After you might have read this article you will be proficient in MS PowerPoint by mastering how to use PowerPoint functions effectively in your working place.
Now, let's get started. Turn on your computer and open PowerPoint
In case you're using a computer in a lab or some computer other than your own, you should set the options to always show full menus, Show the Standard and formatting toolbars on two rows, List font names in their own font, and Show ScreenTips on toolbars.
Now, let's get started. Turn on your computer and open PowerPoint
Let’s see these ideas and others at work by looking at an example of a PowerPoint presentation.
Display the Full menus and shaping the Toolbars
In case you're using a computer in a lab or some computer other than your own, you should set the options to always show full menus, Show the Standard and formatting toolbars on two rows, List font names in their own font, and Show ScreenTips on toolbars.
You may recall doing this at the beginning of all the previous lessons. If the computer you're using doesn't already have these settings, here's what you do.
In the Tools menu, select Customize…, and in the dialog box that pops up, select the Options tab.
Make sure there is a check mark next to the item to always show full menus
While you're at it, check the box next to Show Standard and Formatting toolbars on two rows, List font names in their font, and Show ScreenTips on toolbars
Click the Close button when you're ready.
In the New Presentation Task Pane, click on Presentations
The New Presentation Task Pane
PowerPoint now presents you with the Open dialog box.
In the Open dialog box, locate on your PowerPoint disk the document Tudor Monarchs, then Open the document
Shows the Tudor Monarchs presentation in Normal View as it appears on your screen right after you open the document.
Tudor Monarchs presentation
Take a look at the Slide View tools in the lower left corner of the PowerPoint window.
You'll use these tools a lot while you're developing your slides, so let's get a close up view of them right away and find out what each of them is about.
The Slide View toolbar (annotated)
Normal view
This is the view you see illustrated in on the previous page. It is the one you'll use most of the time while you're actually putting information on each slide. In this view you have the left hand frame where you have the option to either see a thumbnail of all your slides or the outline for your presentation. In the center of the window you have the slide you are actually working on—the active slide.
Slide Sorter view
This is the view you see illustrated in Fig. 9.7 on the next page and it is the one you'll find most useful when you want to get an overview of your show since you'll be able to see most all your slides at once. You also can easily move your slides around, changing the order to suit your purposes.
This is why it's called the Slide Sorter view.
The Slide Sorter View of the Presentation
Slide Show view
When you click on this button, you'll be able to see how the slide you're actually working on (the current or active slide) looks when you run the slide show. You'll use this button when you've been working on a slide for a while and you want to see how it will look to your audience.
You'll find yourself using these tools frequently to switch from one view to another as you are developing your PowerPoint presentation. Let's check out the Slide Sorter view now.
Click on the Slide Sorter tool in the Slide View toolbar (you can also access these views from the View menu, by the way)
Take a look at the Slide Sorter View window that is presented to you now (more or less the same as on the previous page, though your screen may be a different width, so the slides may be arranged differently across the page).
The presentation you are looking at was created to demonstrate some of the basic features of PowerPoint. By the end of this lesson you will be able to build your own presentations along themovie clips, sound files, and so forth).
Inserting clip art and other media
Take a closer look at or in the Insert menu se5399232064181453lect Picture, to see what options are available to you in the Picture sub-menu for inserting images onto the slides in your presentation.
Note: In the Insert menu, the Movies and Sounds options, too
You can download clip art and other media from a file you have saved on disk, or you can bring onto a slide all kinds of charts and tables from other Office programs such as Word or Excel.
You can even scan pictures directly onto a slide, so if you have a scanner connected to your computer, you’re in business. If you’re looking for multimedia material to accompany your slides, today's online computer in general, and PowerPoint in particular, make this as easy as possible to do.
Buttons and Hidden Slides
Notice the use of buttons to allow the user control movement through the slides. There also is a Hidden Slide (slide #7) which is only seen if you click on the button to see the answer to the question posed on slide #6.
This shows you that you can create some very interesting interactive learning materials using PowerPoint.
