The blank presentation template is a design template that uses the default formatting and design. It is useful if you want to decide on another design template after working on the presentation content or if you want to create your own custom formatting and design from scratch.

To create a new presentation based on the blank presentation template, select Blank Presentation under the New tab in the Task Pane . With PowerPoint already running, you can select New from the File menu. This will bring up the New Presentation Task Pane . You must then select Blank Presentation under the New tab.

This is advised for first-time and new PowerPoint users. After a few presentations on your own, you more than likely will always choose this option so as to have complete control over your presentation. A design template is a presentation that does not contain any slides but includes formatting and design. It is useful for giving your presentations a professional and consistent appearance. You can start to make a presentation by selecting a design template or you can apply a design template to an existing presentation without changing its contents.

Once you choose a Design Template in PowerPoint XP you have the option of customizing the color and animation schemes in the Task Pane. Selecting the Color Scheme link allows you to customize colors for text and other objects on your slides, such as charts. Selecting Animation Schemes allows you to customize the slide transition (the way your slides appear when you advance them) and the builds (the way your title and text appear when you move from one point to another) for your title and text. You can apply these changes to one slide only or to all slides in your presentation and you can change them at any time. You will find more detailed information on Transitions and Builds later in this document.

The AutoContent Wizard is a series of dialog boxes that gets you started with creating a new presentation using a template. You'll start by answering questions about your presentation and end up with the ready-made slides. To activate this online guide, select From AutoContent Wizard in the Task Pane. If PowerPoint is already running, select New from the File menu. This will bring up the New Presentation Task Pane. You can select From AutoContent Wizard under the New tab.

You can switch between three views of your presentation, each view giving you a different way of looking at and working with your presentation. The image below is Normal View, the default view in PowerPoint XP.

In this view you can see the slide Outline on the left (or thumbnail images of your slides, depending on which tab you select); the Slide View , where you will edit all of your objects, in the center, and your speaker's notes, or Notes Page View , at the bottom. The other two views are Slide Sorter View and Slide Show View . There are two different ways to toggle between views. One way is to choose the desired view format from the View menu. One advantage to changing views using the menu command is that it allows you to look at your speaker's notes separate from Normal view. Another way to switch views is to click the appropriate button on the PowerPoint toolbar, which is located in the bottom left-hand corner of the window (shown below). From left to right, the views are Normal View , Slide Sorter and Slide Show View .

As mentioned above, Normal View incorporates three views into one. This allows the user to move easily from one activity to another while still being able to see other important pieces of the presentation. These are the three components that make up Normal View:

• Outline View

  Working in Outline View is a good way to organize and develop the content of your presentation. To insert text, click where you want to add text and type. Bullets and their editing are very easy in this view. Creating sub-levels along with promoting and demoting text can be done here as well. You can also print a copy of your outline. In this view, you see and can make changes to the title and body text of each slide. You cannot make any changes to slide objects, such as clip art, in this view. The Drawing toolbar closes and the Outlining toolbar opens. This works much like the Microsoft Word Outlining toolbar.

• Slide View

  You can add graphics to your slides as well as type, edit and format text. PowerPoint displays the Formatting and Drawing toolbars in addition to the Standard toolbar. The presentation appears on the screen one slide at a time. The left side of the Status bar displays the page number of the current slide. To move to other slides, drag the elevator on the vertical scrollbar or click the Previous Slide or Next Slide button below the scrollbar.

• Notes Pages View

  In Notes Pages View, you can create pages that you can print and use as a guide during your presentation. Each page contains an image of the corresponding slide and a placeholder for your notes. These notes will not be visible to you or your audience when you run your presentation, so you will want to print a hard copy.

In Slide Sorter View, you can efficiently perform tasks such as reordering slides and adding builds, transitions, and slide timings for electronic presentations. You cannot work on text and visual elements of individual slides in this view. PowerPoint displays miniature versions of each slide. In addition to the Standard toolbar, PowerPoint displays the Slide Sorter toolbar.

