PowerPoint is the well-known presentation software from Microsoft. When would you choose to use PowerPoint rather than Word?

Since some people might be far from the screen, text has to be large – this means each slide contains a limited amount of text which in itself is a good thing since it means the information is presented in small ‘bites’ that are easy to absorb and digest. I suggest that you should use a minimum text size of 28 in your PowerPoint presentations to make sure that your text is easy to read and to limit the amount of text on each page.

Let’s not forget that your PowerPoint slides usually will be accompanied by an oral presentation which will include much additional detail.

The French are revolting! Click the link above to download and run a sample PowerPoint presentation prepared by some 11-year-old students. The file is about 800K so may take a few minutes so download via a modem. You may need the PowerPoint viewer to view the file - it can be downloaded free from www.microsoft.com. Alternatively, upgrade your browser to Internet Explorer version 6 or greater (also available free from www.microsoft.com) and PowerPoint presentations will open right in the browser! If you look at a PowerPoint presentation in IE6 just click the presentation with your mouse to move through it.

The project

You will be asked to prepare a PowerPoint presentation for presentation to the class. You may be asked to choose as a theme a recent development in technology that interests you or your teacher may ask you to choose some other topic. Presentations that compare different things are encouraged since usually this means you have to do more thinking and less copy and paste. If you are asked to make a presentation about a recent development in technology then you might want to check these sites for ideas: www.gizmag.com  , news.bbc.co.uk ,  www.technologyreview.com (MIT), www.newscientist.com .

Here are the 'rules' for the presentation:

1. You will be allowed three periods to prepare your presentation. If this is not enough then you have the possibility or taking your project home on a USB key and finishing it at home. The presentations to the class may take an additional two or three periods depending on the size of the class.
2. You may work individually or with a partner. If you choose to work with a partner:
   1. Since you cannot share files with a partner through the network, you may find it useful to use a USB key for this purpose.
   2. If you work with a partner then your presentation should be somewhat longer than the presentation expected from someone working alone.
   3. You should speak for equal times during the presentation. If you are working as a pair then it would be interesting for each of you to present the case for and against some controversial technology.
   4. Working as a pair you have the possibility of presenting in the form of a dialogue between the two of you, or of introducing a theatrical element.
3. You should not choose the same theme as any other individual or pair on your class (except your partner, of course). As soon as you have chosen your topic you should inform your teacher of your choice so that this topic is reserved for you and no one else.
4. If you choose to work individually you should create a minimum of seven slides.
5. If you choose to work individually your presentation should last between 7 and 10 minutes.
6. Your presentation should include a bibliography slide at the end stating where you got your information from.
7. Minimum text size should be 28.
8. You will be graded not only for the slides themselves but also, of course, for the way in which you present them. Be interesting, speak clearly and loud enough, keep eye contact with your audience. Don't hesitate to have interaction with your audience, e.g. by asking them questions or asking them for a show of hands.
9. You will be graded not only for your own presentation but also on how good you are as an audience for other people's presentations: Are you attentive? Are you respectful? Do you participate by asking good questions?
10. You should include animated text effects and transition effects between slides at least minimally in your presentation to show you know how to do this. But don't overdo these special effects and don't let them slow down your presentation.

Here are some additional tips including some from the free Wikibook on Microsoft Office which is at: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office

Guidelines

Microsoft Office/Preparing to Deliver a Presentation

After adding all of the content to a presentation, it is time to put the finishing touches on it. There are multiple ways to check for spelling errors, inconsistencies, or other problems. There are also several ways to enhance the presentation.

Spell Check a Presentation

AutoCorrect

Autocorrect corrects many common spelling errors automatically as you type. It is similar to the version used in Microsoft Word. Autocorrect fixes spelling errors as well as instances such as double capital letters at the beginning of a word, capitalizing the days of the week and the first words of a sentence. Common typing mistakes such as letter transposition are also automatically corrected as you type.

There may be times when you do not want Autocorrect turned on. To access options for Autocorrect, go under the Tools menu and choose Autocorrect Options. Each function in AutoCorrect can be selected or deselected by clicking in the check box associated with each function.

Spellchecking a PowerPoint Presentation

PowerPoint provides you with a powerful spellchecker that works in the same fashion as the one in Microsoft Word. As with that spellchecker, it's always a good idea to proofread your presentation yourself; however, the spell checker can sometimes be a lifesaver.

