ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE 2013: Tutorials for Teachers

Copyright © Bernard John Poole, 2013. All rights reserved

PowerPoint PRESENTATIONS

9 Creating slide shows and related teaching

materials

LEARNING OUTCOMES
This lesson introduces you to the basic features of PowerPoint which are particularly valuable in
the teaching and learning environment. You will learn how to use PowerPoint to capture your
ideas in outline form and convert those ideas into multimedia presentations. You will also learn
how to use the application to create your own presentations both from scratch and with the help of
one of the PowerPoint Wizards.
Most people think of a slide show as a way of presenting a series of still images or photographs
using a slide projector. If you think about it, however, a slide does not have to be a still image;
using PowerPoint it can also be an audio or video clip. For that matter, a slide does not have to be
even a picture; it can also be text, an outline of ideas, whatever you want.
PowerPoint provides an easy-to-use multimedia presentation production system, which you
will no doubt enjoy learning and which you and your students will find useful for individual or
group projects of all kinds.
In the various courses that you take as an Education major you learn how to design curricula,
with lesson plans and unit plans. You also learn methodologies for effective teaching. The better
the teacher you are, the more PowerPoint will empower you in your work.
Here, then, are the topics that will be covered in this lesson:
 introductory thoughts about presentations;
 PowerPoint at work;
 building the presentation;
 adding bells and whistles to the presentation;
 printing presentation handouts.

A caveat before you begin:

In the earlier tutorials for Office 2013, the steps to accomplish the tasks assigned have been rather
detailed. This time, however, the directions will be less specific, especially in the latter half of the
lesson, because PowerPoint is a program you can figure out by playing with it. You’ll find that
you’ll soon become confident about how to design and develop high quality multimedia slide
presentations. So relax, and have fun!

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9.1 SOME INTRODUCTORY THOUGHTS ABOUT PRESENTATIONS

Making a successful—well-designed, content-rich, pedagogically-sound—PowerPoint
presentation requires forethought and advance preparation. It’s rather like what good cooks or
chefs do before starting to cook a delicious dish of food. They read the recipe, make sure they have
all the ingredients they need, gather all the ingredients together—the raw food such as vegetables
and eggs and milk and wine and spices and other flavoring—what they call the mise en place.
They make sure they have all the tools they need to do the job.
Good cooks doesn’t start cooking till they’re good and ready.
In the same way, you have to get your thoughts together, know what you’re going to talk about,
and have your audio-visual material gathered together in one place (mise enplace) so that when
you come to create the presentation, it’s a snap.
A good presentation, like a term paper, is usually based on an outline, such as is illustrated in
Fig. 9.1 and Fig. 9.13 later in the lesson.

Each of these icons

represents a slide in the
PowerPoint presentation

Fig. 9.1 Outline (Normal View) for the Tudor Monarchs presentation (annotated)
Take a good look at Fig. 9.1—study the annotations especially
You see on the left an outline of the text for each slide in the Tudor Monarchs presentation. Think
of the titles and text for each slide to an outline you would have made for a high school or college
paper. Similar, right? This is why the outlining tool is built into PowerPoint—to help you plan.
Remember the golden rules of successful design: Rule 1—Plan; Rule 2—Plan; Rule 3—Plan!
These golden rules apply whether you are designing a term paper, an audio-visual aid, a class
outing, or a class syllabus and schedule.
You might begin with a brainstorming session to help you get an outline. During
brainstorming, members of the group would come up with as many ideas as possible related to the
topic of the project. Nobody's ideas are rejected in the early stages so as to encourage a fertile flow
of useful suggestions.

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The result of the brainstorming session might be a somewhat disorganized list of ideas. This list
might have been entered directly into the computer during the brainstorming session, or it might
have been collected on a blackboard or flip chart. Before changing the list into outline form you
would re-organize it so that the ideas flowed naturally and logically from one to the other.
Along the way you might toss out some of the ideas for one reason or another. Eventually
you'll have a working list which would end up as an outline, perhaps in a word processor document.

9.2 PowerPoint AT WORK

Let’s see these ideas and others at work by looking at an example of a PowerPoint presentation.

Turn on your computer and open PowerPoint 2013

Make sure you have your USB drive installed with Work Files for Office 2013
available on the drive
In the Backstage View select Open Other Presentations, then navigate
(Open > Computer > Browse) to the Open dialog box (Fig. 9.2)

Fig. 9.2 The Open dialog box

In the Open dialog box, navigate to your USB drive (Removable Disk) > Work
Files for Office 2013 > PowerPoint Files folder and double click to open the
Tudor Monarchs presentation

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Fig. 9.3 shows the Tudor Monarchs presentation in Normal View as it appears on your screen right
after you open the document.

