OpenOffice Impress Tutorial PDF

# Presentation Tools ## OpenOffice.org Impress ### Introduction - A picture is worth a thousand words is a proverb that refers to the idea that complex stories can be described with just a single still image, in other words, an image may be more influential than a substantial amount of text. -...

# Presentation Tools ## OpenOffice.org Impress ### Introduction - A picture is worth a thousand words is a proverb that refers to the idea that complex stories can be described with just a single still image, in other words, an image may be more influential than a substantial amount of text. - Presentation is the process of presenting a topic to an audience. It can be anything from presenting a lesson to students about soil erosion in India to presenting the company mission statement to a group of new employees. - The traditional way of presenting information to people was to stand at the front of a room armed with a set of notes or prompt cards and to speak clearly and slowly. - But with the development of presentation software such as OpenOffice.org Impress or Lotus Freelance or Harvard Graphics Pro Presentations around the mid-1980s, it quickly became the norm to use a presentation show to illustrate the presentation content. - In this chapter, we are going to learn about a presentation graphics software called Impress which is part of the OpenOffice.org suite. ### Introduction to Presentation Graphics - Presentation graphics is another specialized type of graphics software. - These programs are used to create professional-looking visual aids for an audience, for example, computer images, paper printouts, or photographic transparencies. - Some of these programs include Coreldraw, Macromedia Director, PowerPoint, OpenOffice.org Impress etc. - OpenOffice.org Impress is the presentation graphics part of OpenOffice suite. - Using Impress, you can create various presentation materials like charts, graphics, slides, handouts, overheads etc. - Impress even creates slideshows, which are electronic presentations that you can run on your computer screen or a projection device. ### Slide Show - A presentation, in general, is a series of slides showing some facts and images. - A slideshow is an electronic presentation which can be run on a computer screen or a projection device. - In the professional world, slideshows are a popular way of conveying information to people, communicating with clients and business partners. - Slideshows of the modern age are capable of integrating multiple types of information in the form of text, graphics, sounds, video, charts, animation etc. ### Steps to Impress Presentation - An Impress presentation is a group of various slides. - There can be as many slides in an Impress presentation as you want. - A slide is nothing but an electronic page in a presentation. - To make an Impress presentation, you may need to follow these steps: - Select way to start your presentation. - Impress gives you several ways to create a presentation. - These include Empty presentation and From template. - Select any of these according to your requirements. - Create slides. - After deciding the way to start your presentation, you need to create slides in your presentation. - Creating slides is no more difficult than filling in the blanks in Impress. - Customize the presentation. - After creating slides, you can customize them according to your needs by rearranging them, editing them or formatting your presentation. - Adding Illustrations to Slides. - You can embellish your presentation by adding illustrations like special graphics using Impress's sophisticated drawing tools. ### Creating Slide Shows - Impress's big payoff comes when you are ready to present. - With Impress's sophisticated tools, you can create an on-screen electronic presentation (called slideshow), complete with TV-like special effects and transitions, and with sound. ### Starting Impress - On a Windows Operating System, in order to start Impress, you need to follow the sequence of steps as follows: - Click Start -> All Programs -> OpenOffice version -> OpenOffice Impress ### Impress Window - When you start Impress, the Impress window may look like the one shown below. - The common components of the Impress window are: - Title Bar - Menu Bar - Toolbars - Tasks Pane - Drawing Toolbar - Slide Pane/Bar - Slide View Buttons ### What Is a Presentation - When we create a file using Impress software, it is called Presentation. - A presentation is the combination of multiple Slides. - A slide is the combination of different elements such as Text Box, Images, Font Gallery and even Audios & Videos. - When a presentation is played to show to the audience, a slide is shown in one screen. ### Presentation Tips - As you know that effective use of graphics is very important aspect of successful presentations. - For this purpose, you need to keep in mind a few principles: - Know your audience. - Keep it simple. - Use space efficiently. - Balance the information. - Use text judiciously. - Use color judiciously. ### Uses Presentation Software - Many people use presentation software to support them when they have to give presentations to others. - Here are a few examples: - Salespeople often need to give presentations to customers, clients or managers. - The human resource department of medium to large-sized companies can use presentation software to provide training schemes for existing employees or providing training for new employees. - Teachers often use presentations so that students have a concise set of notes to copy from the board. - Students are also regularly asked to create presentations about a topic they have been studying. - Presentations software is regularly used during conferences. ### Physical Aspects of a Presentation - Slides are one of the components of a presentation. - To be able to use slides meaningfully, a speaker must be familiar with the basic components of a slide. - The speaker should understand the need for each component, should be able to distinguish between the different types of slides, and should use them appropriately. - There are things that are used for displaying information (i.e., visible components) and there are things that are displayed but used for reference purpose. ### Basic Elements of a Slide - A good slide is one that successfully communicates a message. - To make a good slide, you must