ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE 2016: Tutorials for Teachers

Copyright © Bernard John Poole, 2016. All rights reserved

POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS

9 Creating slide shows and related teaching

materials

LEARNING OUTCOMES
This lesson introduces you to the basic features of PowerPoint which are particularly valuable in
the teaching and learning environment. You will learn how to use PowerPoint to capture your
ideas in outline form and convert those ideas into multimedia presentations. You will also learn
how to use the application to create your own presentations both from scratch and with the help
of one of the PowerPoint Wizards.
Most people think of a slide show as a way of presenting a series of still images or
photographs using a slide projector. If you think about it, however, a slide does not have to be a
still image; using PowerPoint it can also be an audio or video clip. For that matter, a slide does
not have to be even a picture; it can also be text, an outline of ideas, whatever you want.
PowerPoint provides an easy-to-use multimedia presentation production system, which you
will no doubt enjoy learning and which you and your students will find useful for individual or
group projects of all kinds.
In the various courses that you take as an Education major you learn how to design curricula,
with lesson plans and unit plans. You also learn methodologies for effective teaching. The better
the teacher you are, the more visual and audio aids such as PowerPoint will empower you in
your work.
Here, then, are the topics that will be covered in this lesson:
 introductory thoughts about presentations;
 PowerPoint at work;
 building the presentation;
 adding bells and whistles to the presentation;
 printing presentation handouts.

A caveat before you begin: In the earlier tutorials for Office 2016, the steps to accomplish the
tasks assigned have been rather detailed. This time, however, the directions will be less specific,
especially in the latter half of the lesson, because PowerPoint is a program you can figure out by
playing with it. You’ll find that you’ll soon become confident about how to design and develop
high quality multimedia slide presentations. So relax, and have fun!

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9.1 SOME INTRODUCTORY THOUGHTS ABOUT PRESENTATIONS

Making a successful—well-designed, content-rich, pedagogically-sound—PowerPoint
presentation requires forethought and advance preparation. It’s rather like what good cooks or
chefs do before starting to cook a delicious dish of food. They read the recipe, make sure they
have all the ingredients they need, gather all the ingredients together—the raw food such as
vegetables and eggs and milk and wine and spices and other flavoring—what they call the mise
en place. They make sure they have all the tools they need to do the job.
Good cooks don’t start cooking till they’re good and ready.
In the same way, you have to get your thoughts together, know what you’re going to talk
about, and have your audio-visual material gathered together in one place (mise en place) so that
when you come to create the presentation, it’s a snap.
A good presentation, like a term paper, is usually based on an outline, such as is illustrated in
Fig. 9.1 and in Fig. 9.13 later in the lesson.

Each of these Headers

represents a slide in the
PowerPoint presentation

Fig. 9.1 Outline View for the Tudor Monarchs presentation

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In Fig. 9.1 above, you see on the left an outline of the text for each slide in the Tudor Monarchs
presentation. Think of the titles and text for each slide as an outline you would have made for a
high school or college paper. Similar, right? This is why the outlining tool is built into
PowerPoint—to help you plan.
Remember the golden rules of successful design: Rule 1—Plan; Rule 2—Plan; Rule 3—Plan!
These golden rules apply whether you are designing a term paper, an audio-visual aid, a class
outing, or a class syllabus and schedule.
You might begin with a brainstorming session with classmates or colleagues to help you put
together an outline. During brainstorming, members of the group will come up with as many
ideas as possible related to the topic of the project. Nobody's ideas are rejected in the early stages
so as to encourage a fertile flow of useful suggestions.
The result of the brainstorming session might be a somewhat disorganized list of ideas. This
list might have been entered directly into the computer during the brainstorming session, or it
might have been collected on a blackboard or flip chart. Before changing the list into outline
form, you would re-organize it so that the ideas flow naturally and logically from one to the
other. Along the way you might toss out some of the ideas for one reason or another. Eventually
you'll have a working list which would end up as an outline in a word processor document.

9.2 POWERPOINT AT WORK

Let’s see these ideas and others at work by looking at an example of a PowerPoint presentation.
Open PowerPoint then, in the Backstage View, click on Open Other
Presentations, and click Browse to bring up the Open dialog box (Fig. 9.2)

Fig. 9.2 The Open dialog box

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In the Open dialog box, navigate to your USB drive > Work Files for Office
2016 > PowerPoint Files folder, then open the document Tudor Monarchs
Fig. 9.3 shows the Tudor Monarchs presentation in Normal View, as it appears on your screen
after you open the document.

