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Powerpoint is a program that lets you create slide show presentations, which can either be printed on acetate slides to be put on an overhead projector, or saved as a computer file, so that you can give a slide show using the computer as the display device.
A device can be connected to the computer so that what appears on the screen is also thrown up on to a screen on the wall. There are advantages in doing this rather than printing the presentation on acetate slides – not only is it cheaper (no acetate required) but it also allows the presentations to be animated and for sound files to be played.
You may find that there is a Powerpoint icon on your computer desktop. It will look something like this:
If you can’t find the icon, then you will have to hunt around for the program. Click on the Start icon in the bottom left corner of the screen. Select Programs from the menu that pops up. This will lead you to another menu, which will probably contain an item called MS Office (or something similar). This should have Powerpoint as one of its options.
When you click on Powerpoint, you get the initial menu:
This gives you the option to start a new Powerpoint presentation, open an existing one or to use the Autocontent wizard, which will take you by the hand and create the skeleton of the presentation for you. I will not dwell on the Autocontent wizard, but concentrate on creating a new presentation from scratch.
Assuming you have chosen to create a new presentation, Powerpoint will ask you to choose a layout from a variety of standard layouts. You will be faced by a series of thumbnail sketches from you which to choose the layout of the first slide:
The shaded rectangles represent title bars, and the boxes of text are represented by squiggly lines. Powerpoint suggests that you use a Title Slide (the top most sketch on the left) for the first slide. If you click on it, the first slide will have the standard title layout;
You put the title and subtitle in the boxes specified just by clicking on them and typing. You can see how the two boxes match up with the thumbnail sketch in the layout menu.
Other slides are inserted similarly. You insert a new slide either by choosing New Slide from the Insert menu, or clicking on 
on the icon bar. You will be asked to choose a layout for the slide and you have a large number of thumbnail sketches to choose from.
When you create the presentation, the screen has menus at the top and the side. You obviously don’t want these when you give the presentation for real. To see the presentation the same way that the users will see it, you should View Show from the Slide Show menu. This will remove the menus and boost your slide to fill the entire screen.
You should use this option when you want to give the presentation to your audience. Keep the mouse in your hand, as you will need to press the left-hand mouse button to move from one slide to the next. At the end of the presentation, Powerpoint makes the menus etc. appear again.
The slides start off as black text on a white background. This is a little dull. Fortunately, there is the Slide Colour Scheme option on the Format menu. This will let you change the various colours used in the slides:
The box gives you the chance to choose one of several standard colour layouts, but there is a Custom tag that you can click on to choose the individual colours.
You can choose a different colour for each of the different types of text (such as the title text, the accented text etc.) You will see on the previous picture that you can apply your colour scheme either to the current slide only, or to all the slides.
There is another option on the Format menu, called Background, that lets you do more adventurous things with the backgrounds:
Again you can apply the backgrounds that you create to this current slide or to all the slide. The option for the fancy fill effects is found under "Fill Effects":
You can see that this gives various options – you can select any one of several textures, or blend from one colour to another. Experiment with the options to see what looks best.
Normally, when you are giving a presentation, you would click the left mouse button to move from one slide to another. The first slide disappears and the second appears. However, there are more fancy transitions.
Choose Slide Transitions from the Slide Show menu. The following box will appear:
Under the picture of the dog is a select box. Clicking on the small black arrow produces a list of slide transitions. Choose the one you want. You can see what each one does as the dog will change to a picture of a key using that particular transition.
You can also select a sound to go with the transition, and apply this transition to all slides or just to this one. Of course, all these effects are wasted if all you plan to do is print the slides on acetate.
As well as animating the transitions from one slide to another, you can also animate the text and pictures on the slides themselves. Select Custom Animation from the Slide Show menu.
The slide consists of several items, such as text boxes and pictures. These objects first appear in the white window in the bottom left-corner. This shows the objects which aren’t animated (yet!) You can click on one of these items and then choose the tag just above it marked Effects. This lets you choose the effect you want for each screen item.
Once you have chosen an effect for the items, they will transfer themselves into the Animation Order box in the top left corner. This box shows the order in which the objects will appear on the screen. Use the up and down arrow icons next to this box to alter the order (promote and demote the items in the order)
The last option of interest on the Slide Show menu is Action Buttons. There are a selection of these which have standard functions. Select them from the pop-up menu:
The buttons themselves are drawn out the same way that you would draw a rectangle in Paint – click the mouse on the icon, and then where you want one corner to appear on the slide itself. Keeping you finger on the button, drag the mouse. The button appears and you can make it as large as you like.
You will need to specify what you want the button to do. Fortunately a menu pops up asking you to choose an action:
The buttons each have a default action (although you can overide them). For instance, the 
button will normally take you to the previous slide (unless you tell it to do something else) and the 
button normally takes you to the next slide.
These buttons only come into effect when you are giving the presentation. Move the mouse cursor over the button you have drawn and click on it.
You can use Powerpoint to create notes for your presentation, or a series of slide outlines (just listing the main points). These are found on a series of very small icons at the bottom left of the screen.
They are (in order) :
. Slide design view. This is the view that you have been looking at. Click here to return to designing slide after selecting any other option.
. This is the outline view. Click here to see the presentation as a series of text headings. It just shows the titles of the slides and subtitles.
. The slide sorter view. This gives the slides as a series of thumbnail sketches. You can move the slides around and alter the order in which they appear.
This is the Notes view. You see the slide in a smaller format with a box at the bottom in which you can write notes to prompt you while you give the presentation. These should be printed out, of course.
This lets you view the presentation for real. It duplicates the View Show option on the Slide Show menu except that it shows the presentation from the current slide (i.e. the slide that you are editing at the time).
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