A guide to creating a power point display
Essentials
Ctl M =New Slide: a new slide can be inserted. It is placed
after the slide that you are viewing.
Remember to have as many visuals as possible. This display
is designed as an interactive tool to allow you to learn
about power point. Your powerpoint display needs to be
one that suits the purpose of your message.
Save this file to your U drive, in a folder eg named “how to
use power point” so that you can refer back to it anytime
your like.
Save your work regularly to avoid losing the
improvements that have been made. Save this file as a new
file to show your learning eg “my power point display”.
1. Glide the mouse arrow over all of the icons on the
screen to see what they do.
2. Find the “Format” menu then “Apply Design Template”
Inspect all of the possible designs. Apply one that is to
your liking for the moment. If you want to create your
own design don’t use design templates, but choose a
blank slide at the start.
3. Use the “Format”, “Background” option to choose your
background effects. This is a texture, under the fill effects
of the background menu.
4. Remember that the undo icon will undo the last action
made so do not despair if you make a mistake.
5. The background will follow each slide. If you do not
want the background on the current slide, go to
“Format” or “Alt O” and click on “Background”. Use the
menus to find the colour you prefer. You can change the
background of on slide by “Apply”. If you want the
background to apply to all of the slides, use “Apply to
All”.
6. In the “Background” menu, check out all of the
options to get an idea of what is possible.
7. You can use a background from clipart. The clipart
icon on the drawing tool bar at the bottom of the screen
is the man’s face in a box. Click on this and explore the
options under background.
Change the background of this slide. You can change the texture, pattern and gradient of the
effects as well as the colours.
8. For a completely different background, get into the
internet, use “www.search66.com” as your search engine and
search for “Free backgrounds” or “Free graphics”. There are
plenty available. Remember to save as a picture into your
graphics folder.
9. You can insert a picture from a file if you like. You may
have scanned one that you like or you may have downloaded
one from the internet. Some internet pictures can be saved
as wall paper file and these can be used as backgrounds.
10. To save a background from the internet, follow the
instructions. It is best to save each file in a folder called
“Graphics” in your “U” drive.
11. This picture is an animated gif
from www.freegraphics.com.
It has been saved as a picture in a
graphics folder in the U drive. It can
now be used any time. The picture
was enlarged by dragging the corner
box out with the mouse arrow.
Change the size of the picture by clicking the mouse IN the
picture and dragging one corner to make it bigger or smaller. If
you see a doubled headed arrow it means that you can make the
picture bigger. Two crossed over double headed arrows mean
that you move the whole of picture and the picture will keep its
size.
12. Find the icon that says “Text Box”. Put a text box on the
page by dragging the mouse into a rectangle on the page. The
text box expands as you fill it with typing. You can change
fonts and font size in the usual way. You can change the font
colour with the menu of the icon “Font Color”.
This makes the typing really stand out.
Change the fonts and colours on this page. Remember that you need to highlight the
section that you want to change first.
13. Straight typing with no animation is boring. Highlight
what you want to animate by clicking on it with your
mouse arrow. Go to “Slide Show” then choose “Custom
Animation” or press “Alt D” then “m”. Click down the
“No Effects” menu and select an effect. “Preview”. Play
around with all that is possible on this whole menu. When
you have decided what you like, “Apply” will apply it to
the bit that is highlighted. Remember that it takes
different amounts of time to read each bit of the writing
on the slide, so think about the timing carefully. You will
need to adjust the timing of the effects if you want it to
happen automatically.
14. When you are creating your power point presentation, you
may like to have different bit of the presentation entering the
screen at different times. The next slide shows five different
graphics entering the slide at different times.
Play with the animation effects on this slide. Try out the
different effects. Change all three graphics on the page.
The animated graphics
that you choose need to
be carefully vetted to
avoid using the ones that
have a white background
that you cannot change
to suit your display.
15. The rate at which the slides move across the screen is
important if the audience is to read the information or
look at the pictures. The timing is under “Slide Show” and
“Slide Transition”. Remember the timing of all the effects
of the slide must add up to the time of the slide transition.
Play with the transition and animation effects of these slides. If you do
not save them at the end they will not be permanent.
16. You can add sound to your slides by inserting a sound
card from a CD Rom or the internet or go to “Insert”,
“Movies and Sounds”, “Sounds from Gallery” and select
whatever is available. Follow the instructions there to
download from other places.
17. You can collect graphics from either your files, clip art or
from the internet. If you are copying from the internet,
save the pictures to a graphics folder that is housed in your
graphics file in your “U” drive so that you can always use it.
18. Once you have copied and
pasted your picture, you can move
it where you like and make it the
size that you would like. Try the
right hand mouse button for fast
movement to copy, paste and
move things around. You will find
lots of fast ways of getting things
done if you play.
19. You may like to draw your own graphics using the tools on the Drawing
Tool Bar. This can be very creative. However, the drawing is made up of lots of
separate shapes. You need to group these shapes together to enable the whole
to be animated. Click on the Arrow icon on the Drawing Tool Bar. Draw a box
around the shapes that you want to group. Do not include anything that you
do not want in the group eg text or another part of the drawing. Check on the
Draw menu and choose “Group”. You now have the whole shape as one and it
can be animated as a whole. The face on the left is grouped and the one on the
right is ungrouped. The difference is obvious.
For a lot fun and fiddling around, you could draw
your shapes in Image Composer and put them into
Gif Animator to give the image animation.