UNIT 2 Creating Slides Simple Slides Orderly Outlines Tidy Templates Swift Saves Cool for School
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Okay, what is the Blank Presentation template?

This template gets you started making slides from scratch. It's the building block of a presentation. Let me show you how.

My Aunt Edna used to make pancakes from scratch. Mmm.

Uh, don't pour any maple syrup on the slides, though, Jim. Heh heh.

Creating a slide from scratch In the next step you will create a Title Slide for your presentation using the Blank Presentation template. You will be working in Slide View. 1. Open the PowerPoint program. Powerpoint automatically opens a new presentation. A new title slide will appear for you to work with. 2. Alternatively, let's say you are already working in Powerpoint and want to create a new presentation. In the Open window, click the Microsoft Office Button. From the drop-down list, select New. 3. The New window will appear. Blank and recent is automatically highlighted in the list of options on the left. Click Create. A new Blank Presentation template will open with a new Title Slide in the Slide Layout (Normal) view. 4. If you don't want the Title Slide layout, you can easily change it to one of the other available layouts. In the Slides Group in the Home tab, click the arrow in the Layout button. All the slide layouts you can choose from will appear. Click on whichever one you want to use. The slide layout is now changed. Note: If you are already working in PowerPoint and want to create a new blank presentation, you can create a short cut by adding a New button to the Quick Access Toolbar. Click the arrow in the Quick Access Toolbar. From the drop-down list, select New. The New button is now added to the Quick Access Toolbar.

Okay, now we have a Title Slide. But something's missing. Any guesses?

Hey, who's interviewing who here?

I know. The title!

Good guess Sue. Let me show you how to add text to those blank slides.

Adding text to a slide The Title Slide layout contains text boxes for a title and a subtitle. Try typing text into these boxes. 1. Click in the Title text box. A dashed line border with a circle in each corner and a square box at each midpoint appears around the text box indicating that it is selected. 2. Type a title. 3. Click the Subtitle text box and type a subtitle. Congratulations! You've just created your first slide in PowerPoint.

Okay, you've created an impressive Title Slide for us. But that's just one slide! We need to create more slides or else we're going to have a pretty darn short presentation, aren't we?

Wow, these hard-hitting investigative questions don't let up do they? You should be on 60 Minutes or start your own blog. Here, let me show you how to add another slide...

Adding another slide 1. In the Slides Group in the Home tab, click on the top part of the New Slide button. A new slide is added which by default is the Title and Content layout slide. 2.  Alternatively, to add a new slide with a different layout than the default, click the bottom part of New Slide button with the arrow beside the text, "New Slide". A drop-down list appears with all the slide layouts you can choose from. Click on the layout you want to use. A new slide with that layout is now added.

Okay, so now we have multiple slides for our presentation. But how do we move from slide to slide?

It's as easy as the click of a button. Literally. Just click and you've moved to a new slide.

That's great! You've got enough moves to be on Dancing With The Stars!

Moving from slide to slide Let's say you've created several slides for your presentation. You've finished working on the last slide, and now you want to take a look at your other slides. Here's how you move from slide to slide in Slide View. To move to a previous slide: 1. Click the upper double-arrow button on the lower right corner of the PowerPoint window. The previous slide will appear. To move to the next slide: 1. Click the lower double-arrow button on the lower right corner of the PowerPoint window.

Okay, PowerPoint, this should stump you. Let's say I'm doing a presentation on music. I've got slides on everything from Abba to Gwen Stefani to Guns N' Roses. I want to make sure I don't have too much Rock and Roll and not enough Blues in my presentation. Is there an easier way to plan than just clicking from slide to slide?

Yep. It's called Outline View, and it's designed for viewing the titles and text of all your slides in one, easy to scroll page. Let me show you how it's done...

What is Outline View? In Outline View, your presentation appears as an outline, made up of titles and main text from each slide. Because you can see all your presentation in one window, rather than one slide at a time, it's an ideal place to plan, organize, or edit your presentation.

This Outline View thing sounds swanky. How do I do it?

Switching to Outline View To switch to Outline View, click the Outline Tab in the upper left-hand corner of the PowerPoint window. This is what you should see in Outline View:

When viewing all these slides in Outline View, I may realize something's missing. Like in that example of the Music Presentation, what if I realize Jim forgot a slide for Beethoven? Can I add a slide in Outline View?

