Use of power point

USE OF POWER POINT

Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system. The current versions are Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 for Windows and 2011 for Mac.

History The original version of this program was created by Dennis Austin and Thomas Rudkin of Forethought, Inc..[1] Originally designed for the Macintosh computer, the initial release was called "Presenter". In 1987, it was renamed to "PowerPoint" due to problems with trademarks, the idea for the name coming from Robert Gaskins.[2] In August of the same year, Forethought was bought by Microsoft for $14 million USD ($27.1 million in present-day terms[3]), and became Microsoft's Graphics Business Unit, which continued to further develop the software. PowerPoint changed significantly with PowerPoint 97. Prior to PowerPoint 97, presentations were linear, always proceeding from one slide to the next. PowerPoint 97 incorporated the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) language, underlying all macro generation in Office 97, which allowed users to invoke pre-defined transitions and effects in a non-linear movie-like style without having to learn programming (or even having to be aware of the existence of VBA). PowerPoint 2000 (and the rest of the Office 2000 suite) introduced a clipboard that could hold multiple objects at once. Another noticeable change was that the Office Assistant, whose frequent unsolicited appearances in PowerPoint 97 (as an animated paperclip) had annoyed many users, was changed to be less intrusive ''' What is PowerPoint? - Why Would I Want to Use PowerPoint?'''

PowerPoint is a software program to enhance your oral presentation and to keep the audience focused on your subject. It operates like an old-fashioned slide show, but uses modern technology in the form of computers and digital projectors rather than a slide projector of old. This more in depth description will detail what PowerPoint is and why you would want use it. 2) Slide Layouts and Slide Types in PowerPoint

Each page in a PowerPoint presentation is called a slide. PowerPoint presentations run just like the slide shows of old, only they are broadcast through a computer instead of a slide projector. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you all the different slide layouts and slide types.

3) Different Ways to Look at Your Slides

PowerPoint has several different views to look at your slides. You can see each slide on its own page, or as several thumbnail versions of the slides in Slide Sorter view. Notes view offers a page to add speaker notes under the slide. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you all the different ways to look at your slides.

4) Adding or Changing the Background Color of the Slide(s)

The only reason I can think of the keep your slides plain white, is for printing purposes, and there are ways to get around that. Add some color to the background to jazz it up a little. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how to change the color of the background in a variety of different ways.

5) Change the Font Style, Size or Color on the Slides

Now that you have changed the background color of the slide, more than likely it is hard to read the black text. It is easy to change the font style, color and size so that your slide is easily readable. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how to change the font sizes, colors and styles.

6) Add Pictures or Clip Art to PowerPoint Slides

Pictures and graphics are a big part of any PowerPoint presentation. They can be added using the icon on the content layout slide types or simply by using the Insert menu. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how to use both methods.  7) Modifying PowerPoint Slide Layouts

Sometimes you like the look of the slide, but things are just not in the right places. Moving and resizing slide items is just a matter of clicking and dragging the mouse. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how easy it is to move or resize pictures, graphics or text objects on slides. 8) Adding, Deleting or Rearranging Slides in Your Presentation Just a few mouse clicks is all that is needed to add, delete or rearrange slides in a presentation. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how to rearrange the order of your slides, add new ones or delete slides that you no longer need. 9) Use a Colorful Design Template for Your Whole Presentation PowerPoint includes many professionally designed templates that enhance your presentation quickly and keep it looking like a coordinated package. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how to make your presentation colorful and more interesting by using design templates. 10) Add Transitions to Slides Transitions are the movements you see when one slide changes to another. Although, the slides are animated, the term animation in PowerPoint, applies to the movements of objects on the slide, rather than the slide itself. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how to add the same transition to all slides, or give a different transition to every slide. 11) Use a Preset Animation Scheme to Add Visual Interest New Feature in PowerPoint 2003 PowerPoint 2003 has a new feature called Animation Schemes that applies transitions to slides, and animations to all text items in a tasteful and cohesive way. These animations add the final enhancement to make your presentation flow smoothly. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how easy it is to be creative with animation, with very little work.