Slide View Tools

Fig. 9.3 The Tudor Monarchs presentation (Normal View)

Take a look at the Slide View tools in the lower left of the PowerPoint window (Fig. 9.3 above).
Let's get a close up view of them right away and find out what each of them is about (Fig. 9.4).
Normal view Slide Sorter view Reading view Slide Show view

Fig. 9.4 The Slide View toolbar (annotated)

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Normal view
This is the view you see illustrated in Fig. 9.3 above. It is the one you'll use most of the time
while you're actually putting information on each slide. In this view you have the left hand frame
where you have the option to either see a thumbnail of all your slides or the outline for your
presentation. In the center of the window you have the slide you are actually working on—the
active slide. Then, over in the right hand frame you have the Task Pane where you'll find all the
help you need to develop your presentation.
Slide Sorter view
This is the view you see illustrated in Fig. 9.5 and it is the one you'll find most useful when you
want to get an overview of your show since you'll be able to see most all your slides at once. You
also can easily move your slides around, changing the order to suit your purposes. This is why
it's called the Slide Sorter view.

This is the
Slide Sorter
tool

Fig. 9.5 The Slide Sorter View of the Presentation

Reading View
Use reading view to deliver your presentation not to an audience (via a large screen, for
example), but instead to someone viewing your presentation on their own computer. Or, use
Reading view on your own computer when you want to view a presentation not in full-screen
Slide Show view, but in a window with simple controls that make the presentation easy to

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review. You can always switch from Reading view to one of the other views if you want to
change the presentation.
Slide Show view
When you click on the Slide Show button, you'll be able to see how the slide you're actually
working on (the current or active slide) looks when you run the slide show. You'll use this button
when you've been working on a slide for a while and you want to see how it will look to your
audience during your presentation.
You'll find yourself using these tools frequently to switch from one view to another as you
are developing your PowerPoint presentation. Let's check out the Slide Sorter view now.
Click on the Slide Sorter tool in the Slide View toolbar (you can also access
these views in the View Ribbon > Presentation Views Group)
Take a look at the Slide Sorter View window that is presented to you now (more or less the same
as Fig. 9.5 on the previous page, though your screen may be a different width, so the slides may
be arranged differently across the page). The presentation you are looking at demonstrates some
of the basic features of PowerPoint. By the end of this lesson you will be able to build your own
presentations along the same lines.
It’s time you learned about the Tudor Kings and Queens of England.
In the Slide View toolbar, click on the Slide Show button (or from the View
Ribbon in the Presentation Views Group, select Slide Show)
Features to look out for in the demonstration presentation
While you click your way through the presentation, look out for the following PowerPoint
features that have been used in the creation of the Tudor Monarchs slide show.
Transition effects and text preset animations
The transition effects from one slide to another and the text preset animations (which determine
how the text will arrive on each slide) have been set at random for the demonstration. This is to
give you some idea of the variety of transitions and animations you can use in PowerPoint. But
this is not necessarily a good thing to do.
Normally you would not want to use so many different transitions and animations since it
might distract from the impact you are trying to make. A good designer homes in on a style that
he or she likes best for a particular theme and tends to stay with it for all the slides in the show.
Inserting clip art, pictures and other media
Microsoft Corporation maintains a rich database of clip art on a wide range of topics. This online
database is available to all the programs in the Microsoft Office suite. You just have to go to the
web to access it if you are a registered user of Office or other Microsoft programs.
Fig. 9.6 illustrates the Insert Ribbon from which you can choose to include clip art and other
media (such as photos, movie clips, sound files, and so forth).

Fig. 9.6 Ribbon for inserting images, illustrations, and other media

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Take a closer look at the Images Group by positioning the mouse pointer
over Pictures and read the description of what the tool is used for—to Insert
a Picture you have saved in a file on your disk (Fig. 9.7)

Fig. 9.7 One way of learning what each of the tools in the Ribbon are for
Now do the same for Clip Art and Photo Album, and, in the Illustrations
Group, check out the Shapes, Smart Art, and Chart tools, noting what each
tool can be used for to illustrate your presentations
Notice, too, the Insert Ribbon > Media Group at the far right of the Insert
Ribbon (not shown in Fig. 9.7), with its tools for inserting Video (like movies
and video clips) and Audio (sound)
You can download clip art, photographs, sound files, video clips and other media from a file you
have saved on disk, or from Microsoft’s collection on the Web, or you can bring onto a slide all
kinds of charts and tables from other Office programs such as Word or Excel.
You can also scan pictures directly onto a slide, so if you have a scanner connected to your
computer, you’re in business. If you’re looking for multimedia material to accompany your
slides, the Web is the place to go. Companies, universities, schools, and individuals, especially
teachers, are creating and making available magnificent multimedia materials. These materials
are available, mostly free of charge, from websites such as flickr.com, youtube.com, and so forth.
PowerPoint makes it easy to incorporate such material into presentations, with or without
accompanying text.
Action Buttons and Hidden Slides
In the Tudor Monarchs slide show, notice the use of Action Buttons to allow the user to control
movement through the slides, thus making slideshows both interactive and non-linear—in other
words, the user decides the sequencing of the slides.
There also is a Hidden Slide (slide #5) which is only seen if you click on an Action Button
which takes you to the slide that has the answer to the question posed on slide #4.

