PowerPoint: Creating Presentations

Creating Presentations in PowerPoint

• This guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough of creating presentations in PowerPoint, suitable for beginners.
• The demonstration uses PowerPoint 2019, but the principles apply to other versions as well.
• You can start from a blank presentation, use a pre-designed template, or combine both approaches.

The PowerPoint Interface as a Workspace

• Think of a slide as a blank sheet of paper on a desk.
• The PowerPoint window represents the desk, and the tabs/sections are like drawers containing tools.
• You can move, add, or remove objects on a slide.
• You can add, delete, and rearrange slides in a presentation.
• Pre-designed layouts offer structured arrangements of elements on a slide.
• Design themes provide styling for slides, but can be applied to all slides or selectively.
• Use Ctrl + Z to undo actions and the adjacent arrow to redo them.

Applying Styles to Specific Slides

• To apply a style to one slide, select the slide, go to the "Design" tab, right-click the theme, and choose "Apply to Selected Slides."
• To apply a style to multiple slides, hold Ctrl while selecting the slides, then apply the theme.

Utilizing Templates

• Access templates by going to "File" > "New."
• Templates can be searched online by name or theme (e.g., "technology").
• You can copy a slide from a template presentation into your own.
• To copy a slide, right-click it in the template and select "Copy."
• Paste the slide into your presentation using Ctrl + V or by right-clicking and selecting "Keep Source Formatting."

Preparing Text Content

• It's recommended to prepare the text for your presentation in a word processor like Word.
• Copy and paste text into PowerPoint objects.
• Choose "Keep Source Formatting" when pasting to maintain the original font and style.

Adjusting Text and Objects

• Objects on the slide can be moved, resized, and edited.
• Use alignment tools to center or align text.
• Add effects like shadows to text.
• Smart Guides (lines that appear while moving objects) help with alignment.
• The "View" tab allows you to enable tools like rulers, grids, and guides for precise alignment. The "Grid Settings" provides detailed configuration.

Inserting Images

• Images can be downloaded from the internet (e.g., from a search engine like Yandex).
• Right-click on an image and select "Save Image As" to save it to your computer.
• In PowerPoint, delete the existing image and insert your downloaded image.
• The "Format Picture" tab provides tools for cropping and adjusting images.

Slide Master View

• Access Slide Master view via the "View" tab
• From here you can make changes to the "master" layout, that will apply to slides using that same layout.
• For example you can remove elements of a style by selecting the slide, highlighting the area you want to change and deleting it.
• Check the 'Hide Background Graphics box' to remove background images.

Customizing Slide Layouts

• In Slide Master View, you can customize the designs of slides automatically, such as a logo.
• Insert shapes, lines, and text placeholders to create a custom layout.
• The "Format Shape" menu allows you to adjust the color, transparency, and outline of shapes.
• Use the "Insert Placeholder" option to add customizable text boxes.
• Close Slide Master View to apply the changes to your presentation.
• If changes don't appear, right-click on the slide and choose "Reset Slide."

Adding Logos and Consistent Elements

• Use Slide Master view to add a logo that will appear on all slides automatically.
• Adjust the logo's position, size, and rotation using the tools in PowerPoint.

Combining and Grouping Objects

• Select multiple objects by dragging a selection box or holding Ctrl while clicking.
• Right-click and choose "Group" to combine the objects into a single unit.
• Grouping allows you to move and resize elements together.

Arranging Objects: Front to Back

• Right-click an object and use "Bring to Front" or "Send to Back" to change its layering.

Removing Image Backgrounds

• Select the image, go to "Format Picture," and use the "Remove Background" tool to remove the image.
• Use the selection tools to mark areas to keep or remove.

Show Settings

• Access slideshow settings in the "Slide Show" tab.
• Adjust slide show present settings by clicking the "Set Up Slide Show" button.
• Choose between manual advance or timed advance.
• Presentation can be showed from the first slide, or another specified slide.
• Press F5 to start the slideshow.

Timed Slide Shows

• Option 1: Click "Rehearse Timings" to record the duration spent on each slide. The slide timing will be saved and can be enabled in presentation.
• Option 2: In the "Transitions" tab, set a specific duration for each slide.
• Uncheck "On Mouse Click" and set the "After" time to advance automatically.
• Click "Apply to All" to apply the same timing to all slides.

Transitions

• Transitions are visual effects applied when moving from one slide to the next.
• Adjust the duration of transition effects in the "Transitions" tab.
• Transitions can be customized for individual slides or applied to all.

Animations

• Animations add movement to individual elements on a slide.
• Use the "Animations" tab to add effects to text, images, and other objects.
• Adjust the duration and delay of animations.
• Animation order can be changed using the "Reorder Animation" tools.
• Set animations to start "With Previous" to have them occur simultaneously.

Adding Audio

• Insert audio from a file ( "Insert" > "Audio" > "Audio from File").
• Adjust the volume and playback options in the "Playback" tab.
• Set the audio to play across all slides and loop continuously.
• Hide the audio icon during the presentation.
• Record narration for each slide ( "Insert" > "Audio" > "Record Audio").

Saving Presentations

• Save the presentation as a PowerPoint file (PPTX) to retain editing capabilities.
• Save as an MP4 video ( "File" > "Export" > "Create a Video") to create a video file.

Recording Options

• Use the "Record Slide Show" feature ( "Slide Show" > "Record Slide Show") to record narration and slide timings in real-time and saving the final product as a video.

Screen Recording

• Use the built-in screen recording feature ( "Insert" > "Screen Recording").
• Select the area of the screen to record, start recording, and then stop to capture the footage.
• Right-click the video file on the slide and select "Save Media as" to export the video file.

Additional Useful Features

• Table of Contents: automatically link to certain slides by using the 'Table Contents' plugin.
• Add navigation controls, from the 'Shapes' menu at the bottom. You can program the buttons to navigate the slides in different ways.
• Insert online videos into the presentation, directly from YouTube, by pasting the youtube video link in the provided panel ("Insert" > "Video")