1. Introduction

Microsoft PowerPoint (‘PowerPoint’) helps you produce and present on-screen visual aids to accompany your presentations. It can help give your presentations a consistent look, organise your thoughts and help the audience follow what you’re saying. However, used badly it can become a barrier to effective communication rather than a support to it.

This guide will help you with some of the technical aspects of producing presentations in PowerPoint and in addition will offer some suggestions to help you make the most of the application as a presentation tool. What follows therefore is not everything you need to know about using PowerPoint but some useful and focussed tips to get the most from the application.

For more information on the dos and don’ts of using PowerPoint see the Student Learning Centre’s study guide: Using PowerPoint. If you want to use PowerPoint to design posters, see the guide Using PowerPoint 2003 for posters.

1.1. Notation used throughout this document

Menu commands are written, e.g. File | Open, this means select the File option from the Menu Bar and then Open from the drop down menu. All key presses are included within < > e.g. <Enter> means press the Enter key. <Ctrl A> means hold down the Control key and press the A key.

1.2. Use of this document

This guide is to supplement face-to-face training but can also be used as a self-directed resource.

1.3. Sample files

This guide refers to a sample file that is required for some of the exercises. If you want to do the exercise you will need to download the sample file.

2. Getting the basics right: design and layout

2.1. Slide layout

It is important to choose the appropriate slide layout to fit your content. PowerPoint helps you with this by encouraging you to use the Slide Layout feature. When you open a new presentation the default slide layout is a ‘Title Slide’, when you insert a new slide the slide layout defaults to ‘Title and Text’ and a Slide Layout menu appears in a pane on the right hand side of the screen (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Slide Layout pane

1. Open PowerPoint.
2. insert a new slide (Insert | New Slide or <Ctrl N>).
3. Scroll down the list of possible slide layouts in the Slide Layout pane.
4. apply a number of different slide layouts to your slide to see what they do.

2.2. AutoFit options

PowerPoint will prompt you when it determines that you are putting too much information on one slide. For instance, if you put more text in a text box than can fit without the font size decreasing or the text box expanding an AutoFit Options symbol will appear in the bottom left-hand corner of the text box (Figure 2).

Figure 2: AutoFit symbol

If you then click on the symbol you will get a number of options (Figure 3) to help you not put too much information on one slide. If you choose ‘Stop Fitting Text to This Placeholder’ it will over-ride the feature (but remember – it’s prompting you for a reason!).

Figure 3: AutoFit Options

2.3. Slide design

A slide design is a design template that can be applied to all of your slides. PowerPoint has many pre-set design templates that you can use.

1. Open a presentation (either new or an existing one).
2. Open the Slide Design pane (Format | Slide Design).
3. Scroll down the list of possible slide designs in the Slide Design pane.
4. Apply a number of different slide designs to your slide.
5. Be warned – many of the slide designs are distracting and/or make the text difficult to read – so choose carefully! Better still – create your own (see ‎2.4 below).

Note: If you have used the Slide Layout to format the layout of your slides (as per ‎2.1 above) then when you apply a slide design to that presentation the formatting will adjust accordingly. However, if you haven’t used the slide layouts then your slides will not format in the way that you want them to.

2.4. Slide masters

It may be that none of the pre-set design templates are appropriate for your presentation or you wish to modify the one you have chosen. Rather than making design changes on each individual slide you can make changes to the design template which will then apply to all your slides; saving a lot of time and ensuring consistency. You do this via the Slide Master.

1. Open a presentation.
2. Go to View | Master | Slide Master.
3. Alter the font type and/or size by highlighting the appropriate text box then changing the formatting from the formatting toolbar.
4. Change the background colour by going to Format | Background.
5. You could also add a logo here too, e.g. the University logo or the organisation funding your research– but beware they can clutter up the slides. There are a number of ways around this problem:

• keep the logos small and discrete;
• create a separate Master for the Title slide and just have the logos on these – go to Insert | New Title Master (changes you make to the Title Master won’t be reflected in the Slide Master);
• you could add a logo to every slide from the Slide Master but delete it from slides where it gets in the way – you do this in Normal View – go to Format | Background and then check the box Omit background graphics from master (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Slide Background

