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Launching Your PowerPoint Application:
- Click the Start button on the Taskbar at the bottom left corner of your Windows screen.
- Select All Programs.
- Click Microsoft Office from the submenu, and then select Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007.
- The Normal View pane appears (see Figure 1, below). Figure 1 - Normal View Pane
- From the Normal View pane, click on the Office button and select New (see Figure 2). Figure 2 - New Presentation Task Pane
- The New Presentation task pane contains a list of templates. For a new, blank presentation, select Blank and recent. Figure 3 - The PowerPoint Window
- Office Button : contains common file and system commands.
- Quick Access Toolbar : contains shortcuts for the most commonly used tools.
- Tab Bar : contains tabs that display tools and commands in the Ribbon.
- Ribbon : contains groups of tools and shortcuts for standard PowerPoint actions.
- Slides and Outline Tabs : displays slides as thumbnails or in a slide outline.
- Slide Pane : displays the selected slide.
- Notes Pane : displayed notes for the selected slide. This is also where notes are entered during the creation process.
- Status Bar : contains presentation information and view shortcuts.
Figure 3 - PowerPoint Options Dialog Box
- Click the drop down menu in the Choose commands from field box and select a category from the resulting menu.
- In the left menu box, select the command you want to add and click the Add button. This will add the command to the right-hand menu box. These commands appear in the Quick Access Toolbar.
- To remove a command from the toolbar, select the command in the right-hand menu box and click the Remove button to remove it.
- Click the OK button when you are finished.
Using the Ribbon
The Ribbon contains command groups by task.
Figure 1 - The Ribbon
Tab : a tabbed page of the Ribbon. Contextual Tabs : a tab that appears only when certain content is selected, such as a graphic or a chart. Group : a section of a tab. The Home tab shown in the figure above has the following groups: Clipboard, Slides, Font, Paragraph, Drawing, and Editing. Dialog Box Launcher : a small icon in the bottom-right corner of a group, from which you can open a dialog box related to that group.
Note : to find out what a toolbar button does, position the mouse over it. A Screen Tip pops-up
explaining its function.
CREATING SLIDES: THEMES
PowerPoint 2007 includes design elements called Themes. These elements include font and
color themes that allow for unified formatting across the presentation. As mentioned in the Using
Themes: Why It’s Important section, themes are used to give structure to your presentation and
should always be used when creating a slide presentation.
Selecting a Theme
- Click the Design tab (see Figure 1, below).
- Select a Theme from the Themes group by clicking on one of the themes. If the theme you want is not displayed, use the scrollbar to scroll through the available options.
- Once a theme is selected, the look and feel of the presentation will be consistent across all slides (see Figure 2, below). Figure 1 - Design Tab
To add text to a slide, single click on each section where noted and enter the desired text. Text boxes can be moved or sized individually to accommodate your needs. To select a different layout, click the Layout drop down menu, located under the Home
tab and select a different layout from the list provided (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 - Layout Drop-Down Menu Options
Positioning or Resizing a Text Box
- Select the text box image by single clicking it. A gray, dashed-line border with small white boxes (handles) appears (see Figure 1). To reposition a text box , single click the gray line border to make it “active”, next click the text box and drag it to the desired position. To reposition an image , click the image and drag it to the desired position. To resize a text box or image , single click the image or text box to make it active, next drag one of the handles to resize the text box or image. To maintain the proportions of the text box or image, drag a corner handle as opposed to a side, top of bottom handle.
Figure 1 - Text Box/Image Handles
Changing Bulleted Items
Many of the slide layouts include bulleted items. Although pre-formatted, the bullet style can be
changed at any time.
- Set your cursor on the line of the bullet you want to change (or highlight all of the bullets to change them at once).
- From the Paragraph grouping, click the Bullets drop-down menu.
- Select a bullet style from the dialog box (see Figure 2, below).
Images are used in presentations for reference, emphasis, explanation, or aesthetics. It is best practice to
use images that are representative of the content. Placement is also important. Place images where they
will make sense when an adaptive screen reader is used.
It is best practice to left-align an image. This will be helpful when converting the document to HTML. Avoid placing images in tables.
Adding Clip Art from the Ribbon
Clip Art consists of ready-made illustrations, movies or sound clips that can be used to
enhance a presentation. These clips are available from the application itself and if there is an
internet connection established, many are available for download from the Microsoft Office
site.
To add a piece of clip art to a presentation:
- Select the slide you want to work with.
- Click the Insert tab on the Ribbon , then click the Clip Art button (see Figure 1).
- In the Clip Art task pane, enter a description for the type of clip you are searching for (cats, computers, trees, etc.) in the Search for field.
- In the Search in field, select All Collections from the drop-down menu.