To check an entire presentation, don't select any text. If you run the spellchecker with specific text selected, it will only check that text. You don't have to click the insertion point at the beginning of a presentation to begin spellchecking, as the spellchecker will wrap around until it has checked the entire presentation.

There are four ways to access the spellchecker:

Once the spellchecker is running, you can use the various options to help you find and correct spelling errors in your presentation. PowerPoint's spellchecker compares words with its internal dictionary. If PowerPoint does not recognize a word, there are several options you can have it perform, as described below:

PowerPoint can check your spelling as you type. If it thinks you've misspelled a word, PowerPoint lets you know by drawing a wavy red line under the word. To correct one of these errors, right-click on the erroneous word and either choose one of the suggested changes or open the Spell Check dialog box and make the change there as described above.

View the Slide Show

While putting together a PowerPoint slide show, it is often useful to actually run the show to see what it will really look like when it is presented to an audience. This can provide a "reality check" and give a better idea of how the show is actually going to look.

Slide Show View

Use the Slide Show view to see the slide show on your computer screen one slide at a time, using the full screen, as you will when actually presenting the show. You can move the subsequent slides by either clicking your mouse button, clicking the [Page Up] and [Page Down] buttons, or by using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.

To view the Slide Show:

1. When you use the Slide Show view button, PowerPoint starts the show at the currently selected slide. So, go to the first slide in your presentation.
2. Click the Slide Show view button.
3. To move to the next slide, click the mouse button or push the right arrow key. At the end of the show, PowerPoint will display, "End of slide show, click to exit".
4. You can exit a slide show at any point by pressing the [Esc] key.
5. When you exit a slide show, PowerPoint returns to Normal view.

Arrange Slides in a Presentation

The ability to reorder slides in a presentation after you've created them enables you to easily reorder slides after you've created them, as well as giving you the freedom to organize a new presentation out of an older one. This can be essential in using the same material for different audiences without having to recreate and entire slide show presentation. PowerPoint also lets you hide selected slides in a presentation, in case you want to reuse a slide show for an audience and omit certain parts of the presentation that don't apply to that particular presentation.

Slide Sorter View

Choose View/Slide Sorter, or click on the Slide Sorter view button. PowerPoint changes to the Slide Sorter view and opens the slide sorter toolbar.

In Slide Sorter view, you see the thumbnail representations of the slides comprising your slide show. This is a great way to see the whole presentation at once, in the order in which they will appear in the slide show. After you are finished creating and editing your presentation, you can come to Slide Sorter view to shuffle slides around, and copy, delete, or hide slides, until you've got it right. Slide Sorter view also allows you to set up special effects to the slides in the presentation.

As you look through your slides in Slide Sorter view, and find a slide that you need to further edit, just double-click on that slide and it will be displayed in Normal view.

Rearranging Slides in Slide Sorter View

You can often make a presentation better by playing with the order in which the slides appear. Sometimes, you may wish to entirely hide a slide that doesn't apply to your audience. All of this happens in Slide Sorter view. To rearrange slides in Slide Sorter view:

1. Click on the Slide Sorter view button (or choose View/Slide Sorter).

2. Click on the slide you wish to move, copy, delete, or hide to select it.

3. Now move, copy, delete, or hide the slide:
    

Adding Transitions to a Slide Show

One way to add a nice touch of professionalism to a slide show is to add transitions to the slides. Transitions affect the way one slide goes to the next slide. Transitions add interest to your slide show, but care should be taken to be sure they do not become a distraction from the show itself. It is often best to choose one transition you like and use it for the entire slide show.

Slide Selection in Sorter View

In Slide Sorter view, you can select one slide, two or more slides that are next to each other, or two or more slides that are not next to each other.

How to Set Transition Effects

For each slide in a presentation, you can set a different transition effect and determine how fast the transition will happen. To set transition effects:

1. Switch to Slide Sorter view.
2. Select the slides to which you want to assign a transition.
3. Choose Slide Show/Slide Transition or click the Transition button on the Slide Sorter toolbar to open the Slide Transition task pane.
4. From the Apply to Selected Slides list box, select the transition effect you want to apply. PowerPoint previews the effect on the selected slides and displays a Preview Animation button beneath each selected slide.
5. In the Modify Transition section, select a speed (Slow, Medium, or Fast) for the transition effect. Once again, PowerPoint previews the effect on the selected slides.
6. To preview the effect again, click the Animation Preview button beneath the slide on the left side.
7. Close the Slide Transition pane.

