MS Power Point Introduction

MS PowerPoint

Introduction 

 PowerPoint is the presentation graphics part of MS Office suite. PowerPoint can create various presentation materials like; charts, graphics, slides, handouts, overheads etc. PowerPoint  even creates slide shows,  which are electronic presentations that you can run on your computer screen or a projection device.

Graphics Representation
The best form of visual images are graphics and picture. A graphic object is any written or diagrammatic representation, like graphs, figures and diagrams. The application software that manipulates images is known as Graphics Software. Presentation graphics  is  specialised  type of graphics software. These programs  are used to create professional looking visual aids for an audience. The visual aids can be computer images, paper printouts or photographic transparencies. Most popular graphics, multimedia and presentation packages are Corel Draw,  Macromedia  Director, flash, PowerPoint  etc. The application software that can create professional looking visual aids is called Presentation Graphics Software.

Operation
PowerPoint presentations consist of a number of individual pages or “slides”. The “slide”  analogy  is a reference to the slide projector, a device that has become obsolete due to the use of PowerPoint and other presentation software. Slides  may contain  text,  graphics,  movies, and other  objects,  which may be arranged freely on the slide.

PowerPoint, however,  facilitates the use of a consistent style in a  presentation using a template or  “Slide Master”. The presentation can be printed or displayed live on a computer and navigated through at the command of the presenter. For larger audiences the computer display is often projected using a video projector. Slides can also form the basis of webcasts. Presentations can be saved and run in any of the file formats :  the 2003 default .ppt(pre sen ta tion),.pps (PowerPoint  Show) or .pot  (tem plate). In PowerPoint 2007 and Mac OS X 2008 ver sions, the XML-based file for mats  .pptx, .ppsx  and .potx  have been  in tro duced, along with  the macro-enabled file for mats .pptm, .potm, .ppsm.

Power Point  provides three types of movements
1. Entrance,  emphasis, and exit of elements  on a slide itself are controlled by what PowerPoint calls Custom Animations.
2. Transitions, on the other hand are movements between slides. These can be animated in a variety of ways.
3. Custom animation can be used to create small  storyboards  by animating pictures to enter, exit  or move.

Presentation Tips 

• Knowing the level of knowledge of the audience towards the concept of presentation. 
• To persuade the audience successfully, user must not display more or less information than required. 
• Using white spaces efficiently to set the things off. 
• Not to including too much information on a slide or graphic. 
• Using of text on a slide should be judiciously or self explanatory. 
• Avoiding the  colours  that clash with each other.

Components of  a Slide
Title  A  de scrip tive  head ing  iden ti fy ing  a  slide. Sub ti tle  A de scrip tive mes sage or  brief de scrip tion of the slide data. 
It  emphasises  the slide’s cen tral idea. Draw ing  Ob jects  It  in cludes  autoshape  (group of readymade shapes), curves,  lines, word art etc. Clip Art and Pic tures  Pic tures  and graphics  avail able in the MS-Of fice suite.

Slide Components Used for Reference
Hand outs  They are the com pressed ver sion of the slides of your pre sen ta tion.
Speaker  Notes  It is  a set of  notes  which is re quired  to aid the pre senter.
Out lines  They  are  sum ma rised  ver sion of slides that dis play only ti tles and  main text.

Power Point Creations
On  Screen  Pre sen ta tions  By us ing slide  trans ac tions, tim ings, mov ies, sound, an i ma tion and hyperlink, makes  a  pre sen ta tion  exciting.
Web-pages for Web UseBroad cast ing  a  pre sen ta tion  for  a  com pany  meet ing,  pre sent ing  to  re mote groups or hold ing a team meet ing,  over the web. Over head  Trans par en ciesCre at ingpre sen ta tion  that  us ers  on  over head  trans par en cies  by  print ing  the slides.

Colour  and B & W 
Printouts 35 mm Slides  A service bureau can transform  the electric  slides  into 35  mm  slides  which can  be used for interesting purpose. Notes, Handouts, Outlines  To support the presentation, you can give the audience handouts–smaller version of slides that are printed to a page.

Creating New Presentation

1. Auto Content Wizard  It is easy to use wizard that helps to create a presentation by leading through some basic  questions. 
2. De sign  Tem plates  It is  a set of  pre de fined for mats or text or color schemes  ap pli ca ble to a pre sen ta tion. 
3. Sam ple  Pre sen ta tion  It is  a set of  sam ple slides with some text and out lines that give you sug ges tions about  the con text of your pre sen ta tion. 
4. Blank  Pre sen ta tion  If you are sure of the lay out and con tents  of your pre sen ta tion,  then you cre ate a new  pre sen ta tion  fromscratch.

Power Point Views 

1) Normal  :: It displays three panes that show the outline, the slide and an area into which you can enter speaker’s  notes.

2) Outline :: It displays  only the text of the presentation in outline form,  allowing  you to work easily with  the context.

3) Slide  :: It shows the slide and its contents.

4) Slide  Sorter ::   It dis plays  the en tire set of slides on screen, so that  you can check the or der and com plete ness  of  the  pre sen ta tion. Slide  Show  It dis play the pre sen ta tion on slide at a time in se quence as an au to matic slide show.

5) Notes Pages  ::  It avail able from  view menu.  It en ter and edit speaker’s notes for  the presenter.

Facilities

• Provides by PowerPoint Create presentation slides. 
• Graphical objects can be included in the slides. 
• It can be used for preparing quality overhead transparencies to view on the screen. 
• Sound effect can be added in the slides. 
• Art gallery can be included. Variety of fonts is available to make the presentation more effective. 
• Timings can be rehearsed for slide show for each slide. 
• It can create handouts, notes and outlines.

Various Effects in Slide Shows Animations and Transitions

• Transitions  are special effects  that introduce a slide in a  slide  show. Animations are special sound or visual effects that can add to text or other objects, such as a chart. 
• Music, Sound and Video An occasional burst of music or sound during a transition or animation can focus the audience on the  slide. 
• You can also play videos that  emphasise  on your  presentation objective.