Working with PowerPoint Presentations
By Joe Polgrabia
Introduction
PowerPoint is a media slideshow presentation tool design to assist presenter by
adding colour and animation to the information presented. The user designs the
presentation by composing slides and choreographing the presentation to match
the information. This powerful tool allows for both timed automatic play and user
initiated slide and animation to suit the comfort and control level of the user. Slide
design is fairly simple if you are used to other Microsoft Office products such as
Word and Excel. To assist the user in the design process are the menu items,
tool bars, slide and note views, and the task pane. Each slide is presented in the
center of the screen for you to edit. You can view your slideshow while you work
on it and package it and send it to people who don’t have PowerPoint using the
Pack and Go feature. There is also a dizzying array of pre made colour schemes
and design templates for slides and animation. These are a great start but should
you choose to be different you can alter and edit the slides and animations to
make them just right.
PowerPoint is an office product and it is designed to work with other office
products. You will see how it is possible to import graphs and charts from Excel
and change them in both programs at the same time! You will also be able to
import sound pictures and movies to assist you in your full multimedia
presentation.
First you will go through the program to see the many useful features. Then
some examples are given later to so you can see how these tools are used.
Slide Edit View
The slide layout area is the main center portion of the screen and it is where you
will edit the slides. The edit area shows the information and graphic boundaries
so that you can visually proportion the slide. This is not how the slide will look
when presented. On viewing the slideshow the rectangles and grids you see on
the slide will be invisible. Here you can see the areas on the title slide. The
rectangle in the middle of the screen surrounding “Click to add title” and the
rectangle on the bottom surrounding “Click to add subtitle” are called text. These
boxes denote the areas in which you can add text. There are other boxes that
are similar but they denote the areas in which you can add media such as
pictures, movies, flow charts, diagrams and graphs. You will learn more about
layouts in the slide layout view of the task pane.
Menus
The menus for PowerPoint will navigate you to all of the tools and views of the
program.
File
The file menu allows you to start a new presentation
with the “New” menu item. It starts the presentation
building with a list of options. You can choose a black
presentation or you can choose from templates that are
provided for you.
The “Open” menu item brings up a file open box that
allows you to open an edit a PowerPoint presentation
that has been previously saved.
The “Close” menu item allows you close the current
presentation in that win down. If you are working on
only one presentation it will close that presentation and
the program will continue to run.
The “Save” menu item will bring up a “Save As” box
that will only appear when the presentation is being saved for the first time. You
will be asked to name the file and select the location in which you wish to save it.
Every time after, the save will simply update the file and you not have to select a
name or location.
The “Save As” menu item allows the user to edit an existing presentation and
save the edited version of the file as a new file. This keeps the original
presentation intact. The operation of the “Save As” is the same as the first use of
the “Save” with the “Save As” box asking for a filename and location.
The “Save as Web Page” menu Item will take the current slide and turn it into an
HTML (hypertext multilink) file or a MHTML (Microsoft hypertext multilink) file that
is viewable in a web browser such as Internet Explorer.
The “Search” menu item will allow you to search for text from with in the
presentation to anywhere in the entire computer to find where you put that
phrase you thought would be really good in the presentation.
The “Pack and Go” menu item starts a wizard that takes your completed
presentation and places it in a self executing file that also contains a PowerPoint
viewer so you can send the presentation to any machine even if they do not have
PowerPoint installed.
The “Web Page Preview” shows the user what the slide would look like as a web
page. The conversion of a slide to a web page does not always turn out the
same. It is always good to preview your work first.
The “Page Setup” allows the user to decide the orientation of the slide and the
format the presentation is for including printed versions.
The “Print Preview” is an onscreen look at what the printed copy will look like.
The “Print” menu item allows you to select printer options and print the current
slide or the entire presentation.
The “Send To” menu item is a quick and easy way to move your file to a new
location or to send it to someone.
The “Properties” menu item shows the user information on when the presentation
was created and by whom along with other file and presentation specific
information.
The “Exit” menu item exits the program.
Edit
The “Undo” and “Repeat” items are very handy when
editing a slide. “Undo” will allow you to undo the last
action taken during the session. “Repeat” will allow
you to repeat the last action or undo the undo.