Adding a slide to your outline You can add a new slide in Outline View the same way that you do in Slide View. 1. In the Slides Group in the Home tab, click on the top part of the New Slide button. A new slide is added which by default is the Title and Content layout slide. 2.  Alternatively, to add a new slide with a different layout than the default, click the bottom part of New Slide button with the arrow beside the text, "New Slide". A drop-down list appears with all the slide layouts you can choose from. Click on the layout you want to use. A new slide with that layout is now added. You can also add new slides quickly by using the Enter key. To add a new slide right after a slide title: 1. Place your cursor at the end of a slide title. 2. Press the Enter key. A new slide icon will appear in your outline.

What if, in Outline View, I want to add text to a slide? What if my favorite band keeps changing drummers? I'll want to mention that.

Adding text to your outline If you want to add text to a slide that you created previously, click an insertion point in the outline and start typing. With previously created slides with text you can also edit, delete, or change the formatting of text. When you use the default layout when you add a new slide in Outline View, there's a text box already available in the slide where you can add more text which says, "Click to add text". Click and start typing your desired text. There is another way to add text to a new slide you've created in Outline View. Follow these steps: 1. Type a title beside the slide icon. 2. After the slide title, press the Enter key. PowerPoint adds a new slide. 3. To convert the new slide into a text object, you need to use the Demote function. To get to the Demote function, do a right click on the mouse to make a formatting menu appear that includes the special functions used in Outline View. Select Demote. 4. Type your text. 5. To add another bullet point, press Enter. You can press Enter either where the text is shown in the Outline View sidebar on the left side of the PowerPoint window, or inside the text box in the slide. Note: With the exception of the title slide, any text you add will be formatted as a solid black bullet point when the new slide is the default Title and Content layout one. You can change the kind of bullet - to a square or remove it entirely, for example - by using the Bullets subtask in the Paragraph Group in the Home tab. The Bullets subtask can also be accessed in the formatting menu when you right click. There's also the other formatting tools that you can use like font type, size and color.

Also, PowerPoint, what if I need to look at just the slide titles to get a broad view, without getting bogged down in the content of each slide?

Moving around in Outline View When you are in Outline View, you see all the text that appears on your slides. However, PowerPoint lets you collapse the view, so you see only the outline titles. Use this option if you want to print an outline of your presentation, or if you want to check the logical flow of your slide titles without the distraction of extra text. To collapse all the slides in your outline: 1. Click on the slide icon (square box to the right of the number) in the Outline View sidebar on the left side of the PowerPoint window, then right click to make the formatting menu appear. 2. From the menu, select the Collapse button, then go to its arrow to reveal the 2 options. Choose Collapse All. The slide text for all the slides will disappear. You will see that the slide titles now appear to be underlined. This indicates text is hidden. To expand all of the slide titles again: 1. Click a the slide icon (square box to the right of the number) in the Outline View sidebar on the left side of the PowerPoint window, then right click to make the formatting menu appear. 2. From the menu, select the Expand button, then go to its arrow to reveal the 2 options. Choose Expand All. The slide text for all the slides will appear again. If you pick Expand instead of Expand All, only the text of the selected slide will reappear.

While I'm at it, how do you move from one slide to another? In my Music Presentation, let's say I've been checking out Louis Armstrong, and now I want to check out Jay-Z.

Oh, I love Benny Goodman. There's nothing like Big Band music to get me jumping. And on that note, let me tell you how to jump from one slide to the next.

Jumping from one slide to the next To move from one slide to another in Outline View, click anywhere on the slide you want to move to.

Now listen, I'm a talk show host, not a graphic artist. So how can I make sure my presentations look cool? Do you have a magic spell for that?

As a matter of fact, I do. It's a bit of magic called a template, which is a pre-made presentation design that lays out the elements for you. I have lots of different templates to choose from.

Wait a minute. What if I don't want some pre-fab design? Or what if I want to change a design I like and make it even better?! Are you going to stifle the artist?

Not at all. You can customize the templates as much as you wish.

What is a Template? A template, also called a presentation design, lets you create a presentation without worrying about design elements. The template defines the color, background, and font of the slides. PowerPoint has many templates, which you can preview and select in the New Presentation window. PowerPoint also lets you customize the templates. For instance, you can change the background color or typeface of a template.

Okay, you've told us how great these templates are. Now can you show us how to make 'em?

