Using Microsoft PowerPoint in the Classroom Joe Hill Rockingham County Public Schools

We’re going to make a PowerPoint presentation... The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate how to develop a PowerPoint presentation which could be used with students on the day you begin a new unit with them. We will develop a basic PowerPoint presentation then learn to “fancy it up.”

PowerPoint: The Basics

Step 1--Launch PowerPoint Select to start a New Presentation.

Step 2--Enter the Title Slide text When you launch PowerPoint, the first slide you see is a Title Slide. Click on the Title box to enter the title of your presentation: “Welcome to (your name)’s Class” Click to select the Subtitle box and enter the name of your school, date, etc.

Step 3--Enter the next slide Under Insert, select New Slide You will be presented with a Bulleted List layout screen. Click in the Title box and enter a title for this slide: “What You’ll Learn in this Unit:” Click in the Text box and enter the first line of information. Each time you press Return you will get a new bullet.

Step 4--Enter other slides Repeat Step 3 until all the information you wish to present is included on slides (such as “What I Expect from You:”) Please include at least 4 slides. You may wish to use other layouts besides Bulleted List. You can choose other layouts either by clicking on Slide Layout under the Format menu or from the Formatting Palette.

Step 5--Give your presentation a trial run To start your slide show, select View Show under the Slide Show menu or click on this icon in the lower left corner of your screen: To advance from one slide to another use the arrow keys or the mouse. While the slide show is running, press the ESC key to exit the show.

Step 6--Save your work so far. Select Save under the File menu and name your file. Save it to your Documents folder. It’s a good idea to save your file often, so repeat this step often as you are preparing your slide show.

PowerPoint: Getting fancier

To choose a background design Under Format, select Slide Design Find the pre-made designs: Select Microsoft Office from the Applications Folder. Select the Templates folder. Select the Presentation Designs or the Presentations folder. Select Designs Scroll through the possibilities and double-click (or click Apply) to make your choice. You can also do the above by selecting from the Change Slides menu on the Formatting Palette

To add transition between slides... Under Slide Show, select Slide Transition On the box which says “No Transition” scroll to the bottom until “Random Transition” has been selected. Click on the “Apply to All” button. Or, if you want, you can manually choose the transition for each slide. View your slide show again to see how it looks.

The simple way to have your bullets animated... Click on the text box which contains the bulleted items you wish to be animated. Under Slide Show, choose PreSet Animation and pick the one you want. Please avoid those animations with offensive sounds!

The fancy way to have your bullets animated... Click on the text box which contains the bulleted items you wish to be animated. Under Slide Show, choose Custom Animation. Select the item(s) you want animated Click on the “Add Effect” button Choose “Entrance” and pick your effect Add other effects as desired

To insert clip art... From the New Slide menu, select one of the Text and Clip Art choices. Double click to add the designed clip art. Or, from the Insert menu, choose Picture then Clip Art.

To copy a graphic from the web… Launch Internet Explorer Find the graphic you wish to insert (hint: on the RCPS K-5 Links there are links to many good, non-copyrighted images) With the graphic on the screen, click your mouse directly on the graphic and hold for a few moments. A dialogue box will open. Select to Copy Image. Return to PowerPoint (upper right hand corner of your screen) Select to Paste. Move your image to its desired location.

To insert an “action button” Under Slide Show, choose Action Buttons Select a button, such as the Home button Place it on your slide by creating a box by dragging Choose the action you desire from the resulting window Note: you can change the color of the button by clicking on it once you’re created it.

PowerPoint: Additional considerations That’s all there is to creating a basic slide show with PowerPoint. Be sure to save your work. What follows is additional information and techniques and is included in your handout. PowerPoint: Additional considerations

Handy to remember... Help is available by selecting Microsoft PowerPoint Help from the Help menu or by pressing the Help key on the keyboard. On an individual slide, you can move the text/graphics boxes around any way you want. Other slides are unaffected. You can also change your mind about the slide layout even after the slide is made. Just click on Slide Layout under Format.

Tips on making slides attractive... Don’t use all upper case. Don’t use small fonts that can’t be read from a distance. Don’t fill the slide up with text and graphics. Keep it simple...

When there’s not enough room... If the Text box isn’t large enough for your information, you have several possibilities: Choose to put some of the text on the next slide. Highlight the text and choose a smaller font. Stretch the text box (only works for adding a little more text). Highlight the text and choose to reduce the line spacing (under Format).

To rearrange the slides... Under View, select Slide Sorter. Drag the slides to the desired order.

To make alterations to the slide design... Under View, select Master then Slide Master. Change the text boxes any way you wish (size, font, alignment, etc.) WARNING: Any changes made to this slide will affect all slides.

To change the slide colors... Under Format, select Slide Color Scheme. Experiment with changes here, using the Preview option to check your work. Click cancel if you want to leave the original design. Also, under Format, select Background Experiment with changes here, especially by choosing Fill Effects under the small triangle.

To import a picture... Under Insert, select Picture, from file. Locate your saved picture. Click insert Drag the picture to the desired location.

To print your slides... Select Print under the File menu Under General, select Microsoft PowerPoint. Under Print What: select what you desire to be printed.

To set up the slide show to run continuously... Under Slide Show, select Slide Transitions. Select to Advanced Slides “Automatically after __ seconds” and fill in the seconds Click to specify “Apply to All” Under Slide Show, select Set Up Show Select “Browsed at Kiosk”

To balance the text vertically on the page... Highlight the text you wish to have balanced. Under Format, select Line Spacing. Increase the given value of “Line Spacing”, “Before Paragraph” or “After Paragraph” for more space. Decrease the given value for less space.

To insert a chart in a slide... Under Format, Select Slide Layout Choose Text & Chart Double click to add a chart Change the default data to the desired data Under File select to Quit and Return to Using PowerPoint

Making a Backup of your Presentation... Unlike a normal word processing file, a PowerPoint presentation takes up much more room. Large presentations can be saved to a USB flash drive, uploaded to your FirstClass account, or burned to a CD. Presentations can also be e-mailed as attachments. This is generally the easiest way to transport presentations.