Animating Text

Normally, when you have a slide with multiple bullets, PowerPoint will display all the text bullets at once when you go to that slide during a slide show. One nice effect, however, is having the different bullets appear as you speak about them, one at a time. This can be accomplished by using PowerPoint's animate text feature.

Animation of text in PowerPoint refers to the manner in which individual text or other objects appear as they enter or exit a slide. Normally, all objects on a slide appear at the same time when you display the slide. However, you can have different objects appear and exit at different times under your control as the show proceeds. To add animation to text in a presentation:

1. In Normal view, select a line of bulleted text.
2. Choose Slide Show/Custom Animation to open the Custom Animation task pane.
3. Click the Add Effect button to display the drop-down list.
4. From the Entrance sub-menu, choose the animation effect of your choice. You can choose More Effects if the effect you want isn't listed. PowerPoint displays the animation effect in the list box on the Custom Animation task pane.
5. In the Modify section, set the direction and speed.
6. Close the Custom Animation task pane.

Printing Slides, Speaker Notes, and Handouts

PowerPoint enables you to easily print handouts, slides, and your own speaker notes that you can reference while giving a presentation.

Handouts

You can use PowerPoint to create handouts of the slides in your presentation. You can decide how many slides you wish to appear on a page. Usually, it is best to have no more than 4 in order that they remain readable. You can choose layouts from the Print dialog box right before you print. PowerPoint automatically formats everything for you.

Print Options

There are many options for printing your presentation. You can print slides, notes pages, handout pages, or outlines. You can print the current slide, or select a range of slides to print. You can also select other print options. To print various things from PowerPoint:

1. Choose File > Print to display the Print dialog box.

2. Under the Print What heading, select the type of printout.

3. Select any other options you want.

4. Click OK.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office/Preparing_to_Deliver_a_Presentation"

Microsoft Office/Using Graphics and Animations

Vocabulary

Lesson

Picture as Background

Creating graphics with transparent backgrounds

1. Click on the INSERT Tab
2. Click on either Picture or Clip Art
3. Find the picture you want and bring it into the slide
4. Click on the PICTURE TOOLS button at the top of the window
5. Click the RECOLOR button in the ADJUST group
6. Click on the Set Transparent color button at the bottom of the dialog box
7. Click on the one color you want to be transparent

NOTE: if you want more than one color transparent you will need to do this in a photo editor and save the picture as a PNG, GIF, or TIFF

Transitions

Transitions are the motion of how to get to the current slide.

Animations

One of the more fun things you can do in PowerPoint is to make things move. One thing to keep in mind is for formal presentations, don't overdo the animations. Let your audience focus on your content and not be distracted with all the motion. If the motion adds to the meaning or content, then it belongs.

Under the Animation Tab you have several choices for how you will add animation to your show.

Custom Animations

Pictures can be animated more dramatically with Custom Animations. To get there go to the:

Animations Tab - Animations Group - Custom Animation Button

There are four main groups of animations:

The best thing to do is take a graphic and try some of the animations out.

Once you have several affects added to your picture or text you might want some of them to occur at the same time. In the drop down under the Custom Animations you can set them to:

With these settings and the speed settings you can get many dramatic affects.

Try to take a picture of a skier and have them fall down a hill by adding a spin and a motion path that occur with previous.

Sounds

Sounds are another way to add a special touch to a presentation. But here to you can go overboard. Only add sounds that really need to be there for the effect you want.

To get to sounds go to:

Insert Tab - Media Clips Group - Sounds icon

You can add sounds from the following sources:

If you have a folder of Royalty Free sounds you can add any of them to your PowerPoint by browsing to it. If you use the clip organizer it is just like adding a clip art. If you play with the CD then you need to make sure the CD is in the CD player anytime you want to view the presentation. If you want to create something like a kids book where the book reads along with the kid, you can record your own sounds. You must have a microphone hooked up for this option to work.

Once you have the sounds in the presentation they will appear in the Custom Animation list and you can set when in the presentation you want them to play. You can set them to play automatically or after you click or after some other action. You can also set it to repeat the sound, and to hide the sound icon during the presentation.

Rehearsal Timing

A finishing touch to a presentation is to have practiced your presentation and have the slide change automatically for you when you are ready for them. This can be done easily with the rehearsal timings. To get to this go to the:

Project

Create a mini movie on a school appropriate topic of your choosing.