Creating a presentation using templates When you launch PowerPoint, by default you are always presented with a new blank presentation as your starting point. To use one of the built-in templates PowerPoint 2007 has, follow these steps: 1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, then click New. The New Presentation window appears. 2. From the list of options, click Installed Templates. The built-in templates to choose from will appear. Click on one and you will see a preview of it. 3. Decide which one you want, then click Create. The New Presentation dialog box will close. Another kind of Template: Themes In addition to the built-in templates, PowerPoint 2007 has many built-in Themes you can choose from. A Theme is a predefined layout with selected fonts, colors and style. Even though everything is already chosen for you in a Theme, you are free to change any of its elements. Adding a Theme to your presentation is easy. Click on the Design tab. Move your cursor over the icons in the Themes Group and you get an instant preview of a Theme on your current slide. To see all the built-in Themes available, click on the down pointing arrow and a dialog box will open. As with Templates, there are more Themes you can get from Microsoft Office Online. Once you decide which Theme you want, just click on it. The Theme is now applied. Once you have applied a theme, you can make changes to it if you wish. In the far right area of the Themes Group, there are controls that quickly let you change the Theme: Colors, Fonts, Effects. Click on the arrow to the right of one of them and a drop-down menu appears with all the options. By holding your cursor over an option, you get an instant preview of how it will look. If you don't like the options given to you, you can even create your own set of Colors and/or Fonts to apply. Note: When you pick a theme, it is applied to all the slides in your presentation by default. This way there are no worries about any of your slides not being formatted like all the others. If you want, you can choose to apply a theme to only certain slides.

What's the biggest disaster you've ever had working on a presentation?

I was in Italy, where I had finished preparing a presentation on different types of pasta. It was three months' work.

The Italians have a lot of different types of pasta.

Uh...ya, Jim. Lots of pasta. Anyway, I had just put in the finishing touches when "Bam!". The power went out.

You sound like that chef on the Food Network. Oh, that must have been terrible. You lost all that work!

Fortunately, I had been saving my work, so I managed to recover it all. My recommendation to all your viewers is: Save your work! That night I could have been scrambling to redo my presentation. Instead, I was riding a gondola in Venice.

Saving Your Presentation While working on a presentation, it's a good idea to save your work often. Otherwise, you risk losing your work. The next steps show you how to save your presentation to your hard drive for the first time, using the Save As command. 1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Save As. The Save As dialog box will appear. 2. In the File name box, type a name for your presentation. 3. Click Save. The presentation is now saved to your hard drive. Note: The file extension for PowerPoint 2007 is .pptx. This is the new file format for PowerPoint. The new file format is based on XML. It is called Microsoft Office Open XML format. Among its features, this new format allows for much smaller files sizes while still perserving all the rich content. You can choose to save a copy of your presentation as the PowerPoint 1997 - 2003 format (.ppt) so that it will be compatible with someone who is running an earlier version of PowerPoint. Instead of clicking Save As, hold the cursor over Save As and a menu of format options that you can export your presentation as appears to the right. Select and click PowerPoint 97-2003 Presentation. The Save As dialog box will appear with the .ppt file extension chosen. Type a name and then click Save. A couple other file formats - access from the Save As menu - that you can export your presentation as are PDF (Portable Document Format) and XPS (XML Paper Specification). Once you've saved the presentation for the first time, periodically save it by clicking the Save icon in the Quick Access Toolbar.

UNIT 2 PowerPoint gives you quite a few ways to create a presentation. If you want total control over the look and structure, you will likely build your slide show from the ground up. If you're great at organizing information, but can't match two colors if your life depended on it, then you'd better leave your slide show color scheme to PowerPoint's ready-made templates and themes. That said, what's the best way to create a PowerPoint presentation with your students? The answer depends on two factors: time and function. Teaching your class how to create a presentation from scratch is time consuming, but it's a worthwhile process. Not only will your students pick up valuable technology skills, they'll also have a blast creating slide shows that define their unique style. You, too, will find the do-it-yourself method the most rewarding as you watch your students breathe life into a blank presentation. The second consideration is function. What type of presentation do you want your students to create? Is it going to be a science fair kiosk presentation, or a simple three-slide show? Of course, the bigger the show, the more help your students will need. Whatever method you choose, be sure that it meets your learning objectives. For example, if your goal is to teach your class how to organize information, you'll want your students to spend more time working on outlines and less on background colors. While we're on the topic, we have to point out our favorite PowerPoint feature for the classroom - the Outline View. There's very little razzle-dazzle to this feature, which is probably why we like it so much. If you want your students to concentrate on the main elements of a presentation, start them out in Outline View. This modest view will keep your kids focused on researching, organizing, and writing their presentations. After your students have created a logical outline, you can introduce the fancy fonts and mesmerizing transitions. Your students can follow your instructions for creating an outline. The default Blank presentation has excellent headings and writing instructions for a simple presentation or a classic essay. When introduced during the research stage of a project, you can even use this outline to teach the finer points of note-taking.