R. Craig Collins > Common > How To

How To: PowerPoint © R. Craig Collins, 2005

PowerPoint Tips (to Creating a sample PowerPoint) (If you have alread read this, you way watch a video on PowerPoint or look at PowerPoint Tips, a step by step pdf)

Presentation graphics, such as PowerPoint can help people better understand what they hear, by adding visual reinforcement. Many people retain information according to the following rates:
10% of what they read
20% of what they hear
30% of what they see
70% of what they see and hear...

... so by adding a PowerPoint show, you can increase retention, as well as giving yourself a guide through the speaking. (Don't look over your shoulder to read it, though!)

Three parts of a presentation:

1. Title Slide – Contains title of the presentation, Name of presenter including their title, organization, and date.
2. Topics or Intro or Objectives - let them know what you will cover
3. Body of the Presentation – Contains slides of information for presentation, one main idea per slide. You may use graphs, pictures, etc. for clarity, or interest... if not over done!
4. Body of the Presentation – Contains slides of information for presentation, one main idea per slide. You may use graphs, pictures, etc. for clarity, or interest... if not over done!
5. Body of the Presentation – Contains slides of information for presentation, one main idea per slide. You may use graphs, pictures, etc. for clarity, or interest... if not over done!
6. Conclusion – Summarizes the presentation and makes a point.

• Dark backgrounds work best for projection, light backgrounds if the presentation is just for printing.
• The text color should really contrast against the background
• Never use red for font color, since it blurs.
• Limit each slide to 7 or less lines for readability.
• Limit each line to 7 or less words for readability.
• Use large font sizes... I prefer 44 for titles, and 36 for bullets
• For projected presentations use san serif fonts, such as Arial
• For printed presentations use serif fonts, such as Times Roman
• Every slide should have a title.
• Every slide should convey one main point.

Close the New Presentation pane if visible, and
change the left pane to Outline.

Click to the right of the 1 , and type My First Presentation. Press the [Enter] key, then the [Tab] key, then type by yourname.

Of course, a better title would actually tell the people what the presentation was going to be about.

Use your arrow keys, and move up to get back to My First Presentation. Just as Word can edit text, PowerPoint can to; replace that text with Making a Burger.

This places the text 'Making a Burger' in the Title box. Pressing the [Enter] key automatically inserts a new slide, using the default type: Title and Text (with bullets). But pressing the [Tab] key tells Powerpoint to move one level into the outline, which on the first slide, is the Subtitle box.

A normal outline looks like this:

I. Major topic
   a. subtopic
   b. subtopic
      i. detail
      ii. detail
II Next topic
   a. sub topic
      i. detail

and so on. In Word, when using an outline number list, or when in PowerPoint's outline view,
[Enter] starts a new entry at the same level you are on
[Tab] moves the current entry 'right' one level, such as from major topic to subtopic.
[Shift] [Tab] moves the current line left, such as from subtopic to major topic.

You may also use the New Slide button, or the increase and decrease buttons on the Home tab.

So if you are at the slide level, [Enter] makes a new slide, and [Tab] moves from major topic to subtopic, etc.

Click into Slide 2. This will be out overview slide, which briefly describes everything you want to present. Type type Overview. Press the [Enter] key, then the [Tab] key, then type by Get a bun..This moves the next line to a subtopic. Press the [Enter] key, and then type Cook Patty. This creates a new entry at the subtopic level. Press the [Enter] key, and then type by Put Patty on Bun.

Press the [Enter] key, then the [Tab] key until you insert a new slide.

This would be a good time to save your presentation, perhaps calling it yourname-test.pptx.

• Open Package
  
• Take out bun
  
• Put bun on plate
  

  Notice that we took our major topic from the overview slide, and just added details.

  Make slide 4 look like:
  
  Cook Patty
  
• Open Package
  
• Take out patty
  
• Put in Microwave
  ~Follow cooking instructions
  
  Make slide 5 look like:
  
  Put Patty on Bun
  
• Using a spatula, remove patty
  
• Place patty on bun
  
• Add lettuce and catsup
    ~Add additional items to taste
  
  Make slide 6 look like:

Additional sound effects, movies, pictures, etc. can be added from the Insert menu.

Office 2007: Choose the Design tab, and select a theme. Experiment with some samples, I like Techic, but none are really good.
Return to the Home tab.



Now, let's run the presentation. Press [F5] to start from the beginning, or click the presentation icon in the lower corner to start the presentation from the current slide.


Okay, not bad, but a little boring. Now let's change to Slide sorter view. In the lower left hand corner, choose the four box icon.




From here, you may right click and hide a slide, or drag a slide from one place to another, or apply transitions.
Office 2007: Select a slide or slides, then on the Transitions tab, choose a transition. I like Fade smoothly.

Double click the last slide to go back to the Outline view for that slide.

As with Word, in order to add images, you use Insert/Image/from ClipArt...
add a picture of a hamburger on the first or last slide.

Additional tricks can be done with custom animation.
in normal layout view,
click the text area, you should a box with dashed lines...
THEN choose the Animation tab, and select Appear.
This will bring in items a paragraph at a time, instead of all at once.


Finally, when printing, you may print slides, handouts, or notes. If printing handouts, I choose 6 slides per page, and print in Pure Black and White for the best results.

It might be easier to see all the options by looking at a previous version

Save your presentation as yourname-test.ppt

See also PowerPoint Tips, a step by step pdf