The “Cut” menu item will allow you to cut the
highlighted or selected item and post it on the clip
board. This removes the item from that area.
The “Copy” menu item will allow you to copy the
highlighted or selected item and post it on the clip
board without removing it from the selected area.
The “Office Clipboard” will show you the items you
have recently copied or cut.
The “Paste” menu item will allow you to copy an item
from the clip board and paste it into a selected are of
the presentation.
The “Paste Special” menu item will allow the user to paste an item with special
properties such as a graph that is linked to an excel document or text without the
original formatting.
The “Paste as Hyperlink” allow you to paste the item with a hyperlink. If you click
on the item it will take you to a web page. You will be asked to put the address of
the page you wish to link to.
The “Clear” menu item will delete the selected item or clear an area.
The “Select All” will select and highlight everything on a slide.
The “Duplicate” item duplicates slides. You select the slide then duplicate it.
The “Delete Slide” deletes the selected slide.
The “Find” menu item allows you to quickly find certain text within a presentation.
The “Replace” menu item allows you to repeatedly find and replace certain text
within a presentation.
The “Go to Property” menu item allows you to edit the properties of an object you
have placed in your presentation. This is for more advanced uses of PowerPoint.
The “Object” menu item allows the user to import and alter objects placed in the
presentation and is intended for more advanced users and programmers.
View
The “Normal” menu item allows you to view the slides
one at a time for editing.
The “Slide Sorter” menu item allows the user to view
the slide show in a thumbnail format and move slide
around in different order of presentation.
The “Slide Show” item starts and runs the slideshow.
The “Notes” page allows you to store and print the
information you will be discussing about each slide
and help to keep the presentation organized by
matching the information to the slide.
The “Master” item allows you to see the template the
slides are based on and how the will present the
information you will put into them.
The “Color/Grayscale” allows the user to view the presentation in different
formats to see how it will photocopy after printing.
The “Task Pane” menu item will allow you to view the task pane that appears on
the right hand side of the window to perform various tasks.
The “Ruler” item shows vertical and horizontal increments for positioning
graphics and text on slides.
The “Grid and Guides” item gives a grid overlay to the slide for positioning and
allows you to position boundaries for these items with the guides.
“Header and Footer” allows the addition of head and foot note information to be
added to the slide for reference.
The “Mark Up” will allow the user to see the mark up language used to format the
text in the presentation. This usage is similar to MS Word.
The “Zoom” menu item will allow you to have a larger, closer view of the slide.
The user can zoom in and out of the slide.
Insert
The “New Slide” menu item will allow you to insert a
new slide into the presentation after the currently
selected slide.
The “Duplicate Slide” item will allow you to entirely
duplicate the selected slide.
The “Slide Number” will place the number of the slide
on the slide in the order you have placed the slide.
The “Date and Time” item will place the date and time
on the slide and will update to be current.
The “Symbol” item is used for macros and
programming to define text or an object.
The “Comment” allow you to put notes on the slide for
the use of editing. This is useful when there are many
people working on the presentation.
The “Slides from File” allow you to insert slides from a previously saved
presentation.
The “Slides from Outline” allow you to insert slides from a previously saved
presentation outline.
The “Picture” item allows you to insert pictures, diagrams, clip art and other
formats from file or from other sources such as cameras and scanners.
The “Diagram” item allows you to insert and edit flow charts, organizational
diagrams and more.
The “Text Box” item allows you to place a bounded text box that you type text
into on the slide.
The “Movies and Sound” item allows the user top insert movies and sound in
various different formats into your presentation. This is done mostly from files you
already have.
“Charts” allows you to create and edit charts using an excel chart object.
“Tables” allow you to define and create tables for your presentation.
“Objects” are for higher level programming and macros.
“Hyperlinks” are for web pages.
Format
The “Font” menu item allows you to select the font, font
style (i.e. bold, italic, underline…), font size and colour.
The “ Bullets and Numbering” item allows you to adjust
the type of bullets and numbers used. The shape of a
bullet could be that important touch you were looking
for.
The “Alignment” item and sub menu allows you to
justify your text and media left, right, center and in
block.
