Pointing out Your Power Spots 314 ✦ Normal view is fittingly named for what is the normal, new, opening PowerPoint presentation screen. It presents a blank canvas, along with a full suite of power tools on standby in the ribbon or menu bar at the top. See Figure 3-1. ✦ The main slide pane (on the right side of the view within the area marked by the horizontal and vertical rulers) is where you create, edit, and refine individual slides. Depending on the style you chose, the main pane may include predefined locations where you can add a title or sub- title or insert a drawing, photograph, or chart. ✦ The slides tab (on the left side of the screen) shows a thumbnail minia- ture version of each slide already created. You can see how the current slide relates to those that precede and follow it, and you can also drag thumbnails into a different order or delete them. ✦ The Notes pane (at the bottom of the Normal view) is where you enter comments or a script; the information here will not be projected onto the screen at a presentation, but if you work in Presenter view you can see them on the laptop. Notes can also be printed out as handouts for your audience. Slides tab Notes pane Main pane Figure 3-1: An empty PowerPoint presenta- tion, in the Normal view of PowerPoint 2007. 22 140925-bk04ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:47 PM Page 314 Book IV Chapter 3 Presenting Yourself with PowerPoint Professionalism Designing and Refining a PowerPoint Presentation 315 When you first start, the Notes pane is just one-line deep. To increase the available space to read notes, point to the pane’s top border and wait a moment until the pointer changes into a two-faced arrow; keep the mouse button pressed down and drag the border up. The slide you see on your laptop gets smaller to accommodate the growing Notes pane, but changes you make to the Notes pane size don’t affect the size of the slide when it projects. The best presentations are those that keep the information displayed onscreen to just the essential points, and use the notes for your background information. You can fill the Notes pane with material cut and pasted from a word processor, from slides created in PowerPoint, or just about anywhere else on your system. Designing and Refining a PowerPoint Presentation Presentations have no official prescription, but most experts follow the same structure that speechwriters often do: Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them. Structuring a presentation You could try this basic structure: ✦ Main title slide. You can display a summary title (accompanied by an attractive piece of art, if possible) as attendees arrive for your presenta- tion. It’s a good way to be sure the equipment works properly, and it gives you a jumping-off spot for your show. ✦ Introduction. This slide tells the audience what you’re going to tell them: the major points or subjects of your presentation. ✦ Detail slides. One or more slides expand upon and develop the points you seek to make. The structure should follow basic outlining: major point, minor point, details, and then back to a new major point. Don’t bore your audience by leaving one slide on display too long; try to have enough slides to make changes every few minutes during your presentation. ✦ Summary slide. Here’s where you tell them what you told them. This rein- forces your message and gives you talking points for your summation. When you add a slide to your presentation, you can continue with the same slide layout used in the previous slide or you can choose a layout for the new slide. To add a new slide of the same design 22 140925-bk04ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:47 PM Page 315 Designing and Refining a PowerPoint Presentation 316 1. Click the Home tab. 2. Locate the Slides section. 3. Click the small icon of a slide at the left side of the ribbon. To add a slide with a different layout, click New Slide. The Slides Gallery appears in a drop-down window. See Figure 3-2. (In older versions of PowerPoint, click File ➪ New Slide.) Figure 3-2: The display of available layouts in the Slide Gallery is presented in the colors you chose for the general theme for your presenta- tion. Outlines A quick aside into how to give the verbal side of a presentation: Write out a speech, break it down into as spare an outline as you can, and then deliver your comments from the outline. It comes out much more naturally and is more interesting than if you read from a script. 22 140925-bk04ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:47 PM Page 316 Book IV Chapter 3 Presenting Yourself with PowerPoint Professionalism Designing and Refining a PowerPoint Presentation 317 The placeholders shown in each slide can be used for text, or you can click the icons to insert objects including clip art, art from your own collection, and SmartArt graphics generated within the program. Adapting the Normal template The Normal view in PowerPoint 2007 uses a blank presentation template. Nothing fancy, but easy to work with, you can readily customize it. To create a new presentation based on the Blank Presentation template, follow along: 1. Click the Microsoft Office Button. 2. Click New ➪ Blank and Recent. Blank and Recent is in the Templates section. 3. Double-click Blank Presentation. Copying a slide to use as a template One of the most efficient ways to plow your way through a complex presen- tation is to use a successful slide as the model for another; an easy way to build one off the other is to copy a slide and then modify to the second version. 1. In the Slides tab, find a slide you want to duplicate. 