Easy Access to PowerPoint Presentations

In order to create a PowerPoint Presentation, you must open PowerPoint on your computer.  Click on the Start button, select All Programs, choose Microsoft Office, and then click on Microsoft Office PowerPoint.  The PowerPoint window will open and you have begun. 

There are a couple of alternatives for creating presentations.  You can create a new one from scratch, use a template that defines a design for a slide, use a wizard to create a complete model presentation, or open an existing presentation and modify it.  We are going to combine creating a new one from scratch and using templates for slide design.  This is really easy so take a deep breath and we will continue!

The best way to create a presentation is to plan what you want to say and display before you begin.  Use note cards or just regular paper to sketch an outline for yourself.  This will save time later. When you create a presentation from scratch, you’ll begin with blank slides and add text, fonts, color, graphics, images, and other design elements. 

TIP-If your presentation requires images, you might try using the Images search in Google.  This is easy to do.  Go to the Library home page, select Internet, select Google, and then above the box where you would type in your search term, you’ll see the word “Images”.  Click on that then type in the images you are looking for just like you would a search term.  You should get some images that can be used for your presentation.  Right click on the image you want and scroll down to copy.  Select copy, go to your presentation and right click on the slide where you want the image and select paste.  Once the image is on the slide, you can modify its size by clicking on it.  When the little boxes come up surrounding the image, use your pointer to pull the image into the desired size.  This may take some practice, but you can do it.  Be sure to write down where you got your image for documentation purposes.

In order to add new slides to your presentation, go to the Insert tab, new slide, choose a layout and click ok. 

To watch your presentation, go to Slide Show tab and select set up show.  This will give you options on how to arrange your presentation.  Once you have arranged your slides, go to Slide Show, View Show.  You have to press the mouse for transition from one slide to the next unless you have commanded the presentation to use a different form for transition.

This is just a basic outline to get you started using PowerPoint.  There are a number of very helpful books located on the 3^rd floor at the call numbers T385’s that will be very helpful for more advanced presentations.