Basic Operations of Microsoft Office PowerPoint

A PowerPoint presentation consists of a series of slides that can contain different elements such as text, photography, WordArt, ClipArt, video, and sound clips. The user may also choose a color scheme, design, layout, or transition for each slide. While the following guide will not document each and every command PowerPoint can perform, it will give a basic overview of the main commands needed to make a successful Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentation.

• 
  Click the computer’s Start button to display the Start menu. Click the All Programs button, and then click Microsoft Office. Next, click Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 to start the program. This will begin a brand new presentation. The following screen shows what the user will see when the steps from above have been followed to open a PowerPoint presentation.
  
• 
  Note: The version of PowerPoint on the computer being used may be one other than 2003. Because of this, some of the screens in this guide may look slightly different than the screens on the computer being used. However, the directions from this guide will still apply.
  

• 
  Once PowerPoint is open, a new presentation should be ready on the screen. Choosing Slide Layout or Slide Design may be the first choices to make about the presentation. Slide Layout deals with what content is located where on a slide. For example, the Slide Layout chosen may be blank so that anything can be placed on the slide, or the Slide Layout may consist of title and text so that a title can be placed at the top of the slide with corresponding bulleted text below it. The Slide Layout command can be found by clicking on the Format button on the Menu bar at the top of the screen. Once Slide Layout has been chosen, a listing of the different layouts will appear on the right side of the screen, as the following screen shows.
  

• 
  Note: The Slide Layout chosen can be applied to only the slide being shown or to all the slides in the slide show. The user can also preview the particular scheme being applied to the slide. To have PowerPoint do these commands, click on the drop-down menu on the side of each scheme or template choice and then choose Apply to All Slides, Apply to Selected Slides, or Show Large Previews, depending on which command is desired.
  
• 
  Slide Design deals with what the background of a slide will look like and what color scheme or particular animation scheme will be applied to the slide. The Design Templates and Color Schemes both deal with the slide’s appearance. The Animation Scheme deals with what will visually happen to the information on the slide. For example, an Animation Scheme may be chosen that makes the information on the slide appear and dim or fade in one by one. The Slide Design commands can also be found by clicking the Format button on the Menu bar at the top of the screen and will appear on the right side of the screen, as follows.
  
• 
  When creating the presentation, new slides will need to be inserted. This can be done by clicking on the Insert button on the Menu bar at the top of the screen. Then click on New Slide. The new slide will appear after whichever slide was currently chosen on the computer screen. A slide with the same Layout and Design as the previous slide can be created by again clicking on the Insert button on the Menu bar at the top of the screen and then clicking on Duplicate Slide.
  

• 
  The presentation may be previewed either while working on it or once it has been completed. To do so, click on the Slide Show button on the menu bar, as the following slide shows.
  

• 
  As the slide above also shows, after clicking on the Slide Show button, Slide Transition can be chosen. Slide Transition deals with what will visually happen when moving from one slide to the next, which is very similar to the Slide Animation command that deals with what will visually happen to the information on the slide.
  

• 
  As stated previously in this guide, many of the commands used in PowerPoint are the same or similar to commands used in the other Microsoft Office applications. These commands can be found mostly on the Menu Bar, Standard Toolbar, Formatting Toolbar, or Drawing Toolbar.
  
• 
  The Menu Bar appears immediately below the Title Bar and provides access to the pull-down menus within the application. The orange arrow in the following screen points to the Menu Bar.
  
• 
  The Standard Toolbar appears immediately below the Menu Bar and contains buttons for the most basic commands in PowerPoint such as opening, saving, and printing the presentation. The blue arrow in the following screen points to the Standard Toolbar.
  
• 
  The Formatting Toolbar appears either immediately below or to the right of the Standard Toolbar and provides access to formatting operations such as changing font type, font size, boldface, italic, and underlining. The red arrow in the following screen points to the Formatting Toolbar.
  
• 
  The Drawing Toolbar is located above the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen and contains more tools for changing the slide by drawing a shape or inserting AutoShapes for example. The purple arrow in the following screen points to the Drawing Toolbar.
  

• 
  Sound clips can be added into the presentation to help emphasize a point or to possibly make the presentation more entertaining. This can be done by clicking on the Insert button on the Menu Bar and then clicking on Movies and Sounds. The user will be able to insert a sound clip from PowerPoint, from a file on the user’s computer, from a CD, or from a recording on the computer. To use a clip from PowerPoint, click on Sound from Clip Organizer. To use a clip from a file on the user’s computer, click on Sound from File. To use a sound clip from a CD, the user would need to put a CD in the CD drive of the computer and then click Play CD Audio Track. To use a recording on the computer, the user would need to click on Record Sound. The Movies and Sounds button can be seen on the following screen.
  

• 
  To print the presentation, click on the File button on the Menu Bar and then click Print.
  
• 
  Note: The presentation can be printed as handouts with more than one slide on each page or as transparencies. To print the presentation in these formats, click on the File button on the Menu Bar and then click on Print Preview. Once in the Print Preview view click on the drop-down menu next to the Print What section at the top of the screen, as the following slide shows. Then click on the choice for the number of slides desired to be printed on each page or transparency. Finally, click on the Print button at the top of the screen to the left of the Print What section.