PowerPoint
Objectives
- Realise the potential of PowerPoint in the classroom by reviewing sample presentations.
- Enter, edit and format text in presentations - recognise good practice.
- Understand different presentation views and when to use them; choose different slide layouts and designs, and edit slides.
- Insert and edit pictures, images and objects.
- Apply animation and transition effects to presentations.
- Insert sound, movie files and background music.
- Check and correct presentation content before finally printing and giving presentations.
PowerPoint is a presentation tool increasingly used by lecturers, teachers, conference speakers and business people. Children can use it for creating and presenting projects.
A PowerPoint presentation is made up of a number of slides. Each slide typically has a title with supporting text in bulleted list format and/or graphics.
Presentations can be made more attractive with the use of transitions – special effects to switch from one slide to another and animations – effects to reveal bullet points one at a time rather than displaying them all at the beginning.
Good Practice in Creating Slide Content
- Avoid using fonts that are difficult to read.
- Ensure that no font size is smaller than 24 pt.
- Use a larger font (35 – 45 pt) or different colour for the title.
- Use a single, easy-to-read font for most of the presentation.
- Use different colours, sizes and styles (bold, underline) for impact.
- Avoid using italic formatting to text as it is difficult to read quickly.
- Use concise phrases: you should not use more than six to eight words per line.
- For bullet points, you should have only one thought per line with no more than six words per line and no more than six lines per slide.
- Use dark text on light background or light text on dark background.
- Do not use uppercase lettering, except for titles.
Identify how many slides you need
To calculate the number of slides that you need, make an outline of the material that you plan to cover, and then divide the material into individual slides. You probably want at least:
- A main title slide
- An introductory slide that lists the major points or areas in your presentation
- One slide for each point or area that is listed on the introductory slide
- A summary slide that repeats the list of major points or areas in your presentation
By using this basic structure, if you have three major points or areas to present, you can plan to have a minimum of six slides: a title slide, an introductory slide, one slide for each of the three major points or areas, and a summary slide.
If there is a large amount of material to present in any of your main points or areas, you may want to create a subgrouping of slides for that material by using the same basic outline structure.
TipConsider how much time each slide should be visible on the screen during your presentation. A good standard estimate is from two to five minutes per slide.
Creating a Presentation (PowerPoint 2003)
When PowerPoint opens the Title Slide is already selected. If you wish to change the style of slide go to Format, Slide Layout. The different styles appear to the right of the screen. Click on the style you require.
Adding Text
Click once in the Click to add title box and enter your information.
Adding a New Slide
Select New Slide in the Insert menu. Select the slide you require by clicking on it and click OK. Add text as before.
Adding a picture or graphic
Select the slide on which you want to insert the image. You would select From File if you had your own images saved in a folder on your desktop or on a CD. Clip Art contains the images supplied with PowerPoint (type in clip you require and click Go. Position image by clicking and dragging. Resize it if necessary by dragging a handle.
Slide Shows
You can view a slide show at any time to see how the presentation looks.
There are 5 small control buttons at the lower left-hand corner of the screen. The buttons are used to alter the view of the slide and allow editing of individual slides.
- *Normal View displays individual slides. You can prepare or edit the slide in this view.
- *Slide Sorter displays thumbnail versions of the slides which you can rearrange easily. You cannot edit the slide in this view.
- *Slide Show hides the PowerPoint window and starts the presentation, displaying the slides on the full screen. You cannot edit the slide in this mode.
Viewing a Presentation
To view a slide show click the slide show button at the bottom of the screen. The slide appears full screen. To display the next slide, click the left mouse button or press the rightarrow key or the Page Down key. Use the left arrow key or the Page Up key to display the previous slide. To quit the slide show, press the Escape key.
You can start a slide presentation with any slide, not just the first one. Click the Slide Sorter button to display the slides. Click the slide you want to start with by clicking on it. Click the Slide Show button to begin the presentation with the selected slide.