Slide View Tools

Fig. 9.3 The Tudor Monarchs presentation

Take a look at the Slide View tools in the lower left corner of the PowerPoint window (Fig. 9.3).
You'll use these tools a lot while you're developing your slides, so let's get a close up view of them
right away and find out what each of them is about (Fig. 9.4).
Normal View Slide Sorter View Reading View Slide Show View

Fig. 9.4 The Slide View toolbar (annotated)

Different ways to view your presentation
Normal view
This is the view you see illustrated in Fig. 9.3 above. It is the one you'll use most of the time while
you're actually putting information on each slide. In this view you have the left hand frame where
you have the option to either see a thumbnail of all your slides or the outline for your presentation.
In the center of the window you have the slide you are actually working on—the active slide. Then,
over in the right hand frame you have the Task Pane where you'll find all the help you need to
develop your presentation.

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Slide Sorter view

This is the view you see illustrated in Fig. 9.5 and it is the one you'll find most useful when you
want to get an overview of your show since you'll be able to see most all your slides at once.

Slide Sorter tool

Fig. 9.5 The Slide Sorter View of the Presentation

You also can easily move your slides around, changing the order to suit your purposes. This is
why it's called the Slide Sorter view.
Reading View
Use reading view to deliver your presentation not to an audience (via a large screen, for example),
but instead to someone viewing your presentation on their own computer. Or, use Reading view
on your own computer when you want to view a presentation not in full-screen Slide Show view,
but in a window with simple controls that make the presentation easy to review. You can always
switch from Reading view to one of the other views if you want to change the presentation.
Slide Show view
When you click on the Slide Show tool, you'll be able to see how the slide you're actually working
on (the current or active slide) looks when you run the slide show. You'll use this button when
you've been working on a slide for a while and you want to see how it will look to your audience
during your presentation.
You'll find yourself using these tools frequently to switch from one view to another as you are
developing your PowerPoint presentation. Let's check out the Slide Sorter view now.
Click on the Slide Sorter tool in the Slide View toolbar (you can also access
these views from the View Ribbon > Presentation Views Group, by the way)
Take a look at the Slide Sorter View window that is presented to you now (more or less the same
as Fig. 9.5 above, though your screen may be a different width, so the slides may be arranged
differently across the page).
The presentation you are looking at demonstrates some of the basic features of PowerPoint.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to build your own presentations along the same lines.

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It’s time you learned about the Tudor Kings and Queens of England.
In the Slide Show Ribbon > Start Slide Show Group click on From
Beginning
Features to look out for in the demonstration presentation
While you click your way through the Tudor Monarchs presentation, look out for the following
PowerPoint features that have been used in the creation of the Tudor Monarchs slide show.
Transition effects and text preset animations
The transition effects from one slide to another and the text preset animations (which determine
how the text will arrive on each slide) have been set at random for the demonstration. This is to
give you some idea of the variety of transitions and animations you can use in PowerPoint.
But this is not necessarily a good thing to do. Normally you would not want to use many, if
any, different transitions and animations since it might distract from the impact you are trying to
make. A good designer homes in on a style that he or she likes best for a particular theme and tends
to stay with it for all the slides in the show.
Inserting clip art, pictures and other media
Microsoft Corporation maintains a rich database of clip art and other media on a wide range of
topics. This online database is available to all the software in the Microsoft Office suite. You just
have to go to the web to access it if you are a registered user of Office or other Microsoft programs.
Fig. 9.6 illustrates the Insert Ribbon from which you can select clip art and other media (such
as photos, movie clips, sound files, and so forth).

Fig. 9.6 Ribbon for inserting images, illustrations, and other media
In the Insert Ribbon > Images Group slide the mouse arrow over the
Pictures tool to read the description of what the tool is used for—i.e. to
“Insert pictures from your computer or from other computers that you’re
connected to”
Now do the same for Online Pictures, a tool which makes it easy for you to
“Find and insert a variety of pictures from online sources”
In the Insert Ribbon > Illustrations Group, also check out the Shapes,
Smart Art, and Chart tools, noting what each tool can be used for to illustrate
your presentations
Notice, too, the Insert Ribbon > Media Group, with its tools for inserting
Video (like movies and video clips) and Audio (sound)
You can download clip art, photographs, sound files, video clips and other media from a file you
have saved on disk, or from Microsoft’s collection on the Web, or you can bring onto a slide all
kinds of charts and tables from other Office programs such as Word or Excel.
You can also scan pictures directly onto a slide. So, if you have a scanner connected to your
computer, you’re in business.

