PowerPoint is easy as pie!  Follow these steps and you will be on your way to great presentations.

Step One - Launch the PowerPoint application.

Step Two – Select Blank presentation. Click OK.

Step Three - From the slide layout dialogue box, Select Title Slide as your first slide. It has two text boxes one for your title and one for a subtitle. Follow on-screen prompts to add title.  Click as directed to add subtitle and type your first name and last initial.  The color, size and position of your text can be changed. See Step Six.

Step Four - Add a new slide by clicking on the New Slide icon on the Standard Toolbar or select New Slide from the Insert menu.  The slide layout dialogue box appears with a large selection of slides.

Step Five - Select the blank slide template.

To choose a Background for slides:

Ø     From the Format Menu select Background.  From this dialog box you can click the down arrow and explore the More Colors and Fill Effects options which are available.

Ø     Once you have selected a background, you need to click Apply in the Format/Backgrounds dialog box.  Click Apply To All for all slides to have the same background.

To add text to the slide:

Ø     You can add a text box anywhere you like by choosing Text Box under the Insert Menu. 

Ø     Hold your mouse approximately where you would like to add text, click and hold the mouse button and drag the mouse to form a text box.  The text box can be moved and the size changed by following the directions in Step Six.

Step Six - The color, size and position of your text can be changed. Select any text on a slide by clicking and dragging over the text.  Using the handy Formatting Palette you can change the font, color, size and style of the text.  Experiment with each.  Nothing is permanent until you Save.

Positioning the text: 

To position the text within a text box, choose Alignment from the Format Window or use the alignment tools on the formatting palette.  To change the position of the text box, select the text and an outline appears around the text box; click on the line around the box and drag to reposition the box.

Resizing the text box:

Select the text and an outline will appear around the text box.  Click on the line of the box and "handles" will appear. By clicking and dragging on the handles you can resize the box.

Step Seven - You can add pictures to your slides:

Placing images on your slides will add interest as they help your audience to understand your topic. All your images should be directly connected to your topic.

Using Original Pictures.

Ø     You will first scan your illustrations. Launch your scanner software; then Preview the picture that you have on the scanner; use the “marching ants” tool to select the section of the photo you need; click to do a Final scan of the section of your picture you want to capture. Choose Save As from the File menu.  Type in the name of your image with the extension .pict (eg. photo.pict).  In the location box, find the location where you would like to save your picture, either to a disk in Drive A or a predetermined folder on your hard drive.  Then click “Save”.

Ø     To place your picture on your slide navigate back to PowerPoint and find the slide you need. Go to "Insert" on the menu, click and drag down to "Picture".  A dialogue box will appear.  Now find the picture you saved either on your disk or on your hard drive. Select (highlight) the picture to be inserted, then hit "OK" and the picture will appear on your slide.

Using Pictures from PowerPoint ClipArt Gallery

Ø     View the slide to which you want to add clip art.

Ø     Place your cursor in the area of your slide where you would like to place the graphic.  Go to the Insert menu and select Picture ; from the popup menu choose ClipArt.

Ø     The ClipArt Gallery dialogue box will appear with thumbnails of many graphics. Select the category of clip art; then hold the pointer down on the image you want and click on the icon which is labeled “insert clip”.

          Using Pictures from the Web

Ø     Find Pictures on the web to support your topic.

Ø     You need to give credit for all resources used.

Getting the address - When you find the picture you need, select the address in the Location Area on the top of the browser window by clicking and dragging the mouse over it. The address will be something like http://forum.swarthmore.edu/~carol/ Once you have selected the address, you need to copy it by going to Edit and select Copy. Navigate to the PowerPoint application and go to a bibliography slide (you may need to create this slide by following directions in Steps 4-6). Create a text box and go to Edit and Paste. The address should now be on the slide.

Ø     To get the picture you need, navigate back to the browser.  Click and hold the mouse down on the image until a menu appears; select copy this image; navigate back to PowerPoint.  Find the slide you need and go to Edit and Paste.

Editing Pictures

To change the picture size:

Ø     With the picture selected (click on the picture to select it – you will see small squares called “handles” around the perimeter), place the cursor on a corner handle of the picture.

Ø     The cursor turns into a diagonal arrow on each end. Click and hold the mouse and drag the picture in to make it smaller or out to enlarge it.  Caution!  If you use one of the side handles, the picture will become distorted.

To crop a picture:

Ø     From the View menu, select Toolbars and drag to Picture to activate this toolbar.  From this toolbar click on the cropping tool.

Ø     Be sure the picture is still selected.  Position the pointer over any handle and drag to crop the picture.

 To move a picture:

A picture can be moved anywhere on a slide.

Ø     Move the mouse over the picture until the pointer becomes a cross with arrows going in all four directions.

Ø     Click, hold, and drag the picture to the desired location on the slide.

Step Eight - Repeat Steps Five through Seven for each new slide. Save your work often!

 Step Nine - Add transitions to your finished presentation.  Transitions determine the way the slide appears during a slide presentation.  A transition is an action that happens as you leave one slide to go to another.  The slide can appear like vertical blinds, checkerboard, dissolve, etc.  Transitions lend a flow to the slide show and attract the audience’s attention.

