CS130/230 Lecture 15
PowerPoint
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
For todayÕs lecture, we will discuss how to use PowerPoint for presentations. This document contains instructions on the different features of PowerPoint. I am not going to go over each point in class, but I would like you to read through them all and use them, as you see fit, in your presentations.
For today, I would like you to work on a presentation for the sports data that you collected for your last assignment. You should include an image and some statistical charts in your presentation. You should have:
1. A title slide
2. Two data slides
3. One summary slide
Most of you have used PowerPoint before so you should be fairly familiar with it. Unfortunately, PowerPoint is a Microsoft application that has changed rather significantly from version to version. What you see today may or may not be available on your own version on your computer at home or in another lab. IÕll try to point out features that are common to most versions. The good news is that most of the additional features arenÕt necessary for a good presentation.
When you create a new presentation, you should be able to see the outline or slide view of the slides in the left window, with one current slide displayed in the center. At the bottom of the window there is a place for you to enter slide comments. These will not appear on the presentation itself.
The view menu gives you the option of viewing your presentation in different ways. The slide sorter view allows you to view all the slides in your presentation and reorder them.
Before we start adding anything to our presentation, letÕs modify our slide design and formatting schemes. In this version of PowerPoint, there is a handy window on the right that you can use to change most of the different features of your presentation. If your version of PowerPoint doesnÕt have this right window, youÕll have to rely on the menus to add features to your slides.
We can choose slide design-design template on the right side to change our slides to look like the built-in formats. We can look at the different design templates displayed in the window to choose one that we like. Feel free to investigate the different templates today; IÕd recommend staying away from the templates for an important presentation. I find them to be too busy and too trite.
Instead, IÕd recommend choosing a color scheme with the slide design-color schemes. I think itÕs much nicer to have a plain background without any extra distractions. When youÕre giving a talk, particularly a scientific or technical talk, the focus should be on your content, not on your graphic extras. Also, the best color schemes are those that have a very light background with very dark text or a very dark background with very light text. Whites, creams, yellows paired with blues or blacks give the best contrast. If youÕre printing your slides, you might want to consider a light background since youÕd give your printer too much of a workout with a dark background (I have done it, however). If youÕre projecting your presentation, dark backgrounds look great!
Once youÕve chosen your colors, you should focus on your fonts. If youÕve chosen a design template, youÕll have some fonts pre-chosen for you. If you donÕt like them or are starting from scratch, youÕll want to edit your Master Slide. Changing the font on your Master Slide results in changing the font on ALL of your slides. This actually holds true for anything you change on your Master, not just your fonts.
To change the Master Slide, choose view/Master/Slide Master from the menus. Then, highlight the different areas of text and choose a new font. It is ALWAYS best to use a sans serif font for your presentation. The text is much more crisp and easy to read than a serif font. Arial and Helvetica are examples of sans serif fonts. NEVER use any of the fancy, scrolling fonts.
While weÕre looking at the Master Slide, we can see the different things that we can change. We can change the background color, add some borders/lines, change the text color, add footers, etc. Also, we could add an image that would appear on every slide.
NoteÑif you donÕt have a recent version of Powerpoint, the only way that you can cause changes to appear on all your slides is through the Master Slide.
LetÕs now look at the different views we can have of our presentation. If you donÕt have a recent version of PowerPoint, you would be able to view your outline only through the view menu (it wouldnÕt appear on the left). You can edit your presentation by typing in the outline view instead of on the slide view. The slide sorter view is very handy for looking at all the different slides at once. This is useful for when you want to rearrange the order of your slides or choose some slides to copy to another presentation.
Another useful view is the notes view. This allows you to see your slide and to type in notes, too. In XP, we see a notes section in our normal view; older versions donÕt have this, so you have to choose the notes view yourself. The notes are very handy for when youÕre planning on what to say during your presentation. DonÕt forget to print them out, though; you wonÕt be able to see the notes during your presentation otherwise! Also, notes are a fantastic way to archive your talk so you wonÕt forget what to say if you know youÕll have to revisit this talk at a much later time. And, itÕs a good way to give a copy of your complete talk to someone who didnÕt get to see or hear it in person.
When you print your presentation, you have the option of what format you want for printingÑyou can print just your slides, your slides with notes or handouts. This is all available in the print form.
If you want to change any formatting for your notes or handouts, use the notes or handouts master.
Once youÕve chosen what you want your slides to look like, itÕs time to enter your content. When youÕre ready to add a new slide, insert it and choose the layout. If you have the XP version, you can look at the different formats on the right through the slide layout option. If you donÕt have this, youÕll still be able to choose your layout when you add your slide. You can always change the layout through the format menu. Choose a layout that makes the most sense for your needs.