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If you are still viewing the slide show, you want to exit the slide show before the next exercise,
where you will learn more about Hidden Slides.
Hit the Esc(ape) key on the keyboard to exit the slide show
Now, in the Slides menu on the left of the PowerPoint window, click on Slide
#4 to make it the active slide
In the Slide View toolbar at the bottom of the window, click on the Slide
Show button (or from the Slide Show Ribbon > Start Slide Show Group,
select From Current Slide)
Slide #4 is now showing on your full screen.
Now, do NOT click on the orange Action Button lower left of the picture of
Henry VIII to find out the answer to the question as to why Henry VIII broke
away from the Church of Rome—click anywhere else on the screen
PowerPoint skips the next slide (slide #5) and jumps directly to slide #6! This is because slide #5
is a Hidden Slide which can only be reached if you click on the orange Action Button on either
slide #4 or, since you missed it, slide #6.
Hit the Esc(ape) key again on the keyboard to exit the slide show
Now in the Slides menu on the left of the PowerPoint window, look at the
icon for slide #5 and notice that the slide number has a slash running
diagonally across the number (Fig. 9.8)

Notice the slash (\) across

number 5, indicating that it
is a Hidden Slide

Fig. 9.8 A Hidden Slide is identified in the Slides menu by the box around its number

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The orange buttons (orange only because that’s the color the author chose for them) are called
Action Buttons. Action buttons and Hidden Slides give you control over how you want the user
to view the presentation.
Now click on the orange Action Button on slide #6 to go back to the
previous slide so you can check out the answer to the question
This shows you that you can create interesting interactive learning materials using PowerPoint.
Lesson 10 will help you learn more about interactive presentations such as this. Your students,
too, will have a lot of fun using PowerPoint to develop projects of all kinds for every subject
under the sun.
Let’s check out some other features demonstrated in the Tudor Monarchs slide show.
Timing considerations
Fig. 9.9 shows the Slide Sorter View of the presentation and highlights where PowerPoint
indicates the timing for each slide.

Timing settings

Fig. 9.9 The Slide Sorter View showing the time each slide will show on the screen
before automatic transition to the next slide

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You’ll notice that under each slide is a number on the left, indicating which slide it is in the
sequence of slides in the presentation, and a ":30" on the left, showing that the slide will
transition to the next slide after 30 seconds.
Now, 30 seconds is more than enough time for anyone to read and absorb the data on slides
such as those in the Tudor Monarchs presentation. So you might think 30 seconds is too long to
hold the user’s attention. Won’t they get antsy waiting for the next slide?
Well, if you look at each of the slides, you will see that there is a button which the user can
click on to control when to proceed to the next slide. Thus, by allowing a generous amount of
time, along with user control, you're allowing each individual student the freedom to proceed at
his or her own pace. The speed at which our minds absorb data varies enormously from person to
person.
Your goal should always be to design teaching materials and lessons in such a way as to
address individual student needs. The timing features of PowerPoint allow for this.
Acknowledgements: Always give credit where credit is due
The last slide in any presentation, just as the last item in a term paper, or the credits that run at
the end of a movie, should usually be your list of sources cited or used—your
Acknowledgements slide (Fig. 9.10).

Fig. 9.10 The first Acknowledgements slide

So… If you haven't already done so, in the Slides menu at left click on the
first slide and, in the Slide View toolbar towards the bottom right of the
window, click on the Slide Show button—or from the Slide Show Ribbon >
Start Slide Show Group, select From Beginning
Click your way through the presentation now; there are various ways to do
this:
 You can click the left button on your mouse
 You can hit the space bar
 You can use the arrow keys to go back and forth through the show

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 You can click on the Action Buttons on the slides themselves to

proceed to the next or previous slide
The slides have been timed to allow the user to easily view and read what is on each slide
without feeling rushed. If you want the slides to proceed at a faster pace, simply click on the left
mouse button or hit the space bar.
When you have finished reviewing the Tudor Monarchs slide show, exit the
show by right clicking the mouse, then select the last item in the menu to
End Show or, slightly quicker, click on the Esc(ape) button in the top left
corner of the keyboard
So much for an overview of PowerPoint. No doubt you are anxious to start creating your own
presentation. The next section will help you do just that.
Close (File > Close) the Tudor Monarchs presentation when you are ready
to continue with the tutorial

9.3 BUILDING THE PRESENTATION

Preparation of the outline
You are going to prepare a simple outline which will give you the experience to prepare your
own outlines when you're done with the tutorials.
It's tempting to just barrel along into a presentation, like someone tempting fate at Niagara
Falls! But you should resist doing so at all costs because you'll save yourself no end of time in
the long run if you carefully plan what you want to do. You really have to think ahead if you
want to get where you want to go. Otherwise, there's no telling where you'll end up!
To create an outline, here are the steps to follow.
From the File menu select New, then click on the Blank Presentation icon
(Fig. 9.11) to open a new PowerPoint presentation

Fig. 9.11 New Presentation dialog window

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When you first open a new, blank presentation in PowerPoint 2016, the default View is the
Normal View (Fig. 9.12), with the first slide, usually a Title Slide, listed in the Slide menu on the
left, and the same slide in Design View and filling the main section of the PowerPoint window.

