PowerPoint BASICS New Canaan Library March 2003

What is PowerPoint? A Design Program for creating series of screens (slides) called presentations One part of MS Office, compatible with other Office programs A versatile program with a variety of ways to present or print your slide show

What Kind of Presentations Can You Create With PowerPoint?  On-screen presentations: PC or projector  Overheads or slides  Kiosk  Printed Handouts and Flyers  Publish to the Internet

Why Use PowerPoint? Makes it easy to create exciting presentations Strong visual impact and appeal Lets you control the flow and pace of information communicated to others PowerPoint shares MS Office features like menus, toolbars & clipart with Word, Excel, Publisher. Works with text boxes, bullets, fonts, styles, drawing tools.

Library Collection Development Cycle SELECTION read reviews, respond to requests PURCHASE CATALOG and PROCESS CIRCULATION MAINTENANCE assess, replace, remove

Getting Started in PowerPoint Open from Desktop Icon or from Start Button-Programs-MS Powerpoint Choose an option for getting started –AutoContent Wizard with pre-designed sample presentations –Templates: background designs with some formatting –Blank slides for you to create from scratch

Using Toolbars and Menus Click on toolbar buttons to perform tasks 4 main toolbars: standard, formatting, drawing, common tasks You may also use the menus (file, edit, view, insert, format, tools, slide show) to perform tasks

The Powerpoint Screen Moving around the program Toolbars Menus View buttons Help features

Creating a Simple Slide Start with a blank presentation Click the title slide layout (a good starting point for any presentation) Add title and subtitle

Move or resize the text boxes Add or delete a text box Change the text: font, size, color Change background color or pattern Add shapes, clipart, charts, graphs or animation MAKING CHANGES TO A SLIDE

Saving, Printing, Quitting  Don’t forget to save your work. PowerPoint will prompt you if you forget.  Printing options: transparencies, handouts, flyers, outline view, presentation notes.  Always close the file and quit the program before turning off your computer.

PowerPoint Presentation Tips Don’t put too much text on each slide Don’t use too many different fonts or patterns Use strong contrast between text and background: dark on light or light on dark Experiment to find out what works best for you

Mismatch with Background The choice of colors can make a big difference. –Backgrounds which have both light and dark areas can be particularly troublesome.

Failure to Plan for Lighting

Free Online PowerPoint Tutorials spx?p=PowerPoint spx?p=PowerPoint (Microsoft Office Assistance Center)

Thank you for participating in PowerPoint BASICS at the New Canaan Library Presented by Lauren Phillips, Librarian