Microsoft Powerpoint Tools and Tips Created by William Yearling Created for the Hillsdale County Intermediate School District by William Yearling Hillsdale County ISD Technology Department extension 400 wyearling@hillsdale-isd.org Created by William Yearling

Microsoft Office Ribbon Contains the Office Button as well as the tabs to select common tools and design elements Each tab (Home, Insert, Design, etc.) contains a set of tools that will modify your presentation

Microsoft Office Help Clicking the “?” in the upper right corner or hitting F1 will bring up the help menu The help menu is an excellent resource for finding how any tools or design elements are used

Home Tab The Home tab contains the controls for the Clipboard, Slides, Font styles, Paragraph styles, Drawing, Text and Objects The Slide controls allow you to add a new slide as well as determine how it is laid out on the page The Font and Paragraph controls in PowerPoint are similar to Microsoft Word

Insert Tab The Insert Tab on the Office Ribbon allows you to add Charts, Tables, Text objects, Pictures, Sounds, or Videos When adding a sound or video clip to a presentation, small files are saved inside the presentation file, larger files remain independent, but need to be accessible to run The sound and video files must also be used for PowerPoint, be certain to preview them before presenting

Design Tab Allows you to pick a theme that will be consistent throughout your presentation or for a single slide You can alter the color, fonts, or effect throughout the slideshow as well Background styles can also be applied in addition to the theme

Animations Tab The Animations tab allows you to select how the page appears Animations can also be applied to bullet points, images or other objects Sounds can be applied to animations Slides can also be set to automatically advance after a set period of time

Slide Show Tab The slide show tab allows you to view you slideshow Your presentation can be selected to begin from the start or the current slide for review in full screen Timing can be created for each slide for a more rehearsed and time conscientious presentation

General Tips Less is More – Stick to one topic per slide Use the bullet points for short talking points or single sentences If your slide consists of several paragraphs, consider breaking each paragraph into its own slide, or create an outline slide and speak from notes A PowerPoint is a supplement for a high detail paper, not a substitute

General Tips Continued Select a style or color scheme that is easy to read from a distance Create a “Part 2” or “Continued” slide if you run out of room on a slide for a single topic Preview your content in full screen and make sure any animations, pictures, sounds and videos play as you expect When in doubt, check the help documents for additional details on what you are trying to accomplish