Presentation software is a computer program you use to organize and present information. Presentation software can help make your presentation effective and professional. You can use PowerPoint to create 35-mm slides, overheads, speaker’s notes, audience handouts, outline pages, or on-screen presentations.
Often when you create presentations, you incorporate information from other sources and you can do this with PP. You can import information from spreadsheet, database, and word-processing files prepared in programs such as Microsoft Excel, Access, Word.
Simply double-click on the PP icon on your desktop.
From here, you can create a new presentation (and there are different options for doing this) or open an existing presentation.
Be sure the Task Pane is visible. Click View, then click on Task Pane if it does not already have a check mark beside it.
The AutoContent Wizard is the quickest way to create a presentation. A “wizard” is a series of steps that guides you through a task (in this case, creating a presentation). The AutoContent Wizard creates a presentation with sample text you can use as a guide to help formulate the major points of your presentation.
Opens the New Presentation dialog box, containing PP design templates; you can click a template to see a preview of it.
Opens the New Slide dialog box, allowing you to choose a predesigned slide layout for the first slide, then opens a presentation with no predefined content or design.
Allows you to open a previously created presentation.
In the Task Pane, click From AutoContent Wizard
Click Next
You’ll see the presentation type screen.
Click the category button you want, then click the presentation type, then click Next.
The Presentation style screen appears, asking you to choose an output type.
Select On-screen presentation, for example.
Click Next.
You’ll see the Presentation Options screen.
Click in the Presentation title text box, then type a title for the title slide.
Press Tab to move to the footer field
Type in a footer (if desired).
“Date last updated” and “Slide Number” - leave these checked if you want them to appear at the bottom of each slide.
Click Next.
Click Finish.
The AutoContent Wizard opens the presentation based on the presentation type you chose. Sample text for each slide is listed on the left. The title slide appears on the right side of the screen.
By default, the PP window opens in Normal view, which is divided into 3 panes or sections: the Outline pane, the Notes pane, and the Slide pane. You move around in each pane by using its scroll bars.
The title bar – contains program name, the title of the presentation, minimize, restore, close buttons.
The menu bar – contains the names of the menus you use to choose PP commands
The Standard toolbar – contains buttons for the most frequently used commands, such as copying and pasting
The Formatting toolbar – contains buttons for the most frequently used formatting commands, such as changing font type and size.
The Presentation window – contains the Outline, Slide, and Notes panes. It is the area where you type text, organize your content, work with lines and shapes, and view your presentation.
Outline tab – displays your presentation text in the form of an outline, without graphics.
Slide tab – contains the current slide in your presentation, including all text and graphics. You can use this pane’s vertical scroll bar to view other slides in the presentation.
Notes pane – lets you type in speaker notes for any slide. Speaker notes are for your reference as you make a presentation, such as reminders of other points you want to make during the presentation. They are not visible to the audience when you make a slide presentation. You can print a copy of your presentation with your notes showing under each slide and refer to this copy as you speak.
The different panes or areas are adjustable: Place the mouse pointer on the right edge of the Outline / Slides area (or the top of the Notes area) so that it appears with 2 arrows, then click and drag to adjust the width to your preference.
Office Assistant – an animated character that provides help.
If your Office Assistant is not visible, click on the yellow “?” on the toolbar.
To use the Office Assistant, click on it, then type a question in the text box provided, and then click on Search (or press Enter) to find an answer to your question (or display other questions that may lead you to the answer that you seek). You can type key words, instead of an entire question, if you prefer.
Drawing toolbar – contains buttons and menus that let you create lines, shapes, and special effects.
View buttons – allow you to quickly switch between PP views.
Status bar – shows messages about what you are doing and seeing in PP, including which slide you are viewing.
There are 3 PP views: Normal, Slide Sorter, and Slide Show (from current slide).
Each PP view shows your presentation in a different way and allows you to manipulate your presentation differently. To move easily among the PP views, use the view buttons located in the lower left corner of the presentation window.
Displays the Outline, Slide, and Notes panes at the same time.
Remember: these 3 areas are adjustable.
Use this view to work on your presentation’s content, layout, and notes concurrently.
In the Outline area, click the small slide icon next to the slide number to view that slide in the slide pane.
Click on the Previous Slide and Next Slide buttons (single or double up/down arrows) on the vertical scroll bar to move through the slides. The slide icon changes slightly in appearance in the outline pane when it is the one being displayed. The status bar (bottom of screen) also indicates the number of the slide you are viewing.
Displays a miniature picture of all slides in the order in which they appear in your presentation. You can examine the flow of your slides and easily move them to change their order. Use this view to rearrange and add special effects to your slides.