Ø     On the bottom left, choose the fourth icon which is called the slide sorter.  You can also get to the slide sorter from the View menu.  The left side of the screen will be covered with miniatures of each slide.

Ø     Add a transition to a slide by selecting the slide (click on it).  When the slide is selected, you can animate the slide by clicking on the drop-down arrow where it says No Effect (a long rectangle at the top left of your screen).  Scroll down the list and select an effect from the list by clicking on it.  Do this for each slide!

Step Ten – Add builds to your finished presentation.

To “build” means to apply the various elements such as text, pictures, etc. to the slide one at a time.  The best place to control the builds on a slide is the Custom Animation dialog box.  You can access this box from the Slide Show Menu.

Ø     From the Order and Timing tab, the slide items are shown in the window on the top left of the dialog box.

Ø     Click one of the items and then click on the Effects tab.

Ø     Click the down arrow under Entry Animation and Sound and choose an effect.  From this window you can also select how you want the text introduced.

Ø     You can set the order in which the items appear by using the arrows in the Order and Timing window.

Step Eleven – Add music to enhance your presentation. Caution!  Music with words would be distracting to the presentation. The music should be instrumental only.

Using music from within PowerPoint:

Ø     To insert the music, click Insert; then select Movies and Sounds.

Ø     Click Sound From Gallery.  Select the sound and close the window.

Ø     A speaker icon will appear on the slide. If you want to have the sound play automatically, click YES.  Then move the speaker icon off the slide and onto the pasteboard (gray area around the slide) where it will be invisible to your audience. If you do not want the sound to be automatic, but want to activate it yourself, then position the speaker icon in the desired location on the slide.

Having music play through a number of slides:

Ø     Right click on the speaker icon.  Then click on Custom Animation from the drop down box.  When the dialog box opens, there are several steps to complete.

Ø     Under the Order and Timing tab, select the media file and using the arrow move the sound (media) up so that it plays as the presentation begins.

Ø     Under the Effects tab, click the down arrow and select Appear.

Ø     Under the Multimedia Settings tab, click Continue Slide Show.

Ø     Under the Multimedia Settings tab, click the After button and place the number of slides in your presentation in the space to the right.

Ø     Under the Multimedia Settings tab, click More Options and then click Loop Until Stopped.  Click on OK.  Note:  If you would like the same music selection playing from the beginning through the end of the presentation, you will need to do the above steps on slide 1.

Step Twelve – Add hyperlinks to link each slide in the show to the title slide. The presentation can then be viewed either as a linear or sequential slide show or as a nonlinear, branching slideshow.

Adding hyperlinks in PowerPoint:

Ø     Type the title of each of the other slides on the title slide.

Ø     Highlight one of the titles.

Ø     Click on the Slide Show Menu and click Action Settings.

Ø     Click the Hyperlink to: button.

Ø    
Click the triangle beside, “Next Slide:” and choose Slide…

Ø    
Choose the slide that matches the highlighted word. Refer to your storyboard to help you keep up with which category is on each slide.

Ø     Click OK.

Ø     Click OK again to apply the hyperlink.

Ø     Repeat these steps to create a hyperlink on each of the categories in your slide show.

Step Thirteen – Add a hyperlink on each of the slides in the show starting with Slide 2 that will take the viewer back to the title slide.

Adding a hyperlink back to the Home or Title Slide:

Ø      Navigate to Slide 2.

Ø      Click on the Slide Show Menu and click Action Buttons.

Ø      Slide your mouse to the right and choose the second button, the one that looks like a house.

Ø      Move the plus sign to the place on the screen where you want your button to be.
Click/hold and draw diagonally. A small house will appear on your screen.

Ø      Click Ok.

Ø      Resize or move the button to a new location if needed.

Ø      Navigate to the next slide in the presentation. 

Ø      Repeat the steps to add a “Home” button to each of your slides.
 

EXTRAS

Bullets and Numbering

Create a text box or select the existing text box where you want to place bullets or numbers. Go to the Format menu.  Choose Bullets and Numbering.  A window opens giving options from which to choose.  You may choose Style, Color, and Size of the bullet. Under Style you can select a picture or special characters as a bullet. Experiment with each. Nothing is permanent until you save.

Transferring Your Presentation to a VCR Tape

Once the slides are completed, the presentation is ready to transfer to a VCR tape.

Hook the Smart TV/VCR to the computer or hook up the computer to a TV/VCR using an AverKey.  Begin the presentation with the first slide visible before you start to record onto the VCR tape.

The following suggestions will make your VCR presentation first-class:

Tip 1 - Have the students make a nice label for the edge of the tape.  They can use Word Art or a nice font in Word.  The label can then be affixed to the tape.

Tip 2 - Do not begin recording the tape until the slide show has been started.  You might even want the students to have a blank slide at the beginning of their presentation (for timing purposes) if you intend to record it to tape.

Tip 3 - End the presentation with a blank slide and stop the VCR tape on this slide.

Tip 4 - When they are recording the presentation-make sure the mouse is not visible on the screen. Allow enough time to read the text before clicking the mouse and proceeding.  Your audience will want time to reflect as they view it.