PowerPoint Overview
Print this page and use it to complete the lesson activities.
Earth In Flux
There are three ways to create a presentation in PowerPoint. The first is the AutoContent wizard, which designs the look and content for your presentation. This option is generally appropriate for a business presentation and is not applicable for classroom use. The second presentation method is the Template option, which offers an array of overall slide designs for you to choose from. If you choose one of these templates, each slide in your presentation will have the same overall design, resulting in a uniform look. Many of these templates, however, are also for business presentations, and are not relevant for classroom use. The third method is the Blank presentation option, which gives you entirely blank slides. It is up to the user to choose the design and content for each slide.
Let's say you choose the "Blank presentation" option. A New Slide dialogue box will appear. The dialogue box gives you the option to choose a predesigned layout for the content of the individual slide. (Each time you add a new slide to your presentation, the slide layout dialogue box appears.) 
If you don't want to use a predesigned content layout, but want to design a layout of your own, click "cancel." If you'd like to design your own slide template, you must design a master slide. Choose Master from the View pulldown menu. Add text and images in the text boxes provided. After you've completed the slide, choose New Slide from the Insert pulldown menu. Each new slide will have the same content layout as your Master slide. You can then add any content or image specific to that slide. 
To insert a picture into a slide, choose Picture from the Insert pulldown menu. You can choose a picture from PowerPoint’s clip art gallery, or you can choose a picture you have gathered from a different source. 
To insert a movie, sound, or animation into a slide, choose Movies and Sounds from the Insert pulldown menu. Locate the movies or sound from the PowerPoint gallery or from your files, and click on OK. 
To preview your slide show, choose Slide Sorter from the View pulldown menu. While in Slide Sorter, you may change the order of your slides by clicking and dragging the slides to the order you want.
To play your slide show, choose Slide Show from the View pulldown menu. Simply clicking on the slide shown will advance you to the next slide. You can set the timing of your slide show to advance automatically. To do this, choose Slide Transition from the Slide Show pulldown menu. 
To save a PowerPoint presentation, follow the same steps you would to save a word-processing document. (However, when you name a Powerpoint document, the last four characters must be .ppt.)