1. Introduction to presentations ms PowerPoint
Presentations are ways of communicating information to an audience using a particular form or approach. Ms PowerPoint helps us to come up with presentations and out put this information in various ways such as slide shows on machine, using a projector or acetate sheets (transparencies) can be used for head projectors. You can also print the presentations on slides or handouts for the audience
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2. Terminologies Used
Slide
This is our working area, an equivalent of a page with in a word document. Your work is created on slides and put together to form the file - what you would call the presentation.
Out Line View
A view of your presentation that displays slides titles and main text. It can be used to help you organise and develop the content of your presentation.
Slide View.
This view allows you to view your presentation one slide at a time and is useful for organizing your text and graphics on the given slide.
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3. Template. This is a pre-designed slide. Animation:
Slide Shorter View
Gives you a view of all your slides at one go. It allows you to maintain consistency in your formatting. Any changes you make on the slide master will also occur in all the slides of your presentation.
Template. This is a pre-designed slide.
Animation:
Putting motion and or sound to the various objects on your slides. This allows your text and or graphics to appear on the slide from different directions and in various ways.
Text placeholder
This is an object on the slide, usually a box that reserves a place for text.
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4. How to Insert a New Slide
After you are through with one slide, simply follow these steps to insert a new slide into the presentation.
Steps
In the outline window, select the slide you want the new slide to appear after by clicking the slide’s number.
Select insert/new slide from the menu bar or click the new slide button on the standard tool bar.
Choose the page / slide layout from the window and press OK.
You could use insert new slide icon from your standard toolbar and come up with the same results.
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5. Applying a Design Template
To add a design template or changing the existing one, select Format/Design Template from the menu bar. Select the template and click Apply. Those templates that have no preview need to be installed, you need your office CD to install them, so don’t bother with them. Work with what is available.
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6. Changing Slide Layouts
To change the layout template of the slide, select Format/slide layout from the menu bar, select one of the layout thumbnail images and click Apply.
Reordering Slides
To reorder a slide in slide sorter view, simply click on the slide you wish to move and drag it to the new location. In Normal or outline view, click the slide icon beside the number of the slide you want to more and drag the icon to a new location.
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7. Hiding Slides
If you do not want a slide to appear during the slide show, but do not want to delete the slide as it may be used later, selecting slide show / hide slide from the menu bar can hide the slide. To add the slide back to the slide show, select slide show / hide slide again.
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8. Backgrounds
Follow these steps to add background colours and patterns to a slide.
Select format / Background from the menu bar.
Select a colour from the drop-down menu below the background fill preview or choose more colours for a larger selection.
Select fill effects from the drop-down menu to add gradients, texture, patterns or a picture to the background.
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9. Adding Clip Art
To add a clip art image to a slide, follow these steps: 
Select insert Picture Clip Art from the menu bar or click the picture button on the drawing tool bar.
To find an image, click in the white box following search for clips and enter key words describing the image you want to find. OR click one of the category icons.
Click once on the image you want to add to the slide and the following popup menu will appear.
Insert clip
Preview clip
Add to favourites
Find similar clips
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10. Add an Image from a File To add a photo or graphic from a file;
Select insert  picture  from file from the menu bar.
Click the down arrow button on the right side of the in LOOK IN: window to find the image on your computer.
Highlight the file name from the list and click the insert button.
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11. Slide Animation
1. Select Slide Show  Custom Animation from the menu bar.
2. Select the object on the slide that will be animated from the check to animate slide objects list.
3. Under the effects tab, select the animation type (or select “No effect” to turn an animation off) and direction from the drop down menus and select a sound if you wish.
4. Select an after animation affect if the text should change colours after the animation executes.
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12. Slide Transitions
Select slide Show  Slide Transition from the menu bar.
From the effect section, choose a transition from the drop – down menu and notice the preview after the transition is selected. Select a speed for the transition as well.
Under advance, check “On mouse click” for the slide transition to occur by clicking the mouse or using key strokes or check “ Automatically after” and a number of seconds if the transition should occur automatically.
Select a sound if necessary and check the loop until next sound if it should keep repeating until the next sound is played.
Click Apply to All if the transition effects should be added to every slide or Apply if the effects should be added only to the current slide.
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13. Presentation Design Tips.
Use contrasting colors for the text and the background so the text will be easy to read.
Use font size large enough to be seen from the back of the room where the presentation will be held. A font size of 24 – point or larger is recommended.
Use short phrases and sentences to convey your message.
Use simple slide transitions too many different transitions will distract your audience from the subject of the presentation.
Avoid clicking the slides with too much text or graphics your audience should hear what you have to say and note be distracted by a busy screen.
Keep text simple and easy to read by not using many different text affects such as bold, italics, underlined, larger font size for emphasis within a sentence, or a different font all on the same slide.
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