.

Verification Status: 📘 Microsoft Official Information Verified / Not Tested on Actual Device (2026-09-17)

PowerPoint is used for internal briefings, system implementation explanations, executive reports, and training,to design "what you want the audience to understand, and in what order."It is an app built for this purpose.

While Word is best for long text and Excel is best for tables and numbers, PowerPointfocuses on establishing the order of explanations and visual relationshipsas its main strength.

First, learn just five terms

The "object model" in VBA is best understood as a map for programmatically handling PowerPoint'sPresentation → Slide → Shapecomponent structure, making it much easier to understand.

How a presentation is completed in PowerPoint

sequenceDiagram
    participant U as 作成者
    participant P as PowerPoint
    participant S as OneDrive / SharePoint
    participant R as レビュー担当
    U->>P: 下書きを作成
    U->>S: プレゼンを保存・共有
    R->>S: 同じファイルを開く
    R->>P: コメント・修正
    P-->>U: 変更内容を共有
    U->>P: 発表者ノートを整える
    U->>P: スライドショーで確認

According to Microsoft, multiple people can co-author a presentation by opening the same file saved in OneDrive or SharePoint in Microsoft 365. Reviewing a single shared file makes version control much easier than multiplying files like "final_v2.pptx" via email attachments.

Does PowerPoint itself change between E3 and E5?

It is incorrect to assume that E5 is required just to use PowerPoint. The differences between E3 and E5 should be evaluated by looking at Microsoft 365 as a whole, including security, compliance, and analytics.

Additionally, the "E3/E5 difference" and the "web vs. desktop difference" are separate issues. Some features, such as VBA, require the desktop version.

First Step: One Message Per Slide

For example, suppose you are creating explanatory materials for a new system.

A bad example is cramming the login method, save location, contact information, and precautions all onto a single slide.

Try creating just the following three slides first.

1枚目：ログイン方法はどう変わる？
2枚目：ファイルはどこへ保存する？
3枚目：困ったときはどこへ連絡する？

Expected Outcome

It makes it much easier for the audience to follow "what is being discussed right now."

Make One Change

Try replacing the text for the save location on the second slide with a small architecture diagram, such as PC -> OneDrive/SharePoint. This helps you experience the difference between information best suited for text and information best suited for relationship diagrams.

Diagrams are not just for flows

In PowerPoint, choosing the right type of diagram for what you are explaining makes it much easier to understand.

Avoid making "inserting diagrams" the goal itself, and only use them when they convey relationships faster than text—that is the key.

Presenter Notes: A Place for "Information Not Written on the Slide"

Instead of cramming all explanations into the slide body, separate the supplementary notes that only the speaker needs into the notes section.

この画面は初回ログイン時だけ表示される。
通常利用では表示されないため、説明会ではその点を口頭補足する。

With Microsoft's Presenter View, the speaker can view notes and other details while displaying only the slides to the audience.

Papanda Practice: Counting Slides and Shapes with VBA

This is a read-only example that checks how many shapes are on each slide without modifying the existing presentation.

Sub ListSlideShapeCounts()
    Dim sld As Slide

    For Each sld In ActivePresentation.Slides
        Debug.Print "Slide " & sld.SlideIndex & _
                    ": " & sld.Shapes.Count & " shapes"
    Next sld
End Sub

What does this code do?

ActivePresentation.SlidesIt loops through the slides of the open presentation, andsld.Shapes.Countretrieves the number of shapes on each slide. In Microsoft's PowerPoint VBA documentation, Shapes is defined as a collection of Shape objects on a specified slide.

Expected Outcome

The following will be displayed in the Immediate Window of the VBA Editor:

Slide 1: 4 shapes
Slide 2: 9 shapes
Slide 3: 3 shapes

Make One Change

Add one text box to a test slide and run the code again. If the count for that slide increases by one, you can see how the elements on the screen connect to the Shapes visible from VBA.

This can be developed in the future into Daily Code Samples such as "detecting slides with too many objects" or "finding slides without titles."

With PowerShell, start by inspecting the target file

Get-ChildItem "$env:USERPROFILEDocuments" -Filter *.pptx -File |
    Select-Object Name, Length, LastWriteTime

Before moving on to bulk replacement or automated processing of PowerPoint files, this is a safe starting point that simply checks the target file name, size, and last modified date.

If Copilot is available, provide conditions rather than just asking it to "create"

このプレゼンを、非IT部門の職員向け説明会としてレビューしてください。
専門用語は一般語へ置き換える候補を示してください。
各スライドは「伝えたいこと1つ」になっているか判定してください。
元資料にない仕様・数値・日付は追加しないでください。
事実確認が必要な箇所は「要確認」としてください。

Instead of leaving just the visual appearance to the AI,target audience, restrictions, and verification itemsshould be explicitly provided.

Checklist for Professional Use

Points for Administrators to Check

• Microsoft 365 Apps deployment and update channels

• OneDrive / SharePoint sharing scope

• External sharing policies

• Macro/VBA policies

• Sensitivity labels

• Distribution methods for organizational templates

• Licensing and data access scope when using Copilot

Official & Primary Sources

• Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plan options (Microsoft Learn)

• Share and co-author a presentation in PowerPoint (Microsoft Support)

• Present a slideshow in PowerPoint / Presenter View (Microsoft Support)

• PowerPoint VBA Shapes object (Microsoft Learn)

• PowerPoint help& & learning (Microsoft Support)

Rather than viewing PowerPoint as an "app for decorating,"viewing it as an app to design the order and relationships so the audience can understand without getting lostmakes its practical value much clearer.