Examples:

Requirements:

1. Custom animations on every page
2. Slide transitions between every slide
3. One slide needs to have a picture for a background
4. Individual creativity
5. Creating graphics with transparent backgrounds
6. A Sound must be added to at least one slide for emphasis

Helpful hits to make this extraordinary:

Microsoft Office/Creating a Custom Design Template

While PowerPoint offers a nice variety of design templates, it is also useful at times to create your own. A design template, once created, can be used over and over again. For instance, if your department wanted all presentations to include your company's logo in one corner, with its colors as the background, you could create a design template with these features and reuse it again and again.

Master Slides

A master slide is one that is a part of every presentation that controls certain text characteristics such as font type, size, and color, as well as background color and style. Masters can affect all the slides in a presentation. There are masters that control the title slide, notes pages, and handout pages. When you apply a template to a presentation, you apply a new set of masters that control the presentation's look and format. There are four types of masters used in PowerPoint, as described below.

Slide Background

A slide background is a design element that appears behind the contents of the slide. The slide background is made up gradient, texture, patterns, or a picture. To change the slide background:

1. Select the slide you want to change:
   1. Select a slide in Normal view.
   2. Select the Slide Master.
2. Choose Format/Background.
3. In the Background Fill section, click on the drop-down arrow and choose Fill Effects.
4. On the Fill Effects dialog box, select the tab that contains all the options you want to set and click OK.
5. Click Apply to All.

The following table describes the options you can set in the Fill Effects dialog box.

Inserting Graphics

One element you can add to every slide is a graphic of some sort. To add a graphic to one or all slides:

1. Display an individual slide or the Slide Master for all slides.
2. Choose Insert > Picture > From File.
3. Navigate to the folder that contains the picture that you wish to insert.
4. Select the picture file.
5. Click Insert.

PowerPoint allows you to insert most popular graphic formats into your presentation.

Adding Footers

Footers serve many uses in PowerPoint presentations. You can use them to provide information like slide numbers, footer text, and date. All of the information goes at the bottom of each slide in your design template.

Components of a Footer

A footer in PowerPoint is text that you create once, but it appears on the bottom of each slide. It can consist of text, slide numbers, and a date. To add a footer:

1. Display the Slide Master.
2. Choose View > Header and Footer.
3. In the Date and Time section, select the options that you want.
4. Check the Slide Number box to add a number to each slide.
5. Under the checked Footer check box, click in the text box and enter the footer text.
6. Click Apply To All.

Formatting a Footer

You can change the way a footer looks at any time. On the Slide Master, select the placeholder that contains the information you want to change and format the text as you would any normal text. You can also drag the placeholder around if you wish to change its location.

Modify the Slide Master Font

PowerPoint allows you to change the way that the text in each individual part of your presentation looks. If you have a very long presentation, for example, but decide that you no longer like the font for each title, PowerPoint makes it easy to change the font for each title at once. To change the appearance of the Slide Master text:

1. View the Slide Master.
2. Select the text you want to change.
3. Change the font to a different font.
4. Change the font size.
5. Apply a text effect, such as bold.
6. Return to Normal view.

Some Tips for Effective Slide Shows

Here are a few tips that will help your PowerPoint slide shows look professional and promote effective visual clues to help you get your points across:

1. Limit animation.
2. Stay with one slide transition.
3. Use sans-serif fonts.
4. No tiny font sizes; remember the folks in the back row.
5. Keep your slides simple and uncluttered
6. If you are presenting in a light room, use a light slide background.
7. If you are presenting in a dark room, use a dark slide background.
8. Make sure to use high-contrast text and slide backgrounds.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office/Creating_a_Custom_Design_Template"

Category

Microsoft Office/Creating and Editing a Presentation

The PowerPoint Window

1. Title Bar - Displays the name of the application followed by the title of the presentation
2. Formatting Toolbar - Provides quick access to commands you need for formatting
3. Outline and Slides Tab - The slides tab gives you a thumbnail view of all the slides in the presentation and allows to rearrange their order; the outline tab adds textual content to the slides in an outline format
4. Slide Pane - Area where you build the slides for your presentation
5. View Buttons - Change the way you view the presentation; the Normal view (left button) is the default, the Slide Sorter view (center button) shows you only the thumbnails and is used to sort and rearrange the presentation, and the Run view (right button) runs the presentation from the current slide
6. Drawing Toolbar - Provides all the tools you need to draw and format objects
7. Notes Pane - Adds notes for yourself for each slide in your presentation
8. Task Pane (Windows version) - Varies based on what you are currently working on; when you first start PowerPoint, you see the New Presentation task pane; other possible tasks include Slide Layout, Slide Design, and Effects
9. Menu Bar - Includes all of the PowerPoint menu choices
10. Placeholders - Designate the space that will be filled with titles, text, or other objects such as graphics or charts
11. Application Close Button (Windows Version) - Exits PowerPoint
12. Presentation Close Button (Windows version) - Closes the current presentation