The 1st slide fills the entire screen. You can practice running through your slides as they would appear in an electronic slide show. To advance through the slides one at a time, you can click the left mouse button, or press Enter, or press the spacebar. After you view the last slide, a black slide appears indicating that the slide show is finished:
“End of slide show, click to exit.” Click (or spacebar or enter) one more time and you’ll automatically return to the view you were in before you ran the slide show.
Click View (on the menu bar) then click Notes Page.
You see a reduced image of the slide above a large box. You can enter text in this box and then print the notes page for your own use to help you remember important points about your presentation.
Click File on the menu bar, then click Save As.
Pay close attention to the “Save in” field. Click the drop-down arrow to view other drives to save to and change if necessary.
In the “File name” text box, type a name, then click Save. File names can be up to 255 characters long and may include lower- or uppercase letters, symbols, numbers and spaces. After clicking Save, notice the file name now appears in the title bar at the top of the window.
At this point you can continue working and save periodically (every 15 minutes or so) by clicking on the Save button (looks like a floppy disk) on the standard toolbar.
Click File on the menu bar, then click Print.
Notice the Print range section in the middle of the dialog box. If you only wanted to print slide #3 for example, click the Slides button, and type 3, then click OK.
Grayscale – selected by default. The black background does not print. If you have a black-and-white printer, the slide prints in shades of gray.
Pure black and white – If you have a black-and-white printer, the presentation prints without any gray tones.
In the Print what section – use the drop-down arrow to select. Note that you can print any view from the Print dialog box, regardless of the current view.
Click File on the menu bar, then click Close.
If you have made changes since your last save, an alert box opens asking you if you want to save changes.
Click File on the menu bar, then click Exit. Or click the X (upper right corner of window) on the title bar. You return to the windows desktop.
PP provides many design templates. A design template has borders, colors, text attributes, and other elements arranged in a specific format that you can apply to all the slides in your presentation.
Start PP, click From Design Template (in the Task Pane).
You see the many PP design templates.
If you click on any of the templates, it’s applied to your presentation slides right away.
You can experiment by clicking on many of them, one after the other to get a good idea of how they look.
You also have the option of applying a design template to all slides (by default) or a selected slide. Notice the drop-down arrow to the right of each design template. Click on it. The options are:
Apply to all slides
Apply to selected slides
Show large previews (enlarges the design template “pictures”)
Click the Save button and give your presentation a filename.
The title slide (for example) has 2 text placeholders (boxes with dashed line borders where you enter text). To enter text in a placeholder, simply click the placeholder and then type your text. Notice that what you type appears in the Outline pane as well (click on the Outline tab if necessary).
After you enter text in a placeholder, the placeholder becomes a text object.
An object is any item on a slide that can be manipulated.
When finished typing in a placeholder, click outside the text object in a blank area of the slide to deselect.
Click the Save button.
From any view, click the New Slide button on the toolbar.
Notice the Outline pane and the status bar.
You can click next to the slide icon in the Outline pane and type your text there. It will also appear in the slide pane as you type.
(You can type text in either pane).
If you are using a bulleted list, pressing Enter inserts a new bullet.
Press Tab to indent (to start a 2nd level of bullets).
Press Shift-Tab to change an item from a 2nd level bullet back to a 1st level bullet.
You can create notes that accompany your slides. You can enter notes in either the Notes pane or in Notes Page view. (It’s easier and more visible to do it in the Notes pane.) The notes you enter do not appear on the slides themselves. You can print these pages and refer to them during your presentation. If you want to provide pages on which your audience can take notes, print the notes pages, but leave the text placeholder blank.
Click in the Notes pane.
Type in whatever you want for your notes.
Click the Next Slide button to move to the next slide.
Click in the Notes pane and type whatever you need for that slide.
Repeat as needed for the remaining slides.
Don’t forget this useful tool when creating a presentation. (It’s not just for Word!)
Start at the “top” of your presentation (slide1).
Click the Spelling button (ABC Ö) on the Standard toolbar.
If the Spell checker comes across a word that is not in its dictionary, it displays a window with the misspelled word and some options.
|
Ignore |
doesn’t change the word in question and continues spell checking |
|
Ignore All |
doesn’t change any occurrence of the word no matter how many times it appears. |
|
Change |
changes the identified word to the suggested word |
|
Change All |
changes all occurrences of the identified word to the suggested word |
|
Add |
Adds the identified word to your custom dictionary; spellchecker will not flag it again. Use this with caution: you don’t want to add a misspelled word to the dictionary! |
To enhance he appearance of slides thru objects, art, and sound.
You can assign attributes to an object before or after you draw the object. Attributes include fill colors, line colors and styles, and shadows. To create an object by using the drawing tools:
From the Drawing toolbar, select the rectangle.
