Working with Presentations
PowerPoint 97 - 2003

Did you want: Working with Presentations: PowerPoint 2007,2010,2013,2016 or español

When you have information or ideas to share with an audience, you must do some kind of presentation. You could just talk and wave your hands around a lot. But, most of us find it helpful to to see your points up on a screen from slides or transparencies. Printed handout sheets to take home and to make notes on during your presentation are also very helpful. All of these supplements to your words can be created using presentation software  (also called presentation graphics).

Slide sorter view of a short presentation

Advantages: Slides/Transparencies:

• Your audience can follow along, even if they dozed off (for just a minute, of course!).

• Pictures and charts explain some things much better than words.

• Sounds, music, and video can make a strong impact and show what even still pictures cannot.

Advantages: Print-outs

• Your audience can review your points later from the print-out.

• Your audience can take notes along side your points.

• Your audience can share what they learned with others who missed your excellent presentation.

• You can use the Notes Page print-out to include all the other stuff you would like to say to expand on the slide points. They can act as your cue cards.

First slide of the example

Fortunately, you do not have to choose between these different kinds of "presentations". You can do them all from the same software!!

In this set of lessons you will learn how to create, edit, and run a presentation. You will also learn how to put your presentation into hard copy and into a self-running format.

What you need

1. Basic Windows skills: The skills covered in the Windows unit - using a mouse to click, double-click, drag, & right click; parts of a window; moving, resizing, maximizing, & minimizing a window; scrolling; using the folder tree; creating and managing folders; naming files; opening a program; opening and saving files; using dialog boxes; using Help; printing.
    
2. Typing skills and word processing: You need to be familiar with the computer keyboard and basic word processing like selecting text, deleting text, moving text.
    
3. Resource files: Files that you need to create the documents in the projects are provided for download in a zip file and are also available online separately. Your instructor may have put these files on your computer already.

   To get these resource files, click on the following link to download a zipped set of files:

   resources-presentations.zip

   A download dialog will appear. Choose "Save this program to a disk" if you want to unzip later. Choose Open to let Windows or your own zipping software unzip the files. Choose a folder on your hard drive for the extracted files.

   To extract later, find the zipped file in an Explorer window and double-click it. Windows or your own zipping software will then unzip it.

   Duplicate files: Some of the resource files have duplicates in different Office file formats. Be careful to choose the file that the directions tells you to use.

4. Removable File Storage: USB drive or several floppy disks

   You need removable storage for a working copy and a backup copy of your documents.

   If you have a computer of your own, keep an up-to-date copy of your work on your home computer, too. Start good backup habits early and you won't kick yourself later when your files are lost or corrupted.

   USB drive: Recommended
   Called by many different names: flash drive, flash pen,  thumb drive,  key drive, jump drive, and mini-USB drive. A USB drive is an excellent choice for storing your class work. Your data is much safer on a USB drive than on a floppy disk.

   Before you buy:
   Check the following for both the classroom computer AND your home computer-
    

   • Computer does have USB ports.
   • You are allowed to use one of the USB ports.
   • You can physically get to the USB port.
     Some are on the the back of the computer case.
   • Operating system will recognize a USB drive.
     Windows 2000, XP, and Me will automatically recognize your USB drive. For Win95 and Win98, you must install drivers.
   • Physical arrangement of USB ports - Are they side by side? one above the other?
     Some USB drives are wider or thicker than others and may not fit all port arrangements, especially if a neighboring USB port has something plugged into it. Many drives come with a short extension cable.

   If you do not have a computer at home, consider buying 2 USB drives so that you can use one to keep a backup copy of your work. Don't lose them both at the same time!

   Floppy disks: Cheaper; Not as reliable
   You will need at least   two blank 3½" floppy disks at a time to store the documents you create. One you will use to save your documents as you work and on the other you will make a backup copy of the first disk. Keep a third blank floppy on hand as a spare in case of floppy disasters.

   You'll need more than 2 floppy disks if you don't delete any of the documents you create.  After you have put more than one document on the floppy, keep that spare blank floppy disk handy. It is no fun at all to do a lot of work and then find that the changed file won't fit on the disk!

   Presentations can quickly get too big to fit on a floppy disk, especially if images are included on the slides.

   Floppy disks are cheap and handy but it is easy to lose the data on them from magnetic damage and physical damage when you are carrying them around all day. Be careful and have several backup copies.

   More on caring for floppy disks and caring for data

   How to handle a full disk
    

5. Software: You must have presentation software to create a presentation! This tutorial was written primarily using Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 (which is part of the Office XP suite).

   Comments and directions are marked with icons for the version, when there are differences:

   PowerPoint 2002 (primary illustrations)
    PowerPoint 2003
   
   Other presentation programs probably offer a similar set of features. Of course the Step-by-Step directions are not likely to work for something besides PowerPoint.
    
   You will need Microsoft Word or a similar word processing program for the step-by-step about using outlines.
    
   You will need Microsoft Excel or a similar spreadsheet program for the step-by-step about importing data.
    

6. Design Templates: Your PowerPoint may not have installed the design templates originally. When you try to apply a template, PowerPoint will offer to install them, but you will need your installation CD.

   Different versions of PowerPoint come with different templates. Some types of animations and transitions will not work in the earlier versions of PowerPoint.

   Microsoft has 3 zipped files for download that contain most of the templates that came with PowerPoint 4.0, 97, and 2000.

   Download details: PowerPoint Templates Pack 1 - A - EL - 1268 KB
   Download details: PowerPoint Templates Pack 3 - EM - P - 1357 KB
   Download details: PowerPoint Templates Pack 2 - Q - Z - 1554 KB

   Self-extraction:  You must be using Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP to take advantage of the self-extracting feature of the zipped files. Otherwise use the manual method below.

   Manual extraction: You can extract the templates manually if your operating system is not in the list above. After downloading, open the .exe  file with WinZip or similar program. From the list of files in the compressed .exe file, open Office1.cab with WinZip. You will see a list that includes the actual template files (.ppt). Select the .ppt files and extract them to an appropriate directory, preferably the folder where PowerPoint will look for templates (which varies with the version of PowerPoint). For recent versions the path is
     c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates\Presentation Designs

Icons

 A footprint marks the hands-on topics, where you are to follow Step-by-Step directions.

marks a tip - something you might find useful to know.

marks a warning about possible problems.

marks directions for what to do in case of trouble

PowerPoint 2002

    PowerPoint 2003

~~  1 Cor. 10:31 ...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.  ~~

Last updated: 30 Apr 2012