How-To: Office XP PowerPoint By Allen Kuceba

PowerPoint The infamous white screen intimidates many new users when they start a new PowerPoint These steps will easily allow you to feel comfortable with the program and eventually allow you to know all of the strings in Microsoft’s PowerPoint

Looks Matter When creating a PowerPoint, the first thing people do is create a background This background should be kept constant throughout your presentation or else it looks unprofessional The type of background you choose sets the mood of your presentation while at the same time it shouldn’t take the viewers attention away from you

Background 45 pre-made backgrounds “Format” “Slide Design” Find one you like Click on it Your background is now set to be put to all slides and any that are later on created Depending on your chosen background, your title page will look different than the rest of your pages

Background II Simple background make sure your slide design in the PowerPoint is set to Default “Format” “Background” A menu appears Beneath the picture is a scroll down menu which has 8 colors “Fill Effects” which has the option to create a gradient Click “Fill Effects” and experiment Click “OK” “Apply to All Slides” if you like it or Cancel if it looks bad

Title and Text The most important part of a PowerPoint is the text you add to it Your pages now have a background, you can add text to any box that has a dotted line around it Create a title for the area which says “Click to Add Title” Below that is an area where you can type in a subtitle or the names of the creators of the PowerPoint

Pages and Text Press Control or “Ctrl” along with “M” to create a new page “Insert” “New Slide” to add a new page Two text boxes, the larger text box is for your information and the smaller one is for the title of your slide

Layouts Pre-made layouts for text “Format” “Slide Layout” Box will appear Treat this area just as you would the background area Click on the “Title, Text, and Content” layout to begin with

Media Click in the media box, but not in the center where there are small icons “Insert” ”Picture” “From File” Search for your picture, highlight it, and then click “Insert” If you want your picture to not be centered inside the media box then click in an area where there isn’t a box instead Do the same for movies that you may have created To enlarge the picture, pull on the white dots located on the corners of the picture Do not pull the dots on the sides of the image or it will look strange

Animate “Slide Show” “Custom Animations” Select the object you want to animate and then click on “Add Effect” Keep the animations constant The box on the bottom can be used to change the sequence of animations by clicking and dragging the animation to a different position on the list Click the “Play” button at the bottom of the window to see a preview of your slide’s animations

Transitions “Slide Show” “Slide Transition” Here you can test the many transitions along with how fast they appear When you have found the right transition, click on “Apply to All Slides” to keep the transition constant throughout your presentation