The “Line Spacing” item allows you to arrange your text
in single double or other line distribution. You can also
use the points feature if you like finer resolution to
adjust for other media.
The “Change Case” item allows you to quickly change the case of selected text
to sentence (default in main media area), upper, lower, title and toggle.
The “Replace Fonts” selection changes the all of one specific font selection to
another. If you have used a different font for emphasis this allows you to change
all the text in that font. It will not affect the other text.
The “Slide Design” selection opens the slide design section of the task pane on
the right hand side of the design area. It allows you to change the background,
colour scheme, and animation scheme of the slide or the entire slide show. There
is more detail given in the task pane section of this document.
The “Slide Layout” section opens the task pane for you to select the type of
media and the orientation of the media on the slide. There is more detail given in
the task pane section of this document.
“Background” allows you to change the background colour of the slide only. This
does not change the background graphics chosen in the slide design.
The “Placeholder” or “Object” item is for programming and Macro use.
Tools
The “Spelling” feature performs a full check of
spelling throughout the entire presentation.
The “Language” feature allows you to mark
words that are from different languages. If the
system has the language dictionary installed it
will check the spelling of that word in a specific
language.
The “Speech” feature is a common component in
the MS Office suit that allows the user to dictate
the text into the computer rather than type. This
is done using a microphone plugged into your
computer and may not be available on some
installations of Office.
The “Compare and Merge” presentations
feature allows multiple people to edit the presentation then compare the different
versions to review, add and delete slides and slide information. This allows you
to keep track of the information in the presentation and revisions since the
creation of the presentation.
The “Online Collaboration” feature is for working in groups on a presentation over
a network. The Internet being the largest network of all networks, you can meet
with your team online and work on the presentation. You can schedule meetings
and you can post information for others too see.
The “Meeting Minder” allows you to keep the minutes of the meeting and record
the actions decided on in the action items section.
The “Tools on the Web” feature allows you to access add on items from the
Microsoft web support sites.
“Macros” are more advanced features of the power point program than allow you
to record repetitive actions and automatically repeat these actions when they are
called on.
The “Add Inn” feature allows you to plug in functionality. This is where you will
put the items taken from the Microsoft website.
The “Autocorrect” feature allows you to alter the spelling auto correction if you so
desire. This is useful when using unusual or special words that resemble
common spelling mistakes.
The “Customize” feature allows you to setup the program that best suits you.
The “Options” feature allows you to alter the default configuration options that are
stored in the program. These options include security, printing, etc…This helps
you to fine tune your working environment.
Slideshow
The “View Show” feature initiates the slide show.
The “Set Up Show” feature allows you to set up for
specific show types and options. You can adjust the
screen resolution for pictures and multiple monitors if
present.
The “Rehearse Timing” feature allows you to time the
duration of time spent on each slide in addition to total
time of the show.
The “Record Narration” allows for prerecorded narration
attached to each slide. This is deal for looping tradeshow
operation and for those who prefer not to speak in front of
audiences.
The “Online Broadcast” feature allows you to broadcast your presentation over
the web. You will need a windows media server and the appropriate server and
network configurations to attempt this. You should consult your system
administrator for details.
The “Action Buttons” allow you to start a variety of tasks such as starting and
stopping movies, sound and to advance slides.
The “Action Settings” feature allows you to edit the functionality of the button.
The “Animation Schemes” feature opens the task pane for you to select how the
text flows onto the slide. More will be covered in the task pane section.
The “Custom Animation” feature allows you to alter how the text is animated on
the slide. More will be covered in the task pane section.
The “Slide Transition” feature animates how the slides change from one slide to
the next. More will be covered in the task pane section.
The “Hide Slide” feature allows you to prevent certain slides from showing if you
desire an abbreviated version of the slide show.
The “Custom Show” can allow you to select specific slides from your presentation
to present a custom show. One large slideshow can be used for several different
audiences in this manner.
Window
The “New Window” feature allows you to open
multiple windows of the same presentation to edit
several slides at the same time.
The “Arrange All” window places all of the currently
open windows in the main work area.
The “Cascade” feature places all of the windows in
the main area in a layered fashion.
The “Next Pane” selection moves the focus clockwise to the next pane in the
presentation.
