Mastering PowerPoint: Creating Engaging Presentations with Effective Features

1. PowerPoint Creating a presentation and adding features

2. Positive Uses of PowerPoint • Good at presenting things visually • Charts, graphs, etc. • Easy to create • Can incorporate other media • Enhances your message • Good for presenting a map for your talk http://www.shkaminski.com/Classes/Handouts/powerpoint.htm#weaknesses

3. Negative Uses of PowerPoint • Can waste time and be a distraction • Too many slides, confusion, hard to read • Can be too scripted • Doesn’t encourage discussion/spontaneity/critical thinking • Becomes a replacement/crutch of the speaker • Instead of an enhancement or reinforcement http://www.shkaminski.com/Classes/Handouts/powerpoint.htm#weaknesses

4. Recommendations • Less is more • Both number of slides and text on slides • Focus on your message/purpose • Use other (more appropriate) modes • Engage your audience/students • Ingenuity, connections, discussion http://www.shkaminski.com/Classes/Handouts/powerpoint.htm#weaknesses

5. Outline Pane • Use the Outline pane on the left hand side of the page to create an outline of your presentation BEFORE you create any slides. • This will mean help you focus on what you want to present to your audience.

6. Theme, Layout and Background • You can add/edit/change these things at any time in the process of creating your PowerPoint Presentation. • Go under “Design” for options/templates • The Title slide will always be different than the rest of your slides.

7. Theme, Layout and Background • The color scheme can be changed as well as the fonts. • Layout (under the “HOME” tab) will allow you to choose the most appropriate layout for each slide’s information (i.e. text boxes, multimedia, etc.) • New Slide command

8. Text • Same commands/features as in the other Microsoft Products • Edit, format, align • Use large font for better readability • Lists • Numbered and Bullets (options available) • Hyperlinks • Use url address or word/phrase substitute • Text boxes • Can be placed anywhere on the slide

9. Images • Adding, customizing • Clip art, WordArt, drawing tools • Sound and video files • SmartArt, charts, tables

10. Rearranging slides • Use Slide Sorter View to make duplicate slides (by using copy and paste commands) • Drag and drop slides to change the order • Can be done with multiple slides (Shift and Control keys) • Hide slides you don’t want to use

11. Slide transitions and effects • Use Slide transitions as you click from slide to slide • (it’s probably best to use the same transition throughout) • Usually you want to move from slide to slide on your mouse click, but you can also set it by time.

12. Custom animation • Animation pane will appear on the right side of your screen. • Select those words/phrases/pictures which you want to animate • Choose your animation and set time, speed, duration • Caution: Don’t over-do it

13. Rehearsing • Speaker notes • Option to be viewable to you only • Handouts • 3 slides per page is preferred • Timing • You can practice with a clock/timer running

14. Saving • Can be saved as a pdf document • Be aware of size limitations

15. Your Presentation • Use Slide Show mode for presentation • Pen and highlighter options • Skip , Go To, and End show options