2. Right-click the slide and then click Copy. 3. Release the mouse button and then use the pointer to go where you want to place the copy. 4. Right-click and click Paste. You can copy a slide into your laptop’s memory and then place it in another presentation open within PowerPoint. Applying a new layout to an existing slide You can take one of several tactics: ✦ Concentrate on the layout of slides before entering text and art. ✦ Lay out the basic material and then come back and apply a new layout to a set of existing slides. ✦ Return to a finished presentation months or years after finishing it and refresh it with a new look for a new audience, or give it a new look when presenting it again with new information. 22 140925-bk04ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:47 PM Page 317 Designing and Refining a PowerPoint Presentation 318 To change the layout of an existing slide, follow these steps: 1. Open a presentation in PowerPoint. 2. In the Slides tab, click the slide whose layout you want to change. The Slides tab is on the left side of the screen. 3. Click the Home tab ➪ Slides. 4. Click Layout and choose the new layout to apply. In older versions, click the Layout menu item and then choose a new layout. Themes like an attractive presentation Separate and apart from slide layout (the location of titles, images, and notes) is your presentation’s design. Your goal is to create an attractive look (or use a predefined design) that communicates information well. I’m talking about using fonts that are ✦ Easy to read ✦ In colors that viewers can easily see ✦ In combinations that engage the viewer Office PowerPoint 2007 automatically begins with a basic design called the Office theme anytime you begin a project based on the Blank Presentation template. Hover your pointer over an example or click one to see what it looks like to change a theme. As long as you don’t save your file, any brows- ing you do here doesn’t make permanent changes. However, changing the theme is as easy as pointing and clicking: 1. Click the Design tab ➪ Themes. 2. Click the down arrow at the right side of the first group of themes. The display expands into the full set of built-in designs. See Figure 3-3. In older versions of PowerPoint, click the Formatting toolbar, then click Design ➪ Color Schemes. By default, PowerPoint 2007 applies theme changes to all the slides in a presentation. If you want to change the appearance of one slide only, or a selected group of slides, hold down the Ctrl key as you click a slide (in the Slides pane on the left side of the page); continue holding Ctrl as you select other slides. When you have finish choosing slides, right-click the theme you want to apply, and then click Apply to Selected Slides. 22 140925-bk04ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:47 PM Page 318 Book IV Chapter 3 Presenting Yourself with PowerPoint Professionalism Designing and Refining a PowerPoint Presentation 319 Rearranging slides You have two ways to change slides around in a presentation. The most direct way — but not always the easiest — is to click a slide in the Slides pane and hold the mouse button while you drag it within the pane to a new location. This works well when you want to move a slide a few positions in the presentation structure. A much better tool for dealing with large and complex presentations is to open the Slide Sorter window. This button is available from the ribbon bar of PowerPoint 2007 or as a menu item in earlier versions. (See Figure 3-4.) You can click any slide and drag it to a new spot or delete it from the show. Using either method, you can select multiple slides to move, delete, or copy by pressing and holding the Ctrl key while clicking slides. Adding and formatting text Bulleting or numbering your text can help make it much more readable. ✦ Prepare your text in a word processor or other program, copy it to com- puter memory, and then paste it into place. ✦ To add text to any slide, click the placeholder where you want to add text; type or paste text. Figure 3-3: You can experiment with changing any of the built-in themes (called Color Schemes in previous versions of Power- Point). 22 140925-bk04ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:47 PM Page 319 Designing and Refining a PowerPoint Presentation 320 ✦ To switch between a bulleted list and unbulleted text, select the text and click the Bullets text or icon. ✦ To change the bullet characters, click the arrow next to Bullets, and then choose the style you want. ✦ From the ribbon bar in the Home tab of PowerPoint 2007 (or the Layout menu of previous versions), you can change fonts, type sizes, type styles, colors, and other attributes. Checking spelling By default, PowerPoint checks the spelling of all text you enter onto slides. Look for words underlined with a squiggly red line; that indicates that the system hasn’t found the word in the spelling dictionary. Make any necessary changes as you create the slides. If you prepare your text in a word proces- sor or other program, you can spell-check it there before copying and past- ing it into place in PowerPoint. Once you complete the presentation, have PowerPoint go back and re- examine the entire presentation. Not only does this help you check one more time for spelling errors, but it also helps you discover inconsistencies: Did you spell labor in the American style in some places and use the English spelling labour elsewhere? To initiate a spell-check on a document, follow these steps: Figure 3-4: The Slide Sorter window allows a global view of dozens of slides in a presentation (in this case a photo travel essay). 