As another MS PowerPoint tutorial, here’s how you can create simple (yet stunning!) buttons and icons. You can then use these graphics for your website, documents, or other materials as inserted images. In this blog, I demo how you can make buttons and icons in PowerPoint by simply inserting shapes and text. In addition, I provide the slidedeck used for you to explore and/or use as a template.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Will Rogers
How to Make Buttons in PowerPoint
There’s often a range of buttons and icons you can find online. However, I typically find there’s either none that meet my specific needs, I spend ages looking, I don’t want to breach copyrights, or I have to fork out to purchase the image. In contrast, it’s much quicker and easier to create your own buttons than you might think!
Therefore, in the video below, I take you through the steps of making buttons in PowerPoint. To summarise, the key workflow steps are as follows:
- Insert your chosen shape from the ribbon.
- Format your shape and the border.
- Overlay a text box with chosen symbol (e.g. ‘Wingding’ font character) and format.
- Group items together, so that you can move them easily in unison.
- Take a targeted screenshot and save the image created
- Windows: Use the ‘Snipping Tool’ or new ‘Snip & Sketch’.
- Mac: Cmd + Shift + 4 shortcut.
Therefore, I cover a range of PowerPoint techniques by providing this demo, such as:
- How to insert shapes
- How to format your shapes (including lines, drop shadows, and gradient fills)
- Resizing your shapes to make perfect squares and circles
- Inserting and formatting text
- How to align and group your text and shapes
- The power of Wingdings, Webdings, and other symbol-based fonts
- Taking targeted screenshots of your buttons to save as images
Download PowerPoint Button Creation Tool…
You can download my icon creation template as a PowerPoint slidedeck. To do so, simply click the image preview above or download link below.
Icons can be great as a nice way of previewing your sleek Word documents, providing thumbnails to files, and familiarising your audience through visual content. You can also use shapes and text combinations to make your Excel files more appealing, as I use in my Excel basics demo. Have a go at creating your own buttons, then let me know how you get on in the comments!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this presentation, and find the how-to video and template helpful. Subscribe to my EATO YouTube channel for more MS Office how-to videos and presentations. Like what I do? Please like and share with others who might find it useful. If so inclined, you can also support my work to help keep free content flowing. Want fantastic, time-saving templates just for you and your business? Then please get in touch to arrange a bespoke quote. Finally, please feel free to leave your feedback below and/or comment on what tutorials and templates you’d like created.
Kind Regards, Adrian