- In the Results should be field, select the appropriate option from the drop-down menu.
- Click the Go button to view results.
- From the list of available options, select an image by clicking on it. This will place the image onto the slide.
- Move or resize the image as needed. This can be done the same way as moving or resizing a text box. Figure 1 - Adding Clip Art
Adding Clip Art to a New Slide
PowerPoint 2007 also provides a short-cut option for adding Clip Art when creating a new
slide.
- Click the New Slide button located on the Home tab (see Figure 1).
- With the new slide active, click on the Clip Art icon (see Figure 2). Figure 1 - Home Tab/New Slide Button Figure 2 - New Slide w/Clip Art Icon
- The Clip Art task pane opens. Enter the type of Clip Art you want to work with in the Search for field and click the Go button to retrieve the results.
Figure 2 - Insert Picture Dialog Box
- Find the file that you want to work with and then click on the Insert button to insert the photo into the presentation.
It is important that all images have a text description attached to it. This allows for a description of
an image when people do not have graphics enabled on their computers. This description is called
an Alt Text.
The text supports the context of the document and/or conveys information to the user. Provide a
short description of the image that briefly describes what the image is representing. If the
example image was part of a technique for typing with one finger, a short description might
read "One-finger typing technique with index finger" while the long description would include
more details such as "The one-finger typing technique uses the index finger to strike keys while
the remaining fingers and thumb are extended away from the keyboard."
To enter a text description for an image:
- Right-click on the image
- The short cut menu appears (Figure 1)
- Click on “ Size and Position ”
- The Size and Position dialog box appears (Figure 2)
- Click the Alt Text tab
- In the Alternative Text: field , enter the image description.
- Click the Close button.
- Use discretion in applying ALT tags. ALT tags need to be descriptive and convey the meaning behind why the artwork or illustration has been included in the text. They do not need to be lengthy.
Figure 1 - Size and Position Option Figure 2 – Size and Position Dialog Box, Alt Text Tab
USING CHARTS AND DATA TABLES:
Charts and Data Tables are visual ways of representing a group of data. A best practice for
charts and data tables in Microsoft PowerPoint is to create the items within the document.
Charts – Charts are recognized as images when converted to html. A Chart will need to have
information that describes the chart just like other images in your document.
Tables - A table is a row and column matrix of cells that can contain text, images and other
objects. While the main purpose of tables is to present data in a grid format, they can also be
used to control the layout of content on a page.
Creating & Editing Charts/Graphs:
There are two specific elements used when making a chart or graph:
The chart itself, which is the graphical representation of your data. The datasheet, which contains the actual statistics used to generate the graph.
To create a new chart:
- From the Insert tab click Chart
- The Insert Chart dialog box appears (Figure 1, below)
- From the left-hand menu select the chart or graph option.
- From the right-hand display, select the chart type.
Figure 1 – Inserting a New Chart
- The chart and accompanying datasheet are displayed in a minimized, side-by-side format (see Figure 2, below).
- Select and delete the sample labels and data and then enter your own data into each cell. Rows and Columns must have labels. This is important because it equates to items for the Axis and Legends of the chart. You can also paste information from another source into a cell. Information in the datasheet can be formatted for font, size, color, etc. from the Formatting toolbar.
Figure 2 – Chart/Graph and Datasheet
Note : as the data is entered into the datasheet, the corresponding chart data will update
automatically after you tab out of the cell.
Inserting Tables:
Good Accessibility Practices for Tables Keep tables simple with minimal nesting Avoid complex nested tables with multiple split and merged cells Avoid splitting or merging cells after data has been entered, as this can confuse the reading order of the cells Use percentage rather than pixels to set table and cell size. This will allow the table to resize gracefully Keep heading labels short and descriptive. Use comments if they need longer explanations Add descriptions before the table to provide information about the table The reading order of tables is linear starting from the top left cell to the bottom right cell. The contents of each cell, including nested cells, are read before moving to the next cell.
A new contextual tab named “Design” has also appeared on the Ribbon (see Figure 3). This is an
on-demand tab and will appear any time the table is selected and active. Use the command
elements on this tab to quickly format your table.
Figure 3 - On-Demand Design Tab
DIFFERENT WAYS TO VIEW YOUR PRESENTATION
There are three different ways to view your presentation. Each view is available by clicking the
View buttons located at the lower right-hand corner of the PowerPoint application window (see
Figure 1, below).
- Normal View (Outline)
- Slide Sorter View (Thumbnails)
- Slide Show View (Presentation) Figure 1 - View Buttons
Normal View
The Normal View is the default view and consists of three panes (see Figure 1, below).
- The left-pane displays either thumbnail images of the slides or a slide show outline, depending on the tab selected - Outline or Slide (default).
- The right pane displays the active slide.