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If you’re looking for multimedia material to accompany your slides, the Web is the place to go.
Companies, universities, schools, and individuals, especially teachers, are creating and making
available excellent multimedia materials. These materials are available, mostly free of charge,
from websites such as flickr.com, youtube.com, and so forth.
PowerPoint makes it easy to incorporate such material into presentations, with or without
accompanying text.
Buttons and Hidden Slides
Notice the use of buttons to allow the user to control movement through the slides, thus making
slideshows both interactive and non-linear—in other words, the user has control over the
sequencing of the slides.
In the Tudor Monarchs slide show there is a Hidden Slide (slide #5) which is only seen if you
click on the button to see the answer to the question posed on slide #4. Let’s check this out.
If you are actually viewing the slide show, hit the Esc(ape) key on the keyboard
to exit the slide show then, in the Slides menu on the left of the PowerPoint
window, click on Slide #4 to make it the active slide
In the Slide View toolbar at the bottom right of the window, click on the
Slide Show button—or from the Slide Show Ribbon > Start Slide Show
Group, select From Current Slide)
Slide #4 is now showing on your full screen.
Now, do NOT click on the orange button at the lower left of the picture of
Henry VIII to find out the answer to the question as to why Henry VIII broke
away from the Church of Rome—instead, click anywhere else on the screen
Notice that PowerPoint skips slide #5, which should be the next slide, and jumps directly to slide
#6! This is because slide #5 is a hidden slide which can only be reached if you click on the orange
button on either slide #4 or, since you missed it, slide #6.
Hit the Esc(ape) key again on the keyboard to exit the slide show then, in the
slides menu, on the left of the PowerPoint window, look at the icon for slide
#5 and notice that the slide number has a box around it with a line running
diagonally across the number (Fig. 9.7)

Notice the boxed number with

a slash thru it indicating a
Hidden Slide

Fig. 9.7 A Hidden Slide is identified in the Slides menu by the slash across its number

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The orange buttons in the Tudor Monarchs presentation (orange only because that’s the color the
author chose for them) are called Action Buttons. Action buttons and hidden slides give you control
over how you want the user to view the presentation.
Now, in the PowerPoint tools at the bottom of the PowerPoint window, click
on the Slide Show button, then click on the orange button on slide #6 to go
back to the previous slide so you can check out the answer to the question
This shows you that you can create interesting interactive learning materials using PowerPoint.
Lesson 10 will help you learn more about interactive presentations such as this. Your students, too,
will have a lot of fun using PowerPoint to develop projects of all kinds for every subject under the
sun.
Let’s continue checking out the remaining PowerPoint features.
Timing considerations
Fig. 9.8 shows the Slide Sorter View of the presentation and highlights where PowerPoint
indicates the time each slide will show on the screen before automatic transition to the next slide.

Timing settings

Fig. 9.8 The Slide Sorter View showing the timing settings
You’ll notice that under each slide is a number on the left, indicating which slide it is in the
sequence of slides in the presentation, and a ":30" on the right, showing that the slide will transition
to the next slide after 30 seconds.
Now, 30 seconds is more than enough time for anyone to read and absorb the data on slides
such as those in the Tudor Monarchs presentation. So you might think 30 seconds is too long to
hold the user’s attention. Won’t they get antsy waiting for the next slide?
Well, if you look at each of the slides, you will see that there is a button which the user can
click on to control when to proceed to the next slide. Thus, by allowing a generous amount of time,
along with user control, you're allowing each individual student the freedom to proceed at his or
her own pace. The speed at which our minds absorb data varies enormously from person to person.

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So you always want to design teaching materials and lessons in such a way as to address individual
student needs and the timing features of PowerPoint allow for this.
Acknowledgements: Always give credit where credit is due
The last slide in any presentation, just as the last item in a term paper or the credits that run at the
end of a movie, should usually be your list of sources cited or used—your Acknowledgements
slide (Fig. 9.9).

Fig. 9.9 The first Acknowledgements slide

So… If you haven't already done so, in the Slide Show Ribbon > Start Slide
Show Group, click on the From Beginning button
Click your way through the presentation now (you can click the left button on
your mouse to do this, or hit the space bar, or use the arrow keys to go
back and forth through the show, or click on the Action Buttons on the slides
themselves to proceed to the next or previous slide)
The slides have been timed to allow the user (you right now) to easily view and read what is on
each slide without feeling rushed. If you want the slides to proceed at a faster pace, simply click
on the left mouse button or hit the space bar.
When you have finished reviewing the Tudor Monarchs slide show, exit the
show by hitting the Esc(ape) button in the top left corner of the keyboard
So much for an overview of PowerPoint. No doubt you are anxious to start creating your own
presentation. The next section will help you do just that.
Close the Tudor Monarchs presentation when you are ready to continue

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9.3 BUILDING THE PRESENTATION

Preparation of the outline
You are going to prepare a simple outline, which will give you the experience to prepare your own
outlines when you're done with the tutorials.
It's tempting to just barrel along into a presentation, like someone tempting fate at Niagara
Falls! But you should resist doing so at all costs because you'll save yourself no end of time in the
long run if you carefully plan what you want to do. You really have to think ahead if you want to
get where you want to go. Otherwise, there's no telling where you'll end up!
So whenever you’re preparing a new PowerPoint presentation, take your time. Think about it;
gather your data; brainstorm, with yourself at least, and with friends if necessary. Don’t just
blunder along, OK? So let’s begin.
From the File menu select New then, in the Backstage View, click on Blank
Presentation to open a new PowerPoint presentation
Go to File > Save As, navigate (Browse) on your Computer to your USB drive
(Removable disk) > Work Files for Office 2013 > Data Files folder and Create
a new folder called PowerPoint Documents
Open the PowerPoint Documents folder, name the new presentation
Screenbeans and click on Save
When you first open a new, blank presentation in PowerPoint 2013, the program presents you with
the Normal View (Fig. 9.10).