Below the “Next Pane” feature you have a list of windows that are currently open.
You can switch from window to window by clicking on the desired selection.
Help
The “Microsoft PowerPoint Help” feature is an
alphabetical listing of all the help files that display
information on the various features and functions
of the program.
The “Show the Office Assistant” turns on the
animated character that provides idea,
suggestions and searches for help information.
The “What’s This?” feature allows you to point to
something and have it described to you.
The “Office on the Web” feature takes you to the Microsoft Office support site for
additional information searches when you can not find what you are looking for in
the regular help files.
The “Activate Product” feature is for registration of the program with Microsoft
and to enable the program. This is usually done immediately after installation.
The “Detect and Repair” feature will attempt to detect corruption in the
PowerPoint presentation file and repair it. This can sometimes happen when
there are multiple versions and updates preformed.
The “About Microsoft PowerPoint” feature shows the version of PowerPoint you
are using, credits and copyright information.
Tool Bars
Tool bars make it easy for you to perform tasks without having to look for those
features in the menus. The toolbar is a series of buttons with icons or graphical
representations of the feature such as print, copy and save. The toolbars in
PowerPoint consist of both PowerPoint specific functions and general office
functions such as fonts and charts.
Office
Standard
Toolbar
PowerPoint
Toolbar
Additional
Toolbar Buttons
Slideshow
View
Office
Drawing
Toolbar
The Office Standard Toolbar
The Office Standard toolbar is a collection of all the most commonly used
functions in Microsoft office. This includes font selection and size, justification of
text, the insertion of diagrams and charts and various similar functions.
The PowerPoint Toolbar
The PowerPoint toolbar contains only two really new buttons. These are the
“Design” and the “New Slide” button. The “Design” button opens the design task
pane and the “New Slide” button opens adds a new slide to the presentation.
The Slideshow View Toolbar
The “Slideshow View” toolbar allow you to switch from the main edit area to the
slide sorter view. The last button initiates the show.
The Office Drawing Toolbar
The “Office Drawing” toolbar provides you with rudimentary drawing tools to
create your own text boxes, shapes, change font and drawing colours and add
three dimensional shapes to enhance your presentations.
Task Pane
The task pane is the main area for creating and configuring your slides. This is
where you will apply your backgrounds, themes, animations and slide transitions.
The panes appear on the right side of the main editing area and provide you with
preformatted templates for every slide. It is also in the task panes where you will
choose how the show advances slides, plays music, custom animate your text
entrance and exit.
New Presentation
The “Open a Presentation” area lists the last few
recently worked on presentations. It also lists the link
to the open file box with “More presentations…”
The “New” area allows you to start a new blank
presentation, start a new presentation based on a
previously saved design template and start a new
presentation using the AutoContent wizard which
guides you step by step in creating a presentation.
The “New from existing presentation” allows you to
start a new presentation using the settings, such as
background, timing and animations from an existing
presentation.
The “New from Template” area allows you to create a
presentation from a previously existing template for
presentations. These templates are provided as some
of the more popular uses of PowerPoint and guide you
as to what content you should place into the slides.
The small additional area at the bottom of the task pane provides links to other
areas and help.
Clip Board
The “Clipboard” task pane allows you to manage all
of the items you have either cut or copied to the
windows clipboard. This will allow you to select from
multiple items rather than just pasting one at a time.
The “Paste All” allows you to paste all of the items
on the clipboard to the slide but it will more often
than not, place all of the pasted items overlapping
each other in the top left corner of the slide are. You
will have to select each item and place the item
where you want it.
The “Clear All” button clears the entire windows
clipboard so you can start fresh.
The “Options” button allows you to set up the task
pane to show the clipboard whenever you cut or
copy and paste. You can also shut down this
feature if you so desire.
Search
The “Search For” area allows you to place text
information throughout the computer. You
initiate the search by clicking on the “Search
Button” and it will display a list of resulting
documents and files including there location.
The restore button resets the last search you
did. You can always find help in the search tips
to refine your search and make it more effective.
The “Other Search Options” area allows you to
select where on your computer to look for this
information in the “Search In” dropdown box and
will allow you to select the way results are
displayed using the “Results should be”
dropdown box.
