Chapter 12 PowerPoint

Chapter Outline

Presentation Basics

Different Parts of PowerPoint

Creating a Presentation

Enhancing your slide show

Linking and Copying

Linking a Spreadsheet Range or Chart

Presentation Tips

Pack and Go:

What’s Wrong With This Presentation

Review of Menus

Presentation Basics

Presentation Basics

1. Know what you want to say.

2. Rehearse it!

3. Keep slides short & simple.

4. Be careful of Color.

5. Use the Spell Checker!

6. Don’t read the slides to us. Talk about the topics in more detail.

7. Don’t adjust your UNDER GARMENTS in front of everyone!

Figure 1

By now you should be starting to get familiar with how these computer programs work. PowerPoint will look a little different than Word or Excel but many things will still be the same. You will open and save your files in the same way. You have inserted Clip-art into a word processor so that means you can do the same thing in PowerPoint. This chapter is going to be relatively brief. For the most part I only need to show you some features that PowerPoint has and you will be able to create a presentation relatively easily.

PowerPoint can provide you with Handouts to support your presentation, Speaker notes to help you in rehearsing your presentation and an outline of your presentation. The main point I want you to be able to do is to prepare a small on-line presentation. So let’s start by discussing the different parts of PowerPoint.

Different Parts of PowerPoint

PowerPoint comes with the same toolbars that you have already seen. Half of the toolbar buttons you already know what they do. The drawing toolbar is similar to the toolbar found in Paintbrush and Word Art. Refer to the appendix or your manual for more information if you need to. The easiest way to learn the drawing toolbar is to play with it. Luckily you can leave your mouse on top of the button and you will get a little description of what the button is for.

Standard Toolbar - is pretty much the same with New, Open, Save, etc. The new buttons are explained in the work area of the picture above. Normally your outline View would be showing on the screen. Notice “Outline” on the left side of the Status bar.

Formatting Toolbar - is also pretty much the same as we have seen before, except with a few added handy features. Of course you can see most of it. I moved the formatting toolbar and put it under the Standard toolbar.

Increase/Decrease Font - allows you to change the size of the font by just clicking the toolbar button.

Shadow Text - is the button and this will create a shadow effect on the highlighted text.

Insert New Slide - located on the standard toolbar. This is used when you want to insert a new slide into your presentation. You should be in Slide Sorter view first. Also be sure to position the cursor where you would like the new slide to go. You will get a dialog box listing the different types of slide that you can insert.

Drawing Toolbar - The buttons are very similar to those available in Paintbrush. The best way to learn about these buttons is to just use them and see what they do.

Normal View - shows you a combination of slide view and outline view. Even though it is called normal I rarely use it myself. (then again I am not normal).

Outline View - shows you an outline of your slides. You can add text to a slide in outline view. You can also add, delete and arrange your slides as well.

Slide View - shows you your slides one at a time. This enables you to add graphics and text and pay individual attention to your slides. I generally use this view when working on an individual slide.

Slide Sorter View - shows you all of your slides at once in the order that they will appear. This is the view I use to add, delete, and arrange slides. This view gives you a nice overview of you slide show. The formatting toolbar changes so that you can add effects to your slide show. You can add transition and build effects, and rehearse timing from this view. If you double click a slide it will take you to slide view so that you may edit it.

Slide Show - will run your slide presentation. You can press ESC to cancel the show.

Creating a Presentation

Let’s open PowerPoint and create a new presentation. You should get the startup dialog box like the one if Figure 3.

The AutoContent Wizard will help you organize your thoughts with a series of dialog boxes designed to help the beginner. It provides with a template for you to fill out. It is easy and if you want give it a try just to see what it does.

I always use a Blank Presentation since I find it easier not to use a wizard. This gives me the most control over my presentation. I am going to make a presentation about hiking the Long Trail. It is always best if you orgainize your thought FIRST!

After choosing a Blank Presentation I am presented with a dialog boxlike Figure 4 which shows me the type of slide templates I can use. This is the same dialog box you will get when you Insert a New Slide.

Well we need a title so I am going to insert a title slide and start building my presentation.

As you will see it is easy to add text. For now I am just going to type in all the text for my slides and then I will go back and format each slide so it looks groovy. After typing in my title slide I needed another slide so I clicked on Insert New Slide button and got Figure 4 again. This time I chose A Bulleted List slide. For the Title I typed in ‘How to Get Ready’. Then I typed in my bulleted items. My next slide I wanted bulleted List and a picture but instead of choosing the object and text slide I just chose another Bulleted list slide like before and typed in my text. Now my next slide I wanted a clipart picture and text so I chose that type of slide and typed in the text I wanted and clicked to get the clipart picture that I wanted. Ok typing in all the text is easy, I knew what I wanted to say. So let’s go back to the first slide, Figure 5, the title slide and lets format it. To get back to the fist slide, just click on the first slide in the outline pane.

