This Topic Will Introduce You to Powerpoint Software, and Will Give You Tips on Creating

Introduction

This topic will introduce you to PowerPoint software, and will give you tips on creating and delivering a PowerPoint presentation.

You may already know how to use the software, in which case just go quickly through the material for revision purposes. There are some exercises to try out, and make sure you submit them to your tutor when asked to do so.

You will be directed to some online tutorials, but if you happen to have tutorial material of your own already, by all means use that – but make sure you know how to carry out all of the topics covered in this unit.

Presentation software

Webopedia ( gives the definition of presentation graphics as:

A type of business software that enables users to create highly stylized images for slide shows and reports. The software includes functions for creating various types of charts and graphs and for inserting text in a variety of fonts. Most systems enable you to import data from a spreadsheet application to create the charts and graphs.

The most commonly used application for composing presentations is Microsoft PowerPoint.

Using PowerPoint

Whether or not you have used PowerPoint before, you are likely to pick up tips and hints from one of the sources which will be listed on the following screen.

If you are new to the software, select one of the tutorials, print it out and work your way through it, making sure that by the end of it you know how to produce a basic presentation which includes the features on the following screen. If you already have some knowledge, you might find that just making the odd note will be sufficient.

Activity 1

For each of the links, scroll if necessary until you find the appropriate online tutorial to click on (select the version of PowerPoint which you use in your college, if possible). (NB You don’t need ALL of them – ONE is probably sufficient.)

Basic features of PowerPoint

Activity 2

Ensure that you are familiar with each of the following features. If not, return to one of the tutorials and, in Word, use Edit/Find to jump to the appropriate section and revise the topic before continuing.

- use of templates

- layouts

- background

- colours

- transitions

- timings

- inserting clipart

Sample presentation

Activity 3

Follow this link to see a very simple presentation which summarises this topic. Save it on to your own computer and examine it more carefully to see how it was produced.

Activity 4

Using the sample presentation, carry out the following amendments:

- Remove the timings, and make each transition available by mouse click

only

- Change the background to another suitable one

- Apply a different transition effect to the last slide only

If you have difficulty with any of the above, try, in the following order:

PowerPoint’s own Help facility

Looking up the topic in one of the tutorials

Contacting your tutor

Activity 5

Create the following presentation, using a suitable template. Alter the background to a pale colour in keeping with the template. Make sure each slide is of an appropriate layout. Build in a transition effect between each slide, and set the timing for 5 seconds (to be carried out automatically, not on a mouse click) between each slide.

Slide 1 / Getting acquainted with the Internet
Your name
Slide 2 / What is the Internet?

Networked computers
Access to people
Access to information

(Insert an appropriate graphic in this slide)
Slide 3 / How does the Internet work?

Internet protocols
Client-server computing
Internet addressing

Slide 4 / Your contact details

Email your presentation as an attachment to your tutor.

Importing objects

In many cases, a presentation uses material from other sources, ie material which has already been created in a different format. Rather than create it again in PowerPoint format, it can be imported instead. (Depending on what the item is, you can also copy and paste it into your presentation.)

Import

To use data produced by another application. The ability to import data is very important in software applications because it means that one application can complement another. (from

<size>small</size>

Importing from another PowerPoint file

This is a very straightforward process:

1. Click on Insert/Slides from files/Browse

2. Select the file required, then click Open

3. When the Slide Finder box appears, either

- select the files required using CTRL plus the mouse to click on them,

then click on Insert, OR

- click on Insert All

4. Click on Close

Activity 6

Click on the link below to watch a demonstration, which elects to import specific slides only:

Importing slides

Activity 7

Try this out by inserting some slides into the presentation you have just composed about the Internet. Before you start, right-click on the file below to save it to your PC (remember to select an appropriate location).

The Internet.ppt

Move to the end of your own presentation, and insert all the slides from The Internet.ppt - watch to see what happens.

Undo this action and repeat the process, but this time select the second last slide from your own presentation, then insert all the slides except the title one from The Internet.ppt

Keep the file open as you will be using it again shortly.

