European Computer Driving Licence Module 6 – Presentation Chapter 6.1 – The Basics

What is Microsoft PowerPoint? Microsoft PowerPoint is the leading graphics presentation package You can use it to create, design and organise presentations quickly easily

Planning a presentation It is important to plan presentations carefully Consider the target audience and plan your slides to suit them Always begin with a title screen to introduce the project Try to keep bullet points to 4 or 5 per slide Keep each point short and simple Animations, graphics and sound can be added but be careful not to overload the senses all at once!

Getting started To load Microsoft PowerPoint either: Click Start, then All Programs, then Or double-click the PowerPoint icon on the desktop

The Task pane On the right of the screen is the Task pane. If you can’t see this pane: Click View then Task Pane Different menus will be available in the Task pane depending on the stage of your presentation To view the different menus click the down-arrow at the top right of the Task pane

Starting a blank presentation From the Task pane click Create a new presentation Click Blank presentation in the New Presentation pane The Task pane will display Slide Layout options and Placeholders Click one of the options to change the layout of a slide PowerPoint has automatically selected the Title Slide Layout

Toolbars You will learn about individual toolbars and buttons as you build a presentation As in other Microsoft applications such as Word and Excel, some toolbars will only be available when performing particular tasks

Hiding and displaying toolbars Hiding and displaying toolbars is done in the same way as in Microsoft Word, Excel and Access To hide or display a toolbar click View then Toolbars A checkmark against a toolbar means it is already displayed

Modifying basic options You can change some basic options to customise PowerPoint Select Tools then Options Select the Save tab Select the General tab and you can change the user name listed under the file properties

Using the Help Functions If you aren’t sure of how to do something in PowerPoint, search the Help files for instructions on how to perform the task Select Help then Microsoft Office PowerPoint Help Type in the information you need to look up into the Search for: box Click the Start Searching icon

Using the Help Functions Select one of the search results from the next pop-up box A Help window appears giving information on the topic Click the red Close icon to close the Help window Click the black Close icon to close the Task pane

Adding text to the title slide Click in Click to add title placeholder and type in the title for the slide Click in the sub-title placeholder and type in a sub-title

Formatting and moving the text You can click the text boxes and drag to move them around the screen. You can also format the text in each text box just like in Microsoft Word The Formatting toolbar contains the tools you need To format text, click the text box border. The border will change from a diagonal striped box to a fuzzy one. Now you can format the text You can format the text to be Bold, Italic or Underlined

Editing text Edit, add or delete text by clicking inside the box. The border changes to diagonal stripes Edit the text, and use the formatting toolbar if necessary to make changes

Aligning text in a placeholder You can align text to the top, middle or bottom of the text box Select the text box and right-click anywhere on the text Select Format Placeholder Select the Text Box tab Click the down-arrow of the Text Anchor Point box and select Top, Middle or Bottom. Click OK

Resizing and moving text boxes and placeholders To resize a text box: Move the cursor over the left-hand handle. The mouse pointer will change to a double-headed arrow Click and drag the handle to the left to make the text box wider. Drag to the right to make it smaller To move a text box: Move the cursor onto the border of the text box not on a handle. The mouse pointer will change to a black cross Click and drag to the required position

Changing the presentation view You can alternate between various views of the presentation by clicking on the icons at the left-hand side of the bottom of the screen

Normal View This is the most useful view You can view the structure of the presentation down the left of the screen, the current slide you are working on and the Notes page for the current page

The Outline pane The Outline pane has two different views One view shows a picture of all the slides The other view just lists the text on each slide Click on the tabs at the top of the Outline pane to switch between the views

Slide Sorter This view helps you to organise your slides in later stages. Here is a preview of what it looks like when you have more slides

Slide Show views Slide Show view is the view you use when you are actually giving your presentation Exit Slide Show view by pressing the Esc key at any time

Using the Zoom tool In Normal View use the Zoom tool to make a slide appear larger or smaller on screen Click the black down-arrow to the right of the Zoom box and click the size you want Or click on existing size entry in the Zoom box to select it, type in the new size and press Enter key

Undo, Redo and Repeat commands This will undo your last action. Each subsequent click will undo further actions Redo If you undo something you didn’t mean to, click the Redo button Repeat If you want to repeat an action, eg. adding a bullet point or inserting a slide. Select Edit then Repeat

Saving the presentation Select File then Save Use the arrow next to the Save In box to navigate to the location for saving If necessary, create a new folder by clicking the Create New Folder icon Type in a name for the folder. Enter a filename for the presentation Click the Save button PowerPoint will automatically save the file as a Presentation (*ppt) file

Closing the file and application To close the presentation either: Select File then Close Close PowerPoint by either: Selecting File then Exit Or click