In PowerPoint, a placeholder is a pre-formatted container on a slide for content such as text, graphics, or video. Placeholders are shown with a dotted external border and are used to position different types of content on the slide, making it easier to format slides consistently. Placeholders can contain text, pictures, tables, charts, SmartArt graphics, and media clips. They are preformatted to provide consistent formatting between each slide, and placeholders which contain text will generally display the “Click to add…” prompt to help you add text content to a slide. Placeholders can only be added to slide layouts, not individual slides in a presentation. In slide master view, you can add placeholders to a new slide layout, or change the look of an existing slide layout. By using placeholders, you can ensure the design across an entire presentation is consistent and to make sure positioning and formatting can be kept the same.