Power Point 2

Customizing your Presentation

1. Inserting Images

You can insert images in your Power Point Presentation (PPT) by clicking on the Insert menu and Picture submenu. You have different sources for inserting a picture:

Clip Art: MS Office comes with a number of pre-loaded pictures that you may insert in your PPT. After you click on this option, a window with Clip Art categories will be displayed where you can search for the picture.

From File: If you have an image that you downloaded from the Internet or scanned and is on disk or in My Documents, you can insert it by selecting this option and browsing for the picture in the dialog box.

Autoshapes: Power Point comes with a set of free-hand drawings that you can insert and customize. When you select this option, a small bar will appear with all the shapes available. Then, you can select a shape from the bar and click-drag it into the PPT.

WordArt: This is really a customized text image that can be used for titles. To use this feature, select a design and enter the phrase to be modified.

2. Working with Images

Images in general (however they were inserted) have similar properties such as changing the size and position. To resize an image, first single click on the image so that boundaries in the form of squares or circles appear on the edges. Next, point to one square on the image until the pointer changes from an arrow to a double-headed arrow. Then click and drag the mouse so that the image size changes.

To move an image, click and drag it to a new location.

3. Combining Images and Text

Notice that Power Point creates boxes for text and images, but images can also be inserted without a box as a boundary. Then, an image can float in the slide and maybe even block some text. To avoid this, you may resize both the image and text box. A text box can be handled as an image, where clicking and dragging the edges can resize it. Alternatively, a text-box or image can be set to display forward or backward, by right clicking on the image and setting the Order menu.

4. Inserting Charts and Tables

To insert charts or tables, you should click on the Insert Menu and select Chart or Table from the menu.

The Chart option will add a customizable chart to your PPT, where you can add/delete values on the datasheet as needed. To exit out of the chart, simply click on an empty space. To edit it, right-click the chart, point to chart object and click on Edit. You can resize/move the chart as a picture.

Tables are inserted with a set numbers of columns and rows and can also be resized/moved as a picture.

5. Customizing your PPT with Animation

To add animation to your PPT, you may go to the Slide Show menu and select ‘Custom Animation’. There are four different actions that can be customized: Order & Timing, Effects, Chart Effects and Multimedia Settings.

Order & Timing:

If no animation is selected, all the contents of the slide will appear.

To set the order and timing on a slide, select each of the slide objects on the top left corner. Then, set the animation order by moving the objects up or down with the arrows in Move. Also, you can set the animation to start at mouse click or after a number of seconds on the right side.

Effects:

You can choose several effects that the objects can take as they enter the slides. You should do this, by selecting each object from the top left box and changing the effects on the lower left. In addition, you may change how text enters the slide on the lower right.

Chart Effects:

If working with charts, you can customize the way charts enter. You may do so on the Chart Effects tab.

Multimedia Settings:

To add sound or music, you should click on the Insert menu and select add Sound. The most used features are “Sound from file” and “Play CD Audio Track”. Once inserted, the sound file can be played on a particular slide or throughout the presentation.

6. Slide Transition

To set the transition movement on a slide, you should click on the Slide Show menu and select Slide Transition. Then, a transition effect can be selected from the drop-down menu, the way the slide will advance (on click or after some time) and if any sounds should be played. These settings can be applied to one or all the slides.