Create a New Presentation

Using the AutoContent Wizard

1. If necessary, chose File > New to display the New Presentation pane
2. On the New Presentation pane, click on the AutoContent Wizard link

You will be walked through a series of questions about the presentation you are making, including a category for the type of information being presented and the method of delivery. The Wizard then applies a background and text as well as an outline of text you may use as a guide. This is the preferred method for creating a presentation in the least of amount of time.

Using a Design Template

1. If necessary, choose File > New to display the New Presentation pane
2. On the New Presentation pane, click on the From Design Template link
3. The Slide Design pane will display on the right side of the screen with a variety of different templates to choose from
4. Select the design of your choice from the Slide Design pane
5. Click OK to begin working with the first slide in the Normal View

Using a Blank Presentation

1. If necessary, chose File > New to display the New Presentation pane
2. On the New Presentation pane, click on the Blank Presentation link

This will open a new presentation with no template. You will provide the content, background, color scheme, text format, etc. This method gives you the most freedom, but also requires the most amount of time to complete.

Adding a new slide

Once you have opened a new presentation, the next step is to add and format the content. PowerPoint provides a selection of pre-defined slide layouts based on different types of content that you can use to quickly add content to the slides. For each of the 27 Slide Layouts provided, PowerPoint combines the four types of placeholders in different combinations; each placeholder will be replaced with the following type of content:

Slide Layout Placeholders

Using a Slide Layout ensures that the text and other elements you enter into the placeholders will have consistent spacing and be optimally arranged.

How to Add Slides to a Presentation

1. Click the New Slide button on the Formatting toolbar.
2. From the list of Slide Layouts, select the layout you want to apply to the new slide.
3. You may now begin adding content using the placeholders in the layout.

How to Change the Layout for any Slide

PowerPoint will try to guess what layout you want to use for new slides that are added to the presentation. If you want a different layout for the slide you can quickly change the layout for any slide.

1. Display the slide that you want to change in the Slide Pane (work area in the center of the window).
2. Choose Format > Slide Layout to display the Slide Layout task pane.
3. Click on the layout you want to apply to the slide.
4. PowerPoint will attempt to fit existing content into the new layout, but you will probably have to make additional changes.

How to Add Slides in the Outline Tab

You can also create new slides while working in the Outline tab. By default the Outlining toolbar should display, but if it does not, select View > Toolbars > Outlining.

1. Display the Outline tab by clicking on Outline in the pane on the left.
2. Place the cursor at the end of the text in the slide you wish the new slide to follow.
3. Click the New Slide button to insert a new slide.

Entering Text on a Slide

Enter Text on a Slide Using Placeholders

1. Click on the Title, Subtitle, or Text placeholder.
2. Type the text you want.
3. If necessary, press [Return] or [Enter] to move to a new line.
4. Click anywhere on the slide outside of the placeholder to deselect it.

Enter Text Using the Outline Tab

Working in the Outline Tab allows you to type and edit text for the presentation in a more word processing-like environment than the Slide pane. The Outline tab displays in the pane on the left side of the screen when you are working in the Normal view.

Information in the Outline tab is arranged by levels. The Title of each slide appears as the first, left-most level next to a numbered icon of the slide. Bulleted text is indented one to four levels to the right of the title. The Outline tab has an Outlining toolbar that displays to the left of the pane.

Tip: If the Outline and Slides panes are not displaying in the Normal view, select View > Normal (restore panes) and it will display on the left side of the screen.

1. After adding a new slide, Type the slide title and press [Return] or [Enter].
2. To change the slide text to a first level bullet, press [Tab] or click the Demote button on the Outlining toolbar.
3. Type the text for the first bullet and press [Return] or [Enter] to move to the second bullet.
4. To create a sub-bullet, press [Tab] and type the text.
5. Continue to enter text for bullets and sub-bullets until the slide is complete.

§