Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint

What is PowerPoint?

PowerPoint is a complete presentation graphics package. It gives you everything you need to produce a professional-looking presentation. PowerPoint offers word processing, outlining, drawing, graphing, and presentation management tools- all designed to be easy to use and learn.
The following gives you a quick overview of what you can do in PowerPoint:

When you create a presentation using PowerPoint, the presentation is made up of a series of slides. The slides that you create using PowerPoint can also be presented as overhead transparencies or 35mm slides.

In addition to slides, you can print audience handouts, outlines, and speaker's notes.

You can format all the slides in a presentation using the powerful Slide Master which will be covered in the tutorial.

You can keep your entire presentation in a single file- all your slides, speaker's notes, and audience handouts.

You can import what you have created in other Microsoft products, such as Word and Excel into any of your slides.

Now that you know what features PowerPoint offers it's time to learn how to work in PowerPoint.

Getting Started and Working in PowerPoint

This tutorial is unlike the others you have seen in class. The PowerPoint tutorial will be text based. To get the most out of this tutorial it is best to run PowerPoint, so that you can experiment with the concepts that are mentioned in the tutorial.
Find and open PowerPoint.
When the Tip of the day dialog box appears,
Read it and click on the OK button.
The following PowerPoint dialog box should appear, asking you how you want to create your new presentation.

Here is a brief description of the options under the Create a New Presentation Using title.

AutoContent Wizard- takes you through the creation of a simple presentation step by step.

Pick a Look Wizard- this wizard helps you make choices on how your presentation will look.

Template- PowerPoint provides 160 templates that you can choose from. The templates are created by professional artists and offer design choices in black and white as well as in color.

Blank Presentation- this option allows you to select slides and format them individually.

Select Blank Presentation and click on the OK button.
In the New Slide dialog box select the Title Slide option.
Your screen should look as follows:

This is your title slide you can enter the title and sub-title here. Note that if your toolbars are not visible, choose Toolbars from the View menu and make your selections.
Experiment with your title slide by entering in text, changing the color of the text, changing the font size etc.
Now that you have been introduced to a slide, it is time to learn about PowerPoint's different Views.

Understanding PowerPoint Views

PowerPoint gives you four views in which you create and organize your presentation. As you create a presentation, you can switch among the four views as you work.
The four PowerPoint views are:
Slide View-
To be in Slide view you click on the following button located in the bottom-left hand corner of any slide: ().
The Slide view shows a single slide. In Slide view, you work on one slide at at time. Here, you can type your slide title and body, add other text to the slide, draw shapes, add clip art, choose a color scheme, make a graph, etc. In Slide view, you have access to all the tools on the Tool Palette as well as buttons on the Toolbar.
Outline View-
To be in Outline view you click on the following button located in the bottom-left hand corner of any slide: ().
The Outline view shows all the titles and body text in your presentation. In Outline view, you can move slides around within your presentation and also edit your text.
Click on the Outline view button (), to view your title slide in this view.
Slide Sorter View-
To be in Slide Sorter view you click on the following button located in the bottom-left hand corner of any slide: ().
The Slide Sorter view shows you a minature of each slide in your presentation. You can drag slides around on the screen to reposition them in this view. You can also select and copy multiple slides should you want to use them in other presentations.
Click on the Slide Sorter view button (), to view your title slide in this view.
Notes View-
To be in Notes view you click on the following button located in the bottom-left hand corner of any slide: ().
The Notes view lets you create speaker's notes. Each page corresponds to a slide in your presentation and includes a reduce image of the slide. You can draw and type in Notes view the way you can in Slide View.
Click on the Notes view button (), to view your title slide in this view.
You now know all of PowerPoint's views. There is one more button located in the bottom- left hand corner of any slide:(). This is the Slide Show button. The Slide Show button runs a slide show starting from the currently selected slide.
Now that you know all of PowerPoint's views it is time to learn how to work within a slide. In general, presentations will be based on a Master Slide. The next topic in the tutorial will focus on understanding PowerPoint Masters.

Understanding PowerPoint Slide Masters and Templates

Slide Masters

A PowerPointSlide Master contains objects that you want to appear on each slide in your presentation. With a Slide Master, you only have to create an item once and PowerPoint will automatically include them on every slide. Some things are set up by PowerPoint (for example; place for slide title and text) so you don't have to create them each time. If you want to add additional items to a master, you can at any time. The Slide Master has boxes already set up for the slide title and text. They're called the Master Title and the Master Body object. The format of these objects determines the way your text will look on each slide. You can always make slides look different from the Slide Master, but a Slide Master gives you a consistent starting point.
The Slide Master is flexible. You can move objects around, add art, add headings or labels, change colors and fonts.
As you create a slide, you have the option of using or not using the elements from the Slide Master. To change the entire presentation, you simply change the format of the Slide Master. PowerPoint will then change all your slides accordingly.

