Introduction to PowerPoint

A Brief Overview of PowerPoint

for Teaching in FAS
The Instructional Computing Group
FAS Computer Services
http://icg.fas.harvard.edu/
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/computing
Introduction
This document illustrates some of the basic
features of PowerPoint presentation software.
PowerPoint allows users to create computer-
based presentations, generate slides and
overheads, and convert the presentation into
formats suitable for the Web.
How to Get PowerPoint
 PowerPoint is freely available to faculty through
FAS Computer Services at the help desk in the
basement of the Science Center.
 Sorry, but we can’t just mail the disks to you.
 Our license agreement requires that we have the serial number
of the computer onto which Office will be installed and that the
recipient sign a license agreement.
 Faculty: call 62727 for more information.
 If the version of PowerPoint you will be using on your own
computer is older, you should be aware that some features may
not be available or will be slightly different from those described
in this document.
 The versions of PowerPoint represented in the document are:
 Apple, OSX: MS PowerPoint 2004.
 PC, Windows XP: PowerPoint 2002
Creating a new presentation
 File-->New
 On PCs:
 “Blank Presentation” defaults to black text on a white
background.
 “Design Templates” allows to you first select a slide design and
then begin creating your presentation.
 On Apples:
 File-->New Presentation creates a new blank presentation.
 Choose “Project Gallery”
 Presentations-->Designs allows to you first select a slide design
and then begin creating your presentation.
 Presentations-->Content provides you with examples of pre-made
presentations.
 AutoContent Wizard is simple to use, but is pretty
rigidly targeted toward business presentations.
Page Setup
 In File-->Page Setup, set:
 "Slides sized for:"
 Choose target media for presentation: on-screen
show, overheads, 35 mm slides, etc.
 "Orientation"
 Chose whether you want the slides to be
Landscape or Portrait; also set the orientation of
your handouts.
View Menu
 Different views of your slides:
 Slide (Apple only)
 A view of a single slide.
 Move from one slide to another by using the scroll bar on the right side of the screen.
 Slide Sorter
 Shows reduced view of all slides in a show; you can re-order slides and apply transitions in this
view. To see more slides on your screen, go to View Zoom and select a smaller percentage
(keeping in mind the text on each slide will become harder to read onscreen).
 Double-click a slide to open that slide in the normal "Slide" view.
 Slide Show
 This allows you to step through each slide as you will in an on-screen presentation. To move
forward, simply click the mouse button. You can also use the left and right arrow keys on the
keyboard to move backward and forward (respectively) through the show. The "Esc" key will
exit the slide show altogether.
 Outline
 Shows the information presented on each slide in a textual outline format. Optionally, edit and
create new slides here.
 Normal View
 Shows each slide on a separate page, along with space to add speaker’s notes and comments.
You can print these out prior to a presentation to help guide you through your talk.
View Menu
 Toolbars
 Toolbars appear as buttons at the top and bottom of the PowerPoint screen, and also
may "float” elsewhere on the screen. Just as in other Office applications, you can
rearrange these toolbars.
 If a toolbar seems to be missing, just go to View Toolbars to make it reappear. You may
need to choose more than one until the proper toolbar appears.
 Ruler/Guides
 View Ruler will create a ruler along the top and left-hand sides of the PowerPoint
screen to allow you to place objects with precision.
 View Guides creates movable dotted lines (which will not be printed) you can use to
place objects.
 Drag your mouse over a guide to move it.
 If you want to create a new guide, press the control (Ctrl) key while moving your mouse over a
guide.
 To delete a guide, simply drag it completely off the slide.
 Header/Footer
 View Header and Footer… allows you to put information like the Date and Time at the
top and/or bottom of your slide.
 Click "Apply to All" to have information appear on all slides; "Apply" will put information
on current slide only.
Add/Delete Slides
 Insert-->New Slide prompts you for an "auto-layout”
template and adds a slide to your show.
 If you are in the "Slide" view, the new slide will be added after the
slide you are viewing.
 In the "Slide Sorter" view, the new slide will be added after the
currently selected slide.
 Choose a new layout via Format --> Slide Layout.
 Edit/Delete Slide deletes either the current slide (in the
"Slide" view) or the selected slide(s) (in the "Slide Sorter"
view).
 Edit/Duplicate Slide creates a duplicate of the current slide.