Slide Transitions
PowerPoint can add slide transitions to vary the way in which one slide follows another. You can specify 2 settings for a transition – the effect and the timing. The effect will apply when changing from the previous slide to the current slide. The timing will apply from the current slide to the next slide.
To apply a slide transition, follow these steps:
Display the slide to which you want to add a transition.
Select Slide Transition in the Slide Show menu.
The Slide Transition window appears.
Custom Animation
Further effects are available when you click the Custom Animation button on the Slide Show menu.
Select text / graphic you want to animate. Select one of the options from the ‘Add Effect’ menu – Entrance: Emphasis: Exit: Motion Path. You can decide on Start, Direction, Speed, Timing, Sound etc.
Rearranging Slides
There may be times when you will need to change the sequence of slides in a presentation. Click the Slide Sorter view button. Click and drag the slide you wish to move and drag it to its new position between two other slides. As you drag, a vertical line appears between the slides to show its present position. Release the mouse button in the new location. The other slides are moved and the selected slide appears in its new position. The slides are automatically renumbered.
Colours and Backgrounds
Select Slide Design on the Format menu
Scroll down through the different styles. Preview of style is available on right. When you have selected a style click Apply to all slides or selected slides.
If you want to pick a different colour for each slide select Background on the Format menu.
Click on the dropdown and select a colour. Select More Colors for any colour or Fill Effects for special effects. Experiment! Click on Apply if you want your chosen colour on just one slide or Apply to All if you want all the slides the same colours.
Adding Graphics from the Internet
Create a folder on your desktop for your images – (Right click on desktop, New, Folder and give it a name e.g. project images). Locate the website that contains the graphics you want to use (Google - Images). Right click the image you want to use. Click Save Picture As. Locate and open your folder ‘project images’. Give the image a relevant name and click Save. When you have all your images saved open your presentation and the particular slide. On the Insert menu, select Picture and then click From File. Locate your ‘project images’ folder, select your picture and click Insert.
****More Advanced Options
Linking slides (Hyperlinks)
Hyperlinks are useful if you have a large number of slides in your presentation (see sample). You usually link slides when you have all your slides completed.
Click and drag on word or click on picture you want as a link. Select Action Settings on the Slide Show menu. Action Settings window opens.
Click on Hyperlink to and click on the dropdown arrow. Click on Slide. Select slide you wish to link to and click OK and OK. Click on the Slide Show button and see if you have linked correctly. (Link will only work when you are in Slide Show mode).
You can also link to a website (URL), another PowerPoint Presentation or another File.
Action Buttons
If you have a link to a page it is important that you insert a link to bring you back to your contents / index page (see sample). An action button can be used for this.
Open a slide. Select Action Buttons on the Slide Show Menu.
Click on a button e.g. Home. You will notice that your mouse pointer changes to a cross. Click on your slide and the button appears with the Action Settings window (Don’t worry about the position or size of the button – you can move it and resize later). Using the Hyperlink to steps as above link this slide to your contents / index slide. Note: it is important that you have a contents / index slide done before you start linking!
Handy shortcut! As you will want all your slides to link to a contents / index slide use copy and paste to do this. Click on the action button and select Copy on the Edit menu. Go to each slide and select Paste on the Edit menu. This results in each slide being linked back to the contents / index page without have to go through all the initial steps. Select the Slide Show button and see how your links work.
Printing
Multimedia elements such as sound, music and video files can be added to PowerPoint presentations.
Display the slide to which you want to apply the sound. Select Movies and Sounds in the Insert menu. A sub-menu displays a list of choices.
Click on Sound from Gallery to add a sound from the Clip Art gallery (if there are any in the gallery).
Select Sound from File if the file is stored elsewhere.
Click Movie from Gallery or Movie from File as appropriate to add a Video clip.
Adding Music from a CD (Note: Copyright law applies to music as well!)
Place a music CD in your computer’s CD-ROM drive.
On some computers, the CD begins to play automatically. Stop the CD and close the window.
Go to the slide where you want the music to begin.
Select Movies and Sounds on the Insert menu and then select Play CD Audio Track to display a new window.
Specify the track(s) and start and end times. Click OK.