Well, if you look at each of the slides above, you will see that there is a button which the user can click on to control when to proceed to the next slide. Thus, by allowing a generous amount of time, along with user control, you're allowing each individual the freedom to proceed at his or her own pace. The speed at which our minds absorb data varies enormously from person to person.
You always want to design teaching materials and lessons in such a way as to address individual student needs.
The last slide in any presentation, just as the last item in a term paper, should always be your list of sources cited or used.
The Acknowledgements slide
In the Slide View toolbar, click on the Slide Show button (or from the Slide Show menu, select View Show)
Now If you haven't already done so, click your way through the presentation now (you can click the left button on your mouse to do this, or hit the space bar, or use the arrow keys to go back and forth, or click on the Action Buttons on the slides themselves to proceed to the next or previous slide)
The slides have been timed to allow the user to easily view and read what is on each slide without feeling rushed. If you want the slides to proceed at a faster pace, simply click on the left mouse button or hit the space bar.
When you have finished reviewing the Tudor Monarchs slide show, exit the show by right clicking the mouse, then select the last menu item to End Show
Close the Tudor Monarchs presentation when you are ready to continue with the tutorial.
BUILDING THE PRESENTATION
Preparation of the outline
You are going to prepare a simple outline which will give you the experience to prepare your own outlines when you're done with the tutorials.
It's alluring to just barrel along into a presentation, like someone tempting fate at Niagara Falls! But you should resist doing so at all costs because you'll save yourself no end of time in the long run if you carefully plan what you want to do. You really have to think ahead if you want to get where you want to go. Otherwise, there's no telling where you'll end up!
To create an outline, here are the steps to follow.
From the File menu select new and in the New Presentation Task Pane, click on Blank Presentation
New Presentation Task Pane
When you first open a new, blank presentation in PowerPoint XP, the program presents you with the Normal View with the Slide Layout Task Pane on the right. The screen at the start of a new blank presentation
Take a close look at the various parts of this opening screen—be sure to read each of the annotations before moving on
As you can see, PowerPoint provides a lot of help while you're developing your presentation.
The first slide layout is the Title slide layout by default. This is because you would normally want to start out a presentation with a slide that displays the title of your show, along with sub titles such as your name and so forth. You don't have to use these slide layouts, of course. You can create slides from scratch, entirely of your own design, in which case you would select the blank slide layout, which is the first of the Content Layout slide templates.
Typing the outline entries
Right now you need the Outline view in the left hand pane, in order to start work on the outline. As you will see, the outline will be merged into the slide show with little effort on your part, thanks to PowerPoint’s slide layout features.
Click on the Outline tab at the top of the left hand pane
PowerPoint now presents the Outline view with a small slide icon in the top left corner, waiting for you to begin entering the text for your slides.
The Outline view in the left hand pane
Before you start, however, you should save the presentation with an appropriate name so that you can easily save your work as you go along. Remember, this is always a wise precaution. Giving a new document a name and saving it on your disk helps you to get into good habits about saving your work. You should teach your students to be equally careful when they are developing work on a computer.
Make sure you have your Data Disk in the drive, then from the File menu select Save As, call the document Screen beans, select the drive for your disk, and click on Save.
The outline for the Screen beans presentation
For the first slide, type the title No Problems, Only Solutions next to the first slide icon and hit enter
Now then. Notice that PowerPoint thinks you want a whole new slide (you can see a new slide icon next in the Outline). But you want to stay on the first slide because you need to put your name as a sub-title. To do this you need to switch levels in the Outline.
Switching levels in an Outline
Switching levels means moving up or down in the hierarchy of topics on each slide. For example, you might have a top level topic such as Disasters, then as sub topics you might have Earthquakes, followed by Volcanoes, followed by Forest Fire, and so forth. If you look at the second slide in the word Confusion is at the top level, then what immediately follows – indented - is lower level text A problem often presents itself etc. When you switch to the next level down (called demoting), the text is automatically indented to the right.
So, to conclude, moving the text to the left takes you up a level in an outline, which is called promoting. Moving the text to the right takes you down a level in an outline -called demoting.
