Teaching notes to be used with Section 6 of the Syllabus:

Wordprocessing, Presentation and Web Page Design of the

CXC Information Technology General Proficiency Syllabus, Word
Processing [IT for CSEC pg. 194, Cato; IT for CSEC exams- Campbell,
pg. 190]

By the end of this module, the student should be able to:

Understand the concept of a slide presentation
Explain the purpose and uses of presentation software
Use design templates and slides to create a basic presentation
Apply layout, design templates and formatting to slides
Create headers, footers and speaker notes
Insert animations, animated text and graphics to slides
Sort, insert and delete slides
Present a slide show.

Introduction to presentation software

Presentation software is software that creates documents for presentations.
The most commonly used presentation software is Microsoft PowerPoint.
Another common presentation program is Impress, part of the OpenOffice
suite.

You can use presentation software to create presentations quickly and easily.
It saves you having to draw slides and overheads by hand and is more
professional and effective than using a word processing program to create
presentation notes. A presentation is created on a computer. To deliver a
presentation, the computer is attached to a visual output device, such as a
monitor or projector.

Here are some uses for presentation software:

Public speaking: the speaker can use a presentation to enhance his

or her speech. The presentation can contain pictures or keywords to

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 keep the audience focused on the speakers topic. For example,
preachers may use presentations to present the reading or the words
in a hymn.

Teaching: teachers and university lecturers can present summarized

notes in presentations. This helps students to keep track of what is
being taught. Pictures and graphics can help to make the subject
matter clearer.
Presenting projects and reports: businesses often use presentation
software. New projects and reports can be explained and described
with graphs, charts and keywords.

Presenting sales and marketing plans: presenting a plan to a

director or client for approval is an important business process.
Presentation software can make the plan look clear and professional
and helps outline the key points.

Advantages of Using Presentation Software

The ability to enhance presentations with a set of professional-looking

slides
The ability to choose from a range of slide layouts and to change the
layout as needed
The ability to apply a consistent design by using a master slide so that
changes to the master slide affect all slides in the presentation
The ability to format a slide in a variety of ways
The ability to add slide transitions and custom animations to a slide
show
The ability to include graphics, moving pictures and sounds into a slide
show
The ability to control the order that slides are presented during a slide
show.

Some key terms associated with Presentation software

Presentation: A set of slides that are displayed in order.

Slide: The basic blank canvas of a presentation. New slides can be

added to a presentation.
Slides can be deleted from
a presentation and the order of the slides can be changed.

Objects: Anything that can be placed on a slide is an object. Objects

include: lines, shapes,
text boxes, pictures, diagrams, movie clips, sound, tables and charts.

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 Many objects can be placed on a slide; they can be freely positioned,
enlarged, shrunk, rotated, flipped and overlapped. Manipulating
objects on a slide is similar to creating a collage as you may have done
in art class.

Template: A blueprint for a layout or design on which slides can be based.

Layout templates
and design templates are often used as a starting point for slides
because they already have many objects in place. This can save us a
great deal of time if we have to create many slides.

Wizards: An automated set of steps that leads the user through a given
topic. Auto-content
wizards in presentation software allow standard business and
marketing presentations to be created in a set of simple steps.

Slide transition: The way one slide replaces another. In a simple

presentation one slide
replaces the previous slide. To add interest to a presentation, the way
one slide replaces another can be altered.

Custom animation: A very powerful feature that can be used to add

movement to objects in a
presentation. Any object on a slide can be animated.

Launching/Starting Microsoft PowerPoint

To begin using PowerPoint, launch the application by double-clicking on its
icon. Alternatively, you can launch the program by using the key
combinations winkey+r, typing the command powerpnt then pressing your
enter key or, pressing your winkey and typing powerpnt in the search
menu. A new blank Presentation will appear.

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 The PowerPoint Interface

Adding content to slides

Adding slides and layout

Adding slides and layout can be controlled in the Slides group on the Home
tab. Before you add pictures and text to your document, decide on the
layout of the slides. The layout is the way the slides are presented how
the titles, text and graphics are organized.

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 The Slides group on the Home tab

Choose a layout that suits your presentation. For example, the first slide of
the presentation will almost always be a title slide. This is the default slide
that displays when you open a new presentation. Layout can be controlled in
two ways:

You can change the layout of a currently selected slide.

You can add a new slide in a layout of your choice.

To change the layout of the currently selected slide, click the Layout button.
A selection of slides are available in the drop-down list. You will probably use
some slides more often than others:

Title: this kind of layout allows you add a title and subtitle. The text
takes up most of the space on the slide. This type of slide is usually
used as the first slide on a presentation.

Title and content: this layout places a title at the top of the slide and
content below. You can add a variety of media in the content, such as
text, graphics, tables and more. This is the most commonly used
layout in presentations.

Section header: this layout is a heading for a subsection or a new

section of a presentation. It is similar to a title slide as title text and
subtext occupy most of the slide.

Comparison : this layout places a title at the top of the slide and two
content blocks side by side. There is space to add a title to each
content block. Use this layout if you want to compare items.

You can add a new slide by clicking the New Slide button. The same list of
layouts is displayed, so you can select which layout you want to apply to the
new slide. To add a new slide with the same layout as the selected slide,
click the button above the New Slide button.

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Adding text and formatting

Adding text and formatting are available in the Font and Paragraph groups on
the Home tab.

Text

It is easy to add text to a slide. The layout instructs you where to add text.
Notice prompts such as Click to add title and Click to add text. Click on
any of these prompts and begin typing text.