Ten Secrets For Using PowerPoint Effectively

You can take many courses on how to use PowerPoint from a technical standpoint, but when it is used effectively, it can add tremendously to our presentations. Here are ten secrets based on years of experience in developing and using presentation slides that will help you move from being technically proficient to using PowerPoint effectively. 1.	Use the Outline View first The most important part of any presentation is the content, not the graphical appeal. That is why you should develop your presentation with the content first, before deciding on the look (colours, graphics, etc.) The best way to do this is to use the Outline view. This view is accessed by clicking on the View menu and selecting the Outline command or by clicking on the Outline tool button at the bottom left of the screen (the one with all the lines). This view only shows the text of each slide. You use the Tab key to move to a lower level within a slide or the Shift-Tab key to move to a higher level in the slide. By using the Outline View first, you ensure that the content of your presentation is solid before you concern yourself with the visual elements. 2.	Use Contrasting Colours If you want your audience to be able to see what you have on the slide, there needs to be a lot of contrast between the text colour and the background colour. I suggest a dark background with light text – I usually use a medium to dark blue background and white or yellow letters. Some prefer a light background and dark letters, which will also work well - which you choose will depend on personal preference. Don’t think that just because the text looks fine on your computer screen that it will look fine when projected. Most projectors make colours duller than they appear on a screen, and you should check how your colours look when projected to make sure there is still enough contrast. To check that your colors have enough contrast, use the Color Contrast Calculator. 3.	Use a big enough font When deciding what font size to use in your presentation, make sure it is big enough so that the audience can read it. I usually find that any font size less than 24 point is too small to be reasonably read in most presentation situations. I would prefer to see most text at a 28 or 32 point size, with titles being 36 to 44 point size. The only reason I would use a font less than 24 point is when adding explanatory text to a graph or diagram, where you could use a 20 point font size. If you are given a small screen in a big room, your font will look smaller because the image will not be as big as it should be. In this case, see if you can get a larger screen, use a wall instead of a screen to project on, move the chairs closer to the screen or remove the last few rows of chairs. I've put together a chart that lists how far away the last row of your audience should be based on the size of screen, font size and visual acuity testing - use the Font Size chart here. 4.	Stop the moving text When text comes on the screen, we want the audience to read the text, then focus back on the presenter to hear the message. If the text moves onto the screen in any way – such as flying in, spiral or zooming – it makes it harder for the audience members to read since they have to wait until the text has stopped before they can read it. This makes the presenter wait longer between each point and makes the audience members focus more on the movement than on what is being said. I suggest the use of the "Appear" effect, which just makes the text appear and is the easiest for the audience to read. 5.	Turn the pointer off During a presentation, it is very annoying to have the pointer (the little arrow) come on the screen while the presenter is speaking. It causes movement on the screen and draws the audience attention from the presenter to the screen. The pointer comes on when the mouse is moved during the presentation. To prevent this from happening, after the Slide Show view has started, press the Ctrl-H key combination. This prevents mouse movement from showing the pointer. If you need to bring the pointer on screen after this, press the A key. If the pointer does appear during your presentation, resist the urge to press the Escape key – if you do, it will stop the presentation and drop you back into the program. Press the A key or Ctrl-H to make the pointer disappear. 6.	Use visuals instead of text slides Every two years I ask audiences what annoys them about bad PowerPoint presentations. The latest survey confirms that audiences are more fed up than ever with the overload of text on slides (see the latest survey results here). Instead of using slides that only contain text, use visuals such as graphs, diagrams, photos and media clips to engage the audience. I've developed a five-step method for creating persuasive visuals in my book The Visual Slide Revolution. Read the free chapter to see a summary of the process you can use to create your own persuasive visuals. 7.	Have Slides at the End of Your Presentation The last slide you speak to should not be the last slide in your presentation file. You should have three identical copies of your last speaking slide so that if you accidentally advance one too many times at the end of your presentation, your audience never knows because you don’t drop into the program, the slide looks like it has not changed. After these slides, you should include some slides that answer questions that you expect to be asked. These slides will be useful during Q&A sessions after the presentation. The final slide should be a blank slide so that if you go through all the other slides, you have a final backup from dropping into the program. 8.	Be able to Jump to Any Slide PowerPoint has a feature that allows you to be able to move quickly and seamlessly to any slide in your presentation. To do so, you need to know the slide numbers. The easiest way to print a list of the slide numbers and associated slide titles is to go to the Outline View and collapse the details for each slide (there is a button on the left side of the screen in this view that will do this). Then print the view. To jump to any slide, just enter the slide number on the keyboard and press the Enter key. This will move you directly to that slide. This technique is very useful for moving to a prepared Q&A slide or for skipping parts of your presentation if time becomes an issue. 9.	Blank the screen Sometimes we want the image on the screen to disappear so that the audience is focused solely on the presenter. There are two ways to do this. The first is if you want to blank the screen with a black image, similar to shutting the projector off (we used to do this all the time with overhead projectors by just shutting the projector off). Just press the B key on the keyboard and the image is replaced with a black image. Press the B key again and the image is restored. If you want to use a white image instead of a black image, press the W key each time. 10.	Draw on the screen during a presentation Sometimes it can be valuable to be able to draw on the screen during your presentation to illustrate a particular point or item. This can be done in the following way. Press the Ctrl-P key combination to display a pen on the screen. Then, using the left mouse button, draw on the slide as you wish. To erase what you have drawn, press the E key. To hide the pen, press the A key or the Ctrl-H key combination.