PowerPoint comes with many different layout designs to choose from. One can customize their own by using text boxes. However, it is much easier to use one of PowerPoint's pre-designed slide layouts. A slide layout design could consist of text placeholders, graphic placeholders, chart placeholders, table placeholders, and media placeholders. Layouts can also contain no placeholders for those who want to create their own design. The graphic below identifies the most common layout forms in PowerPoint (there are many more).

Once a slide layout is selected (say when you insert a new slide), that particular layout can be changed later. To change the layout design of an existing slide, click on Format in the menu bar and select Slide Layout.