Okay for starters I think I would really like a picture in the background. I can do this under Format, Background … (figure 6). There are tons of options hidden in this little dialog box so it is worth your while if you play around with it for a bit. The command buttons mean what they say, Apply to All does just that and applies the background you choose to all slides. Apply, only does the current the slide and that is what I am interested for now. When you choose Fill Effects … from the drop down list box you will get a dialog box that has a ton of different options in it. My favorite would be choosing a texture and in this case Picture. Not much to it other than choosing the correct tab (Picture) and then choosing the command button Select Picture. Now I have a picture for the background.

The only problem I have now is that I cannot read any of my text at all. Since the picture I chose is a dark one I am going to change my text color to white (Format, Font). Notice that each block of text (Title, Sub title) is in a frame (Figure 7). If you highlight the frame of both textboxes you can change the color for both of them at the same time.

While they are both highlighted I thought I would increase the font size as well. Instead of typing in the font size I just clicked on the increase font toolbar button a few times. This increased both text boxes. You can also change the shape of the frame by using the resize handles. I adjusted mine and moved the text around so it was not in the middle of the stream.

I did have trouble with changing the text to white as when I clicked on the text it turned the background white so I could not read it at all! I learned to deal with it. Remember some of your word processing skills. Each text box is one paragraph. To force text to another line you can hit Cntrl+Enter (line break). Also do not type extra spaces or tabs as they cause problems as well.

So after a little rearranging I can actually read the text. Pictures are cool but you need to pay attention to the image and your text and how they contrast together. Try to keep the text so that it stands out and is easy to read.

Now what I want to do is to add a little animation to the slide. I want the slide to show the stream first until after I click with the mouse. When I click I want the Title to show up first. This is where I will begin my presentation. I will introduce myself and click the left mouse button and then say I am going to be talking about hiking the long trail. I will click the left mouse button again so that Its as easy as day hiking every day shows up while I am talking. To accomplish this task I need to choose Slide show, Custom Animation … to get the dialog box shown in Figure 9. Note that I have already checked Title 1.

Simply choose Slide Sorter View . Then place your cursor before the first slide. Now choose Insert, New Slide… (or the toolbar button, or the bottom toolbar button ). This will give you Figure 10. When you create a blank presentation this is how you would insert all of your slides. You can choose any slide type that you want. There is a small description on the right, Title Slide. The slide below that is a bulleted list with a graph. Most times I find it easier to just insert a blank one and do the work myself. I am going to pick the slide in the lower right hand corner and insert a blank slide. This first slide I am just going to leave as it is with nothing on it.

I am not crazy about the background image of the slides and I think I would like to change my title slide and add some clip-art to it. To make changes to a single slide it is best to be in slide view. Click on the title slide and then click on the Slide view button .

In slide view you can see the background that the wizard picked for you. To change the background to something else choose Format, Apply Design… (or the toolbar button )to get Figure 11. You can choose any Name that appeals to you or simply click on the first name and use your down arrow key to get a sample preview of what each background looks like as you go through the list. This will change the background graphics for all your slides. I clicked on several design types and finally settled on the professional look!

I also want to replace my name with new text. The first thing you do is to click on the name. This will put a frame around the text as in Figure 12. Now you can click in the text to add to it or you can highlight the text and type over it. I am going to replace my name with “It’s as easy as day hiking, everyday”.

I also want it to take up only half the slide, so I am going to click on the frame again and using the resize handles change the size of the box to more of a square keeping it large enough to fit all the text. When you have the resize handles showing on the frame, you can set formatting features for all of the text at once. I am going to click on the center align button to center the text (I do have two lines, see Figure 13).

For the title I want to add End to End so I need to click on the title so that the frame is showing. Place the cursor at the end and just add the text. I would like Long Trail to be a larger size font than the rest of the title. To do this I highlight just the words Long Trail. With long trail highlighted I keep clicking on the Increase Font toolbar button until I get the desired size. I resized the frame like I did before so the title is on the right side of the slide. I now have a big empty space on the left side of my slide

I want to add a Clip-Art picture to this slide so I choose Insert, Picture, Clip-Art… which is the same as it was in word processing. I scrolled through the list and chose the tree! Now the picture was inserted in the middle of the slide but I have moved it to the left by clicking and dragging. The resize handles will enlarge it so it looks like Figure 14. Play around with your other slides so they look the way that you want them. Be careful not to overdo it!