Place the mouse pointer in the upper-left portion of the blank side.
Drag the mouse to diagonally to create a rectangle.
Select the Line tool.
Place the crosshair below the rectangle and press Shift…constraints the angle.
Drag to draw a horizontal line across the slide…release the shift button and the line is complete.
Select the Oval tool.
Place the mouse pointer under the line on the right side.
While pressing the Shift key, drag diagonally until a circle is displayed.
Release the mouse button.
Deleting an object.
Select the object.
Press the Delete key on keyboard.
Duplicating Objects.
Once an object is the size and shape you want, you can duplicate that object.
Choose View, Ruler.
Move the rectangle to the top left corner of the slide.
Using the rulers as a guide, resize the rectangle object to create a square.
Verify that the square is selected.
Choose Edit, Duplicate.
Place the mouse inside the second square and drag it approximately one inch to the right of the first square.
Adding text to objects.
You can add text to any object with the Rectangle or Oval tools. Any closed shape drawn with an AutoShapes tool can also have text attached to it.
To add text to a shape:
Select the shape.
Start typing. Text with default settings will appear.
Changing Bullets to arrive as you narrate.
The bullets will arrive as you click on the mouse, or have designated a time frame to appear.
1. Click on the bullets, this will cause a square around them.
2. Right click anywhere in the body, select Custom Animation.
3. Click on effects tab, select text 2 if you have a title bar.
4. Enter the animation and or sound.
5. Click on Order and Timing.
6. Select the Start Animation.
Adjusting text within drawn objects.
You can accommodate for discrepancy in two ways: wrap the text or adjust the objects size. To make it wrap:
Select the object or the text.
Choose Format, Autoshape and click on the Text Box tab.
Check Word Wrap Text in AutoShape.
Click OK
To adjust an objects size to fit text:
Select the object or text.
Choose Format, AutoShape and click on the Text Box tab.
Check Resize AutoShape to fit text.
Click OK.
Changing object shapes.
To change the shape of any object drawn with the Oval, Rectangle, or AutoShape tools:
Select the object.
On the drawing toolbar, click on Draw.
Choose Change AutoShape, and select change.
Select the Block Arrow.
Click on the 3-D button.
Text color, fills, and shadows.
Changing the default color and fill, add a pattern or a shadow.
From the drawing toolbar, select the down pointing arrow to the right of the Fill Color button.
In the Fill Color palette, select color.
Click on Fill Effects.
Under Colors, select Two Colors.
Display the drop-down list box under Color 2.
Select more colors.
Select a color.
Click OK
Under Shading Styles, select From Center
Click OK
Selecting and inserting a movie clip with text.
Insert short movie clips from gallery or file.
1. Click on Insert, Movie and Sounds.
2. Select from Gallery.
3. Choose a subject on the title page.
4. Click on a slide that represents your text, you will receive a dialog box.
5. In the dialog box you will see the Insert Clip icon (first), underneath you will notice the Play Clip icon. Try each selection before adding to your presentation.
Selecting and inserting clip-art, with text.
Adding pictures to slides.
Click on the clip-art button on the Drawing toolbar.
Select subject box.
Choose animated picture.
Click on picture.
Click on Insert.
Close the toolbar.
Adding text:
Click on box where text is to be added.
Select Text box…the letter A on sheet of paper.
Type the text you want to add.
Press Enter.
Changing the Background.
Changing the colors of each slide will keep your audience entertained and focused on the presentation.
1. Click on Format
2. Select Background to change colors of the same scheme.
3. Select Apply design Template to change the slide template.
Insert a Paint Brush Slide.
Paintbrush will allow you to draw an image on a slide to help the preciseness of the presentation.
1. Click on insert, slide to Object and double click.
2. Inside the Object Type, scroll down until you see Paintbrush.
3. Select it and click OK.
Insert sound to a slide.
Sound will help your audience determine new ideas and keep them focused until the presentation is finished.
Click on Insert.
Go to Movie and Sounds, Sounds from Galleries.
Click on category.
Choose the sound, click on Insert clip.
Right click on icon to here the sound.
Selecting Word Art style.
Word Art lets you add special effects to the text in your presentations.
Add a new slide.
Select area of text and add title and or name.
Click on the Insert Word Art button…slanted A in box.
Observe the word Art gallery and choose a style.
Click OK
Adding a chart to a slide.
Adding numeric data to a slide to create a chart.
Add a new slide
Choose slide with title and chart.
Double click on the chart.
Click on the View Datasheet button…under Chart on toolbar.
Click on the Select all button… upper left corner
Press Delete button on keyboard.
Type Headings on Top and Left side of chart.
Add numerical data.
To add rows or columns, right click on column and choose option.
Right click on any part of Chart to view options.
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