Advanced Microsoft PowerPoint Tips

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Microsoft Office 2003: PowerPoint
Advanced PowerPoint Tips, Tricks, and Savage Amusement...

Creating Multiple "Slide Masters"

PowerPoint has only one Slide Master per file, which means you end up customizing a large number of slides in presentations with more than one repeatedly-used format. You can, however, reduce the amount of customization by creating simulated master slides as follows

Create a separate slide for each layout you want to repeat
To create a new slide based on one of these "masters," Switch to the Slide Sorter view
- Select the "master" slide you want to use
- Duplicate that slide (Edit menu)
- Customize the duplicate to include the text and graphics for that slide

If you want to use one of these "masters" in another presentation, open both files side-by-side in Slide Sorter view and drag the "master" from one window to the other.

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Recording a Narration in PowerPoint

You can record a narration into a PowerPoint slide easily. To do this:

Go to the Slide you wish to add a narration to.
From the Insert menu select Movies and Sounds.
Click Record Sounds.
When ready, click the Record button (the red circle.)
When finished recording, click the black Stop button.
Click OK.

Using PowerPoint's Semi-transparent Feature

PowerPoint 97 offers the user an option to use a semitransparent object. To do this:

Select the object that you want to make semitransparent.
From the Draw menu click Ungroup.
From the Draw menu click Group.
Right-click the object.
Click Format object.
When the dialog box appears, click the Colors and Lines tab.
Click the Semitransparent checkbox.
Click OK.

Making a PowerPoint Slide with a Semi-transparent Background

You can make a text box in PowerPoint have the same background color as the slide background. You can then make it lighter so it will stand out. To do this, simply:

Right click on the text.
Choose Format Text Box from the menu.
When the dialog box is open, under Fill click on the color list box.
Select white as your fill color.
Then click on the Semitransparent check box.

Click OK to close the dialog box.

Using Curved Text in PowerPoint

You may want to spice up your PowerPoint presentation a little with curved text. This is done by using WordArt. To create curved text, you should first create some WordArt. To do this:

Open the Insert menu.
Select Picture.
Click WordArt.
Click on a style to select it.
Click OK.
Type in any text and click OK.
Click on the WordArt you just created. A floating toolbar should appear. If it does not, right-click the toolbar area and click WordArt.
From the toolbar, click the WordArt Shape button (it has a curved ABC on it.)
Choose the style of curved text you want.

If you are still unhappy with its appearance, you may need to change the size and shape of the text.

Aligning PowerPoint Objects

With PowerPoint 97, you can easily align objects so they are in the basic category of left, right, or center. To do this:

Click the Draw button. It's located near the bottom-left of your screen.
Select Align of Distribute.
Click Relative To Slide.
Now, select an object.
Click the Draw button.
Select Align or Distribute.

From here, make your choice and the object(s) will be automatically aligned.

Hiding Slides in PowerPoint

Sometimes when you create a PowerPoint presentation you might not want to show all slides to all of the audiences. To hide a slide:

Click on the View menu in the toolbar.
Click on Slide Sorter.
Click on the slide that you want to hide.
Then click on Slide Show in the toolbar.
Click on Hide Slide.

Showing a Hidden Slide During a PowerPoint Presentation

If you hid a slide in your PowerPoint presentation, you can display it to an audience by:

Clicking on the large asterisk that appears in the lower right hand corner of the slide when there is a hidden one after it.

You may have to move the mouse to see the asterisk.

Import a Presentation Outline from Microsoft Word

Before performing the following procedure to import your outline from Microsoft Word to Microsoft PowerPoint, ensure that the outline is properly formatted with heading styles in Word. PowerPoint can use these styles to create slides more efficiently. Each paragraph formatted with the Heading 1 style becomes the title of a new slide, each paragraph formatted with the Heading 2 style becomes the first level of text, and so on.

The procedure to export from Microsoft Word is as follows:

Open the outline in Microsoft Word.
Select the File menu in Word followed by the Send To option.
Click the Microsoft PowerPoint option.

Automatically Start Playback of a Sound File for your Presentation

In order to playback a sound file automatically once the slide is loaded, you have to first create an animation within the slide. The animation is set to activate automatically without any delay. And as the animation is activated, the associated sound file is played back as well. Here is the step by step procedure:

Select Slide Show from the menu.
Click on Custom Animation.
Click on the Timing tab if it is not already selected.
Select an object from the listing of Slide objects without animation.
Under the group Start animation, click on Animate then Automatically.
Use the default 0 seconds after previous event.
Select the Effects tab.
Under Entry Animation and Sound, no sound is selected by default.
Select an animation and then if you do not find the sound you need listed in the sound file pull down, select "Other Sound..." at the end of list.
A dialog box appear showing the file directories. Select the sound file and click OK.
Click OK on the Custom Animation dialog box.

Switch to Slide Show and see how the animation and sound gets played back together automatically.

Multimedia and PowerPoint 2000

"Before you prepare a presentation for CD-ROM distribution, you should first understand the following limitations and procedures. Limitations: PowerPoint 2000 does not support the creation of self-running presentations; if you include multimedia with your presentation, PowerPoint does not support cross-platform or multiple-computer compatibility; if you intend to use PowerPoint Viewer 97, then you cannot include macros or ActiveX controls and components; you must embed your picture files instead of linking them."

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Thursday, May 8, 2008 9:04 AM