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PowerPoint · Foundations
Build the deck somebody else asked for, and check it before you send it.
What you’ll end up with
One finished sixteen-slide deck. A garden centre chain’s own copy in the sections that copy asks for, the right layout on every slide, three photographs placed and the wrong-shaped one cropped rather than stretched, the costs in a table, a speaker note under every slide, one transition, and both a PDF and an editable copy.
10½
hours in all — about 7½ guided, 3 on your own
6
sessions. Each designed to be completed in one sitting
Free
No payment and no card required.
Finishing gives you a completion record showing the work you built, and all three levels earn the Alongrail Certificate in PowerPoint. See what you’ll build →
You don’t need prior experience with Microsoft PowerPoint for the web. There’s no payment and no card required.
From three raw files to a finished deck
01110 min
Get in, and put the opening section down
You are signed in with a free account, the presentation is named and set up the way the brand sheet asks, and the opening section of the board deck is standing — with its words in each slide's own parts rather than in boxes drawn over them.
02105 min
The words, and the ones that are wrong
The section that makes the case is built, including a slide that argues two things at once, and the company's own name — which the copy deck spells four different ways — reads the same on every slide you have built so far.
03105 min
Pictures that fit
The three slides that show the site are built, each with its photograph placed in the part the arrangement made for it — one of them cropped to fit rather than stretched — including the two the copy deck asked for under names no file in your folder carries.
04105 min
Numbers and the notes
The closing section is built as the copy deck lists it, the costs are carried by a table rather than by a sentence, every slide has the speaker note that belongs to it — and the run of notes that arrived a slide out of step is back where it should be.
05105 min
Structure
You have seen the whole deck at once for the first time, found and removed the two slides that were exported twice, and divided what remains into the four named sections the copy deck asks for.
0690 min
Deliver it and hand it over
The deck moves the same way everywhere, you have seen it run and read it back the way a reviewer will, you have checked every slide against the copy deck it came from, and both the file for the pack and the file for whoever presents it are out of the browser and on your own machine.
What you need before you start
A laptop or desktop
Sessions need a laptop or desktop. If you’re on your phone now, that’s fine. Enrol now and we’ll email you a link so you can pick up when you’re at a computer. Microsoft PowerPoint for the web runs in the browser, on Windows or a Mac.
Chrome or Edge
Alongrail runs in the browser too, in its own tab beside Microsoft PowerPoint for the web.
Microsoft PowerPoint for the web
Microsoft PowerPoint for the web runs in your browser. Nothing is installed.
The course files
Everything you work with is in the download.
What’s free
The whole course: every session, both parts, the files, and your record. Alongrail charges nothing for it. No payment, and no card at any point.
The software
Nothing is paid to anyone at any point. A free Microsoft account carries the browser versions of the software and five gigabytes of storage.
The data you’ll work with
Every file is invented — the companies, the people and everything in them are made up for the course.
Before you start
The course covers Microsoft PowerPoint for the web, in your browser.
- A current desktop browser — Chrome, Edge or any other. Nothing is installed, and the PDF you make in the last session opens in that same browser
- A free Microsoft account, which you sign in with; creating one is free and takes a few minutes, and no payment details are asked for
- wrenfield-copy.csv, wrenfield-brand.csv and wrenfield-costs.csv, downloaded from the course page into one folder you can find again
- The five Wrenfield photographs, downloaded into that same folder
- The five Wrenfield start files, downloaded into that same folder — you need them only if you run a session again or have to start one over
- The second company's three files, its five photographs and its five start files, downloaded into the same folder. Every one of their names carries the company, so both sets can sit together without one being mistaken for the other
Alongrail teaches the software and gives you a record of what you built, with a link to the work itself. What happens with it afterwards is yours. We don’t place people and we take no part in anyone’s recruitment process.
Enrol free and start now.
Sign in, confirm the one thing the course needs, and session 1 opens. No payment, and no card at any point.
If something goes wrong on the way, press “Something’s wrong” in the panel, or write to hello@alongrail.com — we reply within one working day.
Frequently asked questions
What you build
Take a copy deck somebody else wrote, a folder of photographs and a one-page brand sheet, and turn them into the presentation that was actually asked for — in a browser, free, with nothing installed — and know how to check it is right before you send it to the people who will decide something on the strength of it.
A board deck you keep: sixteen slides built from a garden centre chain's own copy, in the sections that copy asks for, with the right layout on every slide and the words in each slide's own placeholders, three photographs placed, the one that is the wrong shape cropped rather than stretched, the costs in a table, a speaker note under every slide, one transition, and both a PDF for the pack and an editable copy for whoever has to present it.
How a session works
- Open Microsoft PowerPoint for the web
- Share your screen
- One instruction
- You do it
- It confirms it
- Next
You open Microsoft PowerPoint for the web and share your screen. Alongrail reads what’s there and gives you one instruction. You do it. It confirms the step landed, then gives you the next one. If something doesn’t match what you see, one button gets you back on track.