Fig. 9.10 New Presentation window in Normal View

The Normal View is fine when you have your presentation built, bar the shouting, and you want to
be able to check out and edit individual slides that you have already created. But when you are at
the planning stages and you want to create an outline of the text you want to include on each slide,
it is best to use the Outline View. PowerPoint provides a lot of help such as this while you're
developing your presentation.
Let’s switch to the Outline View now.

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In the View Ribbon > Presentation Views Group click on Outline View (Fig.
9.11)

Here is where you will

type the text for the
first slide

Fig. 9.11 The screen at the start of a new blank presentation

The first slide, by default, is in the Title slide layout. This is because you would normally want to
start out a presentation with a slide that displays the title of your show, along with sub titles such
as your name and so forth. You don't have to use this slide layout, of course. PowerPoint provides
slide layout templates from which you can choose for any slide, including one layout which is
blank. In other words, you can create slides from scratch, entirely of your own design, in which
case you would select the Blank Slide layout.
Let’s take a look at these different Slide Layouts now (Fig. 9.12).
In the Home Ribbon > Slides Group click on the Slide Layout tool

Slide Layout tool in the

Slides Group of the
Home Ribbon

Fig. 9.12 Slide Layouts

Click on each of the layouts to check them out, then click on the Title layout last
when you are ready to proceed with the lesson

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Typing the outline entries

As you type the text for each slide, the text will show up on the slide itself (on the right side of the
PowerPoint window) with no extra effort on your part, thanks to PowerPoint’s slide layout
features.
Don’t start typing text just yet, though. Fig. 9.14 illustrates the outline you are going to create.
Refer to it as you work your way through the directions that follow.

Fig. 9.14 The outline for the Screenbeans presentation

On the left side of the window, next to the small icon for the first slide, type the
title No Problems, Only Solutions (see Fig. 9.14 above) then hit Enter on the
keyboard

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PowerPoint now goes to a new slide because it assumes that you have finished adding text to the
first slide. But you need to add a sub-title on the Title slide. To do this, you must increase the list
level (which means to Increase the indent level).
Fig. 9.15 illustrates the Increase List Level tool that you use to do this; it’s in the Paragraph
Group of the Home Ribbon.

Fig. 9.15 Increase list level tool

In the Home Ribbon > Paragraph Group, click on the Increase List Level
tool now, then type By [your name]—type your own name, of course!—and hit
the Enter key
So now your first slide will look something like this (Fig. 9.16).

The cursor is under your

name, waiting for you to
type more text on the first
slide. You need to Decrease
the List Level so you can
start a new slide.

Fig. 9.16 The first slide in your presentation will look something like this
That’s all you need on the first slide. Now you need to go to a new slide. To do that in the outline,
you must decrease the list level. The tool to do this is right next to the tool for increasing the list
level (Fig. 9.16 above).

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In the Home Ribbon > Paragraph Group, click on the Decrease List Level
tool now
Now you are ready to type in the entries for the second and remaining slides (see Fig. 9.14 for the
content of each slide). First, however, you must change the slide layout.
In the Home Ribbon > Slides Group, click on the Slide Layout tool, then, in
the selection of templates that pops up, locate and click on the layout for a
Two Content slide (Fig. 9.17)

You’ll continue typing

here the text for slide #2
(see Fig. 2.14 on page 309)

Fig. 9.17 The Title, Text, and Content slide layout

Now, return your attention to the left hand frame of the PowerPoint window so
you can continue with Slide 2 of the Outline
Type Confusion for the second slide title, and hit Enter
Now you need to learn how to switch levels.
Switching levels
You already saw how to do this with Slide #1, but let’s review the steps. Switching levels means
moving up or down in the hierarchy of topics by increasing or decreasing the indent of the text on
each slide.
If you look at the text for the second slide (Fig. 9.14 on page 309), the word Confusion (the
Title of the slide) is at the top level. Then what immediately follows (A problem often presents
itself…, etc ) is indented—it’s lower level text. When you switch to the next level down, the text
is automatically indented to the right, that is to say the level (in PowerPoint speak) is increased
from the 1st level to the 2nd.
So, to summarize, moving the text to the LEFT decreases the list level in an outline. Moving
the text to the RIGHT increases the list level in an outline. For the remaining slides you have to
enter text not only for the Title of each slide, but also for the sub-text. This sub-text will be at an
increased list level compared to the Title.

