3. Microsoft®
PowerPoint 2010
Introduction to PowerPoint
• PowerPoint is a program used to create
professional presentations.
• Presentations can include:
– text – video
– graphics – flash animation files
– tables – animated clip art
– charts – movie clips
– audio – links to Web sites
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4. Microsoft®
PowerPoint 2010
Looking at
the Screen
The PowerPoint window
shares several common
elements and tools with other
Office programs.
Normal view allows you to add
and delete slides, and add text
and elements to slides.
The Home tab is the default
tab on the Ribbon and includes
many of the commands you
will use most often.
5. Microsoft®
PowerPoint 2010
Reviewing the PowerPoint Window (continued)
PowerPoint window in Normal view
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10. Microsoft®
PowerPoint 2010
Changing Views (continued)
• To change views:
– Go to the Presentation Views group on the View tab.
– View shortcuts on the status bar.
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11. Microsoft®
PowerPoint 2010
Changing Views (continued)
• In Normal View you can have up to four panes:
– Slides tab and Outline tab: Slides tab shows
thumbnails of your slides and Outline tab shows text in
an outline format.
– Slide pane: Displays one slide at a time, and offers an
opportunity to edit text.
– Notes pane: Where you add speaker notes.
– Task pane: Opens up on the right for some tasks such
as inserting clip art.
– .
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16. Microsoft®
PowerPoint 2010
Saving a Presentation
•To save a new presentation the first
time, you use the Save As command.
•The next time you want to save changes
to your presentation, click the Save
button on the Quick Access Toolbar or
press Ctrl+S.
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Briefly introduce the topics that will be covered in this lesson so students are aware of the new skills they will learn. Remind students that all the information is available in the book as a reference so they don’t need to commit anything to memory or take notes.
Take a few moments to give a tour of the screen to students. While some may be familiar with some of the features (i.e., they’ve used PowerPoint before, they use another Office program, etc.), they may not be familiar with all the elements on the PowerPoint screen.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of ScreenTips: advantageous for new users who are still learning what and how to access items, but disadvantageous as they take up space on the screen and once you are familiar with PowerPoint features, you may not want to see them any more. Include in the discussion how these can be turned off in the Options area.Make sure the ScreenTips are active prior to the class so students have this tool available should they need help during the course.
Be sure to point out the commonly used commands on this toolbar so students understand its benefits. Those who may have used an earlier version of PowerPoint (2003 or older) will be able to relate this to the buttons on the Standard toolbar.Customization of the Quick Access Toolbar isn’t covered in this level but you can probably introduce the Customize menu with the list of eleven common commands.Mention how the Quick Access Toolbar is available in all Office programs, with the Save, Undo, and Repeat buttons standard. The only exception to this is Outlook which has Send/Receive, Undo, and Print.
As with the Quick Access Toolbar, the Ribbon is present in all Office programs. With the exception of Outlook, all tabs in the Ribbon begin with File, Home, and Insert, and end with View. This consistency between the programs reduces the amount of time spent learning how to access the most common commands. The other tabs will vary with the software and the features of that program.Make sure students understand how the Ribbon works, and specifically how it is mentioned in the book. For example, when the student sees, “On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click New Slide”, this means the student should go to the Home tab, look for the group named Slides, and then click the New Slide button. The bold items are what the student should be looking for or clicking in the exercise.Ensure you go through the different parts of the Ribbon described in the book, including ScreenTips, the More button, the Dialog Box Launcher buttons, etc. Be sure to point out the visual clues on the screen to help students identify what they are doing. For instance, whenever they point at an item, it changes color and depending on the option, may provide a Live Preview; the active tab always appears in a different color than the rest, the Dialog Box Launcher displays what will appear when you point at the button, etc.Make sure students understand the contextual ribbon tab - these tabs only appear with specific types of items such as pictures, tables, charts, etc. It isn’t necessary to go through all the different ones as they will experience the majority of these in the book. Do give a demo of one of these items, whether it’s on your demo computer or you walk students through a simple one (e.g., Picture) so they can see the different color of the ribbon tab. As users become more familiar with the ribbon they may not want it visible all the time. Have them try minimizing the ribbon but still accessing it, then displaying the full ribbon again. Mention as well that this is available in all the Office programs.
While the Slide Sorter and Slide Show views are covered in more detail in other Lessons, it’s a good idea to show students now how to change the view, so they can access at least the Slide Show view while creating presentations. Show both the buttons on the Status bar as well as the View tab. You may want to draw their attention to the fact that the status bar sits in the same location for all Office programs, providing consistency on the screen.
Demonstrate the various ways of zooming in and out, and the advantages of different zoom levels (e.g. a “bird’s eye” perspective gives an overview of the whole presentation; 100% is good for editing slides, and 150% or more is good for fine-tuning details such as photos). Have students try this on their own to get a feel for zooming.
Review with students the many ways of creating a new presentation, from “scratch” or using templates included with PowerPoint or available from Office.com.Demonstrate Ctrl+N as a quick keyboard shortcut to open a new, blank presentation.