You use Slide Show view to deliver your presentation as an on-screen electronic slide show or to look at each slide full-screen. There are several ways to navigate your presentation. These will be discussed in the Delivering an On-Screen Show portion of this document.

You can insert text on slides by selecting an AutoLayout with text placeholders. Text placeholders are formatted for titles or bulleted lists. The text formatting, which includes the font, alignment and bullets, depends on the design template you selected.To add text to a slide in Slide View, simply click on a text placeholder (Or you can simply type in your text next to the numbered slide icon in the Outline View). The directions on the placeholder will disappear, leaving an empty text box with a flashing insertion point. Begin typing. Text automatically wraps as you reach the right border of the placeholder. When you're done, click anywhere else on the slide. To edit text, move the mouse pointer over the text (note that it becomes an I-beam), click and edit.

When making a bulleted list, you automatically create the next bulleted item every time you press Enter. To create sublevels, click the Demote (Indent more) button on the Formatting toolbar. To move up a level, click Promote (Indent less) . In PowerPoint 2000 you can demote and promote in the left-hand window by using your mouse. Simply click and hold at the left border of the text and drag your mouse to the left (to promote) or to the right (to demote). Your bulleted list can have up to five levels.

You can use the Text Tool on the Drawing toolbar to add text outside of text placeholders. In Slide View, click the Text Tool and move the mouse pointer to the point on the slide where you want to insert text. Click to make a label/caption or drag to make a text box that will wrap the words. Then begin typing and, when you're done, click anywhere else on the slide.

To insert a Microsoft Word table on a slide:

• double-click on a Table placeholder,

• Click on the Word Table Button shown below, or...

• under the Insert menu, choose Picture, then Word Table,and specify the number of rows and columns you want. If you click on the Insert Microsoft Word Table button on the Standard toolbar, drag on the cells to select the number of rows and columns.The table appears along with Word's application menu and toolbars. Type the table contents and, when you're finished, click anywhere else on the slide. To edit the table, double-click on it and edit the table using Word tools and menus.

You can put graphic images from Microsoft ClipArt Gallery on your slides. To add clip art to a slide:

• double-click on a Clip Art placeholder,

• under the Insert menu, choose Picture, then Clip Art

• Click the Insert Clip Art button, which is now located on the Draw toolbar shown below.

ClipArt task pane opens on the right. Type a word in the search field and then click the search button. PowerPoint will display the images that match your search criteria. To select a picture, click on the down arrow next to it and choose Insert . PowerPoint will insert the image on your slide. To get back to the main Task Pane window, click on the back arrow to the left of the Task Pane title, in this case, Insert Clip Art.

If you want to change the clip art on a slide, click on the image to select it. Then press the delete key to remove your current selection. Follow the same steps above to insert a new image.

You can put scanned images or art created from other programs on your PowerPoint slides. Select Picture from the Insert menu, choose From Scanner and use the MS Office photo editor after opening the file from your computer. If your picture exists as a file on your computer or network, select the Insert menu, choose Picture/ From File .

You can add text with special effects in your slides using Microsoft WordArt. There are at least three ways to put word art in your PowerPoint presentation: You can select Insert/Picture/Word Art from the menu, choose Object from the Insert menu; in the Insert Object dialog box, select Create New and choose the latest version of Microsoft WordArt 3.2 from the Object Type list, or click on the WordArt button on the Draw Toolbar.

The WordArt dialog box and menus appear. Choose the special effects you want from the WordArt menu. Type the text you want and click on OK .

To move or resize an object, first click on the object to select it. Eight handles appear around the object. Click and drag a handle to change the size and/or shape of the object. Click and drag anywhere else on the object to move it.

To resize an object by an exact scale while maintaining its proportions, select the object and then choose Scale from the Draw menu. Enter the scale on the Scale dialog box and click on OK.

