Lesson 6: Presentations

Tejas: The inter-school competition where we have to create a presentation about computers is only 2 weeks away!

Jyoti: We already have all the information which is categorized. We can use Applications like Impress, Kpresenter, or Power Point. How do we start, should I switch on the PC and open the application?

Moz: Wait, creating presentations is not just about opening the application and start typing the content. It requires some ground work in terms of thinking and planning. This can be done on a paper.

Tejas: But we have collected so much information about Computers now, even planning what to present in the 10 minute slot given to us is very challenging. Looks like our presentation will have 100 pages!

Moz: The presentation does not have pages, but Slides. On which Topic do you have to now prepare the presentation?

Jyoti: I will prepare on “Uses of Computers” and Tejas on “History of Computers”

Moz: Before we discuss about how to create slides, note that creating effective presentations primarily involves 3 main stages/steps. Let us take Jyoti’s Topic and see what goes into the 3 stages.

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STAGE 1:

  1. Gather Content for the given topic (In this case you already have the content)
  2. Sift/go through the content that you have collected
  3. Decide the main points that you want to talk about
  4. Under each main point write the sub-points that belong to the main point
  5. If you cannot think of a sub point, leave it blank and come back to it later
  6. (eg: Under the Title Personal uses, if you can think of only two sub-points, you can come back to it later)
  7. Under each main/sub-points, decidehow you want to display the information [ text, table, picture, graph ….]
  8. Estimate the number of slides and approximate time for the presentation
  9. At the end of Stage 1 , what you have is the outline of your presentation !

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INFO BOX:

  • Presentations can be used by Teachers, Students, Businessmen, Any working professional
  • Individual pages of a presentation are called Slides
  • Slides can contain Text, Images, Charts/Graphs, Tables , Video, Audio, Inserted files etc.
  • Slide content can be animated
  • Slides can look consistent by using templates
  • Slide content can be formatted just like the document content
  • Slides are presented by using an option called Slide show

END INFO BOX

Moz: Let us see Jyoti’s outline and also see how to create a new presentation .

Jyoti’s outline for “Uses of Computer “

•Uses of Computer

•Personal use

•Internet and networking

•Special purpose applications in various fields

•Uses in other devices

•Personal Use

•Office and Personal applications

•Multimedia

•Games( will add some pictures )

•Programming

•Education

•Virtual training

•Internet and Networking

•Communication

•Information

•Transactions

•Education

•on-line courses

•Databases and network

•Will add more uses

•Special purpose applications

•Space

•Medicine

•Weather analysis

•Communication

•Defence

•Uses in other devices

•Telecommunication systems

•Transportation systems

•Medical systems

•Others

1: CREATE NEW PRESENTATION : SKILL BOX ( usha: To be replaced by Ubuntu screen shots /options )

  1. Go To : File------Open new
  2. Select : Blank presentation
  3. Go to : Click to add title
  4. Enter the Title of the Slide
  5. Go To: Click to add content
  6. Enter the content text in the box

END SKILL BOX

Jyoti: I see an option called Layouts , what is this?

Moz: There are several Layout options while creating a Slide which basically give you readymade layouts with place holders for Title , text, images, charts etc.

Moz: Let us see what needs to be done in Stage 2 now

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STAGE 2:

  1. Start using the presentation application to create the slides decided in Stage 1
  2. Populate the slides with actual content
  3. Convert each main point in stage 1 to the Title of a slide
  4. Write all sub-points for that main point as a list of bullets in that slide
  5. Insert pictures if available / look for pictures needed
  6. Order/re-order the slides according to the flow of the presentation
  7. Basic skills needed to populate the slides : going to various options available under the presentation application and using the appropriate one.
  8. Use the pre-existing knowledge of text formatting and apply the same for the slide content.
  9. At the end of Stage 2 the draft presentation is ready!

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Jyoti : I have already explored formatting, fonts and color options in the presentation application and managed to use these options. This is how it looks.

Tejas: But some text is not readable and looks like you have used many fonts and colors !

Moz: Your observation is correct. There are some guidelines which you should follow while creating slides . This is done in Stage 3.

STAGE 3:

3.a

Design the content of the slide in appropriate Fonts and Colours

Do a uniformity/consistency check for all the slides

Do a spell check/grammar check for all the content

At the end of 3.a, the presentation is ready!

3.b

You can make cosmetic changes of adding slide design templates

You can add background images

You can also explore and add various animation options available

You can also create custom animations

3.c

Give a mock presentation before the actual presentation

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GUIDELINES BOX

Each slide shouldhave a title

Content in the slide should not be written in paragraphs

Each slide should ideally have not more than 5 points

Main points and sub points should be properly indented

The font used for the text should be uniform across the presentation

The title should have bigger font than the content in the slide

Not more than two colors should be used in a single slide………..(MORE CAN BE WRITTEN)

Do not read out the points exactly as written in the slides, for each point give more information than what is presented in the slide

If you are using content from the Internet, check for copyright, or give source of information

END GUIDELINES BOX

Moz: Let us see some sample slides now.

SAMPLE SLIDES

INFO BOX : SLIDESHOW

Slide show option is to present all the slides with navigational options [next, prev]

Slide show also enables the user to control the flow of slides

During the slide show some slides can be hidden

END INFOBOX

SKILL BOX FOR ADDING ANIMATION: USHA please write The steps for UBUNTU

Go to ------Animation

Select ------Animation/Custom animation

Click ------preview

Click slideshow

END SKILLBOX

Moz: You have now learnt to explore more on your own about how to animate the slides, include custom animation, record narration, rehearse timings , insert background images and various options available in the presentation software.

Jyoti: We have learnt to use new applications, but like Scratch programming in our earlier classes, we have not done any programming in this grade.

Moz: I am glad you noticed it, in the next class you will be introduced to a new topic called Flow charts and Programming .

END OF LESSON

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