Create Your Own Picture Bullets in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

You have already learned about how to use a picture as a bullet. Other than using the preset picture bullets offered by PowerPoint 2011 for Mac, you can also create your own picture bullets to use in presentations, and these can be created right within PowerPoint! Follow these steps to learn how to create your own bullets in PowerPoint:

1. Launch PowerPoint. You will see the Presentation Gallery which allows you to set all attributes of your new presentation, such as a preset Theme or template. Make selections or just click Cancel in this gallery to open a blank presentation with a new slide. PowerPoint 2011 users can change the slide layout of this slide to Blank by selecting the option Layout | Blank within the Home tab of the Ribbon.
2. Within the Home tab of the Ribbon, click the Shape button to open the Shape gallery that you can see in Figure 1. In this gallery, select the Basic Shapes category, and select the Oval shape (refer to Figure 1 again), and click once on your slide to place a circle. To learn more about drawing circles, see our Draw a Perfect Circle tutorial.
3. 
   Figure 1: Oval shape selected within the Basic Shapes category
3. Make sure the circle is selected. Then select the Format tab of the Ribbon. In this tab, locate the Shape Styles group, and hover the cursor over the thumbnail previews. A down-arrow button (More button) appears as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, click it.
4. 
   Figure 2: Shape Styles within the Format tab
4. This reveals the entire Shape Styles drop-down gallery, as shown in Figure 3. Click on any of the available styles to apply it to the selected circle.
5. 
   Figure 3: Shape Styles drop-down gallery
5. In Figure 4 you can see the circle applied with the selected Shape Style. Now, right-click (or Ctrl + click) the circle. From the resultant context menu select the Save as Picture option as shown in Figure 4.
6. 
   Figure 4: Save as Picture option to be selected
6. This brings up the Save dialog box as shown in Figure 5. Choose a location and name for your picture, also choose a picture format such as PNG from the Format drop-down list that supports transparency (see Figure 5). Once you are done, click on Save button.
7. 
   Figure 5: Save the picture as PNG
7. Whenever you want, you can use this saved picture as a bullet in PowerPoint.