Basic PowerPoint Skills
What is a Presentation?
 Presentation: an informative speech that usually
includes visuals, such as slides.
 The file name for the current presentation is displayed
on the title bar.
 Default view is normal view. Normal view divides the
window into 3 parts:
 Outline tab
 Slide tab
 Notes pane: type speaker’s notes
Planning a presentation
 A successful presentation is carefully planned so it
clearly conveys a message.
 3 steps in the planning stage
 Carefully plan the lecture or speech.
 Determine the content of the slides.
 Determine the design and layout of the slides, and then
sketch the slides using pencil and paper.
Adding or deleting slides
 The current slide is the slide displayed in the slide
pane.
 New slides are added after the current slide.
Editing a Slide
 Placeholders:
 PowerPoint has a feature called AutoFit that
automatically sizes text as it is typed so that it fits
within a placeholder.
 Serif font: has strokes on the ends of the letters. (ex.
times new roman)
 Sans serif: there is no strokes on the ends of the letters.
(ex. arial)
PowerPoint views
 Normal view: best for editing the text and graphics on
a slides.
 Slide sorter view: useful for selecting multiple slides
and changing the order of the slides.
 Slide show view: displays the presentation as it will
appear to the audience, starting with slide 1 regardless
of which slide is displayed.
Themes
 Themes are used to maintain a consistent look
throughput a presentation.
 A theme changes the colors, fonts, backgrounds, and
layouts of placeholders.
Special Effects
 Slide transitions – the manner in which a new slide
appears on the screen during a slide show
 Animations – the way an element on the slide (text or
graphic) appears one at a time on the slide in a special
way or with a sound effect.
 Progressive disclosure – technique where each element
appears one at a time after the slide background
appears.
Printing
 Print what option:
 Slides: prints one slide per page.
 Handouts: prints the indicated number of miniature
slides on each page. Handouts of 3 slides per page
include lines for taking notes next to each slide.
 Notes page: prints one slide in the top half of each page
and any text that was typed in the notes pane in the
bottom half of the presentation.
 Outline view prints the outline of the presentation as it
appears in the outline tab in normal view.
Graphics
 Graphics can be used to make a presentation more
interesting and capture the attention of the audience.
 Sometimes graphics needs to be sized
 Sizing handles - small circles and squares that appear at
each corner and on each side of the active box