PowerPoint Templates

PowerPoint also offers templates. A template is a presentation containing PowerPoint masters and a color scheme. PowerPoint offers 160 pre-designed templates to help you get started quickly. Applying a template to a presentation you are creating means the design work is already done for you.
You can apply a template when you are just starting a presentation, or you can create a presentation and apply the template later.
Now that you have learned about PowerPoint masters and templates it is time to learn create a slide.

Creating a Master Slide

With PowerPoint running, choose Master from the View menu, then select Slide Master from the Master submenu.
This is your slide master. Let's start with formatting the Master title style.
Click on the Title Area for AutoLayouts.
Choose Font from the Format menu, and change the font style, color, and size of the text.
This formatting will be the same on each new slides Title Area .

To observe this,
Click on the New Slide button () located in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Choose a slide that contains a title area.
Click in the title area of your new slide and type some text.

The text format should duplicate that of the Master Slide.
Let's format the bullets that will appear on each slide, by formatting them on the Master Slide.
Choose Slide Master from the View menu.
Highlight the first line of text in the Object Area for Autolayouts.
Choose Bullet from the format menu and pick a different style bullet.
You now know how to format items on the Master Slide.
In addition to formatting text and bullets you can also format the following:

Slide Background

Slide ColorScheme

Experiment with these on your own.
PowerPoint also has a number of features you can use to display your slides when you are giving a slide show. This will be the last topic covered in this tutorial.

Transitions and Build Slides

When you display your presentation electronically as a slide show, the slides take up the full screen. All the tools, menus, and other screen elements are hidden so as not to detract from your show. Your computer becomes the equivalent of a slide projector.
PowerPoint offers a number of features you can use when you run your slide show:

You can use special effects, such as transitions and builds, to add variety.

You can practice giving your presentation and set automated timings for your slides to match your rehearsal times.

In this part of the tutorial we will discuss transitions and builds.

Build Slide

A build slide is a slide that starts with the first major bullet point and shows more major bullet points as the presentation proceeds. You decide whether you want to dim previous points on the slide as new points appear and what effect you want to use when the bullet points appear (for instance, bullet points can fly in from the right, left, top, or bottom).
Transitions

Transititions moves one slide off the screen and brings the next one on. Fading from black and dissolving from one slide to another are two examples of transitions. You have a choice of transitions for each slide, plus you can vary the speed of each transition.

Adding Transitions to Your Slide Show

A transition refers to the way one slide moves off the screen and the next slide appears. When you set your transitions, you can also set how long you want each slide to appear on the screen.
To set transitions and timing:
Choose Transition from the Tools menu.
Choose the transition from the drop-down list.
Click how fast you want the transition to take place- Slow, Medium, or Fast.
Decide how you want to advance to the next slide and, if need be, set the timing.
If you want the slide to advance automatically, you need to decide how long the slide should appear on-screen before advancing to the next slide:
Only on Mouse Click- The slide advances manually with a mouse click.
Automatically After [N] Seconds- Type the number of seconds you want the slide on the screen. During the presentation, the slide advances automatically when the time is up.
Click the OK button.

Creating a Build Slide

A build slide is one that seems to build on itself, showing progressively more information as the presentation proceeds.
To create a build slide:
To start you must have a slide which contains bullets.
Choose Build from the Tools menu.
Choose the options you want to use in building the slide.
Click on the OK button.
You have successfully completed the PowerPoint tutorial!

Description: Listed below are many common tasks that you would use while working in PowerPoint. To find out how to perform these tasks click on the appropriate link below and it will guide you in a step by step fashion by providing detailed directions and screen shots to visually assist you.

Starting From Scratch One way to start your presentation is to start from scratch. In this way you are starting out with a blank presentation. You can then design your own background choices. You would not be using a template design. To start a presentation from scratch follow these steps:

Open up PowerPoint.

A PowerPoint dialog box will open.

Click on the radio button that says blank presentation.

Click OK.

Your new presentation will open. Choose your slide layout and click OK.

You can now start working on your presentation or start designing the background that you would like to use for this show.