 This is useful when you have a number of slides you want to be
formatted identically and which will contain similar information;
simply duplicate a completed slide and change information where
necessary.
Work with Existing Slide Elements
 When choosing a slide "auto layout" template, combinations of several elements are
provided. These elements are:
 Title
 Bulleted List/Text
 Table
 Chart
 Clip Art
 Move an element by clicking on its border and dragging it.
 Delete an element by clicking on its border and pressing the "Delete" key.
 Resize an element by clicking on its border, then clicking and holding down on one of
the small squares that appears along the border.
 Dragging on a corner square will ensure that the proportions of the object are not distorted. This is
particularly important when resizing graphic objects.
 By default, PowerPoint creates Text boxes as Bulleted Lists.
 To get rid of the formatting that is generated automatically with bulleted lists, click in the text box and
click the "Bulleted List" button in the formatting toolbar. The button has three vertically aligned dots
followed by dashes.
 If you are using the bulleted lists, remember that pressing "Tab" at the beginning of a list item indents
and "demotes" the item (usually making it a smaller type). Holding down the "Shift" key while pressing
"Tab" at the beginning of a list item un-indents the item and "promotes" it.
 To edit the automatic typestyles of bulleted lists, you should edit the list items on the Slide Master to
have those changes reflected on all slides. The Slide master is discussed shortly.
Insert Elements
 To add graphics, go to Insert-->Picture and choose “Clip Art…” (for graphics included
with Microsoft Office; may not be available if your installation did not include these
items) or “From File…”.
 Simply browse to the image’s location on your computer’s hard drive, select the file, and click "OK".
 If you insert Picture From File…, you can choose from a number of common image file formats, including JPEG
(.jpg), GIF (.gif), PICT (.pct), and TIFF(.tif).
 You can resize the image once it is on your slide.
 You can only insert Picture-->From Scanner if you have a scanner attached to the computer you are
using. Otherwise, you will have to use a computer with a scanner to capture the image to a file, copy
that file to your hard drive, and insert it using Picture From File…. as described above.
 To add an Excel graph or cells from a worksheet:
 Open the Excel file containing the desired information.
 Select the cells or chart you want to have appear in your PowerPoint presentation.
 In Excel, go to Edit.-->Copy
 In PowerPoint, choose Edit -->Paste while the slide you want the information to appear on is selected.
 You can resize the chart or table as you would any other element.
 To add text from Word:
 Open the Word file.
 Select the text you want to have appear in your PowerPoint presentation.
 In Word, go to Edit -->Copy.
 In PowerPoint, choose Edit-->Paste while the slide you want the text to appear on is selected.
 To edit text after it has been placed, double-click on it.
 Usually you will be able to copy and paste items between open applications (as
described for Excel and Word), but it depends on the application.
Master Slides
 To have formatting changes reflected across your presentation, you can
edit the Master slides rather than having to apply changes to each slide.
 Access the master slide here: View-->Master-->Slide Master
 Modify elements on this slide to affect all slides except the Title Slide(s) in your
presentation.
 If you’ve selected a slide with a background image, you can click on the image and
resize, move, or delete it.
 To use your own background image, choose Insert-->Picture, choose Clip Art or From
File, and find the image. Once it is on the page, you can resize it as appropriate
(keeping in mind that using the corner resizing squares prevents distortion).
 The Drawing toolbar at the bottom of the PowerPoint screen allows you to work
with object order. That is, if your newly-inserted background image is covering
up other things on the page, select the image, click the "Draw" button, go to
"Order" and choose "Send to Back".
 View-->Master-->Title Master
 Modification of objects on this Master slide will only affect the "Title Slide" auto layout.
Slide Color Schemes and
Designs
 If you want to change the design of a presentation and select a
different template, simply go to Format-->Slide Design.
 Choose a design and click "Apply" to modify all slides in your
current presentation.
 Modify the color scheme of a presentation in Format-->Color
Scheme.
 Most slide design templates include a number of color schemes
appropriate for different presentation media.
 Dark background/Light foreground (Color)
 Best for 35 mm slides and on-screen presentations. Avoid this when printing
overhead transparencies or when using slides as handouts.
 Light background/Dark foreground (Color)
 Best for color overhead transparencies.
 Light background/Dark foreground (Black & White)
 Best for b&w overhead transparencies, slides as handouts printed on a b&w
printer.