2.5. Saving a slide master to the design template list

If you create a slide master you may want to make it available to apply to other presentations either new or existing ones. To do this you need to save the file as a design template. You do this as follows:

1. Create your slide master (as in ‎2.4 above)
2. Go to File | Save as
3. Give the file an appropriate name in the File name field
4. Then from the Save as type field select Design Template (*.pot) (Figure 5)

Figure 5: Saving design templates

When you next select a slide design you won’t see your new slide design template in your list to do this:

1. Go to (Format | Slide Design)
2. Select Browse from the bottom of the task pane (Figure 6)
3. Select your new slide design
4. Now your new slide design will appear near the top of the Slide Design task pane in the Recently Used section

Figure 6: Finding your slide design

3. The building blocks: text and images

The starting point is to make sure you use the appropriate Slide Layout (‎2.1 above) to fit your text and/or image, e.g. if you have a list of advantages and disadvantages, it’s probably a good idea to use the ‘Title and 2-Column Text’ layout. If you have an some text and an image you wish to display on the same slide you could use ‘Title, Text and Content’ layout.

3.1. Bullets and numbering

Modifying bullets and numbering is slightly different in PowerPoint to how it is in Microsoft Word.

1. Go to the slide titled ‘Line spacing’.
2. Select all the text in the text box by clicking on the border of the text box.
3. Click on the Bullets icon on the Formatting Toolbar.
4. Make sure you have the ruler visible (View | Ruler) and drag the bottom triangle (not the grey rectangle underneath the triangle) to approximately 1 to indent the bullet to a more appropriate point (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Ruler

In PowerPoint you cannot have text that runs to more then one line un-indented if you have indented bullets elsewhere in the text bow. The only way around this problem is to have a separate text box if you want the indentation of text in excess of one line formatted differently. The slide titled ‘Bullet’ in the file presentation_sample.ppt is an example of this.

3.2. Line spacing

Modifying line spacing is slightly different in PowerPoint to how it is in Microsoft Word. In PowerPoint the line spacing is accessed directly from the Format menu.

1. Open the file presentation_sample.ppt.
2. Go to the slide titled ‘Line spacing’.
3. Select all the text in the text box by clicking on the border of the text box.
4. Go to Format | Line Spacing.
5. Change the Line spacing to 1.1 and the Before paragraph to 0.5 (Figure 8).
6. Click ‘OK’.

Figure 8: Line Spacing

3.3. Adding text to objects

If you want to add text to an object, e.g. a shape, there are a number of ways to do this but the most straightforward is simply to right click on the object and choose Add Text (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Adding text to an object

3.4. Inserting pictures

There are a number of ways to insert pictures into a PowerPoint presentation. You can go to Insert | Picture then choose Clip Art or From File. Alternatively, you can source an image from elsewhere (e.g. Google image search) and simply paste it in (be sure to check the copyright though). Make sure your picture is fit for purpose, i.e. relevant to the content and of a suitable resolution.

4. It can help but don’t overdo it: using animation appropriately

4.1. Animation schemes

Animations can be distracting, however, used well they are a useful way to reveal information one step at a time. Because of their potential to distract however, only use animation when there is a good reason to do so; if you can’t think of a good reason to use it, don’t use it! The simplest way to apply animation to text is to use the pre-set Animation Schemes.

1. Open the file presentation_sample.ppt.
2. Go to the slide titled ‘Animation schemes’.
3. Go to Slide Show | Animation Schemes.
4. Choose ‘Appear and dim’ from the ‘Subtle’ category.
5. Click on Slide Show in the Slide Design pane to preview the effect.

4.2. Custom animation

Animations can be particularly helpful when you want to show the progression of a process; custom animation enables you to reveal the different steps in a process in a specific order and in a specific style.

1. Open the file presentation_sample.ppt.
2. Go to the slide titled ‘Animation processes’ (you will see 4 boxes representing steps 1-4 of a hypothetical process).
3. Connect the boxes with arrows using the Connectors feature in the Drawing Toolbar – AutoShapes | Connectors (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Connectors

The next stage is for you to animate this hypothetical process.

1. Click on the first step of the process you wish to animate.
2. Go to Slide Show | Custom Animation | Add Effect | Entrance | More Effects (Figure 11).
3. Choose an appropriate animation (the ‘Basic’ and ‘Subtle’ categories are generally safer than ‘Moderate’ or ‘Exciting’).
4. Choose other animations to animate the rest of the process appropriately.

