PDF support to master the advanced functions of PowerPoint
PDF support to master the advanced functions of PowerPoint
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Today, many software package suites contain a program designed to accompany the speaker when he makes a presentation. The specific presentation program in this suite of programs is usually (but not always) in the form of a slide show, much like the ones used in the past. These presentation software programs make it simple and often fun to create a presentation for the audience. They contain a text editor to add written content, and abilities within the program to add charts and graphic images such as photographs, clip art or other objects to liven up the slide show and get our point across simply. Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft, and is part of the Microsoft Office suite. Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 provides a comprehensive set of features that can be used to create and format our information. We can create and add designer-quality SmartArt graphics with only a few mouse-clicks. This unit provides an introduction to MS PowerPoint 2007, and describes the methods and tools to create powerful and eye-catching presentations.
11.3 STARTING MS POWERPOINT
In order to work with PowerPoint and start building presentations we first have to start PowerPoint 2007. To start MS PowerPoint 2007, we have to follow these steps:
- Firstly, we click on the START button.
- Then we click/hover on All Programs which opens a list of all the installed programs.
- We then click on the Microsoft Office option which shows a list of the installed
MS Office applications as shown in Figure 11.1
Slide pane : Allows us to work directly on individual slides.
Placeholders : These are the borders that are part of most slide layouts, where we can type text or insert pictures, charts, and other objects.
Slides tab : This tab shows a thumbnail version of each full size slide shown in the Slide pane.
Notes pane : Here we can type notes about the current slide.
11.4 CREATING A NEW PRESENTATION
After we start PowerPoint as shown in the previous section, we are presented with the PowerPoint working interface as in Figure 11.2 above. To begin working with PowerPoint and start creating a new presentation we follow these steps.
- Firstly we click the MS Office button of PowerPoint and select New.
OR
Click the New icon on the Quick Access toolbar
OR
Press Ctrl + N on the keyboard
- If we click the New icon or press Ctrl + N, a blank presentation automatically opens.
OR
If we select New from the Office button, the New Presentation dialog box of
Figure 11.3 opens where we do any one of the following.
To apply a recently used template, we click Blank and recent, and click the template that we want, and then click Create.
To apply a template installed to the local hard drive, we click Installed
Templates, and then click Create.
To create (and apply) a new template based on another template that is installed on the local hard drive, we click New from existing, and then click
Create New.
To apply a template that has been saved to C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Office\Templates\, we click My templates, select a custom template, and then click OK.
To download and apply a template from Office Online, under Microsoft Office
Online, we click a template category, select a template, and then click
Download.
Fig. 11.3 : The New Presentation dialog box
Now that we are ready to begin working on our new presentation, we will be discussing further on how to work with the different elements of a PowerPoint presentation in the later units.
11.5 WORKING WITH SLIDES
When working with MS PowerPoint we apply text, sound, color, graphic, animation, transitions etc to our presentation, and these effects are represented on slides. To create an effective PowerPoint presentation we should be able to carry out slide related tasks.
Inserting, deleting, reusing slides to a presentation are a few of them and which will be discussed in this section.
Adding Slides : There are several choices when we want to add a new slide to the presentation: Office Themes, Duplicate Selected Slide, or Reuse Slides.
To create a new slide from Office Themes, we follow these steps :
- Firstly, we select the slide immediately BEFORE where the new slide is to be inserted.
- Then we click the New Slide button on the Home tab.
- Finally, we click the slide choice that fits our material.
Duplicate Slides :
To create a slide as a duplicate of a slide in the presentation we follow these steps :
- Firstly we select the slide that we want to duplicate.
- Then we click the New Slide button on the Home tab
- Finally we click Duplicate Selected Slides
A Slide may also be duplicated by right-clicking the slide and selecting Duplicate Slide.
Reusing Slides
To create a new slide from another presentation we follow these steps :
1 Firstly we select the slide immediately BEFORE where we want the new slide
2 Then we click the New Slide button on the Home tab
3 We click Reuse Slides
4 We click Browse
5 We click Browse File and locate the slide show and click on the slide to import.
Changing the layout of slide/slides : We can change the layout of slide/slides by applying a different layout to.