Demonstrate navigation through a presentation, in Normal view, so students become comfortable accessing different slides. Have students spend a few minutes trying this on their own so they become comfortable with navigation, as it is key to all the following lessons.Briefly access the Slide Show view to demonstrate navigation through slides in a presentation. While this is covered in more detail in Lesson 7, students may wish to preview presentations they create in earlier lessons, so will benefit from a quick demonstration now.
Discuss file management issues such as using meaningful file names and knowing where you are saving so you can find a presentation again later.Discuss Save vs Save As and when to use (e.g. use Save As to create a copy of an open presentation so as to leave the original unchanged). Have students try saving presentations, as well as saving the same presentation with a different name using Save As.
Review features that were only introduced in recent versions of PowerPoint (e.g. SmartArt introduced in PowerPoint 2007) and issues with saving in an earlier format (which may be necessary when working with others who don’t have the latest version of PowerPoint).Demonstrate running compatibility checker and converting an older presentation to the current format.
Demonstrate switching between windows using the Windows taskbar, and using the options on the View tab in the Windows group, such as Switch Windows, Arrange All, and Cascade.Also demonstrate other methods of switching between open programs in Windows, such as the Alt+Tab or Windows+Tab keyboard shortcuts. Have students try this on their own and become comfortable having several presentations open at once.
Demonstrate closing presentations so as not to have so many windows open, especially for presentations you are finished with. Be sure to demonstrate trying to close a presentation that hasn’t been saved since the last change was made, to show that PowerPoint prompts the user to save. Students should read the message carefully and think about whether to Save or Save As, depending on whether they want to replace an existing presentation or make a copy with the changes.
Demonstrate opening presentations and navigation to the folder where the student data files have been placed, and have students practice this.
Demonstrate the various methods for inserting a new slide. Point out that the new slide is created after the selected slide, not at the end of the presentation, and that it uses the same layout as the selected slide, unless a different layout is selected (changing the layout will be covered in an upcoming slide). Have students try the methods and see if there’s one they prefer most (some students will not be comfortable with keyboard shortcuts, for example, and will prefer to click the large New Slide button).
Demonstrate the various methods of duplicating slides, including duplicating one that has only some content you want on the next slide, then editing the new slide to remove the un-needed content. Have students try this as well.
While this can be a considerable time-saver, over creating all slides in a presentation from scratch, the procedure for doing so may not be immediately grasped by those not proficient with Windows file management and locating different presentations. You may need to demonstrate this more than once, and encourage some students to practice on their own.
This PowerPoint feature can save considerable time in creating a presentation, if a well-formatted outline is available. Demonstrate using the Corporate Profile Word document included with the student data files, or your own presentation outline file.
By now students may have numerous slides they no longer need, having duplicated several. Demonstrate how to delete those slides, using various methods, and have students clean up their own presentations in the same way.
Since the New Slide button always inserts a slide with the same layout as the currently selected slide, students will soon want to introduce some variety by changing the layout. Review the different layouts available and when different ones are most suitable. Point out that there are special slide layouts intended for use as the title slide, or the start of sections, and others suitable for ordinary content slides. Have students try all the layouts to become familiar with them.
You may need to spend a bit of extra time on this feature because it uses a dialog box, not a more visual method. Create some headers and footers to show students what they look like when the options in the dialogue box are applied. Point out that different headers and footers may be applied to handouts (without spending too much time on them yet). Some students may not grasp headers and footers, but you can reassure them that they are not the most important aspect of a presentation, just an extra feature useful in some cases.
Demonstrate to students how quickly they can make a plain, black and white presentation look stunning by selecting one of the built-in themes. Have students try the various themes on their own and see which ones they prefer. Note that different themes may be more appropriate for different types of presentations (e.g. one for a corporate audience vs one for classmates).
Demonstrate modifying slide backgrounds using both pre-created styles as well as the fill, gradient and other options. Point out that backgrounds should be used to add visual appeal, but not to make content harder to see. If in doubt, it’s usually best to leave the background blank, or a faint color.
With the prevalence of wide-screen monitors and TVs, it may be useful to students to know how to adjust a presentation to fit the wider 16:9 aspect ratio of those devices, as well as to adjust the size of a presentation if it will be printed on paper.
Switch to the Slide Sorter view from the Status bar or the View tab to show students how they can have a view of all the slides in their presentation. Point out that the Zoom feature works in this view as well, and that the main purpose of this view is to easily rearrange slides. The undo feature can be especially handy here if a slide is accidentally dragged to the wrong place.
Dividing slides into sections will likely not be of great interest to beginner students, so it’s not necessary to spend too much time on this feature – just enough so students know it exists and how to create a section. Most students will initially be the only one working on a presentation, and their presentations won’t be very large, so there won’t be much need to divide slides into sections.
Review the topics covered in this lesson to remind students of what they have learned and accomplished, and to invite questions on any topics not entirely clear.