understand the anatomy of a slide. - Impress slides can contain any or all of the following visible components: - Title - Subtitle - Drawing Objects - Clipart and Pictures ### Slide Components Used For Reference - The display of information is very important aspect of any presentation. - Most speakers use slides for displaying information. - But all the information cannot be displayed on the slide. - In addition to slides, you would also require handouts to be given to the audience, as well as notes and outlines of the presentation for the presenter, which can be created using the slides that have been prepared for the presentation. - The following components of a slide are used for reference purpose. - Handouts - Speaker's Notes - Outlines ### What All Can You Create In Impress - You can create quite a few useful things in Impress. - These include: - Online (electronic) presentations - Overhead transparencies - Color and B&W paper printouts - 35 mm slides - Notes, handouts and outlines. ### Creating New Presentation - When you start a new presentation, Impress offers several options in the New Presentation dialog box. - The dialog box offers several ways to create a new presentation. - Empty presentation - From Template - Open existing presentation ### Creating Empty Presentation - When you select Empty presentation from the Presentation wizard, it will allow you to create a presentation from scratch. - After selecting Empty presentation, you need to click Next button to move to the next step. - You need to do two things to move to the next step. These are: - Select the slide design - Select an output medium ### Selecting a Slide Design - The slide design section gives you two main choices. - Each one has a list of choices for slide design. - Presentation backgrounds: - Presentations ### Selecting Output Medium - Select how the presentation will be used under Select an output medium. - Generall, presentations are created for computer screen display, so you would select Screen. ### Step 3 of Presentation Wizard - In step 3, you have to decide for three options: - Effect - Speed - Presentation type - To move to the next step, click Create. ### Creating the First Slide - The first slide is normally a title slide. - The title slide shows the title and subtitle of the presentation. - To add specific type of contents to your slide, you can decide which of the layouts will best suit your purposes for this first slide. - A layout (as you can make out) is like blank mould of a side having some organized set of elements, which can be used to create slide as needed. - You can use the pre-packaged layouts available in the Layout section of the Tasks pane, for example, Title Slide and Title Only. ### Applying a Layout To Slide - To apply a specific layout to your slide, follow the steps given below. - Select a layout in the Layout section of the Tasks pane. - It appears in the Workspace. ### Adding Layout and Titles, Subtitles - When you apply slide layout, the placeholders for elements appear on the slide. ### Creating Presentation From Design Template - For creating the presentation from design template, follow the steps given below. - A design template is actually a predefined file that contains predefined element-styles for a presentation for example; font & bullet sizes, placeholders' size & position, background & colour scheme and slide master. - To create a presentation based on a sample design template, you need to select from Template option from the step 1 dialog of Presentation Wizard and then a presentation template from the list that is displayed in the dialog. - After this, you have to click Next to go to the next step. ### Step 2 of Presentation Wizard - The steps in this step are similar to the ones as you encountered while creating empty presentation in the previous section. ### Step 3 of Presentation Wizard - The steps in this step are similar to the ones as you encountered while creating empty presentation in the previous section. ### Step 4 of Presentation Wizard - In step 4, you have to specify your presentation's title, your name and other ideas that will be part of your presentation. - Once done, click Next to go to the next step. ### Step 5 of Presentation Wizard - In this step, you can select the pages from the sample presentation that you want to add in your presentation. - Clear the boxes that you don’t want to include in your presentation. - Once done, click Create to create the presentation. ### Different Views of a Slide - There are six different ways to view your presentation in Impress. - Each new presentation opens in Normal view, which combines the outline of presentation with a view of the current slide, as well as quick access to notes. - The views can be switched by clicking at the desired view button. - There are five buttons for five views, and the Slide Show View is visible when you run the slide show. - These views are: - Normal - Outline - Notes - Handout - Slide Sorter - Slide Show ### Adding New Slides - While designing a presentation, you need to add more slides as and when you require. - To add more slides into your existing presentation, you need to do is to follow any of the following three ways of adding a slide. - Click Insert -> Slide command. - Right-click on the present screen and select Slide -> New Slide. - Click the Slide icon in the Presentation toolbar. ### Different Types of Slide Layouts - The first slide, by default, is in the Title Slide layout. - This is because normally one wants to start out a presentation with a slide that displays title of the presentation along with subtitles. - If somehow you don't want to use this slide layout, Impress provides set of slide layout templates in Task pane from which you can choose when you are working on a slide, including one layout which is blank. ### Editing and Formatting a Slide - During the development of your presentation, you may encounter a stage where you are not satisfied with the outlook of your presentation. - If you find that you need to edit and format presentation, you need not lose heart as there are very useful and flexible editing and formatting tools available in Impress. - If you need to make changes for all the slides, you can opt for Slide Master. - The Slide Master, however, has not been covered as part of the text, but the Hands-on Problem does cover slide Master's use. ### Selecting New Design - A