Add Columns in PowerPoint

Are you bursting with information that you need to share with your audience?

Arming yourself with a professional slide deck is a great place to start. There are clever ways to present all your information to the audience. Here’s where columns come in.

Breaking text into columns is an effective design strategy, especially for large blocks of text. This format not only organizes information in a logical and clear way but also helps make it easier for you to present and for the audience to digest. Using columns can break the monotony of block text slides and make your presentation more visually engaging.

In this article, we’ll explore the importance of using columns in your presentations and provide a couple of methods for adding them to your slides.

Why Use PowerPoint PPT Columns?

Without columns in your PowerPoint presentation, information can easily become cluttered and overwhelming. Slides that are too text-heavy can cause your audience to lose interest and miss out on the valuable information you have to share.

Incorporating columns in your PowerPoint slides is essential for effectively conveying information. They help in organizing slides by grouping relevant content together, which enhances readability and allows your audience to follow along more easily.

Now, let’s dive into how to practically add columns to your PowerPoint presentations.

How to Make Columns in PowerPoint

There are a couple of efficient methods for creating columns in PowerPoint. Both techniques are worth knowing, so let’s explore them.

How to Add Columns in a PowerPoint Text Box

To start, let’s prepare a slide. You can duplicate Slide 11 from the Bleu template and delete everything except for a single text box. We’ll utilize this remaining text box in the tutorial.

Next, right-click the text box and select Format Shape. In the Text Options tab, choose the Text Box option on the right. Click the Columns… button to add and edit your columns.

A window will open with options for Number of columns and Spacing between columns. For this example, let’s set these values to 3 columns with 2" spacing before clicking OK.

Now your text box should reflect the new columns! Center it on the slide for a better visual presentation.

Here’s how our original text box looks now that it has columns:

Editing text within these columns might take a bit of practice, so spend some time adjusting it. You can add or remove line breaks using your Enter, Backspace, or Delete keys. Resizing your text box can also help balance the columns.

After a few tweaks, here’s what my columns look like for a demographic slide:

If the spacing appears uneven, you can adjust it to achieve the desired look. Adding a blank column can also enhance the layout:

That looks much better! With some adjustments, you’ve created ideal columns for your PowerPoint presentation slide using just one text box.

How to Make Columns in PowerPoint Tables

Now, let’s explore another method for creating columns using tables. Duplicate the slide we just edited and remove the text box.

Select the Insert tab from the ribbon, then click Table. You’ll see a grid to choose the number of columns and rows. For this example, let’s add a 3x8 table to the slide.

Next, enter the information from your text box columns into the new table.

If you need to add more information, such as a location column, select the table cell adjacent to where you’d like to insert a new column. A Layout tab will appear on the ribbon, providing options to choose Insert Left or Insert Right.

You can place your new column wherever you need it. Here’s how my table looks now with the new column and added information:

Our Finished PowerPoint Columns

As demonstrated, both methods for adding columns to your PowerPoint slides are effective. The choice of which method to use will depend on your specific needs and the level of customization you desire. Experiment with both approaches to find out which style works best for your presentations.