22 140925-bk04ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:47 PM Page 320 Book IV Chapter 3 Presenting Yourself with PowerPoint Professionalism Designing and Refining a PowerPoint Presentation 321 1. Press Ctrl + Home. You’re taken to the first slide in your presentation. 2. Click the Review tab and locate the Proofing group. 3. Click Spelling. If the program discovers any words it believes are misspelled, PowerPoint displays a dialog box with the word indicated. As a compo- nent of Microsoft Office, the spell-checking process uses the same engine (and the same dictionary) used in Microsoft Word and other ele- ments of the suite. 4. Choose one of the following: • Ignore All instances of the particular word (thereby declaring it to correct). • Add the word to the built-in dictionary so that it isn’t flagged as incorrect again • Change the spelling of the word If you change the word, select from one of the selected spellings shown in the box or enter your own fix. (If you choose Change All, the program alters all instances of the word it finds in the current presentation.) Adding clip art to a slide Why do PowerPoint presenters insist on including a Halloween goblin, a Thanksgiving turkey, a Christmas tree, or Uncle Sam in a top hat? The answer, I’m afraid, speaks to the power of symbols — no matter how over- used or cheesy. When you use a very familiar icon, you receive quick recognition and little chance of misunderstanding. On the other hand, you’re not demonstrating a great deal of creativity. Does it sound as if I’m not a big fan of clip art? (Cue the picture of exploding fireworks, accompanied by a sound effect of an audi- ence delivering an ovation. You know exactly what I mean, because you’ve seen the combination a thousand times.) PowerPoint, as well as other components of Microsoft Office and certain other applications come equipped with a collection of colorful, familiar, and easily recognized clip art drawings. You can add clip art you’ve purchased from com- mercial collections, downloaded from free sources, or drawn by yourself. Here’s how to insert clip art: 1. Click a slide. If the slide has a placeholder for clip art, click there; otherwise the image is inserted in the center of the slide. 22 140925-bk04ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:47 PM Page 321 Designing and Refining a PowerPoint Presentation 322 2. Click the Insert tab and locate the Illustrations group. 3. Click Clip Art. The Clip Art task pane opens. 4. Locate the drawing you want to insert. You can • Move through the collection by pulling down on the scroll bar on the right side of the pane. • Click an icon that allows you to organize clips on your system. (See Figure 3-5.) • Connect to the Internet to search for clip art in Office Online. 5. Once you’ve found the clip art you want to use, click on it to insert it into your slide. Once it is in place, it can be stretched to resize it and it can be rotated. You can also add text to help make your point even more obvious. Clip Art task pane Microsoft Clip Organizer Figure 3-5: The Clip Art task pane is shown at the right; the Microsoft Clip Organizer in the middle of the screen searches art by category or location. 22 140925-bk04ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:47 PM Page 322 Book IV Chapter 3 Presenting Yourself with PowerPoint Professionalism Designing and Refining a PowerPoint Presentation 323 Adding SmartArt graphics SmartArt is art that is, well, a heck of a lot smarter than mere clip art. Do you want to illustrate the fact that the company’s revenues are falling off the cliff? You could show picture of a cliff . . . or you could present real numbers from your presentation tumbling down a slope. (The numbers are tumbling, that is; you’re not tumbling while presenting.) PowerPoint includes layouts in the SmartArt catalog. To convert existing text to a SmartArt graphic, you can either enter text and apply a graphic to it, or choose a graphic and enter text that fills it out. To convert text to a SmartGraphic in PowerPoint 2007, do these steps: 1. Click the placeholder. 2. On the Home tab, locate the Paragraph group. 3. Click Convert to SmartArt Graphic. You can experiment with any of the SmartArt graphics by hovering your pointer over the thumbnails. The initial set shows layouts intended to spruce up bulleted lists; to see the entire set, click More SmartArt Graphics. 4. Complete the customization. Edit the text or add new material, resize it, rotate it, or apply a different Quick Style to set its color palette. Figure 3-6 shows a simple SmartArt graphic I created to explain the manufac- ture cost of our company’s best widget. To insert a piece of SmartArt to a blank slide, follow these steps: 1. Click the Insert tab and locate the Illustrations group. 2. Click SmartArt. The Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box appears on the left side of the PowerPoint frame. 3. Click the type of SmartArt graphic you want to use. If you hover your pointer over a graphic, it displays a preview. 22 140925-bk04ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:47 PM Page 323 . The best presentations are those that keep the information displayed onscreen to just the essential points, and use the notes for your background information. You can fill the Notes pane with material. the information here will not be projected onto the screen at a presentation, but if you work in Presenter view you can see them on the laptop. Notes can also be printed out as handouts for your. art, if possible) as attendees arrive for your presenta- tion. It’s a good way to be sure the equipment works properly, and it gives you a jumping-off spot for your show. ✦ Introduction. This slide