Inserting from other Office documents

You can import from Word, Excel and Access, but the item appears as an object, which is not necessarily particularly readable. If you just want a few pages of, eg, a Word document to appear in your PowerPoint presentation, you are probably just as well to copy them from Word into your PowerPoint file. You can then amend the text as you wish.

Similarly, you can copy and paste an Excel spreadsheet, graph or Access table into a PowerPoint file.

Activity 8

Try this out by right-clicking on the files below and saving them to your PC, again in a suitable location:

Types of email.doc

Search engines.mdb

Copy and paste these files into an appropriate location in your PowerPoint presentation and keep the file open.

Inserting graphics from external sources

You already know how to insert Clipart from within PowerPoint. However, you can just as easily insert graphics from other sources. Instead of clicking on Insert/Picture/Clipart, you can click

Insert/Picture/From file

then move through the relevant directories until you find the graphic, and click on Insert.

Activity 9

Right-click on the graphic below to save it onto your PC (make sure you select a suitable folder for it to go into).

http.gif

Now insert it into an appropriate location in your PowerPoint file.

You can do this with most graphic files from any source, including the Internet. However, you should be aware of copyright issues also, so be careful when using graphics outwith your college studies.

Linking

An item which has been imported into a PowerPoint file, from whatever source, can be linked to its original source. This means that if its source data is changed, those changes will be reflected in the object in the PowerPoint file, ie the link is dynamic. It also means that the source data can be opened directly from PowerPoint.

Click on the link below to watch a demonstration of how to insert a dynamic link (be patient at the end – the spreadsheet will appear!):

Inserting a dynamic link

Activity 10

Follow this link to open a file with linkingexercises, and work your way through them to consolidate your knowledge of this topic. You will first need to right-click on the following files and save them onto your PC:

cats.ppt

dogs.doc

figures.xls

Animation

Animation involves the putting together of a series of pictures, part-pictures, effects or other items in a way which simulates actual movement. Computerised animation is an effective element of many multimedia presentations, but it is important to remember not to overdo this. The amount and type of animation used should depend very much on the type of audience expected.

The image on this screen is an example of animation.

Different types of animation

If you go into PowerPoint’s Help facility and search for “animation”, you are likely to get different topics depending on which version of PowerPoint you are using. Try it and see.

Some of the options are:

animated images (as seen previously)
transitions (you are already able to carry these out)
animation effects

However, it is only too easy to overdo the animations, as you will see in the next activity.

Activity 11

Follow this link to open another version of a presentation you have come across earlier. (Force yourself to!!) take a good look at it, then try the following exercise.

QUESTION TextEntry1:

<title>Animation exercise</title>

<text>Well, wasn't that the most annoying presentation you've come across yet?! Try to key in some of the things you didn't like about it.</text>

<feedback>You may have come up with some of these criticisms:

- too many animated images on the one slide

- each slide has a different transition effect, so the whole thing lacks consistency

- far too many animated effects on individual elements of each slide

- so many animations that you lose track of what the presentation was actually about

- looks like an amateur production

</feedback>

</question>

Animation exercise

Activity 12

Create a 6-slide presentation on either a topic of your choice, or select from one of these options:

- College life (classes, social life, college facilities, career opportunities, etc)

- A summary of the work you have covered in a subject so far.

Try to build in several of the PowerPoint features which you have used so far – without overdoing animations!

Email your completed presentation to your tutor.

Delivering the presentation

OK, you’ve done the easy bit. You’ve had fun, experimented a bit with colours and graphics, and produced your presentation. What now?

When it comes to actually delivering the presentation, there’s a whole new set of rules, techniques etc which you must follow if you wish to get your points across effectively and keep the attention of the audience. We’ll have a look at the aids available to you through the software first.

Notes – creating

By now you should know that slides should be kept as simple as possible, and there should only be a small amount of text on each slide. The text should aim to get your main points across, so how on earth are you going to remember what you want to say to expand on each of them?

The answer is the Notes facility. The exact way you do this will vary with the version of PowerPoint you have. In XP, the following works –

With your presentation open in Normal View, you should see “Click to add notes” at the bottom of the slide.
Do this and key in whatever notes you like to help you remember what to say. Your audience will not see them; they are yours to act as a memory aid.
To print your notes, click on File/Print then select the Notes Pages as shown below.