Moving (demoting) text to a lower level
For the remaining slides you have to enter text not only for the Title of each slide at the top level, but also for the text placeholder This text will be at a lower level than the title. To change levels in an outline, PowerPoint provides outlining tools
The Outline Control tools
Here are the steps to display this Outlining toolbar on the left side of the window so you can easily get to it when you need to work on your outline.
In the View menu, select Toolbars and in the sub-menu select Outlining ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP:
Now, in the Outline Control tools Click on the second arrow down to demote to a lower level the next text that you’re going to type into the outline
Raising (promoting) text to a higher level
Look at your outline again and notice that the next entry you type will still be indented and bulleted on the same slide—slide #1. But you want to start a new slide in the Outline. To do this, you must switch levels again, this time promoting to a higher level.
Click on the top arrow in the Outline Control tools to promote the next text item to the top level for the 2nd slide
As you see, this takes you up one level. Now you are at Level 1 of your outline, still on the same line, but you’ll be working on a new slide—slide #2.
Type Confusion for the title of the second slide, then hit Enter
In the Outline Control tools (Fig. 9.15), click on the second arrow down to demote to a lower level the next text that you’re going to type into the outline
Type the lower level text for the second slide (A problem often…) from the illustration then hit Enter
That is all you need to do for the second slide for now. You will add pictures in a moment. But first you should complete the text outline. As you can see, you need to promote the next text item back to the top level for slide #3. You will use the Outline control tools once more.
You should be starting to get the hang of this by now, especially if you have already completed the eight preceding tutorials! Indeed, you should be starting to think of yourself as something of an expert with Microsoft Office in general, and with the various Office tools like PowerPoint in particular.
You should be starting to get the hang of this by now, especially if you have already completed the eight preceding tutorials! Indeed, you should be starting to think of yourself as something of an expert with Microsoft Office in general, and with the various Office tools like PowerPoint in particular.
So go ahead now and type the rest of the outline promoting and demoting the text levels as you go along
When you have typed the title and text entries for slide #9, be sure to save your work again with the document name Screen beans
Now, before you go on, in the left hand pane, click on the Slides tab so you can see the thumbnails of all your slides
Neat, huh? PowerPoint has selected the simple Title and Text slide layout since a title and some text is all you have on each slide thus far. But now you need to select a different slide layout for all the slides after the first slide because you are going to add a picture to each one.
Click on the thumbnail for Slide #2, then in the Format menu select Slide Layout…
In the Slide Layout Task Pane on the right of your screen, locate the Text and Content Layouts section of the Slide layouts
In the Text and Content Layouts, locate and double click on the layout for Title, Text, and Content
The Title, Text, and Content slide layout
The new layout lets you to put a title at the top of the slide, some clip art in the lower left placeholder, and text in the lower right placeholder.
In the New Presentation Task Pane, click on Presentations
The New Presentation Task Pane
PowerPoint now presents you with the Open dialog box.
In the Open dialog box, locate on your PowerPoint disk the document Tudor Monarchs, then Open the document
Shows the Tudor Monarchs presentation in Normal View as it appears on your screen right after you open the document.
Tudor Monarchs presentation
Take a look at the Slide View tools in the lower left corner of the PowerPoint window.
You'll use these tools a lot while you're developing your slides, so let's get a close up view of them right away and find out what each of them is about.
The Slide View toolbar (annotated)
Normal view
This is the view you see illustrated in on the previous page. It is the one you'll use most of the time while you're actually putting information on each slide. In this view you have the left hand frame where you have the option to either see a thumbnail of all your slides or the outline for your presentation. In the center of the window you have the slide you are actually working on—the active slide.
Slide Sorter view
This is the view you see illustrated in Fig. 9.7 on the next page and it is the one you'll find most useful when you want to get an overview of your show since you'll be able to see most all your slides at once. You also can easily move your slides around, changing the order to suit your purposes.
This is why it's called the Slide Sorter view.
The Slide Sorter View of the Presentation
Slide Show view
When you click on this button, you'll be able to see how the slide you're actually working on (the current or active slide) looks when you run the slide show. You'll use this button when you've been working on a slide for a while and you want to see how it will look to your audience.
You'll find yourself using these tools frequently to switch from one view to another as you are developing your PowerPoint presentation. Let's check out the Slide Sorter view now.