If you need to add a slide in slide sorter view just put the cursor on the slide BEFORE the place that you want it to go and click the Insert Slide Button. To delete an extra slides simply click on the slide and press the delete key. Go ahead and check out your slide show by pressing the Slide show button ! If you want to start the show from the first slide click on slide 1 before you run the show. You press the left mouse button to advance to the next slide. Don’t forget to save it! I am sure you have already saved it before you started.

Enhancing your slide show

After playing with my slides for awhile I really decided that on some of my slides I did not like the background picture. It was a border of some sorts in the middle of the slide (background graphic). You can remove the background graphic altogether by choosing Format Custom Background… and you will get the dialog box shown in Figure 15. Notice the checkbox for Omit Background Graphics from Master, this is the box to check to get rid of the background graphics. You will still keep the marble look checked. If I choose Apply it will remove the background from this slide only (the one I was on when I chose this option). If I choose Apply to All it will remove it from all of my slides.

After making a few changes I needed to move my text and pictures around to match the new background. I had to resize several frames to get them to fit properly so do not be afraid to play around a little. You can see all of my slides in Figure 16.

In slide 5 you get to see a picture of me! If you have a picture you like, you can insert it the same way as you did in the word processor by choosing Insert, Picture, From File. All the other pictures are from clip-art.

Now you should notice the little symbols beneath all my slides. The transition effects make the transition from one slide to the next flow more interestingly, i.e. you can have a fade out effect or a checkerboard effect etc. With a build effect every time you click the left mouse button a new bullet appears, so you use this effect with your bulleted lists to have each bullet up one at a time (when you click the left mouse button).

Let’s talk about Transition Effects which is how the slides change from one slide to the next. You need to be in Slide Sorter View and you will notice the formatting toolbar has an option on it. This is the Transition List Box. With the cursor on the first slide go ahead and click the arrow for the list box. You have a bunch of different effects to choose from so just pick one and try it. When you choose one it will give you a little demo of how it will work. Pick the one that you like best. You can do more than one slide at a time by highlighting them first. You will need to hold the shift key down as you click on each slide. To select all the slides choose Edit, Select All. This will put the same transition effect on every slide (unless the effect is random). You may want to vary your effects for each slide.

Now Build Effects are similar only they effect the way the bulleted items come on to the screen. If you have no build effect then the whole slide shows at once. However with a build effect you can have each bullet item appear one at a time. Again Select the slides that you want to have the build effect on and click the arrow to get the build effect list box . To check how this works you will need to run the slide show by clicking on the slide show button.

If your computer has a sound card you can add some sound effects as well. I do not recommend using a sound effect for every slide as it tends to be distracting. A sound effect to start and then every now and then will wake that audience up! You add sound by choosing Tools, Slide Transition… and you will get the dialog box shown in Figure 17. Here I have chosen a camera sound for my Title Slide. Notice the Effect: Blinds horizontal that I chose for this slide using the toolbar. You can slow down the transition by setting the speed. You can also have this slide advance Automatically after so many seconds that you specify if you do not want to click the left mouse button. Sound is a great thing but don’t overdo it.

Linking and Copying

You can link (copy, paste special) or copy (copy, paste) a spreadsheet range or chart very easily into a PowerPoint presentation. The difference between linking (paste special) and copying (paste) is that when you link the spreadsheet or chart, any changes you make to the original will also be made on the linked version. When you just paste a spreadsheet or chart, any changes you make to the original will NOT be made on the copied version.

Linking a Spreadsheet Range or Chart

To link a spreadsheet range or chart you would follow these simple steps.

1. Open both PowerPoint and Excel.

2. Place the slide you want the spreadsheet range or chart to go onto in Slide View.

3. Activate Excel. Highlight the Spreadsheet or Chart (if the chart is on a sheet by itself you only need to be looking at the chart).

4. Choose Edit, Copy. This will place a copy in the clipboard for you.

5. Activate PowerPoint. You should have the correct slide in Slide View.

6. Choose Edit, Paste Special. Paste will only put a copy of the chart in your slide. Paste Link will link the slide and the chart together meaning that when you make a change to the chart it will automatically be changed in the slide. Figure 18 shows the paste special dialog box.

It’s pretty easy to do. A really neat thing is that you can do the same coping/linking with a Word Processing file as well. In fact you can Link Two Word Processing Files, link a spreadsheet range to a word processing file, and link a chart to a word processing file. The groovy thing is that you follow the same steps as outlined above for PowerPoint! When writing research papers it is always nice to include a graph or table and linking or coping is a nice way to do this.