Notes – using

With the notes printed, you can use them to help you, or to prompt your memory. They might be much more detailed than the slides, or they might just contain the main sub-points you wish to make about each slide point.

However, be careful – you mustn’t just read them all out to your audience or they will fall asleep! You must keep referring to what is on the screen in front of them, making sure they can see what main points you are referring to through your use of the notes.

Activity 13

Go back to your last presentation and add some notes to a couple of slides.

Handouts

You don’t want your audience to be frantically copying down the elements of your slides while you are speaking, so you need to consider giving them a handout of the whole presentation. You can give this to them at the beginning, so that they can write notes on it, or you might prefer if they concentrated on what you were saying during the event, and were given the handouts at the end to take away.

The handouts are extremely easy to produce – just click on File/Print and this time select Handouts rather than Notes Pages.

You can also select how many you want on each page (look at the screen shot below). If you want them to have room to write notes, 3 per page is the norm.

Saving as a PowerPoint show

You will be used to saving your presentations as normal .ppt files. This means, however, that when you deliver your presentation you will need to open your file, then select the slide show option before you can start.

There is an alternative – in addition to saving your file as you normally do, you can also save it as a PowerPoint show, which will have a .pps extension. This means that you will be able to open this file and the slide show version of your presentation appears immediately.

Activity 13

Try it – with your file open, all you do is Save As, and select the Save as type option of PowerPoint Show.

Now close your presentation, and open the .pps file instead. Your presentation should open immediately.

Navigating through your show

Take a moment to think about this topic, then try the following activity:

QUESTION TextEntry1:

<title>Activity 14</title>

<text>How would you expect to navigate your way through the show, ie going from slide to slide?</text>

<feedback>You are likely to have suggested one of the following:

- moving from slide to slide, or object to object, via mouse clicks

- moving via pre-set timings, ie the slides and objects appear themselves</feedback>

</question>

Navigation

Navigation options

During the actual delivery, it is often the case that you might wish to go back to a slide, or even go quickly back to the beginning. This is possible by using the mouse, but by right-clicking instead of the usual left-clicking.

If you run a slide show, then right-click, you will be presented with the following options:

You can select whichever option you prefer, eg you may wish to go back to a specific slide to emphasise a particular point you are making.

Pointer options

You might like also to experiment with the pointer options. Your normal “pointer” is the arrow, but you can opt to annotate your slide (temporarily) as you run through it. As you can see from the screen below, you can have different types and colours of pointers.

Once you select a pointer, you would run your show and use the pointer to demonstrate a point you wish to make, eg you might like to circle a word, or highlight it. You can then use the Eraser option to get rid of it, but you don’t need to, as any annotations you make will not be saved when the show finishes.

Activity 14

Try running your show and annotating a couple of slides by using one of the pointer options.

And finally …

So, by now you should have all the technical skills necessary to deliver your presentation. However, just before you go ahead with your first actual presentation, open the links to the websites below for some delivery tips – all of which are extremely important!

A Research Guide for Students – tips on speeches and public speaking

Effective Presentations – tips on presentations using slides (an excellent resource!)

Activity 15

Try the following summary activity to see if you have remembered the main tips from the last website.

QUESTION Gapfill1:

<title>Presentation Tips</title>

<text>Try to fill in the gaps in the following paragraph.</text>

<answer wordbank>Match the type of delivery to the type of <gap>audience</gap>. Make sure you use an appropriate <gap>facial expression</gap> to match each topic. Do not <gap>read</gap> directly from the slides. <gap>Speak</gap> slowly and clearly and <gap>vary</gap> your tone - a monotone is not pleasant to listen to! <gap>Pause</gap> where appropriate. The slides should proceed in a <gap>logical</gap> manner. Try to achieve a <gap>rapport</gap> with your audience - one way of doing this is to achieve <gap>eye contact</gap>. Consider the use of <gap>humour</gap> to liven the proceedings. Make sure you are able to deliver the presentation in the <gap>time</gap> allocated to you.</answer>

<feedback</feedback>

</question>

Presentation Tips

You have now completed the work for this topic.

Resources

Follow this link to open a list of resources for this topic.