To do so we follow these steps :
- Firstly we select the slide/slides.
- From the Slides group on the Home tabs, we click on the layout button
- Finally we select the layout that we want.
Deleting slide/slides : We can delete one or many slides at a time.
To do so we follow these steps :
- First we select the slide/slides that we want to delete
- Then we right-click on the selected slide/slides, and select Delete Slide.
OR
From the Slides group on the Home tabs, we click on the Delete button
Changing the background of a slide/slides :
- Firstly we select the slide.
- Then we right-click the slide and select Format Background, which opens the Format Background dialog box of Figure 11.4.
Fig. 11.4 : The Format Background dialog box
In the dialog box of Figure 11.4, we have several options to choose from whereby we can apply different fills to the background.
- After selecting the background Fills, we may Close the dialog box, which applies the effects only to the selected slide. Clicking on Apply to All applies them to all the slides in the presentation.
Changing the order of slides : When we create a presentation, we may sometimes want to change the order of the slides.
- In the pane that contains the Outline and Slides tabs, we click the Slides tab.
- Then on the Home tab, we select the slide thumbnails that are to be moved, and then drag them to their new location.
11.6 ADDING TEXT AND GRAPHICS
When creating presentations in PowerPoint 2007, we have to work with text and graphics. Text and graphics are an integral part of any presentation since they act together to bring forward the purpose and objective of a PowerPoint presentation. Text can be inserted, edited, cut, copied, pasted, and formatted by changing the Face, Type and Color.
Paragraphs of text can be formatted by indenting them, etc. Graphics in PowerPoint can be included by inserting pictures, Clip Art, Shape, Smart Art etc. in this section we discuss these aspects of PowerPoint.
Working with text :
To enter text we follow these steps:
- Firstly, we select the slide where we want the text
- Then we click in a Textbox to add text
To add a text box we follow these steps:
- Firstly, we select the slide where we want to place the Text Box
- On the Insert tab, we click Text Box
- Then we click on the slide and drag the cursor to expand the Text Box
- Finally we type in the text.
To copy and paste data we follow these steps:
- Firstly, we select the item(s) to be copied
- On the Clipboard group of the Home tab, we click Copy
- Then we select the item(s) where we would like to copy the data
- Finally, on the Clipboard group of the Home tab, we click Paste
To cut and paste data we follow these steps:
- Firstly, we select the item(s) to be cut
- On the Clipboard group of the Home tab, we click Cut
- Then we select the items(s) where we would like to copy the data
- Finally, on the Clipboard group of the Home tab, we click Paste
To change the font typeface we follow these steps:
- In the Font group under the Home menu, we click the arrow next to the font name and choose a font.
- We can preview how the new font will look by highlighting the text, and hovering over the new font typeface.
To change the font size we follow these steps:
- We click the arrow next to the font size and choose the appropriate size
OR
- We click the increase or decrease font size buttons.
Font Styles and Effects : Font styles are predefined formatting options that are used to emphasize text. They include: Bold, Italic, and Underline.
To add these to text we follow these steps:
- We select the text and click the Font Styles included on the Font group of the Home tab
OR
- We select the text and right click to display the font tools
To change the text color we follow these steps :
- We select the text and click the Colors button included on the Font
Group of the Ribbon
OR
We highlight the text, right click and choose the colors tool.
- Then we select the color by clicking the down arrow next to the font color button.
WordArt : WordArt is a gallery of text styles that we can add to any 2007 Microsoft Office system documents to create decorative effects, such as shadowed or mirrored (reflected) text. In Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, we can also convert existing text into WordArt.
To apply Word Art we follow these steps :
- Firstly, we select the text
- Then from the Text group of the Insert tab we click the WordArt button
- Finally we choose the WordArt to be applied
Working with Graphics : We can add Pictures, ClipArt, Shapes, SmartArt or a Photo Album to a presentation.
To add a picture we follow these steps :
- Firstly we click the Insert tab.
- We click the Picture button from the Illustrations group
- We browse to the picture from the files and click the name of the picture
- We click insert
- To move the graphic, we click it and drag it to where we want it.