This is enough information for you to get going on making your own slide presentation. It is always a good idea to practice the presentation on the computer and in the room you will be using. Keep in mind that you may be able to read your presentation on your computer screen but you will lose clarity using an overhead projection system. Some projection systems are better than others so just be careful with your different color schemes. You could be in for a surprise. As a rule of thumb stand 10 feet away from your computer screen and see if you can read your slides. This should give you the impression of sitting in the back of an average classroom.

Presentation Tips

If you are working in a group on your presentations it is always nice to have each member speak. Rehearse your presentation and practice the transition from one speaker to the next; it should go smoothly. Try and practice with another group so they can give you feedback.

It is always nice to look at your audience but some people may get nervous looking out into the crowd. You do not need to make eye contact to make it appear that way. In other words look towards your audience but do not look directly at any one person and you may not get so nervous. If anything, just keep looking at the back of the room, it will keep your head up and people will think you are looking at them. While you are talking, be careful not to walk in front of your projection screen even if you have a nice shadow!

Keep those hands out of your pockets and do not be jingling change! Try and put your hands on a pulpit or desk if you feel you are getting nervous. I like the desk as it keeps me from falling over in fright!

Keep your time to each slide around two to three minutes. Any longer and you have too much information on that slide. You will lose the audience’s attention.

Include a blank slide at the beginning and the end so that your audience sees a blank screen and not the PowerPoint window itself. It just looks a little more professional that way.

If you have studied your speech you have nothing to worry about, just get up there and talk to us. Have confidence in yourself. You can do it. Besides most likely you have to anyway for a grade, so give it your best shot. Good luck!

Pack and Go:

You can run a PowerPoint slide show on a computer that does not have PowerPoint. The computer will need to have Windows 95 or Windows NT. You will need an empty 1.44 Mb floppy diskette (you may need more than one if you have used a lot of sound and pictures). After you have finished and saved your presentation (do not close it) choose File, Pack and Go… to start the Pack and go wizard. This will take you through a series of dialog boxes that you need to follow the directions for. If you need another diskette the wizard will tell you to insert a new one. When finished you can take the diskette to another computer and run your slide show. Plan on getting there early so that you have time to set your slide show up on the hard drive. Place your disk in the drive and use the Explorer to look at the contents. There should be an application program (there should be only one file) that you should just double click on to decompress your slide show. Try it a day early so that you know what you are doing.

What’s Wrong With This Presentation

This slide is way too cluttered with JUNK! Clip-art pictures are nice but in this example they are overdone. It makes it hard to focus on the point of this slide. There are also 8 bullets which pushes the limit a little, a good maximum number is 7. More than that it is hard to think of all the items at once. I would recommend to delete all but one Clip-art picture and divide the bullets into 2 slides if possible (7 is not written in stone, use your own judgment).

Putting too much information on one slide is a no-no. There is an old saying called K.I.S.S. meaning Keep It Simple Stupid, maybe not the nicest thing to say but you should be able to get the point.

Well I got rid of the extra clip-art pictures and have only 4 bullets this time. Not bad, huh? Well it may be a little hard to READ the bullet items. The problem now is I am using colors that do not mix very well. Black text on a blue background may be readable when you are a foot away from the screen but get back a little and it is almost impossible. White text on a blue background works real well. So does yellow text on a black background. Try to stay away from red on green, red on black, blue on green (as well as others) and look for colors that contrast a lot. One way to check this is to run the slide show on your PC but stand back 10 feet from the screen. This will give you an idea of what it is like for your audience. Also keep in mind that when projecting a presentation through an overhead projection system you WILL lose quality. Your computer screen is much sharper than a projection system (some systems are better than others).

Well this slide is a little plain and could probably handle a little prettying up. Something simple like centering the bullet list would help improve this slide. Simply click on the frame around the bullet list and drag it until it looks centered. However the biggest mistake on this slide is the fact that I did not change the default text in this template. This slide was created using the AutoContent wizard and I just left it alone. You should delete the State the desired goal and TYPE in what that GOAL IS! Never leave the default text on a slide. If you do not know what to put there, delete the text or the whole slide if need be. The text shown in this example just gives hints on what the slide should talk about, you really need to put your OWN words here.

Not a bad slide, I used some nice contrasting colors. However I left an unused box in this organizational chart. I may have wanted to add another teaching assistant but since I have just two of the best TA’s around I should have deleted the unused box. It is not hard to delete the empty box simply click on it and press the delete key in slide view.