Practical: Presentation Software
What is a Presentation Software?
A presentation software is just a type of software that is used to create presentation for many different purposes, mainly uses for presenting something to large audiences. The general functions of the presentation software are to put the text, images, graphics, videos, sounds and simple animations together in the slides. In addition, there are also variety of designs for each slide. Microsoft Office PowerPoint and Prezi are some examples of the presentation software.
A presentation software is just a type of software that is used to create presentation for many different purposes, mainly uses for presenting something to large audiences. The general functions of the presentation software are to put the text, images, graphics, videos, sounds and simple animations together in the slides. In addition, there are also variety of designs for each slide. Microsoft Office PowerPoint and Prezi are some examples of the presentation software.
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Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010 logo
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How does a Presentation Software look like?
The diagram below shows the general layout of the presentation software:
Before we do anything.. Just make sure You know the BASICS stuff...
Presentation Terminology (key terms)
Here are some main features within a presentation software:
Slide = each page within a presentation that will entirely fill the screen when we set it to slide show.
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| The Square plain white on the screen is the slide |
Animation = the effects, which are mainly movements and colours, that can be applied to any object such as text or images within a slide.
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| Animations |
Slide Master = a slide that act as a template for each slide within a presentation which mean that everything on the slide master will be appear on every slide. To go back to the normal slide view you can just click on the Close Master View button. The Slide Master is located in the View tab. **Slide Master is similar to CSS, (look in website Authoring)
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| Slide Master |
Transition = the effects that can be applied to the slides in order to change from one slide to another.
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| Transitions |
Design Themes = the designs of backgrounds, layouts and colours for each slides.
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| Design Themes |
Outline View = displays just only the text within each slide and those text can also be imported and exported to word processing software.
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| Outline View |
Slide Sorter = It displays the order and how every slides within a presentation look like. You can also use the slide sorter to arrange which slides goes in which order. To return to the normal slide view, you can just click on the Slide Sorter button again. The Slide Sorter is also located in the View tab.***As if you ZOOM OUT to look at all your work :)
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| Slide Sorter |
Slide Layout = the layouts for the contents (such as text, images, videos, etc) within the slides.
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| Slide Layout |
IF you are okay with most of them, you are ready to move on...
A house style is just a set of rules to ensure that every slide within a presentation have the same formats such as the fonts, the colours, the style of images or graphics, etc. A house style can be created by using the Slide Master.
In order to format the text within a slide, you can just highlight the text and the format options will appear automatically after the text have been highlighted.
Let's Start with the basics, Shall we?
How to add & format the text within a slide?
You could use the Text Box tool that is located in the Insert tab to draw a text box which we can type or insert the text directly into it.
You could use the Text Box tool that is located in the Insert tab to draw a text box which we can type or insert the text directly into it.
Text box icon
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In order to format the text within a slide, you can just highlight the text and the format options will appear automatically after the text have been highlighted.
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Formatting text
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Another Basics move...
How add some graphics into the slides?
There are 3 common ways of adding graphics into the slide within a presentation which are by using the WordArt, the ClipArt and the Shapes (can also be called Autoshapes). These 3 options are all located in the Insert tab. Let's see what are they and how they works!
WordArt is a set of formats that contain various designs for the text within a slide.
How to:
You can directly edit the text just by double clicks or highlight the text, then you can just type in or insert the new text into the text box instead.
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| WORDART |
Instead of using the internet to find the images for your presentation, you can just use the ClipArt option.
How to:
When you click on the ClipArt icon then the ClipArt tab will appear on the right of the computer screen. After that if you type in the things that you wanted to search for into "Search for:" tab then the images of the things that you typed in will appear which helps you to save your times rather than going onto the internet. In order to put the clip art images into the slide, you can just click on the picture that you want and it will automatically appear on the slide. However, the main disadvantage for using the clip art is it doesn't have a wide range of images like the internet.
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| CLIP ART |
The Shapes (or Autoshapes) is an option that contain many different types of shapes and lines in which you can format them.
How to:
right-click on the shape and select the Format Shape option. Once you click on the shape that you wanted, you can just draw them onto the slide. These shapes can be re-sized by using the re-sizing handles that appear after you click on the shape.
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| SHAPES |
Moving on..
How to create the Header & the Footer for each slide?
How to:
If you wanted to create a header and a footer for the slides within a presentation, then you could do this by clicking on the Header & Footer icon which is located in the Insert tab. After that you could set up the header an footer by choosing the things that you wanted to include in those 2 things. When you've already finished choosing, click on the Apply (this will apply the header and the footer only onto the slides that you choose) or the Apply to all (this will apply the header and the footer onto every slide within the presentation) button. ***
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| This is how it will look like: |
Grouping the contents?
We usually group the contents within a slide when we wanted to merge different things together into one thing. People often uses grouping to merge different shapes and text together into one shape so that it is easier for them to drag the shapes around without having to hold onto the Control key while dragging it so that it doesn't fall apart.
How to:
Grouping the shapes
For example: if you wanted to group the shapes together, all you needed to do is to follow these steps,
- Click on a shape that you wanted to group.
- Hold onto the Control key on your keyboard.
- Click on to the other shapes that you wanted to group.
- Right-click and select the Group options.
*** if you wanted to ungrouped the shape, then you can just right-click on the grouped shape, select the Group option and choose Ungroup.
Now it's time to FABULIZE your presentation :)
Instead of using the options within the Design tab as a background for the slides, you can just right-click on the slide and select the Format Background option and this will allow you to create your own backgrounds by using one of these choices:
Solid colour fill
Using a solid colour which is just a plain colour to fill the whole slide.
Gradient fill
Using a gradient, which is an effect that blends the colours, to fill the whole slide.
Texture fill
Using an image or texture to fill the whole slide.
Pattern fill
Using a pattern that is made up of simple or basic lines to fill the whole slide.