You format text in a presentation similar to the way you format text in a
document. You select the text you want to format and apply one of the
formatting options. These options are available in the Font group:

Bold: to make text thicker.

Italic: to make text sloping.
Underline: to draw a line under text.
Font: select a font from this drop-down list.
Font size: select a font size from this drop-down list.
Font colour: choose colours that suit your theme.

Status bar
There are a few other options. You can create a shadow behind the selected
text by clicking the Text shadow button. This helps to make text stand out.

You can adjust the spacing between characters by clicking the Character
Spacing button. In the drop-down list, you can select the type of spacing
from very tight to very loose. The looser the spacing, the more space there is
between characters.

Here are some things you can do in the Paragraph group:

Align the text to the left, right, centre or justify it by clicking the
appropriate Align button.

Adjust the spaces between lines by clicking the Line Spacing button and
selecting the appropriate pacing from the drop-down list.

Change the direction of text by clicking the Text Direction button and
selecting which way you want the text to flow. For example, if you select
Stacked, each character will be placed one after the other from top to
bottom.

Adjust the alignment of text in a text box. Click the Align Text button and
select whether you want the text aligned towards the top, centre or
bottom of the text box. Each text box can have a different alignment.

Whatever formatting you apply, make the important words more visible and
striking. Too much formatting can be distracting and make the slide look
cluttered.

Speaker notes

Speaker notes are notes that do not display on the slide. They are only
visible to the person who controls the computer for the presentation. A slide
will typically contain keywords and short phrases. Speaker notes remind
the speaker of the extra content that must be addressed. At the bottom of
the slide, there is a separate pane with the prompt Click to add notes.
Click in this pane to start typing the notes. Notes can be displayed and
printed separately to give to the audience.

Headers and Footers

Slides can have headers and footers similar to other documents. Headers
and footers are available in the Text group on the Insert tab.

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 Insert the date and time. This takes the date stored on your computer,
the system date, and inserts it as a footer on the slide. You can
select the format of the date using the date drop-down list.
Add the page number. To do this, select the Slide number checkbox.
Insert a footer with your own text. To do this, select the Footer
checkbox and type your text in the accompanying text box.

You can apply these settings to the current slide by clicking the Apply
button, or you can apply the settings to all the slides by clicking the Apply
to All button.

The Font and Paragraph groups on the Home tab

Themes

Themes and backgrounds are available in the Themes and Background

groups on the Design tab. A theme is a group of formatting and style
settings that can be applied to a slide at the same time. You can choose
from PowerPoints default themes or you can create your own.

The Themes group displays a small set of themes. The current theme is
displayed on the far left. The Office theme is the default theme. It has a
white background, uses the Calibri font and has a default set of theme
colours. Click the More button on the far right of the displayed theme. This

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displays a drop-down list with more themes. Select any of these themes and
it will be applied to the slide.

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To create your own theme, use the buttons and menus on the far right of the
Themes group:

Colours: this drop-down list provides a selection of theme colours.

Each set is a range of basic colours for fonts, shapes, tables and gaphs.
Fonts: select the font you want to use from this drop-down list.
Effects: these are styles that are applied to the objects on your slide.
They are combinations of contrasts and shadows plus sharp, curved,
thin and thick edges.

Backgrounds

You can apply backgrounds:

1. Click the Background Styles button in the Background group.

2. Choose from one of the backgrounds in the drop-down list.
3. Click the More button and select Save Current Theme.
4. In the dialogue box that opens, name your theme and save it in the
Document Themes folder in the Microsoft program folders.

Graphics, objects and moving pictures

Most audiences like to se more than text in a presentation. It is easy to

add objects that add interest and illustrate your pints. A blank Title and
Content slide has six icons in the centre of the slide. Each icon allows you
to add an object to the slide:

Insert Table: click this icon to insert a table. A dialogue box opens
that allows you to select the number of columns and number of rows
you want. Click OK to insert the table.
Insert Chart: clicking this button opens a dialogue box with a wide
range of charts and graphs you can use. The list on the left contains
categories of charts and the thumbnails on the right display each chart
template. The chart date is extracted from an Excel spreadsheet, so
you will have to provide the data in that spreadsheet.
Insert SmartArt Graphic: SmartArt graphics are pictures and basic
diagrams that represent processes and relationships. When you click
this icon, the types of graphics are listed on the left, the thumbnails in
the centre and a more detailed explanation of the selected graphic on
the component of the program. For example, if you select one of the
cycle graphics, you can label each arrow or each block in that cycle.

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 Insert Picture from File: clicking this icon will open a dialogue box
that allows you to browse to a saved picture on your computer. Once
you have located and selected the picture, click the Insert button. You
can edit the picture using the tools and features on the Picture Tools
tab, which opens by default when you insert a picture.
Clip Art: clip art is a library of graphics and illustrations. It works like
the clip art feature in Word. A panel opens on the left that lets you
search for clip art using keywords.

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 Insert Media Clip: you can insert a media clip (such as a sound clip
or a movie) in a slide. Clicking this icon launches a dialogue box to
browse your computer. Locate the clip you want to use then click OK.
A second dialogue box will ask you whether you want the clip to start
automatically or by clicking. Be careful with this feature as media clips
can make your file size large.

You also use the Illustrations group on the Insert tab to insert objects in
a slide. Use Photo Albums to create your own photo albums. Use
Shapes to select from a variety of basic shapes.

You can insert objects using the icons in the centre of the slide

Pg 130 study guide; 219 cato

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