PowerPoint 2010 Practice

Exercises: Self-Paced Training

EXERCISE 1: FORMAT TEXT AND ADD SLIDES

Heres your chance to be hands-on with PowerPoint 2010.
1.

Make sure the Home tab is displayed.

2.

Now, change the color of the words Getting oriented on slide 1. Select the text, and in the Font group, click the
arrow next to Font Color

. In the color choices that appear, under Theme Colors, select a new color for the

text.
3.

With Getting oriented still selected, look in the Font group for Character Spacing

. Click its arrow and point

to Tight and Loose to see a preview of each; select any item on the menu.
4.

Make sure Getting Oriented is still selected. Another way to open the Font dialog box options is to click the
dialog box launcher

, the small arrow in the lower-right corner of the Font group. Click it now. The dialog box

opens with the Font tab displayed. You might prefer to work in this dialog box for some font options.
Tip

When youre searching for options you remember from an earlier PowerPoint version, look for a dialog-box-

launcher arrow in the group.

5.

Another aid in formatting is the Mini toolbar. Select the text Jump in to 2010, and leave the mouse positioned on
the selection.
The Mini toolbar appears faded to the top right of the words you have selected. Hover the mouse pointer over the
Mini toolbar to make it solid, then click the Italic button to format this text. Simply move your mouse away from the
Mini toolbar to make it disappear.

6.

Now reselect Getting oriented, and look at the Paragraph group on the ribbon. Youll see that Center is selected
for the texts position.
Click Align Text Left

7.

and Align Text Right

to see how those selections affect the position of the text.

Keep the Home tab displayed on the ribbon, and now, add a new slide to the presentation. First, click under the
last slide in the presentation in the slides list on the left side of the screen.. In the Slides group on the Home

tab, click the arrow next to New Slide

PowerPoint 2010 Practice Exercises: Self-Paced Training
Georgetown ISD Instructional Technology

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Summer 2012

and give it the title Designing Your Slides.

8.

Click the slide layout called Two Content

9.

Save your work to your Home Folder by clicking the File tab and clicking Save As. Navigate to your Home
Folder and click Save.

10. Back in PowerPoint, click the Home tab to display your PowerPoint on the screen again.

EXERCISE 2: INSERT SLIDE ELEMENTS AND FORMAT THEM

In the lesson, you saw how to insert a shape and use Drawing Tools to format it. Now youll work with other
formatting tools and try a different way for inserting slide elements.
1.

First youll insert a picture and use picture tools. Click the new slide, slide 5. In the content placeholder on the right,

click the Clip Art icon.

Tip

Search for a piece of clip art on the topic summer and insert it.

If youre using a slide layout that doesnt include the content icons, such as a Title Only layout, use the

Insert tab on the ribbon to insert tables, pictures, and other things. If you want to insert a shape, you need to do
that from the Insert tab.

2.

After the picture is inserted, youll see a new tab, Picture Tools

, on the right end of the ribbon. (If you

do not see the Picture Tools tab on the ribbon, click on the picture you just inserted to make sure the picture is
selected.) Click the Format tab under Picture Tools.
3.

In the Picture Styles group, click the fourth thumbnail, called Drop Shadow Rectangle. The style is applied to
your picture.

4.

In the placeholder on the left, type a couple of bullet points that describe the picture. Note that, because youre
working with text, the ribbon defaults to the Home tab with all the text commands.
On slide 5, you now have text on the left and a picture on the right that has a drop-shadow style.

5.

You may find that the tops of your bulleted text and picture dont align. Select all the elements: Click the border of
the text placeholder so its selected with a solid line. Press CTRL and click the picture so its selected, too.

6.

In the Drawing group on the Home tab, click Arrange, and point to Align. Click Align Top. You may need to
press the DOWN ARROW key on your keyboard to move the picture and text down a bit from the title placeholder.

7.

To see other formatting tools, click slide 4, and click the star shape on the slide to select it. Now you see the

Drawing Tools tab.

PowerPoint 2010 Practice Exercises: Self-Paced Training

Georgetown ISD Instructional Technology

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Summer 2012

8.

Click the Format tab. This has all the commands and options youll want for styling, sizing, changing, and
positioning shapes (a group that includes placeholders), including galleries for styles and WordArt.
Tip

Remember that you need to have the slide element (picture, shape, table, or the like) selected to display its

tools tabs. The tools tabs disappear when the element isnt selected.

9.

Click the File tab on the Ribbon and click Save to save your presentation.
BONUS QUESTION: Can you tell where your presentation is being saved to by looking at the information in this
Backstage area? Heres a hint: Look right under the words Information About Power Point 2010 Practice File.