You should see a small CD symbol on the slide. Click on it to play the music you selected. Click Yes if you want the sound to play automatically or No for it to play only when you click the icon.
On the Slide Show menu, click Custom Animation for further effects.
Create a Basic Presentation in PowerPoint 2007
When you start PowerPoint, it opens in the view(view: A way of displaying the contents of a presentation and providing the user with the means to interact with it.) called Normal view, where you create and work on slides.
In the Slide pane, you can work directly on individual slides.
Dotted borders identify placeholders(placeholders: Boxes with dotted or hatch-marked borders that are part of most slide layouts. These boxes hold title and body text or objects such as charts, tables, and pictures.), where you can type text or insert pictures, charts, and other objects(object: A table, chart, graphic, equation, or other form of information. Objects created in one application, for example spreadsheets, and linked or embedded in another application are OLE objects.).
The Slides tab shows a thumbnail(thumbnail: A miniature representation of a picture.) version of each full size slide shown in the Slide pane. After you add other slides, you can click a thumbnail on the Slides tab to make the slide appear in the Slide pane. Or you can drag thumbnails to rearrange the slides in your presentation. You can also add or delete slides on the Slides tab.
In the Notes pane(notes pane: The pane in normal view in which you type notes that you want to accompany a slide. You print these notes as notes pages or have them display when you save a presentation as a Web page.), you can type notes about the current slide. You can hand out your notes to your audience or refer to your notes in Presenter view when you give your presentation.
NoteBy default, Office PowerPoint 2007 applies the Blank Presentation template(template: A file or files that contain the structure and tools for shaping such elements as the style and page layout of finished files. For example, Word templates can shape a single document, and FrontPage templates can shape an entire Web site.), which appears in the preceding illustration, to new presentations. Blank Presentation is the simplest and most generic of the templates in Office PowerPoint 2007. Blank Presentation is a good template to use when you first start working with PowerPoint because it is straightforward and can be adapted to many presentation types.
Near the top of the screen are three buttons that you may find useful:
- Undo, which undoes your last change. (To see a ScreenTip(ScreenTip: A short description that appears when the user holds the mouse pointer over an object, such as a button or hyperlink.) about which action will be undone, rest your pointer on the button. To see a menu of other recent changes that can also be undone, click the arrow to the right of Undo.) You can also undo a change by pressing CTRL+Z.
- Redoor Repeat, which either repeats or redoes your last change, depending on what action you just performed. (To see a ScreenTip about which action will be repeated or redone, rest your pointer on the button.) You can also repeat or redo a change by pressing CTRL+Y.
Name and save your presentation
As with any software program, it is a good idea to name and save your presentation right away and then to save your changes frequently while you work:
- Click the Microsoft Office Button, point to Save As, and then do one of the following:
For a presentation that can be opened only in Office PowerPoint 2007, click PowerPoint Presentation.
For a presentation that can be opened in either Office PowerPoint 2007 or earlier versions of PowerPoint, click PowerPoint 97-2003 Presentation.
If you choose this option, you cannot use any of the features that are new in Office PowerPoint 2007.
- In the Save As dialog box, in the Save in list, select the folder or other location where you want to save your presentation.
- In the File name box, type a name for your presentation, or do nothing to accept the default file name, and then click Save.
From now on, you can press CTRL+S or click Savenear the top of the screen to save your presentation quickly at any time.
Add, rearrange, and delete slides
The single slide that is provided automatically in your presentation has two placeholders, one formatted for a title and the other formatted for a subtitle. The arrangement of placeholders on a slide is called a layout(layout: The arrangement of elements, such as title and subtitle text, lists, pictures, tables, charts, AutoShapes, and movies, on a slide.). Office PowerPoint 2007 also provides other types of placeholders, such as those for pictures and SmartArt graphics.
When you add a slide to your presentation, you can do the following to choose a layout for the new slide at the same time:
- On the Slides tab, click just below the single slide that already appears there.
- On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the arrow next to New Slide.
A gallery appears, showing thumbnails of the various slide layouts that are available.