The Power is in the Point! (Bad Joke, I know >_<)

Are you a teacher? or a business personnel? or are you bored and just happened to wander here into my blog? 

Well, whoever you are, your fortune must have said that you're lucky today because if your also someone who has a hard time in making a good, compelling presentation(for some purpose which I don't know what), you happen to be in the right place!

Our topic will be all about how to make a good presentation.

So, first of all, the question is: what software can we use to make our presentation in the first place?

Let's just use the most common among all, Microsoft PowerPoint 2007.You know, the icon which kind of looks like this:

Credits to: www.jhtrainingservices.com

 

 

 

 

 Yes, that's it! Know click it and we can get started.

 PowerPoint 2007 is a presentation software application from Microsoft. With PowerPoint, you can easily create slide shows, presentations, and multimedia applications. Teachers, Trainers and other presenters can use slide shows to illustrate their presentations.(That's you guys!)


This lesson introduces you to PowerPoint 2007. You use the PowerPoint window to interact with the software, place text, graphics, and other features on a slide.Now that you've launched you PowerPoint 2007, it should look like this:

 

If it doesn't, then, I guess, you have different settings

In PowerPoint 2007, how a window displays it depends on the size of the window, the size of your monitor, and the resolution to which your monitor is set. 

Screen Resolution determines how much information your computer monitor can display. If you use a low resolution, less information fits on your screen, but the size of your text and images are larger. If you use a high resolution, more information fits on your screen, but the size of the text and images are smaller.

The Microsoft Office Button

In the upper-left corner of the PowerPoint 2007 window is the Microsoft Office button. It's similar to the old File Menu. When you click the button, a menu appears. You can use the menu to create a new file, open an existing file, save a file, print, and perform many other tasks.

The Quick Access Toolbar

Next to the Microsoft Office button in the upper left corner is the Quick Access toolbar outlined in red in the image above.
The Quick Access toolbar provides you with access to commands that are frequently used. By default, Save, Undo, and Redo appear on the Quick Access toolbar. You use Save to save your file, Undo to rollback an action you have taken, and Redo to reapply an action you have rolled back. You can customize this toolbar by right clicking on it or click the small black down arrow to the right.

The Title Bar

The Title bar is located at the top in the center of the PowerPoint 2007 window. The Title bar displays the name of the presentation on which you are currently working. By default, PowerPoint names presentations sequentially, starting with Presentation1. When you save your file, you can change the name of your presentation.

The Ribbon

The Ribbon holds all of the commands and features of each of the tabs in the Ribbon. The Tabs are located across the top of the ribbon under the Title Bar. These contextual tabs will appear when you have something highlighted that calls for it. For example, if you have a picture highlighted on your slide, a Picture Tools tab will appear.

Similar tools are located in Command Groups across the ribbon.

Each Command Group includes Command Buttons to perform various actions on that group of tools.

Getting PowerPoint to Do What You Want

You use commands to tell PowerPoint what to do. In PowerPoint 2007, the commands you use are located on the the Ribbon. The Ribbon is located near the top of the PowerPoint 2007 window, below the Quick Access toolbar.

At the top of the Ribbon are several tabs and clicking a tab displays several related command groups. Within each group are related command buttons. You click buttons to issue commands or to access menus and dialog boxes. You may also find a dialog box launcher in the bottom-right corner of a group. When you click the dialog box launcher, a dialog box makes additional commands available.

Clipboard - Contains the cut, copy, paste commands. The Format Painter tool is located here as are the Paste Special, Paste as Hyperlink, and Duplicate commands.

Slides - All the commonly used commands for creating new slides

Font - Includes the most commonly used commands for formatting font

Paragraph - Includes all of the paragraph formatting commands, vertical and horizontal alignments, text direction, bullets, numbering, indenting, spacing before and after, columns, etc. It also includes the dialog box for tabs.

Drawing - Allow you to add shapes and draw on your slides. This is Format Shape Dialog Box.

Rulers

Rulers are vertical and horizontal guides. You use them to determine where you want to place an object. If the rulers do not display in your PowerPoint 2007 window:

1. Click the View tab.
2. Click Ruler in the Show/Hide group. The rulers appear.

Slides, Placeholders, and Notes

The Slide Window is broken up into several areas including the Slide Pane and the Notes Section. The Slide Pane appears in the center of the window while the Notes Section is at the bottom.

There are also Placeholders on each slide depending on the slide layout that has been selected. These layouts may include placeholders for a slide title, subtitle, text, images, video, charts, graphs, etc. The placeholders hold the objects on your slides.

Slides appear in the center of the window. You create your presentation by adding content to the slides.

You can use the notes area to creates notes to yourself. You can refer to these notes as you give your presentation. For narrated presentations, this area is frequently used to write the script for the audio.

Main Window Components, Status Bar, Tabs, View Buttons, and More

The Status bar generally appears at the bottom of the window. The Status bar displays the number of the slide that is currently displayed, the total number of slides, and the name of the design template in use or the name of the background.

The Outline tab displays the text contained in your presentation in an outline format. The Slides tab displays a thumbnail view of all your slides. You click the thumbnail to view the slide in the Slide pane.

The View buttons appear near the bottom of the screen. You use the View buttons to change between Normal view, Slider Sorter view, and the Slide Show view.

Normal View
Normal view splits your screen into three major sections: the Outline and Slides tabs, the Slide pane, and the Notes area.

The Outline and Slides tabs are on the left side of your window. They enable you to shift between two different ways of viewing your slides. The Slides tab shows thumbnails of your slides. The Outline tab shows the text on your slides. The Slide pane is located in the center of your window. The Slide pane shows a large view of the slide on which you are currently working. The Notes area appears below the Slide pane. You can type notes to yourself on the Notes area.

Slide Sorter View
Slide Sorter view shows thumbnails of all your slides. In Slide Sorter view, you can easily add, delete, or change their order of your slides.

Slide Show View
Use the Slide Show view when you want to view your slides, as they will look in your final presentation. When in Slide Show view:

Esc	Returns you to the view you were using previously.
Left-clicking	Moves you to the next slide or animation effect. When you reach the last slide, you automatically return to your previous view.
Right-clicking	Opens a pop-up menu. You can use this menu to navigate the slides, add speaker notes, select a pointer, and mark your presentation.

Zoom In & Zoom Out

Zoom controls allows you to zoom in and zoom out on the window. Zooming in makes the window larger so you focus in on an object. Zooming out makes the window smaller so you can see the entire window.

You can click and drag the vertical and horizontal splitter bars to change the size of your panes.

You use the Minimize button to remove a window from view. While a window is minimized, its title appears on the task bar.

You click the Maximize button to cause a window to fill the screen. After you maximize a window, clicking the Restore button returns the window to its former smaller size.

You click the Close button to exit the window and close the program.

 That's all there is to know about the Microsoft PowerPoint parts and their functions. Start practicing with these for a while until you get the hang of it. Good Luck!

P.S. I owe a great deal of gratitude towards  http://www.guidesandtutorials.com/powerpoint-2007.html 

for helping me find all these things. If you want to know more, I suggest you visit their link. Thanks guys! ^_^