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Increasing the List Level

As we already observed when you were working on Slide #1, to change levels in an outline,
PowerPoint provides list level control tools, as illustrated in Fig. 9.15 and 9.16 on page 310.
Go back and take a look at Figs. 9.15 and 9.16 now before proceeding, then,
in the Home Ribbon > Paragraph Group, click on the Increase List Level
tool for the text you are going to type into the outline for slide #2
Look at your outline now and notice that the next entry you type will be indented and bulleted.
Type the lower level text for the second slide (A problem often presents
itself…, etc.) from the illustration in Fig. 9.14 on page 309, then hit Enter
Decreasing the List Level
That is all you need by way of text for the second slide. As you can see, you must decrease the list
level for the new slide 3. To do this you use the Slide Level tools once more.
In the Home Ribbon > Paragraph Group, click on the Decrease List Level
tool to start a new slide for the next text you are going to type into the outline
As you see, this begins a new slide (slide #3). You should be starting to get the hang of this.
So go ahead and complete the rest of the outline (using Fig. 9.14 above on
page 309), increasing and decreasing the text levels as you go along
After you have typed the Title and text entries for slide #9, be sure to save
this Screenbeans PowerPoint slide show on your USB/flash drive
Checkout your work as you go along
In the View Ribbon > Presentation Views Group, click on Normal View
You should now see, on the left side of the PowerPoint window, thumbnails for each of the slides
in the show (Fig. 9.18).

Content
Placeholder

Fig. 9.18 The Normal View

Neat! Now you can see all of the slides with, on the left hand side, the text you typed in. On the
right hand side you see the slide itself as it will show in a presentation. All you have to do now is
add any one of several different types of media in the Content Placeholder box on the right hand
side of the slide (Fig. 9.18).

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Adding pictures to the slides

For Slides #2 through #9 you are going to insert a Screenbean1 graphic in the Content Placeholder.
This job has to be done directly on the slide.
You should still be in Normal view, so click on the thumbnail for Slide #2 in
the show to make Slide #2 the current slide
You can now see the larger version of slide #2 in the PowerPoint window on the right (Fig. 9.19).

Content
Selector tools

Fig. 9.19 The Two Content slide layout

Let's take a closer look at the Content Selector tools in the right frame of a typical Two Content
blank slide (Fig. 9.20).

Insert Chart
Insert a SmartArt
Insert Table Graphic

Insert Pictures
Insert Video

Insert Online
Pictures

Fig. 9.20 The Content Selector tools

As illustrated in Fig. 9.20 above, you can insert a table, or a chart, or a SmartArt graphic, or a
photo, or any other picture that you have saved on disk or that you gathered from the Web, or a
video clip that you either made yourself or that you downloaded from a CD-ROM or from the web.

1 Screenbeans are cartoon characters created by Microsoft, Inc.

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Click on the Insert Online Pictures tool to bring up the Insert Pictures dialog
box (Fig. 9.21)

Type a search
string here

Fig. 9.21 The Microsoft Clip Art Gallery dialog box

As you can see in Fig. 9.21, you would type in a word or a phrase and the Microsoft search tools
will find oodles of possible online images that you could use on any slide.
However, the set of Screenbean pictures that you are going to use for this presentation are from
Microsoft's clip art gallery, and they may not be available on your computer since you may not be
working online. So, for the sake of this exercise, a folder containing eight Screenbean clip art
drawings has been prepared for you. You’ll find it on your USB drive, inside the Work Files for
Office 2013 folder.
Make sure you still have your USB drive, with the Work Files for Office 2013
folder, in the USB port on your computer
Now, in the Content Selector tools > Insert Pictures icon (Fig. 9.20 on
previous page), navigate on your USB drive to your Work Files for Office
2013 > PowerPoint Files > Screenbeans folder
In the Screenbeans folder there are the 8 pictures you need for the next 8 slides in the presentation.
Fig. 9.22 lists the pictures in the order in which you should use them in the slides.
Slide 2 Confused
Slide 3 Contused
Slide 4 Juggler
Slide 5 Inspired
Slide 6 Nowwhat
Slide 7 Elated
Slide 8 Yayyy
Slide 9 Jubilee
Fig. 9.22 The sequence you will use for the Screenbean pictures in the presentation
In the Screenbeans folder, double click on the Confused file (“Confused”
with an “f”, not “Contused” with a “t”!)

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PowerPoint inserts the Screenbean figurine on Slide #2 inside the right side placeholder, with
handles around it so that you can re-size it, if necessary, to fit the space provided for it on the slide.
Check to make sure the art is correctly positioned on the right side of the
slide (it should look something like Fig. 9.23), then click anywhere off the
image in order to set it in place (though you can click back on it anytime to
change the image’s size and position)

Fig. 9.23 Slide #2 with the image in place

Repeat this exercise for the next seven slides, loading the Screenbean
images in the order they are listed in Fig. 9.22 on the previous page
When you are done with slide #9, your PowerPoint should resemble Fig. 2.24.