First (Title) Design View

Slide in the of the first
Slide menu (Title) Slide

Fig. 9.12 The screen at the start of a new blank presentation

PowerPoint provides a lot of help while you're developing your presentation. The first slide
layout, by default, is the Title slide layout. You would normally want to start out a presentation
with a slide that displays the title of your show, along with sub titles such as your name and so
forth. You don't have to use this slide layout, of course. PowerPoint provides a set of slide layout
templates from which you can choose, including one layout which is blank. In other words, you
can create slides from scratch, entirely of your own design, using the Blank Slide layout.
Let’s take a look at these Slide Layout templates now.
In the Home Ribbon > Slides Group click on Slide Layout (Fig. 9.13)

Slide Layout tool in the

Home Ribbon > Slides
Group

Fig. 9.13 Slide Layout templates

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Check out each of the templates, including the Blank template.

First things first: Save the new PowerPoint presentation
Before you begin work on the presentation, you should save it with an appropriate name so that
you can then easily save your work as you go along. Remember, this is always a wise precaution.
Giving a new document a name and saving it on your disk helps you to get into good habits
about saving your work. You should teach your students to be equally careful when they are
developing work on a computer.
Make sure you still have the USB drive with your Work Files for Office 2016
in the USB port, then from the File menu select Save As, Browse to your
USB drive > Work Files for Office 2016 > Data Files folder, then create a
new folder called PowerPoint Presentations and click on OK
Name the new PowerPoint document Screenbeans, and click on Save
Typing the outline entries
Right now you need the Outline view in the left hand pane, in order to start work on the outline.
As you will see, the outline will be merged into the slide show with little effort on your part,
thanks to PowerPoint’s slide layout features.
In the View Ribbon > Presentation Views, click on Outline View
PowerPoint now presents the Outline View (Fig. 9.14), with a small slide icon in the top left
corner of the left frame, waiting for you to begin entering the text for your first slide.

Start typing the

Outline for the first
slide here

Fig. 9.14 The Outline view in the left hand pane

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Don’t start typing text just yet! Fig. 9.15 illustrates the outline you are going to create.
Bookmark this page (page 321) and use it as a guide when you work your way through the
directions that follow.

Fig. 9.15 The outline for the Screenbeans presentation

In the left frame of the PowerPoint window, next to the small icon for the first
slide, type No Problems, Only Solutions for the Screenbeans
Presentation title (see Fig. 9.15 above), then hit Enter on the keyboard

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Notice that the Title you just typed appears in the Title box of the slide template on the right.
When you hit Enter, PowerPoint goes to a new slide, thinking that you are finished adding text
to the first slide. But you need to add a subtext on that first (Title) slide. To do this, you need to
Increase the Outline list level.
Increasing the Outline List Level
Fig. 9.16 illustrates the Increase List Level tool that you will use to do this.

Fig. 9.16 Increase list level tool

In the Home Ribbon > Paragraph Group, click on the Increase List Level
tool
The cursor jumps back up to the first slide, waiting for you to enter your name as the subtext
(Fig. 9.17)

Decrease Increase
the List the List
Level Level

Fig. 9.17 The first slide in your presentation will look something like this

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Type By [your name]—type your own name, of course!—and hit the Enter
key
Your first slide should look something like Fig. 9.17 above.
That’s all you need on the first slide. Now you need to go to a new slide. To do that in the
outline, you must Decrease the list level. The tool to do this is right next to the tool for
increasing the list level (Fig. 9.17 previous page).
In the Home Ribbon > Paragraph Group, click on the Decrease List Level
tool now
Look in the left-hand frame of the PowerPoint window and notice that the
cursor is now waiting at the start of a new, second slide
Changing the Slide Layout
Before you type up the text for this second and remaining slides, you need to change the Slide
Layout.
In Home Ribbon > Slides Group, click on the Slide Layout tool
In the selection of templates that pops up, locate and double click on the
layout for a Two Content slide (Fig. 9.18)

Fig. 9.18 The Two Content slide layout

This Two Content slide layout is what you want for the remaining slides in the Screenbeans
presentation. Now you are ready to type in the entries for all the slides, except the final
Acknowledgements slide, which will have a different Slide Layout (see Fig. 9.15 on page 321 for
the content of each slide).
Turn your attention to the left hand frame of the PowerPoint window so that
you can continue with Slide 2 of the Outline

