A PowerPoint about… By Heather Jones

What is PowerPoint? “PowerPoint is a presentation software program that is part of the Microsoft Office package.”

How can I use PowerPoint? There are so many ways to utilize PowerPoint. I will review some of the basic but fun ways to enhance a presentation in PowerPoint.

What can you do? Add fun animations to text in presentation. Insert pictures, sound and movies.

To add animation to your text… Click on the animations tab. Custom Animations. Add Effect Choose one… Entrance, Emphasis, Exit, or Motion Path When you choose your animation, Microsoft has a great feature that will preview the action before you commit to the effect. To enhance the animation by word or letter click on the arrow to the right of the animation and choose your preferences.

To add backgrounds to slide… Right click on mouse Format background… Now you can choose what you would like your background to be. Your choices include a solid, gradient, picture or text filled.

To insert pictures… Insert tab Choose either picture (from file), or clip art. For a file picture you look either in your pictures folder or desktop, where ever you keep pictures. Clip art will show a window to the right of your screen. Simply type in a keyword for what you are looking for and then click on the picture you want.

To insert sounds or movies… This is very similar inserting pictures. You click on what you need to insert whether it’s a clip or one song from a CD. The most important thing for you to do is make sure that whatever file you use put it in a folder and link it from that folder. If you don’t it will not play.

To insert music into a PowerPoint follow the instructions from these websites: nt_music.htm or aining/documentation/PowerPoint%202003/P owerPoint_2003_Adding-Music.pdf

You can also record… Click the slide show tab Record Narration button Make sure you attach a microphone for a clear sound.

What to do when you don’t know how? The greatest asset to learning PowerPoint is exploring or Google. Most of the tricks and special effects I have learned I have researched on the Internet. For example, the Star Wars type introduction you saw at the beginning was something I found by Googling “Star Wars Credits”.

Credits I would like to give credit to George Lucas for coming up with the wonderful words, “In a galaxy far, far away.” I would also like it known that the backgrounds used in this PowerPoint were pictures and backgrounds I have collected over the years. They have come from Google and Microsoft clip art. I do not take credit for making or taking these pictures.