Fig. 9.24 Screenbeans slide show after inserting all the Screenbeans
Save the Screenbeans PowerPoint before you move on to the next exercise

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9.4 ADDING BELLS AND WHISTLES TO THE PRESENTATION

Setting timings for the slides and adding transitions
This task should be done while you are in the Slide Sorter View.
In the Slide View toolbar at the lower right of the PowerPoint window, click on
the Slide Sorter View (or go to View Ribbon > Presentation Views Group >
Slide Sorter)
For this exercise, you are going to add the same timing and transition to all the slides, though you
could, if you wanted, use different timings or transitions for each individual slide.
In the Home Ribbon > Editing Group > Select menu, choose the option for
Select All (or press Ctrl-a on the keyboard)
Now, in the Transitions Ribbon > Transitions to This Slide Group, click on
the More Slide Transitions button (Fig. 9.25)

Click on the More

Slide Transitions
button to see more slide
transition options

Fig. 9.25 The More Slide Transitions button

This Slide Transitions button drops down a menu of the complete selection of PowerPoint slide
transitions (Fig. 9.26).

Fig. 9.26 Transition Slides menu

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To get a Live Preview of any of the transitions, click on any Transition in the
menu and watch the slide transitions in the Slide Sorter view
Try several of them to get a feel for how they work, then select the one you
most like
Next, in the Transitions Ribbon > Timing Group, click in the check box next
to After: and increase the Advance Slide time to 10 (ten) seconds, but leave
the check mark in the box next to On Mouse Click, so now the Advance Slide
options will look like those illustrated in Fig. 9.27

Fig. 9.27 Advance Slide Timing settings

This will allow the user to advance to the next slide either manually (by clicking the mouse) or
automatically (after 10 seconds).
Finally, for a sound effect, in the Transitions Ribbon > Timing Group, click
on the small arrow to bring down the Sound: menu (Fig. 9.28)

Click on this arrow to

bring down the Sound
menu

Fig. 9.28 The PowerPoint Sounds menu

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Choose Drum roll (if you don’t hear a drum roll when you run the slide show,
it may be because the speakers on your computer are turned off—muted—or
maybe you don't have speakers on your computer at all)
You are going to Apply these Timing and Transition effects to All the slides. But you should bear
in mind that you could have different effects for each slide if you wanted, simply by going from
slide to slide, setting the options, and not applying them to All Slides. This is only a good idea if
you are designing a slide show where your goal is to impress your audience (a) with your
PowerPoint skills, or (b) with your artistic/creative nature, or (c) you just have no idea what you’re
doing! So, unless you know what you’re doing, and for the sake of this exercise, let’s apply these
settings to All Slides.
Click on Apply to All Slides (Fig. 9.29)

Fig. 9.29 The Apply to All option in the Timing Group

Notice that the timing value ":10" has appeared underneath each slide in the Slide Sorter view.
Choosing Slide Design Themes
PowerPoint gives you all kinds of assistance in the design of your slides. So far we've used the
basic set of Slide Layouts, which are OK when it comes to the general layout of each slide in your
show. The Slide Layouts help you throw together so-called “quick-and-dirty” PowerPoints, where
you’ve planned what you want to “show and tell,” but you haven’t given much thought to how you
want your show to look.
The Design Ribbon lets you select from an extensive set of pre-formatted slide design themes
involving graphics, colors, and animations. Let's check out some of these Design Themes now.

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Stay in the Slide Sorter view, with all the slides selected (ctrl-a), and click
on the Design tab to bring up the Design Ribbon (Fig. 9.30)

Click on the More

Design Themes
arrow to see more
Slide Design options

Fig. 9.30 The PowerPoint Design Ribbon

The easiest way to make your slides more interesting is to use one of the pre-set Design Themes
that come with PowerPoint. You can select from a large set of Themes. Let's try some of them
now.
Click on the More Design Themes button (Fig. 9.30 above) to see more Slide
Design options
Click on several of the Design Themes to check them out, then, for the sake of
the exercises that follow, click to select the Wisp Design Theme
PowerPoint quickly applies the selected design template to all the slides in your show.
If you wanted to apply the Design Template to just a few slides, you would first select the
slides you have in mind, then click on one of the other Design Templates. Let's try that.
Hold down the ctrl key while you click on any three or four of the slides in the
show
Now, in the Design Ribbon > Themes Group, click on a Slide Design
Template different than the Wisp Design Theme
Voilà! You see how easy it is to create a mix of attractive slides.
PowerPoint is easy to use once you know what's available to you. You can go to town when
you're designing slides, as long as you know all the tips and tricks—the bells and whistles—offered
by the software. Let’s check out a couple of other PowerPoint features.