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Type Confusion for the second slide Title, and hit Enter
Switching levels
You already practiced doing this, but let’s review the steps, because it can be confusing if you’re
not familiar with the process.
Switching levels means increasing the level or decreasing the level. What does that mean?
A Table might make this clearer:
Increasing the List Level Decreasing the List Level
increases the indent decreases the indent
moves content to the right moves content to the left
moves content forwards moves content backwards
may move content up to a Previous Slide may move content down to a New Slide
Turn back to Fig. 9.15 on page 321 and look at the content of the second slide. The word
Confusion is at the top level; then what immediately follows on the same slide—on a separate
line and indented to the right—is the lower level text: A problem often presents itself…, etc.
When you switch to the next level down, the text is automatically indented to the right (moved to
the right); that is to say, the level is Increased.
So, to summarize, moving the text to the LEFT decreases the list level in an outline (moves it
back). Moving the text to the RIGHT increases the list level in an outline (moves it forward). For
the remaining slides you have to enter text not only for the Title of each slide at the top level, but
also for the sub-text. This sub-text will be at an increased list level than the title.
Still confused? Practice will hopefully make everything clear.

In the Home Ribbon > Paragraph Group, click on the Increase List Level
tool to move the cursor back up to Slide 2 for the text you are going to type
next into the PowerPoint outline

Type the lower level text for the second slide (A problem often presents
itself…) from the illustration in Fig. 9.15 on page 321, then hit Enter
Decreasing the List Level
That is all you need by way of text for the second slide. As you can see, you must now decrease
the list level for the new slide 3. To do this you use the Slide Level tools once more.

In the Home Ribbon > Paragraph Group, click on the Decrease List Level
tool to start a new slide for the next text you are going to type into the outline
As you see, this begins a new slide (slide 3). You should be starting to get the hang of this by
now.

So go ahead and complete the rest of the outline (using Fig. 9.15 above on
page 321), increasing and decreasing the text levels as you go along
When you have typed the title and text entries for slide #9, be sure to save
your work again with the document name Screenbeans1

1 Screenbeans are cartoon characters created by Microsoft, Inc.

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Before you go on, in the View Ribbon >Presentation Views Group, click on
Normal so you can view the thumbnails of all your slides (Fig. 9.19)

Click in the View Ribbon

> Presentation Views on
Normal to see thumbnails
for all the slides in the
show

Fig. 9.19 The Slides View in the left-hand frame of the PowerPoint window
Such as they are, the slides look rather bland with a plain white background and some text.
Fortunately, PowerPoint includes excellent tools to help you “jazz” things up. Let’s start with the
slide design tools.

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Choosing Slide Designs

PowerPoint gives you all kinds of assistance in the design of your slides. So far we've used one
or other of the Slide Layouts, which help with the general layout of each slide in the show. But
the Design Ribbon lets you select from an extensive set of pre-formatted slide design themes that
include graphics, colors, and animations. Let's check out some of these options now.
It’s best to be in the Slide Sorter view for the next set of exercises.
Click on the Slide Sorter tool in the Slide View toolbar (you can also
access these views in the View Ribbon > Presentation Views Group)
Hit Ctrl-a to select all the slides and, in the Design Ribbon > Themes menu,
click on the small arrow to bring down the menu of More Design Themes
(Fig. 9.20)

Click on the More

Design Themes
button to see more
Slide Design options

Fig. 9.20 More Design Themes in the Design Ribbon

Design Themes
The easiest way to make your slides more interesting is to use one of the pre-set Design Themes
that come with PowerPoint (Fig. 9.20 above). You can select from a large set of Design Themes,
most of which are quite attractive. Let's try some of them now.
Use the mouse pointer to select a Design Theme by clicking on it—try out a
few of them
For the sake of the exercises that follow, choose a Design Theme that has a
color background that is light-colored, but not white (the one used for the
design in Fig. 9.20 on the previous page is called “Wisp”), so that the pictures
you are going to add next will stand out well against the background

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PowerPoint applies the selected design template to all the slides in your show so you can check
it out. If you wanted to apply the Design Template to just a few slides, you would first select the
slides you want, then click on one of the other Design Templates. Let's try that.
Hold down the ctrl key while you click on any three or four of the slides in
the show to deselect them (since all the slides were originally selected)
Now, in the Design Ribbon > Themes Group, click on a Slide Design
Template different than the one you chose before
Voilà! The slides that were still selected now use a different Design Theme. You see how easy it
is to create a mix of different and attractive slides.
Hit Ctrl+z to undo the Design Theme change you just made, then hit Ctrl+a
again to select all the slides in the Slide Sorter View
PowerPoint is a beautiful program primarily because it is so easy to use once you know what's
available to you. You can go to town when you're designing slides, as long as you know all the
tips and tricks—the bells and whistles—offered by the software. Let’s check out a couple of
other features now.
Adding pictures to the slides
For Slides #2 through #9 you are going to put a graphic of a Screenbean in the Content
placeholder. This job has to be done directly on the slide in Normal View.
You should still be in Slide Sorter view, so double click on the thumbnail
for Slide 2 (the Confusion slide) to make Slide 2 the current slide in
Normal View
You can see the large version of the slide in the PowerPoint window (Fig. 9.21 above).