Transitions and Animations
 Important Note: Use transitions and animations sparingly. They
can slow down your presentation and distract the audience’s
attention from the content of your slides. In general, transitions
are less distracting than animations. However, animations can be
useful if you have a slide on which you’d prefer to control when
information appears (e.g., a question and answer slide, on which
the question appears first, you have time to talk about it, and then
the answer appears only when you’re ready).
 Transitions: Effects that appear during the transition from one
slide to another during the slide show.
 Go to the Slide Sorter view (View-->Slide Sorter) to apply transitions.
 Click the "Slide Transition" button in the toolbar (hover your mouse cursor
over the toolbar buttons to see their names).
 Move through the available Effects to determine which you would like to
apply.
 Clicking "Apply to All" applies that transition to all slides in your slide show.
"Apply" applies it only to the currently selected slide.
 Usually you will want to advance "On mouse click" rather than showing
each slide only for a specified number of seconds.
Animations
 Animations: Effects that appear as objects (text, graphics, etc.)
are inserted into a single slide during the slide show.
 On Apples: Make certain the "Animation Effects" toolbar is visible (View--
>Toolbars-->Animation Effects). On PCs: Right click within the object and
select “Custom Animation”.
 In the normal "Slide" view of a particular slide, select an object (for example,
the title), and either:
 Use the buttons on the toolbar to choose an effect for that object.
 On the Animation Effects toolbar, the number field is used to set the order of
each effect. Typically, you will want the title to appear first (and so it should
be number 1), and subsequent objects appear in the order you set.
 Go to Slide Show-->Preview Animation to see a miniature version of the
animations on that slide; the Esc key will cancel the animation preview while
it is running.
Printing
Slides/Handouts/Notes
 In the File-->Print menu, there is a "Print what" field.
 "Slides" prints your slides on regular paper or transparency media from the
printer you select.
 "Handouts" prints 2, 3, or 6 reduced versions of your slides on a single page
(so a slide show with 12 slides would print on 2 pages).
 You can use View-->Master-->Handout Master to control the information and
layout on these pages.
 "Outline View" prints an outline of your slide show.
 Go to View-->Outline to see this information.
 "Notes Pages" prints a reduced view of each slide on a page, together with
either the notes added within the presentation, or with empty space in which
you can include handwritten notes.
 Go to View-->Master-->Notes Master to control the information and layout on
these pages.
Saving for On-Screen
Presentation
 Save your PowerPoint presentation using File--
>Save.
 Save your presentation repeatedly during your

work to ensure you don’t lose anything should

PowerPoint crash or freeze.
 If you learn that the computer on which you will be running
your presentation has an older version of PowerPoint, use
File-->Save as…, and in the "Save as type" field, choose an
earlier version of PowerPoint.
Classroom presentation
 Options for getting your PowerPoint presentation to the computer in
your classroom:
1. Bring your own laptop.
 A convenience if you frequently use PowerPoint or the Web in your class.
 Buy a laptop with built-in wireless network capability.
 Most classrooms have the capability to display a podium laptop.
2. Upload the presentation to your course Web site and download it onto the
classroom computer.
 Be sure that the classroom computer is connected to the Internet.
 Put it in a password-restricted folder to prevent anyone else from seeing it.
 Be sure the classroom computer has a network connection.
3. Email the document to yourself and use FAS Webmail to retrieve it onto
the classroom computer.
 Be sure that the classroom computer is connected to the Internet.
 Not appropriate for files over 1 MB.
4. Burn a CD with a presentation and bring it to the classroom.
 Confirm that the classroom computer has a CD reader.
Working with Images in
PowerPoint
 PowerPoint has convenient built-in functionality for working with
images.
 Resizing: Click once on the image and then use your mouse
to click, hold, and drag any of the boxes in the surrounding
outline box.
 Note: To preserve the relative dimensions of the image (known
as the “aspect ratio”) and avoid distortion, resize the image by
using the corner boxes.
 PowerPoint is good at making images smaller while preserving
the original image quality.
 Adjust color balance, contrast, crop, or rotate the image by
clicking once on the image to select it and then using the
“Picture Toolbox” that appears on your screen.
 You can also double click on the image to set other parameters
for the display of the image.
Working with Images in
PowerPoint
 To add an image using a file on your computer, go to
Insert-->Picture-->From File and navigate your hard
drive to select the desired image file.
 You can also simply drag the image onto the PowerPoint
slide from a window on your computer.