Open Existing Presentations To continue working on a previous presentation you would have to open that file instead of starting a new one. To open up an existing file follow these steps:

Open up PowerPoint.

A PowerPoint dialog box will open.

Click on the radio button existing presentation.

If your presentation is listed in the box you can just double click on it to open it up. If they don't show up in the box just leave more files selected and click on OK.

The Open dialog box would then open. Choose your file and click on Open.

You can then continue working on your file.

Using A Template You can use the built in templates that PowerPoint provides to begin your presentation. In this way you will have a consistent design that goes together. The template will include your background as well as font styles, colors and sizes for your placeholders, as well as selected bullets that match the template. There are many templates built in and you can choose the one that best suits your needs. To begin your presentation using a template follow these steps: Open up PowerPoint. A PowerPoint dialog box will open. Analiza: Utilizarea programului Microsoft Office EXCEL: Foaia de lucru in EXCEL, introducerea datelor Proiect: Macrocomenzi - rularea si editarea unei macrocomenzi Click on the radio button that says Design Template. Click OK. The new presentation dialog box will open. You can click on the different file names for the template designs and you will see a preview window that displays what the template looks like. You can look under the Presentation tab, Presentation Designs tab as well as Design Templates tab. If you previously had Office 97 you may have an Office 97 templates tab that you can look through as well. Double click on the design that you like and your presentation will open with that template choice.

Adding New Slides While working on your presentation you will often need to add new slides. To add a new slide to your presentation follow these steps:

While in slide view or normal view click on the new slide icon from the standard toolbar.

or

Go to Insert on the menu bar and choose new slide or click on Control + M. You can also click on the drop down from the common tasks menu bar found on the formatting toolbar and choose new slide.

The Slide layout dialog box will open.

Choose the slide layout that best fits the slide you are adding.

Click on OK.

Your new slide will be added.

PowerPoint Views There are six different views found in PowerPoint. The default is the Normal view. The six views and what they are best used for are show below.

To change your views follow these steps:

Click on the view button on the bottom left hand side of the PowerPoint screen.

or

Go to View on the menu bar and choose the best view to suit your needs.

Deleting Slides There are a few ways to delete slides. If you want to delete one slide and you are in normal or slide view follow these steps:

With the slide open go to Edit on the menu bar and choose delete slide.

If you have a few slides to delete then you may be better off to delete them in slide sorter view. Get in slide sorter view and follow these steps:

Click on the slide you want to delete and hold the shift key down while you click on the other slides you want to delete. 

Click on the delete or backspace key and the slides will be deleted.

Moving Slides You may find that as you or your students are working on your presentation you may need to move the slide order around. To best do this you should be in the slide sorter view. Once in that view follow these steps:

Click on the slide that you want to move and hold the mouse button down while you move the slide to the desired location. You will see a vertical bar as you move the slides. When the bar is in front of the slide where you want to position your slide release the mouse button and the slides will be moved to the new position.

Working With Text

Adding Textboxes One way to add text to your slide is to add a text box. You will then have to format the text to the desired type. To add a text box follow these steps:

Click on the text box icon found on the drawing toolbar.

Click and drag the box in the desired location.

Type your text.

Click outside of the box and the lines will disappear.

To edit the text just click inside the box and make your corrections just as you would with a word processor.

Adding Placeholders A quick way to add your text and have it automatically formatted is to add a placeholder. These work great for your titles and subtitles. That way each slide will have a consistency in formatting. To add a placeholder follow these steps:

Click on the down arrow for Common Tasks and choose Slide layout. You can also right click on your slide and choose slide layout.

Click on Apply or Reapply.

The placeholder will appear. Click inside and start typing. The placeholder's formatting is preset if you are using a design template. 

Working With Graphics

Adding Images From File You can add your own images that you have saved or have access to. To add images from file follow these steps:

In slide view go to Insert on the menu bar and then Picture and click on From File.

Choose the picture that you have saved.

Click on Insert.

You can then resize your image if you need to and move it to the appropriate location.

Adding Animated Gifs One way to spruce up your presentations is to add animated gifs. This is new to PowerPoint 2000. Animated gifs did not work in previous versions. Adding this type of file is really no different than adding an image. You will not see the animation while in the regular view. You have to be in the slide show to see them. 

Go to Insert on the menu bar and choose clipart if you want to find animated gifs that are in the Clip Gallery. They are listed under the motion tab. You can also choose from file and find your own animated gif.