Fig. 9.21 Slide 2 in Normal View

The Two Content layout lets you put a title at the top of the slide, and either text or some other
visual content in the lower left and/or lower right placeholders.

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Let's take a closer look at the Content Selector tools for a typical Two Content slide (Fig. 9.22).

Insert Chart

Insert Table SmartArt Graphic

Pictures from file

Insert Video

Online Pictures

Fig. 9.22 The annotated Content Selector tools

As illustrated in Fig. 9.22, you can insert a table (from Access, say), or a chart from Excel, or clip
art from Microsoft's gallery of clip art, or a movie clip that you made yourself or that you
downloaded from a CD-ROM or from the web, or an organization chart, or any picture that you
have saved on disk. Literally, the options are infinite; the sky’s the limit.
For the sake of this exercise, a PowerPoint Files folder has been prepared inside the Work
Files for Office 2016 folder, in which are stored the eight Screenbean clip art items you will use
for this presentation (Fig. 9.23).

This is the picture

for Slide #2

Fig. 9.23 Insert Picture dialog box

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The Screenbean images are stored, not as clip art, but as pictures. To put a picture on a slide, you
will use the Pictures tool in the set of Content Selector tools (Fig. 9.22 above) to insert Pictures
from a file.
Let’s insert a picture onto Slide 2.
Make sure you have the USB drive with your Work Files for Office 2016 in
the disk drive
Now, in the Content Selector tools (Fig. 9.22 previous page), click on the
icon for Pictures
In the Insert Picture dialog box (Fig. 9.23 above), navigate to your Work
Files for Office 2016 > PowerPoint Files > Screenbeans folder
In the Screenbeans folder, double click on the picture named Confused
(“Confused” with an “f”, not “Contused” with a “t”!)
PowerPoint inserts the Screenbean figurine Confused inside the right side placeholder (Fig.
9.24)

Fig. 9.24 Slide #2 is ready

There are a couple of problems you need to take care of at this stage.
1. The picture has unnecessary white space around it—we need to crop it;
2. The picture needs to be enlarged to fill the space available for it;
3. The white background of the picture conflicts with the pale green background of the slide
design—we need to make the background transparent.
Let’s take care of these problems one by one.

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Cropping out unnecessary background

To make sure the picture is selected, click anywhere on it (you’ll see the
handles all around it) then, in the Format Ribbon > Size Group, click on the
Crop tool (Fig. 9.25)

Grab and drag any of these

black handles to crop white
space out of the picture

Fig. 9.25 The Crop tool in the Format Ribbon

Using the mouse, grab any of the black handles around the picture and drag
in towards the image of the Screenbean, cropping as much of the white
space around it, without actually cropping any of the Screenbean image
Fig. 9.26 shows you how it should look at this stage.

Fig. 9.26 Confused Figurine with white space reduced (cropped)

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To complete the cropping exercise, click anywhere on the slide outside the
space taken up by the picture
Enlarging the picture
Grab any of the various handles and adjust the size of the figurine to fill the
space available for it (Fig. 9.27)—use the mouse to center the image after
resizing it

Fig. 9.27 Resized Screenbean Figurine

Making the Screenbean images transparent
One problem still remains to be fixed before we move on to work with the Screenbean images
for the remaining slides. The images, with their white background, look odd against the slide’s
other-colored background (see Fig. 9.27 above). You can fix this by making the image
background transparent.
Still in Normal View, click on the picture of the Screenbean image then, in
the Format Ribbon > Adjust Group, click on the Color tool to bring down
the menu of Color options (Fig. 9.28)

First, click on the

picture

Next, click on the

Color Tool

Last, click on Set

Transparent Color,
slide the mouse pointer
over to the picture and
click on the white
background to make it
transparent

Fig. 9.28 The Picture Tools toolbar

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Last, at the bottom of the Color Tool menu (Fig. 9.28 above), click on Set
Transparent Color, then slide the mouse pointer (which has changed to the
Color Picker tool) over to the picture and click on the white background to
make it transparent
Hey presto! The Screenbean picture is now transparent and has the same background as the rest
of the slide.
Click anywhere off the picture to remove the handles
Now do the same with each of the Screenbean pictures onto slides 3-9,
loading the Screenbean images in the order they are listed in Fig. 9.23 on
page 328 above
Follow the steps you just applied for Slide 2 (they started near the top of page
329)
Save the Screenbeans Slide Show when you're done
At this stage, your Screenbeans PowerPoint presentation should look something like the one
illustrated in Fig. 9.29.