When you add content to your slides, you should aim to have 3-5 major points per slide. Humans canÕt comprehend more than that amount of information at a time. Also, you need to strike a good balance of how much information to put on a slide. You want to put enough so that the audience understands what youÕre saying, but you donÕt want to overload your slide with words. (You should NEVER use complete sentences or paragraphs). Highlight each major point with a bullet. Feel free to add sub-bullets as needed. Also, be careful of the size of your font. PowerPoint will automatically size your text for you based on where your text is (title, which level of bullet, etc.). The newer versions of PowerPoint will also dynamically change your font size if you start running out of room on your slide. RememberÑyou never have to accept what PowerPoint autoformats for youÑchoose the font size based on what you need. Remember these guidelines, however: The title of your slide should stand out, so it should be bigger or at least in bold. No font size on your slide should be smaller than 24 point (this can vary from font to font). You should always be able to read your presentation from the back of the room, so you might want to try it out.
If you want to include images or Excel charts in your slide, you may do that through the insert picture or chart option in your menu. Or you can copy and past from the clipboard (I find this to be the easiest way to do it). Remember, your image or chart must also be readable from the back of the room; this means you may need to increase your font size on your chart before you paste it into your presentation. Your chart/image count as multiple pieces of information, so you shouldnÕt have too much more information/ text on your slide besides it.
To see what images/movies are available through PowerPoint, choose the Insert Clip Art option from the window on the right.
You can also add action buttons to your slides (this isnÕt available on older versions of PowerPoint). These buttons will activate some action that you define. This is a great way to link to some webpage or application without having to leave PowerPoint.
When youÕre done with your presentation, be sure to save it.
Finally, you can add animation to your slides. I hesitate to show you these features because theyÕre often improperly used and are obnoxious. Animation is never necessary for a presentation, with the exception of videos or step-by-step diagrams that are integral to your presentation topic. Fancy slide transitions and moving text almost never enhance a talk. Also, if youÕre not going to be projecting your talk and printing it on transparencies instead, do NOT bother with animations!
NoteÑPowerPoint does allow you the capability to ÒrecordÓ a presentation for replaying without a speaker. Sometimes you can find examples of these online or youÕll see them playing on unmanned computers at a conference exhibit. In this case, it is okay to include animations, sounds and fancy transitions since the presentations are now more of a multimedia exhibit.
That said; letÕs see what type of animations we can use. Like pre-made design templates, there are predefined animations that we can choose. LetÕs look at them in the slide design-animation in the right window. LetÕs look at the different options available. Which ones would you like to look at during a talk?
If you want to define your own, youÕd want to use custom animation and transition. Custom animation allows you to define exactly how each slide will appear. You can have each element of your slide appear, one at a time. This can be useful during a talk, but it can also be annoying since youÕll have to be clicking a mouse constantly during your talk (if you know youÕll have a wireless mouse, it wonÕt be a problem). Also, itÕs nice to let the audience see your entire slide at once while youÕre talking about it. If you have each element appear one at a time, youÕll only see the complete slide briefly at the end. Also, I find it to be annoying that the speaker enforces a certain reading speed on meÑI like to read ahead and think about the whole picture of what the speaker is saying.
LetÕs try out some custom animations. We can choose the element on our slide and then choose how it will appear on the screen. We have LOTS of options, so donÕt get overwhelmed!
Finally, we can define the transitions between slides. The subtle ones arenÕt bad, but some of them are too wild for most professional talks. Also, we can add sounds.
When you are done, you should practice your talk in the slide show mode. When youÕre projecting your talk, you should know how to advance slides. Mouse clicks work, so does the keyboard character n (p goes backwards). The slide show will end automatically when you advance past your last slide. Or, you can hit Esc at any point to end the show. Also, you can time your talk. Choose the rehearse timings from the Slide Show menu. Hit return after each slide as youÕre talking through your slides. At the end, PowerPoint will tell you how long your entire talk took.
Another useful tool for presentations is the annotation tool. When you are in the slide show view, you may right click and choose Pen Options/Pen. This will change your mouse pointer into a pen and allow you to circle or underline important points. If you press the E key, it will erase your annotations. Pressing the Esc key once will drop the pen and pressing it twice will end the slide show.
There are some important guidelines to remember when developing and giving presentations:
1. Content is the most important. Work on this FIRST! Most of us are always working under pressure with a limited amount of time available for a project, so make sure that you get your content right first before anything else.
2. Once you have your content, choose a nice formatting scheme. If you know what you want, you can choose the formatting before you do your content, but you shouldnÕt take much time doing it until you know your content is set.
3. Then, and only then, do you consider adding animations to your talk.
4. Finally, practice it and add notes as necessary. Make sure everything looks good, even from the last row in the room.
5. DonÕt overload each slide with information. (Talks are NOT like lectures your profs give. They should be clearer with fewer amounts of information per slide).