Get into the slide show view and you can see what the animation will look like. 

Adding Animations You can take any of the images in your presentation and animate them. That is what really brings your presentation to life. There are many different types of animations to choose from. To animate an image follow these steps:

Right click on your image and choose custom animation or click on your image and go to Slide Show form the menu bar and choose custom animation.

Click on the down arrow next to entry animation and sound. Choose one of the animation types. Another drop down may become active where you can further define the action the image will take.

Click on the order and timing tab. 

Leave on mouse click if you want to click to have your animation occur or click on the radio button for automatically and put in the number of seconds you want to wait before the action occurs.

Click on OK.

Get into the Slide Show mode and check out your animation.

Finishing Up

Spelling One very important step in working with PowerPoint is to make sure you perform a spell check on your presentation. You should also proofread it as well. It can be quite embarrassing to find mistakes while you are presenting. To run a spell check follow these steps:

With your presentation open click on the spelling icon from the standard toolbar.

You can also go to Tools Spelling or hit F7. A spell check will be run on your show.

When typing in PowerPoint if you get a red squiggly line under your text that is an indication that your word may be incorrectly spelled. You can right click on the word and choose one of the words listed or choose ignore if the word was spelled correctly.

Running The Show To run your show,  check it out, or when it is for the real presentation follow these steps:

If you want to start at the beginning of your presentation then go to Slide Show from the menu bar and choose View Show or hit F5.

If you want to begin looking at your show starting at the slide you currently have open in normal or slide view then click on the slide show icon from the  views icon.

Saving You should periodically save your show as you are working. I like to start out by saving my show and then hitting the save icon every 5 or ten minutes as I work. To save your presentation follow these steps:

If it is the first time you are saving your show go to File on the menu bar and choose Save As.

Choose the location for saving your file and give your file a name.

Click on Save.

If you have saved your show before you can click on the save icon from the standard toolbar of to to File Save.

Saving As A Web Page One really cool thing you can do with your PowerPoint files is to post them on the web. The process with which the program is able to keep the integrity of the show and change it to html code it amazing. The shows look great online. You can bring your presentation with you by just having Internet Access. You can also post your presentations so students and parents can have access to them anytime, anywhere. To saver your show as a web page follow these steps:

Open up your presentation.

Go to File on the menu bar and choose Save As A Web Page.

The Save As dialog box will open.

Click on the down arrow next to Save in and point to the area of your web server where you have access.

Click on the Publish button.

The Publish as a Web Page dialog box will open.

This is where you will make selections customizing how your presentation will be displayed. Under Publish What complete presentation if you want to publish all or choose the slides you want to publish. Leave the check next to display speaker notes if you want them to be available.

Under Browser Support make the choice of Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later ( high fidelity) if you want your presentation to be viewed only in Internet Explorer. This takes full advantage of the presentation and allows you to view in full screen. This method of saving looks the best.

Down under file name type in the path where you want to save (on your web server) or click on the Browse button to browse to it.

Click on the Web Options button.

The web options dialog box opens.

Click on the drop down next to the Colors box and choose the colors you want for the text with and background of the Outline.

Make your choice of options under the tabs presented in the Web Options dialog box. (I typically leave the defaults set).

Click on OK.

Click on Publish.

Once you save this it created two files. If you called your show summerday then after saving the file you would have created a folder called summerday_files and an htm file called summerday.htm. If you are using FrontPage you can import these files into your web. Create a link to the summerday.htm file. When your visitors click on this link it will open up the PowerPoint show.

Your show should open up in a browser to show you what it would look like.

Printing You can print out your presentation in different format. All of the variations of the printing types can be found in the print dialog box. Listed in the table below are the types of printing you can do. To print your presentation follow these steps: Go to File on the menu bar and choose Print. The Print dialog box will appear. It may look different than the one displayed here. The dialog box varies depending on your particular type of printer. You should have basically the same options however. Choose what you want to print, all slides, particular slides, or the current slide. Enter the number of copies you want to print. Check if you want them collated. Choose what you want to print: slides, handouts, notes pages, or outline view. Click on OK. Printing Choices Slides Prints out each slide on a full page. Handouts Here you have choices for 2,3,4,6,or 9 slides per page. If you choose 3 then your slides will also have lines to the write for note taking purposes. You also have a choice to order then on the page horizontally or vertically. Note Pages Prints out one small version of each slide per page with your notes section on the bottom of the page. Outline View Prints out the outline view of your presentation.