presentation's template contains a selection of text fonts and formatting like color scheme, shadows etc. - Therefore, by changing a template, you can give it an entirely new look. - To select a new design for your presentation, you need to follow these steps: - From the Format menu, click at the Slide Design... - Right-click outside the placeholder areas in Slide or Normal view and select Slide -> Slide Design... - Now the Slide Design... dialog box appears. - In this dialog box, click Load button. - You can preview the appearance of selected design in the Preview frame of Load Slide Design dialog. - Click OK in Load Slide Design dialog. - Click OK in Slide Design dialog. - You will then see that Impress reflects the change in the slide. ### Changing Background Color and Shading - If you are not satisfied with the background color and shading, you can go ahead with changing background color and shading for the current slide or even for all slides. - To change the background color and shading, follow these steps after selecting the slides on which changes are to be applied. - From the Format menu, select Page... option. - Right-click outside the placeholder areas in the Slide in Normal view. - Now, you see, a shortcut menu appears; select Slide -> Page Setup... from here. - Now the Page Setup dialog box appears. - To choose a different background color, firstly select the Background tab and the pull down the Fill menu and choose the new desired fill scheme or effect. - Click OK. - Impress will now raise alert window asking "Background settings for all pages?". - Click Yes to change the background for all slides or click No to change it for the selected slide(s) only. ### Changing Text Font and Style - To change font or style of text on your slide, you need to first select the text and then apply the change. - To change the font or style of selected text in a slide: - Select the desired text in the slide. - Now select Character... option on the Format menu. - The Character dialog box appears wherefrom you can select the desired Font, Font Effects and Position from different tabs. - Once you are through, click at OK. - Now see that the selected changes have been applied on the selected text. ### Headers and Footers - Headers and Footers are very useful for displaying the similar useful information on each slide. - You can change header and footer details at any time in your presentation design. - To change headers and footers of slides, you need to edit the slide master. ### Slide Master - Every slide is based on a slide master. - The text, pictures, tables, fields or other objects that you place on the slide master are visible as a background on all slides that are based on that slide master. - A slide master, in general, refers to a design theme applicable to multiple slides/notes/handouts. - There are three types of Masters that exist. These are: - For slides - For notes - For handouts ### Adding Header and Footer Through Slide Master - To add header and footer to a slide, you need to follow the steps given below. - Click View -> Master -> Slide Master command to open the slide master for editing. - Once you are in the Slide master view, you can click in the desired placeholders to enter header and footer. - These changes would be applied to all the slides once you leave the master. ### Working In Slide Sorter View - Slide Sorter View displays rows of thumb nail views of slides (i.e., miniature slides). - In slide sorter view, you can easily rearrange slides, delete them or duplicate them. - You know that Slide-Sorter view can be switched to by clicking at Side-Sorter button on the top of the screen. ### Rearranging Slides - To change the order of slides, you need to first get into the slide-sorter view. - Then, follow these steps: - Click at the desired slide(s) whose position is to be changed. - Hold down the mouse button and drag the slide to a new position. - Release the mouse button, and Impress will position the selected slide at the new position. ### Selecting Slides - If you want to apply a change on multiple slides, then you need to select them simultaneously. - You can select multiple slides in one of the following manners. - Hold down the Shift key and select the first and last slides in the series (of continuous slides to be selected). - To select non-continuous slides, hold down Ctrl key and then click each slide to be selected. ### Copying and Deleting Slides - You can copy and delete selected slides in slide sorter view, and see the effect on the arrangement and flow of slide immediately. ### Inserting Music or Sound On A Slide - Display the slide you want to add music or sound to. - On the Insert menu, point to Movie and Sound. - This will open the Insert Movie and Sound dialog, where you need to select the desired sound or movie file, and then click Open. ### Creating Slide Shows - Slide show, as you know, is the name of running electronic presentation. - When you give a slide show on a computer, you can use special visual, sound and animation effects. - Variations that can be used in slide shows are: - Animations and transitions. - Music, sounds and videos. ### Adding Transitions To a Slide Show - In slide or slide sorter view, select the slide or slides you want to add a transition to. - On the Slide Show menu, click Slide Transition or click at Slide Transition panel on the Tasks pane. - In Slide Transition panel, in the Apply to selected slides box, click the transition you want, then select any other options you want. ### Animate Text and Objects - In Normal View, display the slide that has the text or objects you want to animate. - Click command Slide show -> Animation. - Select the object on the slide, for example; text or picture or chart etc. - On the Tasks Pane under Custom Animation panel, click the Add button below Modify effect. - The Custom Animation dialog will pop up where you can select the desired animation effect and speed and other things from its different tabs and click OK. ### Set and Rehearse Slide Timings - On the Slide Show menu, click Rehearse Timings to start the show in rehearse mode. - Click the advance button, when you are ready to go to the next slide. ### View Slide Show - To start a slide show you can do any of the following: - Click Slide Show button on the Presentation toolbar. - On the Slide Show menu, click Slide Show. - On the View menu, click Slide Show. - Press F5