Click on the Slide Sorter tool in the Slide View toolbar (you can also access these views from the View menu, by the way)
Take a look at the Slide Sorter View window that is presented to you now (more or less the same as on the previous page, though your screen may be a different width, so the slides may be arranged differently across the page).
The presentation you are looking at was created to demonstrate some of the basic features of PowerPoint. By the end of this lesson you will be able to build your own presentations along themovie clips, sound files, and so forth).
Inserting clip art and other media
Take a closer look at or in the Insert menu se5399232064181453lect Picture, to see what options are available to you in the Picture sub-menu for inserting images onto the slides in your presentation.
Note: In the Insert menu, the Movies and Sounds options, too
You can download clip art and other media from a file you have saved on disk, or you can bring onto a slide all kinds of charts and tables from other Office programs such as Word or Excel.
You can even scan pictures directly onto a slide, so if you have a scanner connected to your computer, you’re in business. If you’re looking for multimedia material to accompany your slides, today's online computer in general, and PowerPoint in particular, make this as easy as possible to do.
Buttons and Hidden Slides
Notice the use of buttons to allow the user control movement through the slides. There also is a Hidden Slide (slide #7) which is only seen if you click on the button to see the answer to the question posed on slide #6.
This shows you that you can create some very interesting interactive learning materials using PowerPoint.
Well, if you look at each of the slides above, you will see that there is a button which the user can click on to control when to proceed to the next slide. Thus, by allowing a generous amount of time, along with user control, you're allowing each individual the freedom to proceed at his or her own pace. The speed at which our minds absorb data varies enormously from person to person.
You always want to design teaching materials and lessons in such a way as to address individual student needs.
The last slide in any presentation, just as the last item in a term paper, should always be your list of sources cited or used.
The Acknowledgements slide
In the Slide View toolbar, click on the Slide Show button (or from the Slide Show menu, select View Show)
Now If you haven't already done so, click your way through the presentation now (you can click the left button on your mouse to do this, or hit the space bar, or use the arrow keys to go back and forth, or click on the Action Buttons on the slides themselves to proceed to the next or previous slide)
The slides have been timed to allow the user to easily view and read what is on each slide without feeling rushed. If you want the slides to proceed at a faster pace, simply click on the left mouse button or hit the space bar.
When you have finished reviewing the Tudor Monarchs slide show, exit the show by right clicking the mouse, then select the last menu item to End Show
Close the Tudor Monarchs presentation when you are ready to continue with the tutorial.
BUILDING THE PRESENTATION
Preparation of the outline
You are going to prepare a simple outline which will give you the experience to prepare your own outlines when you're done with the tutorials.
It's alluring to just barrel along into a presentation, like someone tempting fate at Niagara Falls! But you should resist doing so at all costs because you'll save yourself no end of time in the long run if you carefully plan what you want to do. You really have to think ahead if you want to get where you want to go. Otherwise, there's no telling where you'll end up!
To create an outline, here are the steps to follow.
From the File menu select new and in the New Presentation Task Pane, click on Blank Presentation
New Presentation Task Pane
When you first open a new, blank presentation in PowerPoint XP, the program presents you with the Normal View with the Slide Layout Task Pane on the right. The screen at the start of a new blank presentation
Take a close look at the various parts of this opening screen—be sure to read each of the annotations before moving on
As you can see, PowerPoint provides a lot of help while you're developing your presentation.
The first slide layout is the Title slide layout by default. This is because you would normally want to start out a presentation with a slide that displays the title of your show, along with sub titles such as your name and so forth. You don't have to use these slide layouts, of course. You can create slides from scratch, entirely of your own design, in which case you would select the blank slide layout, which is the first of the Content Layout slide templates.
Typing the outline entries
Right now you need the Outline view in the left hand pane, in order to start work on the outline. As you will see, the outline will be merged into the slide show with little effort on your part, thanks to PowerPoint’s slide layout features.
Click on the Outline tab at the top of the left hand pane
PowerPoint now presents the Outline view with a small slide icon in the top left corner, waiting for you to begin entering the text for your slides.