Fig. 9.29 Presentation after inserting and arranging the Screenbean pictures

9.4 ADDING MORE BELLS AND WHISTLES TO THE PRESENTATION

Setting timings for the slides and adding transitions
This task should be done while you are in the Slide Sorter View.
In the View Ribbon > Presentation Views Group click on Slide Sorter

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For this exercise, you are going to add the same timing and transitions to all the slides, though
you could, if you wanted, use a different transition or timing for each individual slide.
Press Ctrl+a on the keyboard to select all the slides in Slide Sorter View
Now, in the Transitions Ribbon > Transitions to This Slide Group, click on
the More Slide Transitions button (Fig. 9.30)

Click on the More

Slide Transitions
arrow to bring down
the menu of slide
transition options

Fig. 9.30 The More Slide Transitions button

The More Slide Transitions button drops down a menu of the complete selection of slide
transitions available in Microsoft’s PowerPoint presentation software (Fig. 9.31).

Fig. 9.31 Transition Slides menu

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To get a Live Preview of any of the transitions, click on a Transition in the

menu and watch the transition take effect in each slide in the Slide Sorter
view
Try several of them to get a feel for how they work, then select the one you
most like—they really are quite cool 
Next, in the Transitions Ribbon > Timing Group (Fig. 9.32), click in the
check box next to After: and increase the Advance Slide time to after 10
(ten) seconds, but leave the check mark in the box next to On Mouse Click,
so that the user has the option to advance without having to wait the full 10
seconds
The Advance Slide options will now look like those illustrated in Fig. 9.32

Fig. 9.32 Advance Slide Timing settings

This will allow the user to advance to the next slide either manually (by clicking the mouse) or
automatically (after 10 seconds).

Sound Effects
Sound effects (audio), like transitions and animations, should not be overdone. But they do add
some extra interest to the visual impact of a presentation.

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To select a sound effect, in the Transitions Ribbon > Timing Group, in the
Sound entry box (Fig. 9.33), click on the down arrow to bring down the
Sound: menu

Fig. 9.33 The PowerPoint Sounds menu

Choose Drum roll2 then, in the Transitions Ribbon > Timing Group, click
on Apply to All Slides (Fig. 9.34)

Fig. 9.34 The Apply to All option in the Timing Group

Notice that the timing value ":10" has appeared underneath each slide in the Slide Sorter view.

2 If you don’t hear a drum roll when you run the slide show, it may be because the speakers on your computer are
turned off—muted—or maybe you don't have speakers on your computer at all.

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Color Schemes
Built-in Color Schemes
Maybe you liked one of the Slide Design templates you were just checking out, but you decided
that the Color Scheme wasn't what you were looking for. Well, you can do something about that
by using the built-in Color Schemes. Or, if you want to choose your own colors, you can go with
a custom Color Scheme. Let's try some of the standard Color Schemes first.
In the Design Ribbon > Variants Group, click on the down arrow to bring
up the menu of Variant options, then click on the Colors option to bring
down the Color Schemes menu (Fig. 9.35)

Fig. 9.35 Built-in Colors menu

Click on any one of the Color Schemes—try a few of them to see how they
look
Just as for the Design Templates, you don't have to apply a Color Scheme to all slides. You can
select one or more of the slides and apply the Color Scheme to those alone.
Custom Color Schemes
Each new installation of PowerPoint starts out with a limited set of standard Color Schemes, and
there may be none that you particularly like. Color is, after all, a very individual thing.
Customizing a Color Scheme is easy enough, however, and if you put together a Color Scheme
you really like, you can add it to the set of standard Color Schemes.
Bear in mind, though, that your PowerPoint presentation is going to be viewed by an
audience of people whom you want to impress with the attractiveness of your slides—you want
the slides to be eye-catching and engaging. So beware of choosing colors that may be jarring or

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quite simply inappropriate. For this reason, unless you think you have a good sense of color and
design, it’s probably best to go with the sets of built-in design themes and color schemes.
In the Design Ribbon > Themes Group, at the bottom of the menu of color
themes click on Customize Colors… (Fig. 9.35 above)
Fig. 9.36 shows the Create New Theme Colors dialog box, which allows you to customize the
color of every feature of a Design Theme (Text Backgrounds, hyperlinks, etc.).

Fig. 9.36 The Create New Theme Colors dialog box

Click on any of the small color boxes to bring up a palette of Theme Colors
for that feature of the slide’s design theme (Fig. 9.37)

Fig. 9.37 Custom Theme Colors

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Now click on More Colors (Fig. 9.37 above) to select from either a palette of
256 colors (the standard color palette) or over 16 million colors (the Custom
color palette)—Fig. 9.38

Fig. 9.38 The Custom Color Mixer

Take whatever time you need to familiarize yourself with these color selection tools.
After you have selected some new colors for TextBackgrounds and
Accents, and so on, click on the Save button to save your Screenbeans
presentation before proceeding with the tutorial
Adding the Acknowledgements slide
Most every slide show should have an acknowledgements to recognize one’s sources for ideas or
other assistance.
In the View Ribbon > Presentation Views Group, select Normal and, in the
left hand frame of thumbnails, scroll down and click immediately after
Slide 9 to put a bar marker there
In the Insert Ribbon > Slides Group, click on New Slide (or hit Ctrl+m),
then, in the Home Ribbon > Slides Group, click on Layout and, in the
Layout menu, click on the layout for Title and Content
In the Title box, click to add the title: Acknowledgements