Once the information you requested is found you access it by clicking on the
result selection.
Insert Clip Art
The “Insert Clip Art” task pane does more than just
clip art. This section does a preliminary search of
your hard drive for all media. It then organizes your
media into collections of traditional clip art, pictures
movies and sounds. After the program has done the
preliminary organizational work it has too you can
look up the media by entering the key words to
search on in the search text area and clicking
“Search”. The “Restore” button replaces the search
text with the text of the original search.
You can narrow your search with the search options
to get more specific and faster searches. This is particularly useful if you have a
huge media library.
After you click the “Search” button the results of
your search are displayed in the task pane as
thumbnails. When you place your cursor over them
you will find an arrow for the display of the drop
down menu that gives you a list of available options
for the clipart. The “Modify” button at the bottom
allows you to return to the initial search screen and
perform different searches.
At the bottom of this pane is the “See Also” section
which contains three options. These options are the
clip organizer, the clips online and the tips for finding
clips. The clip organizer is the Microsoft Clip
Organizer that is installed with most office products.
It shows a windows explorer view of your media and
allows you to sort the files accordingly. The clips
online section allows you to search the Microsoft
Office support website for more clip art that was not
included in the installation package. The tips for finding clip art section opens the
Microsoft publisher help directly in the section where it shows you how to find
better ways to find your files.
Slide Layout
The “Side Layout” task pane is a collection of
preconfigured text and media layouts for your slides.
There are text layouts, content layouts, mixed text and
content layouts, and other layouts.
The text layout section allows you to select from title
layout with centered text and formatting for the middle of
the slide, single section layouts for bullets and multiple
section layouts for side by side comparison of bulleted
information.
The content layout section allows for the inclusion of
media and pre formats the media for specific areas and
specific sizes. This prevents having media that is larger
than the slide or media that overlaps.
The text and content layout section is a combination of
the two. It allows you to place both media and text on the
slide in pre formatted areas.
The other layout section includes more unusual content such as movies, chart
and graphs, and organizational charts.
Slide Design – Design Templates
The “Design Templates” section of the “Slide Design”
task pane allows you to pick a theme for your slides. The
theme includes background graphics and colours, font
selection for text and bullet organization.
Slide Design – Colour Schemes
Colour schemes are a collection of pre formatted colours
for your backgrounds text and graphics. The colours
used in a presentation can affect the impact of the slide
and the overall mood of the presentation.
Slide Design – Animation Schemes
Animation schemes allow you to select from a wide
variety of methods to transition your text onto the slide.
Some schemes have the text fade in and out, some fly
and twirl. This section is divided into increasing levels of
action, depending on the type of presentation you whish
to do. At the bottom of the pane are buttons that allow
you to preview the animation in the design window or start the slide show.
Custom Animation
The custom animation section allows you to customize the animation you
selected. You can alter the path the animation takes as well as how the
animations are transitioned. Transitioning can be done in timed events or you
can set it to the default mouse click. Each of the animations on the slide are
numbered and the corresponding number in the task pane displays a dropdown
box of animation options. At the bottom of the pane are buttons that allow you to
preview the animation in the design window or start the slide show.
Slide Transitions
The “Slide Transition” section allows you to animate
how each slide transitions to the next in the slide
show. There are three main sections to the
transition pane including the theme under “Apply to
selected slides:”, “Modify transition”, and “Advanced
slide”.
The “Apply to selected slides:” area lists the
different pre formatted animations for the transition
of the slide. These animations are not subject to
customizations like the animations on the slide.
The “Modify transition” area allows for three
different speeds for the slide transition and the
addition of sound using supplied sounds that come
with PowerPoint or you can select a sound from
your computer using the “Other Sounds…” option in
the drop down list. If you click the “Loop until next
sound” check box, the sound you selected will
continue to play over and over until there is another
animation with a sound linked to it.
The “Advanced slide” area allows you to choose
whether the transition is done after you click the mouse or the transition is done
after a preset duration of time. You can also select both but you will have to
continue clicking if you have interrupted the timing.
At the bottom of the pane are buttons that allow you to preview the animation in
the design window or start the slide show.