Figure 11: Custom Animation

4.3. Modifying animations

You may wish to modify the precise details of your animation.

1. Go to the slide titled ‘Animating processes’.
2. Select the first connector arrow that you have inserted.
3. Go to Slide Show | Custom Animation | Add Effect | Entrance | More Effects and choose Wipe and click OK.
4. In the Custom animation pane on the right hand side you will see it says Modify: Wipe – click on the chevron next to Direction and chose From Left (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Modifying animation

5. Other bits and bobs

5.1. Grids and guides

Placing objects (e.g. pictures, charts, text boxes) within PowerPoint can be a little tricky, this is due to the ‘Grids and Guides’ feature, but it can also be solved using the Grids and Guides feature. To access the Grids and Guides go to View | Grids and Guides (Figure 13). You will see a number of options; ‘Snap to’, ‘Grid settings’ and ‘Guide settings’.

Figure 13: Grids and Guides

1. Go to the slide titled ‘Grids and guides’.
2. Go to View | Grids and Guides.
3. Ensure all the check boxes are unchecked.
4. Click ‘OK’.
5. Now place the red and yellow triangles in the box to form a square.

It is difficult to line up the triangles because the check box ‘Snap objects to other objects’ is not selected. So…

1. Go to View | Grids and Guides.
2. Check the box Snap objects to other objects.
3. Click ‘OK’.
4. Now try lining up the triangles to form a a square again.

Now see what the other check boxes do…

1. Go to View | Grids and Guides.
2. Check the box Display grid on screen.
3. Click ‘OK’.
4. Go to View | Grids and Guides.
5. Uncheck the box Display grid on screen.
6. Check the box Display drawing guides on screen.
7. Click ‘OK’.
8. You can get additional drawing guides by holding down the Control key <Ctrl> and dragging one of the guides.

5.2. Zooming

To get a close look at your presentation you will need to zoom in, to see the big picture you will need to zoom out. There are several ways of zooming; you can go to View | Zoom or use the Zoom feature on the Standard Toolbar (Figure 14).

Figure 14: Zoom

But if you have a mouse with a wheel the easiest way to zoom is simply to hold <Ctrl> and roll the wheel forwards to zoom in or backwards to zoom out.

5.3. Inserting slides from another presentation

If you use PowerPoint a lot, you will begin to build up a collection of slides. Often you will want to re-use these slides in different presentations; you can insert slides from existing files as follows.

1. Open a presentation.
2. Go to Insert | Slides from Files.
3. Click on Browse.
4. Choose an existing .ppt file from your file list (assuming you have one).
5. Click on the slide(s) you wish to insert then click insert (if you want the inserted slides to retain their original slide design rather than taking on the design of the presentation you are inserting them into check the Keep source formatting box).

6. Presenting to an audience

6.1. Get to know the equipment

It never looks good to stand up in front of an audience and then have to ask someone what you need to do to get the presentation started and it does nothing for the confidence of either you or the audience. Make sure you are familiar with both the laptop and digital projector – get to the room early if you are unsure.

6.2. Use the laptop/PC screen

Make sure you work from the laptop/PC screen rather than the projection screen. If a presenter works from the projection screen they are turned away from their audience, reducing eye contact with the audience and making themselves difficult to hear.

6.3. Slide show view

Use the keyboard shortcut F5 to start the slide show – it’s by far the simplest method. Also, to try and prevent the audience just staring at the screen, use the keyboard short cut ‘B’ to black the screen. When you do this you will notice that the audience’s focus quickly shifts from the screen to you, the presenter. Other keyboard shortcuts are also available within Slide Show view (Figure 15), just press F1 in Slide Show view to see this list.

Figure 15: Slide Show Help

6.4. Have a plan B

Finally, you need to be able to give your presentation even if the equipment doesn’t work. Becoming familiar with the equipment will help reduce the chances of this happening, but it’s also a good idea to have your presentation in more than one digital medium (e.g. a USB flash drive and a CD) and have paper copies of your presentation printed as 6-per-page handouts (even if everything works fine it’s useful for you to have a copy so you know what’s coming next).