Microsoft PowerPoint professional training with application examples
Microsoft PowerPoint professional training with application examples
...
Lesson 1. Creating a Presentation
When you start PowerPoint you will see the following screen.
Select File, New and the following menu will appear at the right of the screen:
Open A Presentation
– allows you to open an existing presentation. PowerPoint files have the extension .ppt by default
New
Blank Presentation – create a new presentation
From Design Template – create a new presentation using a template From AutoContent Wizard - gets you started by giving a presentation layout which suggests what to say where.
New From Existing Presentation
- create a new presentation based on an existing one.
New from Template
- access to templates locally and via the web.
When you click on Blank Presentation the menu shown below will appear on the right of the screen displaying the range of slide layouts available.
When you click on Design Template the menu below will appear on the right of the screen displaying the range of templates available.
Moving your cursor over each one will give a description of each.
Moving your cursor over each one will give a description of each. We will look at design templates later.
Lesson 2. Creating a New Slide
When you first create a new presentation using Blank Presentation a menu will appear on the right of the screen asking you to select a slide layout, as shown below.
There are various pre-set slide layouts
Click on the slide type you require.
Each time you wish to add a new slide click on the button on the toolbar and then click on the layout you require for that slide.
Your slides will be shown in overview in the window to the left (Slide sorter view) as you create them – see left.
We will look at this window in more detail later.
Once you have created a slide you can click in the area in which you require text and type the relevant text.
Note If you have a slide selected and you click on a layout the layout will be applied to that slide.
Lesson 3. Moving Between Slides
Scroll bar
Click on the box and drag it up or down the shaft. While you hold the left mouse button down as you drag you will see a box showing the number of the slide you would be viewing if you released the mouse button at that point. Clicking on the single arrows will move up or down the slide if the slide is bigger than the screen, or from slide to slide if the whole slide is visible on screen. Click here to scroll down the slide(or to the next slide if whole slide is visible) Alternatively, if you wish to move one slide at a time click on the double arrows at the bottom of the scroll bar
Thumbnail slides at left
You can also move to a particular slide by clicking on the “thumbnail” view of the slide in the pane at the left.
Lesson 4. Saving the Presentation
To save a file for the first time select File, Save As.
The box below will appear: Use the Save in box to select the drive and directory to save the file in. In the file name box type the name you want to use (maximum 8 characters) and select OK.
Once you have given a file a name you need only click on the button to save the file.
Note: the extension which PowerPoint uses is .ppt It is also possible to save the outline of the presentation to a .RTF file and use this, for example, as the Outline for a report in Word. Note that pictures will not be included in the outline, only text.
Lesson 5. Layout
Page size
At a very early stage of design (preferably as the first thing you do in a new presentation) you should check what size the finished slide will be.
Select File, Page setup. You can then click on the down arrow under Slides sized for:
Click on the required size from the menu. (see list below for paper size info.)
Within the size chosen the slide will take up an area defined by the Width and Height options, leaving a margin area around it. You can adjust the amount of margin left by changing these measurements.
Number Slides From
By default slide numbers will not be shown on slides. Adding the slide number will be dealt with later. The option shown here, however will be what PowerPoint uses for its internal numbering system, e.g., showing the slide number as you scroll etc. You can start the presentation numbering from a number other than 1 which is useful where this file contains slides that follow on from another presentation.
Orientation
Select the required orientation by clicking in the relevant circle. Note that you can select one orientation for the slides and a different orientation for all other items if required
Lesson 6. Formatting Text
Bold/Italic/Underline
There are several ways of formatting text:
- i) Use the following buttons as you type, (Bold), (Italic) (Underline) i.e. click on the relevant button before typing to switch the formatting on, type the text and then click again to switch the formatting off.
- ii) After typing text you can change the formatting by highlighting text which you wish to format and click on the button. (to format a single word the cursor need only be in the word)
iii) Use the shortcut keys Ctrl B (bold), Ctrl I(Italic), and Ctrl U(underline) either as you type or afterwards. (Note: these are “toggle” buttons – use once to switch on and again to switch off)
Note: The appearance of the button will indicate whether the formatting it denotes is on or off. e.g indicates the bold format is not switched on, while indicates that it is.
Changing font size
Again there are two ways of doing this: In both cases the relevant text must first be highlighted
- i) On the toolbar you will see Click on the down arrow to select a size for the text, or click inside the box and type in the required size
- ii) To adjust the font size quickly use the buttons shown which will change the text to the next listed size up or down. To use sizes between these type the required number in the font size box increase font size decrease font size
If you cannot see any of the buttons on the toolbar, click on the button at the end of each toolbar to display any extra buttons which are currently hidden.
Changing font type
At the left of the Formatting toolbar is the following: Click on the down arrow to select a font style. Font names are in alphabetical order. Recently used fonts are placed at the top of the list with a double line beneath (Note the top four fonts shown right. Agency FB appears above the double line as a recently used font, and in its correct place in the list.)
Changing text colour
To change the colour of the text click on the down arrow at the right of the button (which can be found on the Drawing toolbar. You will see the following box: Click on a colour to select it. The colours on this first line are the basic colours on which the presentation is based. To choose another colour click on the More colours option. Any colours chosen in this way will be placed on a row below the first to encourage you to reuse colours! The last colour used is shown in a block at the bottom of the button Click this button to reuse that colour.
Creating text shadow
To create a for the text using the colour defined by the underlining colour scheme highlight the required text and click on the button on the Formatting toolbar. This is the only way you can shadow individual words in a text box To shadow all text in a text box click in the required text and click on the button on the Drawing toolbar. Click on your choice of shadow position from the box shown on the right. Note that because we are dealing with text only five are available – the rest are greyed out. You can change the colour of the shadow under the option Shadow Settings and using the down arrow on the button. The buttons allow you to change the distance of the shadow from the original text.
Note If none of the shadow options are available check that you have highlighted the required text.
Lesson 7. Formatting Paragraphs
Alignment
To change the way the text aligns select Format, Alignment and then one of the options. The effects of these options are illustrated below:
Left
Centred
Right
Justified text (this only works where paragraphs are longer than 1 line.) The character spacing is adjusted so the first character is at the left hand side and the last at the right hand side as shown here.
Line Spacing: Use this to adjust the space between lines of text within a paragraph. You can close up text to squeeze more on a slide, or spread it out.
After Paragraph: Use this to adjust the space after a paragraph All these options give the choice of defining the space either in lines (Note that you can define a proportion of a line e.g. 0.4) or in points. A point is inch. The line spacing measurement must be at least the same as the height of the text otherwise you will lose part of the characters.
Indenting You can control the distance from the margin for each level of text. Use the ruler to do this. If you cannot see the ruler select View, Ruler The ruler will show a set of indentation marks for each level of text that has been used on the slide. You can now click on the top symbol to control where the first line of the paragraph will be, the middle one to control where the rest of the paragraph will be and the bottom one to move both the other symbols relative to one another. The change from grey to white on the ruler indicates the position of the margin.