 On Apples, you can drag images onto PowerPoint directly from
a Web page.
 On PC’s, you can right click on an image in a Web browser and
select Copy. Then right click on your PowerPoint slide and
select Paste.
 Resize and position the image on the slide.
 Resize the image using the corners of the select box
surrounding the image.
 Click and hold anywhere on the image to drag it around the
slide and position it as needed.
Working with Images in
PowerPoint
 How to create a detail of a larger image
 A high resolution original is critical to creating an effective detail.
The higher the resolution of the original image, the better the quality
of the detail.
 PowerPoint is very good at reducing the size of high resolution images.
 Select the original image on a slide.
 Select File-->Copy and copy to a new slide by selecting
File-->Paste.
 Select the Crop Tool in the Picture Toolbox.
 Use your mouse to grab the corners, top, bottom, or sides of the
selection box to resize the image and crop it to the scene you wish to
capture.
 On Apples:
 You can use one of the “marquee” selection tools to select the area you
wish to extract.
 Copy the selection area (Edit-->Copy)
 Paste (Edit-->Paste) the selection onto the existing or a new slide.
 Resize and position the new image as desired.
Save as a Web Page
 File-->Save As Web Page
 When saving a presentation for the Web, PowerPoint creates one page that serves as
a table of content and a folder that contains images of each slide as well as copies of
any media (images, audio or video clips) that you have embedded in your slides.
 You need to upload BOTH the index page AND the folder to your course
Web site.
 This can be done using a secure FTP program available through FAS Computer
Services or by “zipping” the index page and the folder into a single file. That c can be
uploaded to the Web site in the Instructor’s Toolkit.
 The Toolkit automatically will expand the content.ss of “Zip” files. Use WinZip for
PCs and Stuffit for Macs. Learn more by sending email to [email protected].
 Transferring files using FTP is easy to learn. More information is available
by sending email to [email protected].
 Setting Web options
 You can change the colors of the links, text, background, and the style and
positioning of the buttons on your pages.
 Apples
 Select File-->Save As Web Page-->Web Options
 PCs
 Select File-->Save Web Page and find “Web Options” in the “Tools” pull-down in
the dialog box.
Save as Web Page
 Web options: Make sure your presentation is
viewable by all browsers.
 After you select File-->Save as Web Page, find the
section for “Browser Support” in the Web Options
section and be sure that your presentation is saved in a
way adds support for Netscape and other browsers.
 PowerPoint can save presentations to Web pages that can
only be viewed by Microsoft’s browser, Internet Explorer.
Students using any other browser will not be able to view
your slides.
Save as PDF
 What is the “portable document format”
(PDF)?
 A type of file that preserves the formatting
of documents exactly as they would be
printed on paper, including images.
 Viewable by almost all computers.
 Save your PowerPoint presentation in a
single file that can be easily uploaded to
your course Web site.
Save as PDF
 Limitations of saving PowerPoint presentations as
PDF files:
 PDF files do not include animations or slide transitions.
 PDF files do not include video or audio clips.
 Upload those files separately to the course Web site and they
will listed for students to access alongside the PowerPoint PDF
file.
 For presentations with a lot of images or multimedia clips,
file size can be very large.
 Slightly cumbersome, but in no way prohibitive for students at
Harvard. May be problematic from slow network connections.
 Storage space on your Web site not a problem. Send email to
[email protected] to request additional storage space.
 Can be some degrading of images as they are embedded in
the PDF file in the same way that making a photocopy of a
photocopy leads to lower quality.
Save as PDF
 Mac:
 Print --> PDF
 PC
 Download and install Adobe Acrobat from
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/computing/dow
nload
 Than, Print and select “PDFWriter” as your
printer.
Additional Resources
 PowerPoint help:
 The main PowerPoint online discussion group is microsoft.public.powerpoint, or:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&group=microsoft.public.powerpoint
 Microsoft PowerPoint Homepage
 Follow links to “Assistance” for tutorials and tips.
 http://office.microsoft.com/powerpoint/
 Many other resources are available on Google.
 Alternatives to PowerPoint:
 Apple Keynote
 http://www.apple.com/keynote/
 Open Office
 http://www.openoffice.org/
 Using HTML to present Slides, Richard Olivo, Derek Bok Center (#2 hit on
Google search, “PowerPoint alternative”)
 http://bokcenter.fas.harvard.edu/docs/notPPT.html