To move or resize a placeholder, select the placeholder and click on its dashed border. You will get a fuzzy outline around the border with eight resize handles. Click and drag a resize handle to change the size and/or shape of the placeholder. Click and drag anywhere else on the fuzzy outline to move it.

To restore a slide's layout after you've made changes to it or to change the AutoLayout without deleting any text or object you've already put on it, select Slide Layout from the Format menu or click the Slide Layout option in the Task Pane. Select the AutoLayout you desire from the Slide Layout Task Pane and choose Apply to Selected Slide .

Unless you created the presentation using the AutoContent Wizard and specified otherwise, slides are by default set up for an on-screen show. To change this, select Page Setup from the File menu. On the Slide Setup dialog box, select the output you want from the Slides Sized for drop down list. You can also change slide orientation from landscape to portrait, and the physical size of your printouts.

To change the presentation's design template, select Apply Design from the Format menu or click the Apply Design Template button on the Standard toolbar. In the Apply Design Template dialog box, select the design template and click Apply . On a typical installation of PowerPoint, the design templates are in the Presentation Designs folder in

	C:\MSOffice\Templates

or

 

	C:\Microsoft Office\Templates

You can also use your own design templates or even an existing PowerPoint presentation.

To display the presentation in black and white, select Color/Grayscale from the View menu or click the View button (shown above) on the Standard toolbar. In Normal View, you'll see the current slide in black and white and a color slide miniature in the Outline View window.

To delete a slide in Slide View, select Delete Slide from the Edit menu. In Slide Sorter View, select a slide and hit the delete key from your keyboard.

To move a slide, select the slide in Slide Sorter View and click the Cut button on the Standard toolbar. This copies the slide to the Clipboard. Then click on the position where you want to insert the slide (note the flashing insertion point) and click the Paste button. You can also change the order of your slides in Slide Sorter View by clicking on a slide and dragging it to the position where you want it to appear. In Normal View you can automatically reorder slides in the left hand window or, Outline View. Simply click on the slide icon, and while holding the mouse button down, drag it above where you would like it to go. Be careful with this option however! You can also move elements of text from one slide to another. If you only wish to move an entire slide, be sure you’ve clicked on the little slide icon. As long as you haven’t saved your presentation recently, you can always “undo” something you regret (like mixing the text of one slide into that of another). Just click on “undo” from the edit menu.

To move to the next slide, click the left mouse button, press the Enter key, or press N, for Next, on the keyboard. To get a menu of available slide show commands, click the right mouse button or this icon that appears on the lower left side of the screen.

If you should need to return to a previous location in your presentation, press the Backspace key or press the P key, for Previous, on the keyboard. If you've reached the last slide or press the Esc key on the keyboard, you return to the previous view.

• To go directly to a particular slide, select Go To, Slide Navigator from the menu. On the Slide Navigator dialog box, select the slide and click Go To .

• To annotate a slide during a show, select Pen from the menu and the mouse pointer toggles to a pen. Click and drag to write or draw on the slide. To return to advancing the slides, switch back to the arrow by selecting Arrow from the menu.

You can deliver an on-screen show on a computer that doesn't have PowerPoint installed using the PowerPoint Viewer, freeware that you can distribute with your presentation. You can create disks that contain the presentation and PowerPoint Viewer. Select Pack and Go from the File menu and the Pack and Go Wizard will guide you through the process.

Transitions are special audiovisual effects that occur when moving from slide to slide during an electronic presentation. To add a transition to a selected slide in Slide Sorter View , click the Slide Transition button on the Slide Sorter toolbar. From the Slide Transition Task Pane, you can choose the effect and speed of the transition and a sound to accompany the visual effect. A transition icon appears below the thumbnail image of a slide if it has a transition.

You can preview the transition on the miniature by clicking on the icon. If you want the same transition on all your slides, choose Select All from the Edit menu and then add the transition.

You will learn how to animate the text (called a Build in PowerPoint) on your slides in the next class, Formatting and Design.