10. Click the Home tab on the ribbon to display your PowerPoint on the screen again and be ready for the next
exercise.

EXERCISE 3: ADD A THEME AND CHANGE THE BACKGROUND

Give all your slides a different design by changing the theme. By default, the Office Theme is applied.
1.

Click slide 1, the title slide. On the ribbon, click the Design tab. In the Themes group, point to each of the
thumbnails to see how the theme will look when applied to the title slide.
To see more themes, click the More button

on the lower right of the group. To see only one row of thumbnails

at a time, click the up or down arrows just above the More button.
When you find a theme that you want, click it. The theme gets applied to all the slides. Click through and see how
you like the layouts and colors as applied to the content.
2.

On the ribbon, the galleries to the right of the Themes group enable you to tweak the theme by changing the color
scheme, fonts, or background.
For example, in the Background group, click Background Styles, and click a style there to apply that background
to every slide. The styles stay within the themes color scheme. The Colors drop-down menu lets you change the
color scheme of the presentation, and the Fonts drop-down lets you change the font styles throughout your slides.
Experiment with these options a little before moving on to Exercise 4.

EXERCISE 4: ADD TRANSITIONS AND USE SLIDE SHOW VIEW

Have some fun and try the new transition effects. These smoothly transition one slide to the next during a slide show.
1.

Click any slide thumbnail except the last one.

2.

Click the Transitions tab on the ribbon.

3.

In the Transition to This Slide group, click the Wipe transition at the top of the gallery.

PowerPoint 2010 Practice Exercises: Self-Paced Training

Georgetown ISD Instructional Technology

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Summer 2012

4.

In the Timing group, to the right of the gallery, click Apply to All.

An animation symbol appears next to all the slide thumbnails.

5.

To see the transition effect, view the slides in Slide Show view. Look for the view buttons in the bottom right of the
PowerPoint window, in Normal view.
The Slide Show button is on the far right. Before you click it, note this: when youre in Slide Show view, click the
mouse to advance to the end of the show. Youll see the transition effect between slides. (Now click the Slide
Show button.)

6.

To remove the effect, in Normal view, select a slide that has the transition. On the Transitions tab, click None, the
first choice in the Transition to This Slide gallery.

7.

Click Apply to All, in the Timing group. This removes the effect from all slides.

8.

Save your work! (You probably know how to do this by now!)

EXERCISE 5: WORK WITH FILES IN THE BACKSTAGE VIEW

Now find some of your most common commands in the Backstage view.
1.

To open the Microsoft Office Backstage view, click the File tab, located in the upper-left corner of PowerPoint
2010.
The window includes a list of tab categories on the left that you use to navigate within the view.

2.

To Save As, open a file, or close the current file, use the commands at the top of the File window.

3.

To save your presentation as a PDF for posting to a website or sending as an email attachment, click Save As and
in the Save as type menu, select PDF. This will ensure that anyone who does not have PowerPoint on their
computer will still be able to see your presentation. A PDF file cannot be edited, but your original PowerPoint can
still be edited. (Which brings up a good point before making a PDF make sure you save your original PowerPoint
first!)

4.

To see file size or date last modified, click the Info tab (this displays by default), and look in the right of the
window.

5.

To open a recently used file, click Recent.

6.

To start a new presentation, click New.

PowerPoint 2010 Practice Exercises: Self-Paced Training

Georgetown ISD Instructional Technology

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Summer 2012

7.

To get print preview, select print options, adjust headers and footers, and print, click Print.

8.

To get help, click Help.

9.

To change PowerPoint settings click Options.

10. To close the current file, click Close.

11. To close the Backstage view, click the File tab at the top of the window.

EXERCISE 6: CUSTOMIZE THE QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR

The Quick Access Toolbar is in the top left of the PowerPoint window. Youll add new commands to the toolbar.

1.

Click the arrow at the right end of the toolbar, called Customize Quick Access Toolbar

. This opens a menu.

2.

On the menu, click Spelling. This adds the Spelling command to the toolbar. Youll see its icon there now
..

3.

To add a command that isnt on this menu, start with the ribbon and the command that you want. So, to add New
Slide to the toolbar, display the Home tab, and in the Slides group, right-click New Slide. Then click Add to
Quick Access Toolbar. The command is added to the toolbar.

4.

To remove a command, right-click it on the toolbar, and click Remove from Quick Access Toolbar.
Tip

If you cant find a command that you want to add to the Quick Access Toolbar, theres another option: click

the Customize Quick Access Toolbar arrow, and click More Commands. This opens PowerPoint Options,
where you can find all commands. Please see the Quick Reference Card at the end of this course for detailed
steps.

PowerPoint 2010 Practice Exercises: Self-Paced Training

Georgetown ISD Instructional Technology

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Summer 2012