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Choosing slide Color Schemes

If necessary, press ctrl-a in the Slide Sorter view to once again select all the
slides in the show and, for the sake of the next exercise, once again select the
Wisp Design Theme for all the slides
Built-in Color Schemes
Maybe you liked one of the Slide Design templates you were just checking out, but you think that
the Colors, Fonts, or Effects are not what you’re looking for. Well, you can do something about
that by using the built-in Design Variants. You also can Customize your PowerPoint slides.
Let's try some of the standard Design Variants first.
In the Design Ribbon > Variants Group, click on the Colors option to bring
down the Color Schemes menu (Fig. 9.31)

Fig. 9.31 Built-in Colors menu

Click on any one of the Color Schemes—try a few of them to see how they
look; try some of the different Fonts and Effects, too—the possibilities are more
or less endless
Just as for the Design Templates, you don't have to apply a Color Scheme or Font to all slides.
You can select one or more of the slides and apply the Scheme to those alone.
Custom Color Schemes
Each new installation of PowerPoint starts out with a limited set of standard Color Schemes. There
may be none that you particularly like. Color is, after all, a very individual thing. However,
customizing a Color Scheme is easy enough and, if you put together a Color Scheme you really
like, you can add it to your set of standard Color Schemes.
In the Design Ribbon > Variants Group, at the bottom of the menu of color
themes click on Customize Colors… (Fig. 9.31 above)

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Fig. 9.32 shows the Create New Theme Colors dialog box, which allows you to customize the
color of every feature of a Design Theme (Text Backgrounds, Hyperlinks, etc.).

Fig. 9.32 The Create New Theme Colors dialog box

Click on any of the small color boxes to bring up a palette of Theme Colors
for that feature of the slide’s design theme (Fig. 9.33)

Fig. 9.33 Create New Theme Colors dialog box

Now click on any one of the Theme or Standard Colors (Fig. 9.33 above) to
try out different color schemes for your slides
Remember, though, that your PowerPoint presentation is going to be viewed by an audience of
people whom you want to impress with the attractiveness of your slides—you want the slides to
be eye-catching and engaging. So beware of choosing colors that may be jarring or quite simply
inappropriate. For this reason, unless you think you have a good sense of color and design, it’s
probably best to go with the sets of built-in design themes and color schemes.

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However, if you do have a good feel for design and color, you can use the Custom Color Mixer,
which will allow you to select from over 16 million colors!2
In the Theme Colors dialog box (Fig. 9.33 on the previous page), click on More
Colors… to bring up the Colors dialog box (Fig. 9.34)

Fig. 9.34 The Custom Color Mixer

Take whatever time you need to familiarize yourself with these color selection tools.
After you have selected some new colors for TextBackgrounds and Accents,
and so on, click on the Save button to save your Screenbeans presentation
before proceeding with the tutorial
Resizing the Screenbeans on each of the slides
The Screenbean images on each of the slides are smaller than they need to be. In the Picture Tools
> Format toolbar, you can crop the image (using the Size Group tools) to remove as much white
space as possible around each Screenbean image. Let’s do this first.
In the Slide Sorter View, double click on Slide #2 to bring it up in Normal
View, click on the Screenbean image to select it (you see the handles around
the image), then, in the Picture Tools > Format Ribbon > Size Group, click
on the Crop tool (Fig. 9.35)

Crop handles

Fig. 9.35 Selected Screenbean image

216 million because, for the Custom Color palette, Office uses 24 bits (24-bit color), which translates into 224
colors—precisely 16,777,216 different colors! For the computer it’s simple; for the user it’s awesome 

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Drag in on the Crop handles to remove any excess white space around the
Screenbean image (Fig. 9.36)

Fig. 9.36 Using the Crop handles to crop an image

Now click anywhere off the Screenbean image to complete the cropping
process
Finally, use the corner handles—NOT the handles at the middle of each
side—to stretch the image so that it is as large as possible in the space on
the right side of the slide (Fig. 9.37); just be careful not to overflow the borders
of the slide

Fig. 9.37 Stretch to Screenbean using the corner handles

Now do the same with the Screenbean images on the other 7 slides, then
Save your work once more when you’re done
Making the Screenbean images transparent
One problem still remains to be fixed before we move on. Earlier on you were asked to select a
design template with a background other than white. The Screenbean images, with their white

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background, look odd against the slides’ other-colored background (see Fig. 9.37 above). Here's
how you can fix this.
You should still be in the Normal View so you can work with individual slides,
and Slide #2 should still be the active slide
Now, on the right side of the Confusion slide window, click on the picture of
the Screenbean image to select it, then, in the Picture Tools > Format
Ribbon > Adjust Group, click on the Color button to bring down the set of
Color Options (Fig. 9.37)