Guided
In the Fields list, tick Region. The chart fills in.
One field on the axis, one measure as the value.
then
On your owna different company’s data
Same job, a different company's files. Alongrail stays quiet until you ask.
Guided, then on your own.
The second part of every session uses a different company’s data, with the same kind of mess in different places. Alongrail stays quiet until you ask. It’s the work your record points to.
About 10½ hours in all·about 7½ guided·about 3 on your own
What you earn — the record, the certificate and a sample
Completion record
- Name
- Your name
- Course
- PowerPoint Foundations — build the deck somebody else asked for, and check it before you send it
- Completed
- The date you finish
- Project
- The deck you built on your own →
- Skills demonstrated
- Turning a written copy deck into a built presentation, with the layout each piece of copy asks for · Putting text into a slide's own placeholders rather than into boxes drawn over it, and knowing why that matters later · Setting a presentation up to a brand sheet somebody else wrote · Finding and fixing the defects a real copy deck arrives with — a heading nobody wrote, a name spelt several ways, copy that will not fit, a slide exported twice, a picture the copy calls for under a name no file carries · Placing and cropping photographs, including one that is the wrong shape · Carrying numbers in a table, and writing a speaker note that lets somebody else give the deck · Grouping a long deck into named sections and reading it back all at once · Handing a deck over in the format the person receiving it asked for · Checking a built deck against the copy deck it came from before sending it
What was built
A board deck you keep: sixteen slides built from a garden centre chain's own copy, in the sections that copy asks for, with the right layout on every slide and the words in each slide's own placeholders, three photographs placed, the one that is the wrong shape cropped rather than stretched, the costs in a table, a speaker note under every slide, one transition, and both a PDF for the pack and an editable copy for whoever has to present it.
The 6 sessions, and when each was completed on their own
Each session was completed twice: once with step-by-step guidance on one company’s data, then on a second company’s data from a brief, with guidance only when asked. Every check passed on both. Alongrail records the sessions, the checks and the dates; the dashboard itself is the learner’s own, hosted where they chose.
A completion record for PowerPoint Foundations, now. It names the course, the date you finished, the skills you demonstrated, and links the deck you built on your own. It’s private until you publish it, and you can unpublish it at any time.
The record is a description of work you did, not a claim about you. Anyone who opens it can see the work for themselves.
The Alongrail Certificate in PowerPoint when all three levels are complete. Foundations is the first of three. Practitioner and Professional are in development, with no dates. See the track →
Your screen stays yours
It looks when you ask. Never otherwise. Images of your screen are not stored. What Alongrail sees →
Nothing you build is public until you publish it. Your record is private until you say so, and you can unpublish it at any time.
What’s Microsoft PowerPoint for the web?
Microsoft PowerPoint for the web is the software this course is built in. It runs in your browser.
You won’t learn it by watching hours of tutorials. You’ll learn it by building something real with it.
Who you’re building it for
Wrenfield Garden Centres runs three sites inside one catchment and wants to open a fourth. The operations manager has written the whole argument as a copy deck — one row per slide, with the words, the speaker note and the photograph each slide needs — and has handed it to you with a folder of site photographs and the one-page brand sheet the business uses for anything the board sees. The board meets shortly and the deck has to be in the pack. Nobody has checked the copy deck since it was written and nobody else is going to. You have a browser, a free account, and no budget for software.
Your job is to build the deck that answers it.
Do I need to know Microsoft PowerPoint for the web already?
No. The course assumes you’ve never opened it.
What if I get stuck?
Press the button in the panel and say what you see. Alongrail works out where you actually are and picks the instruction back up.
Why 10½ hours, when other courses are 40?
Because the time is spent doing the work rather than watching it. About 7½ hours is guided; the rest is you building the same thing again on your own.
What does Alongrail see on my screen?
Only the window you choose to share, and only when you ask it to look. Images of your screen are not stored by Alongrail. What Alongrail sees →
Can I use a Mac?
Yes. Microsoft PowerPoint for the web runs in the browser.
What if I miss a week?
Nothing closes. The dates are there to help you keep moving, not to catch you out.
What’s the “on your own” part?
The second half of every session: the same work on a different company’s data, with Alongrail quiet unless you ask. Both parts are needed for your completion record.
Is it really free?
Yes. No payment, and no card at any point.
Who can see what I build?
Nobody, until you say so. Your record is private until you publish it, and you can unpublish it at any time. What you build stays in your own files or account; where a step publishes something to the software’s own site, the step says so and says who can see it.
Where this course sits
PowerPoint Foundations is Foundations in PowerPoint. The track has three levels; each one you complete earns its own record, and all of them together earn the Alongrail Certificate in PowerPoint. All the courses →