The Outline view in the left hand pane
Before you start, however, you should save the presentation with an appropriate name so that you can easily save your work as you go along. Remember, this is always a wise precaution. Giving a new document a name and saving it on your disk helps you to get into good habits about saving your work. You should teach your students to be equally careful when they are developing work on a computer.
Make sure you have your Data Disk in the drive, then from the File menu select Save As, call the document Screen beans, select the drive for your disk, and click on Save.
The outline for the Screen beans presentation
For the first slide, type the title No Problems, Only Solutions next to the first slide icon and hit enter
Now then. Notice that PowerPoint thinks you want a whole new slide (you can see a new slide icon next in the Outline). But you want to stay on the first slide because you need to put your name as a sub-title. To do this you need to switch levels in the Outline.
Switching levels in an Outline
Switching levels means moving up or down in the hierarchy of topics on each slide. For example, you might have a top level topic such as Disasters, then as sub topics you might have Earthquakes, followed by Volcanoes, followed by Forest Fire, and so forth. If you look at the second slide in the word Confusion is at the top level, then what immediately follows – indented - is lower level text A problem often presents itself etc. When you switch to the next level down (called demoting), the text is automatically indented to the right.
So, to conclude, moving the text to the left takes you up a level in an outline, which is called promoting. Moving the text to the right takes you down a level in an outline -called demoting.
Moving (demoting) text to a lower level
For the remaining slides you have to enter text not only for the Title of each slide at the top level, but also for the text placeholder This text will be at a lower level than the title. To change levels in an outline, PowerPoint provides outlining tools
The Outline Control tools
Here are the steps to display this Outlining toolbar on the left side of the window so you can easily get to it when you need to work on your outline.
In the View menu, select Toolbars and in the sub-menu select Outlining ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP:
Now, in the Outline Control tools Click on the second arrow down to demote to a lower level the next text that you’re going to type into the outline
Raising (promoting) text to a higher level
Look at your outline again and notice that the next entry you type will still be indented and bulleted on the same slide—slide #1. But you want to start a new slide in the Outline. To do this, you must switch levels again, this time promoting to a higher level.
Click on the top arrow in the Outline Control tools to promote the next text item to the top level for the 2nd slide
As you see, this takes you up one level. Now you are at Level 1 of your outline, still on the same line, but you’ll be working on a new slide—slide #2.
Type Confusion for the title of the second slide, then hit Enter
In the Outline Control tools (Fig. 9.15), click on the second arrow down to demote to a lower level the next text that you’re going to type into the outline
Type the lower level text for the second slide (A problem often…) from the illustration then hit Enter
That is all you need to do for the second slide for now. You will add pictures in a moment. But first you should complete the text outline. As you can see, you need to promote the next text item back to the top level for slide #3. You will use the Outline control tools once more.
You should be starting to get the hang of this by now, especially if you have already completed the eight preceding tutorials! Indeed, you should be starting to think of yourself as something of an expert with Microsoft Office in general, and with the various Office tools like PowerPoint in particular.
You should be starting to get the hang of this by now, especially if you have already completed the eight preceding tutorials! Indeed, you should be starting to think of yourself as something of an expert with Microsoft Office in general, and with the various Office tools like PowerPoint in particular.
So go ahead now and type the rest of the outline promoting and demoting the text levels as you go along
When you have typed the title and text entries for slide #9, be sure to save your work again with the document name Screen beans
Now, before you go on, in the left hand pane, click on the Slides tab so you can see the thumbnails of all your slides
Neat, huh? PowerPoint has selected the simple Title and Text slide layout since a title and some text is all you have on each slide thus far. But now you need to select a different slide layout for all the slides after the first slide because you are going to add a picture to each one.
Click on the thumbnail for Slide #2, then in the Format menu select Slide Layout…
In the Slide Layout Task Pane on the right of your screen, locate the Text and Content Layouts section of the Slide layouts
In the Text and Content Layouts, locate and double click on the layout for Title, Text, and Content
The Title, Text, and Content slide layout
The new layout lets you to put a title at the top of the slide, some clip art in the lower left placeholder, and text in the lower right placeholder.