Fig. 9.37 The Color Tools toolbar

Towards the bottom of the Color menu, click to select the Set Transparent
Color option (see Fig. 9.37 above)
Now slide the mouse (which has changed to a different cursor for the
Transparent Color tool) across to the Screenbean picture and click on the
picture’s white background
Hey presto! The Screenbean picture is transparent and has the same background as the rest of the
slide.
Now do the same with each of the Screenbean pictures on the other slides
Save the Slide Show when you're done
Checking out the presentation
It’s time to try out your show.
In the Slide Show Ribbon, in the Start Slide Show Group, select From
Beginning, and click your way through each slide at your own pace; or let the
computer time it for you, 10 seconds per slide

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9.6 PRINTING PRESENTATION HANDOUTS

A nice feature of PowerPoint is its ability to provide you with hard copy versions of the slides
and/or of the outline text of a presentation. This is useful for the preparation of handouts for an
audience or a class. Here are the steps to do this.
From the File menu choose Print, then click on the Full Page Slides box to
bring up the drop down menu of Print Layout options (Fig. 9.38)

Fig. 9.38 Selecting handout options for printing

In the drop down menu, under Handouts, select 6 Slides Vertical, then click
in the Color box towards the bottom of the Print dialog box (Fig. 9.39)

Fig. 9.39 Print Color Options menu

In the Color options for the slides, select Grayscale, then click on OK to print
a copy of the presentation

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In the handout options, you can choose two, four, six, or nine slides per page, and you can display
the slides in order either horizontally or vertically. This handout can then be distributed to an
audience or a class for note-taking, review or reinforcement.
Save this final version of the Screenbeans show then, before you finish, go
ahead and make a backup copy of your Screenbeans presentation

LOOKING BACK
Lesson 9 has been devoted to the PowerPoint program that is designed to help in the preparation
of presentation materials of all kinds. It is not only a very useful tool, but also it is enjoyable to
work with. Outlines and slide shows will add polish to the lessons or presentations you will prepare
for your students and other groups during the course of your career. For example, a math or
chemistry teacher might intersperse her lessons with professional-looking formula charts or
chemical structures. Any teacher could make an impressive graphic introduction to a class. An
administrator could do the same for her school, the presentation to be viewed in the office by
visitors.
But PowerPoint is still more valuable as a tool for learning in the hands of your students. They
will soon learn the necessary skills to use the program with flare and they'll creating presentations
of their own. As their teacher, you'll guide them in the direction of learning projects of all kinds
related to the curriculum K-12. In the context of PowerPoint, students will discover knowledge
and construct their own mental database of information that will stand them in good stead in their
future lives.

LOOKING FORWARD
PowerPoint is a useful teaching tool, providing added value for both the teacher and the students.
A carefully prepared and well-designed presentation, appropriately used during the course of a
class, helps the teacher stay focused and on track. A presentation that is rich in multimedia gives
the teacher the opportunity to spice up presentations in various ways that promote added interest
and engagement for students. PowerPoint also can be used to create as well as enable powerful
learning environments.
Lesson 10 will show you how to create interactive presentations in which the user learns while
responding to the material that is being presented, thus encouraging engagement, which promotes
learning. More powerful yet, PowerPoint may be best used in the discovery mode of learning,
where the students create presentations that involve research in the pursuit of knowledge,
incorporating multimedia—still images, video, and sound, along with text—in the construction of
a personal understanding of the subject matter being learned.
A thoughtful teacher will encourage her students to work together on such projects and present
their work to the class, thus applying the adage that the best way to learn is to teach.
As the saying goes: "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand."

SKILL CONSOLIDATION
1. Prepare a presentation on the subject of the American colonies. Make sure you have at least
eight first level topics (eight slides), as well as a title slide and an acknowledgements slide.

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2. Prepare a presentation on the subject of US Presidents (or any subject of your choice that you
might use with a K-12 age group appropriate to your major). Make sure you have at least eight
first level topics (eight slides), as well as a title slide and an acknowledgements slide.
3. Prepare a presentation on the subject of the American movie scene. Make sure you have at least
eight first level topics (eight slides), as well as a title slide and an acknowledgements slide.
4. Prepare a presentation in a style of your own choosing with at least three levels on the subject
of contemporary music. Make sure you have at least eight first level topics (eight slides), as
well as a title slide and an acknowledgements slide.
5. Create a slide show with yourself as the subject—you the person, you the teacher. Use graphics
drawn from any source you like. Make sure you have at least eight first level topics (eight
slides), as well as a title slide and an acknowledgements slide.
6. Create a slide show on the subject of pets. Use graphics from clip art or created in a Drawing
or Painting environment. Make sure you have at least eight first level topics (eight slides), as
well as a title slide and an acknowledgements slide.
7. Create a slide show on the subject of geometric shapes. Use graphics drawn from clip art or
created in a Drawing or Painting environment. Make sure you have at least eight first level
topics (eight slides), as well as a title slide and an acknowledgements slide.

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