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Now click in the Content box and type the following acknowledgements
statement:
The Screenbeans images are courtesy Microsoft Corporation’s
Clip Art Gallery.
The presentation design owes much to the Microsoft Office
2016 PowerPoint application.
The text is copyright © Bernard John Poole.
Checking out the presentation
It’s time to try out your show.
In the Slide Show Ribbon > Start Slide Show Group, select From
Beginning, and click your way through each slide at your own pace, or let the
computer time it for you, 10 seconds per slide

9.6 PRINTING PRESENTATION HANDOUTS

A nice feature of PowerPoint is its ability to provide you with hard copy versions of the slides
and/or of the outline text of a presentation. This is useful for the preparation of handouts for an
audience or a class. Here are the steps to do this.
From the File menu choose Print
Now click on the Full Page Slides box to bring up the drop down menu of
print layout options (Fig. 9.39)

Fig. 9.39 Selecting handout options for printing

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In the drop down menu, under Handouts, select 6 Slides Vertical per page
Next click in the Color box near the bottom of the Print dialog box (Fig. 9.40)

Fig. 9.40 Print Color Options menu

In the Color options for the slides, select Grayscale, then click on OK to print
a copy of the presentation
In the handout options, you can choose two, four, six, or nine slides per page, and you can
display the slides in order either horizontally or vertically. This handout can then be distributed
to an audience or a class for note-taking, review or reinforcement.
Save this final version of the Screenbeans show then, before you finish, make
a backup copy of your Screenbeans presentation in your Data Files >
PowerPoint Presentations folder

LOOKING BACK
Lesson 9 has been devoted to the PowerPoint program that is designed to help in the preparation
of presentation materials of all kinds. It is not only a very useful tool, but also it is enjoyable to
work with. Outlines and slide shows will add polish to the lessons or presentations you will
prepare for your students and other groups during the course of your career. For example, a math
or chemistry teacher might intersperse her lessons with professional-looking formula charts or
chemical structures. Any teacher could make an impressive graphic introduction to a class. An
administrator could do the same for her school, the presentation to be viewed in the office by
visitors.
But PowerPoint is still more valuable as a tool for learning in the hands of your students.
They will soon learn the necessary skills to use the program with flare and they'll creating
presentations of their own. As their teacher, you'll guide them in the direction of learning
projects of all kinds related to the curriculum K-12. In the context of PowerPoint, students will

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discover knowledge and construct their own mental database of information that will stand them
in good stead in their future lives.

LOOKING FORWARD
PowerPoint is a useful teaching tool, providing added value for both the teacher and the students.
A carefully prepared and well-designed presentation, appropriately used during the course of a
class, helps the teacher stay focused and on track. A presentation that is rich in multimedia gives
the teacher the opportunity to spice up presentations in various ways that promote added interest
and engagement for students. PowerPoint also can be used to create as well as enable powerful
learning environments.
Lesson 10 will show you how to create interactive presentations in which the user learns
while responding to the material that is being presented, thus encouraging engagement, which
promotes learning. More powerful yet, PowerPoint may be best used in the discovery mode of
learning, where the students create presentations that involve research in the pursuit of
knowledge, incorporating multimedia—still images, video, and sound, along with text—in the
construction of a personal understanding of the subject matter being learned.
A thoughtful teacher will encourage her students to work together on such projects and
present their work to the class, thus applying the adage that the best way to learn is to teach.
As the saying goes: "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand."

SKILL CONSOLIDATION
1. Prepare a presentation on the subject of the American colonies. Make sure you have at least
eight first level topics (eight slides), as well as a title slide and an acknowledgements slide.
2. Prepare a presentation on the subject of US Presidents (or any subject of your choice that you
might use with a K-12 age group appropriate to your major). Make sure you have at least
eight first level topics (eight slides), as well as a title slide and an acknowledgements slide.
3. Prepare a presentation on the subject of the American movie scene. Make sure you have at
least eight first level topics (eight slides), as well as a title slide and an acknowledgements
slide.
4. Prepare a presentation in a style of your own choosing with at least three levels on the subject
of contemporary music. Make sure you have at least eight first level topics (eight slides), as
well as a title slide and an acknowledgements slide.
5. Create a slide show with yourself as the subject—you the person, you the teacher. Use
graphics drawn from any source you like. Make sure you have at least eight first level topics
(eight slides), as well as a title slide and an acknowledgements slide.
6. Create a slide show on the subject of pets. Use graphics from clip art or created in a Drawing
or Painting environment. Make sure you have at least eight first level topics (eight slides), as
well as a title slide and an acknowledgements slide.
7. Create a slide show on the subject of geometric shapes. Use graphics drawn from clip art or
created in a Drawing or Painting environment. Make sure you have at least eight first level
topics (eight slides), as well as a title slide and an acknowledgements slide.

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