To Open Powerpoint in Windows, Click on The

Opening PowerPoint

To open PowerPoint in Windows, click on the

Start button --> Programs --> Microsoft PowerPoint

Double-click on the PowerPoint icon on the desktop

* If the tip of the day appears, click 'OK'

** If the Office Assistant appears, click on 'Start Using Microsoft PowerPoint'

In PowerPoint 2000 you will see the following dialog, which gives you the option to choose where to start from:

"AutoContent Wizard" walks you through a series of questions about your presentation, letting you choose from a variety of predetermined content themes, visual styles, and formatting options. You can answer all of the questions or skip some and click "Finish" at any time.
"Design Template" allows you to choose from various background designs and slide styles to use throughout your presentation. Clicking the various presentation options shows thumbnail views of their designs. Click "OK" to choose one.
"Blank Presentation" starts you out with blank slides. This is the default in the latest PowerPoint version (XP).

Blank presentation is the recommended starting point in this tutorial. PowerPoint lets you change the appearance, layout and content of your presentation at any time. Choosing "Blank Presentation" lets you experiment more easily with the many features this program offers.

On the other hand, some people prefer to establish the design from the outset so that they see its effects as they create their presentation. As you become more familiar with PowerPoint, you will discover which method works best for you.

Understanding the screen

Views | Toolbars

1)Views
PowerPoint has several 'views' that allow you to edit and see presentation content in various useful ways.

You can switch among the views as you work by selecting one from the View menu

or clicking one of the five 'view' buttons in the lower left-hand corner of the PowerPoint window.

Tip: Office 2000 may be installed to show only your most recent menu selections. To see non-visible choices, click the double-headed arrow at the bottom of the menu list, or hold the mouse over the menu for a few seconds. Either of these actions will then display all the choices in that menu item.

Normal View in 2000 & 2002 (XP)In the Normal view, the screen is split into three sections showing the presentation outline on the left, the slide in the main window, and notes at the bottom.

Outline View in 2000 | no Outline View in 2002 (XP)
In the Outline view, the majority of the screen shows all the titles and body text in your presentation whereas the slide and notes appear on small windows. In Outline view, you can move slides around within your presentation and also edit yourtext.
Slide Sorter View in 2000 The Slide Sorter view shows you a minature of each slide in your presentation. You can drag slides around on the screen to reposition them in this view. You can also select and copy multiple slides should you want to use them in other presentations

There is no Slide View in the 2002 (XP) version, however, you can obtain the same similar effect by closing the Task Pane and switching the left side window from Outline to Slide Sorter.

Slide Show View
Finally, the Slide Show view runs the slide show on full-screen. See section "Running a slide show" for more details.

2)Toolbars
In all Microsoft programs, there are three ways to accomplish most tasks:

through the menu choices (File, Edit, Insert...)
via a toolbar, or
using the keyboard shortcuts.

Generally, keyboard shortcuts are used by people who are very familiar with the program, whereas novices find the toolbars easier and quicker to access once they are comfortable with the icons' functions.

Usually PowerPoint displays the menu bar, standard toolbar, the formatting toolbar, as well as the drawing toolbar by default. If however, these toolbars do not appear on your screen or you need to see the other toolbars as well, you can customize your toolbar by clicking on View menu --> Toolbars and checking or unchecking the toolbar you want to show or hide.

Annotated PowerPoint screen in Normal view in 2000 | in 2002 (XP)

Slide Sorter View in 2000
The Slide Sorter view shows you a minature of each slide in your presentation. You can drag slides around on the screen to reposition them in this view. You can also select and copy multiple slides should you want to use them in other presentations.
back to top

Notes View in 2000
The Notes view lets you create speaker's notes. Each page corresponds to a slide in your presentation and includes a reduce image of the slide. You can draw and type in Notes view the way you can in Slide View.

Slide View in 2000 | no Slide View in 2002 (XP)
The Slide view does not differ much from the Normal view, except in that the Slide view does not display the presentation outline. The slide view displays each slide on the screen and is helpful for adding images, formatting text, and adding background styles.

There is no Slide View in the 2002 (XP) version, however, you can obtain the same similar effect by closing the Task Pane and switching the left side window from Outline to Slide Sorter.

Slide Show View
finally, the Slide Show view runs the slide show on full-screen. See section "Running a slide show" for more details.

Tool Bars

In all Microsoft programs, there are three ways to accomplish most tasks:

through the menu choices (File, Edit, Insert...)
via a toolbar, or
using the keyboard shortcuts.

Inserting slides in PowerPoint 2000 | in 2002

AutoLayout
After you have opened a new presentation, PowerPoint displays the New Slide dialog box containing several AutoLayouts. AutoLayouts provide a pre-determined layout for each specific type of slide, such as bulleted lists, graphs, and/or images. Click on each thumbnail image and a description will be printed in the message box. Highlight the layout you want and click OK.

New Slide-The same dialog will appear every time you insert a slide. You can insert a slide through the Insert menu --> New slide, or by clicking on the New Slide icon on the toolbar.

The new slide will be added after the current one. If you are in Outline view, you can click on the outline to highlight the slide after which you want to add the new slide and follow the steps for inserting slides.

* You can change a slide's layout at any time. Just click on the Format menu --> Slide Layout to see the Layout Dialog.

Inserting slides in PowerPoint XP |

Once you have opened a new presentation in the 2002 (XP) version, the Task Pane on the right side of the screen will display options. Click on Blank Presentation to see possible layouts for your slide (known as Auto Layouts in the 2000 version). These are predetermined layouts for each specific type of slide, such as bulleted lists, graphs, and/or images. Click on the image to select your layout.

New Slides
The "Slide Layout" Task Pane will appear every time you insert a new slide. The directions for inserting a new slide are the same in both the 2000 and 2002 (XP) versions

Inserting

Text
placeholders | insert text box | format text box

The most common way to add text to a slide is to type it directly into any placeholder on the slide. However, if you are using a blank slide (without placeholders) or if you want to enter text outside placeholders, you can use a text box.

Adding text to a placeholder
As soon as you select a slide layout the new slide appears with dummy text (such as "Click to add title") in the placeholders. When you click inside a placeholder, the dummy text disappears, the cursor becomes a blinking line ( | ) and you can start typing.

Adding text to a text box

To add text anywhere on a slide (outside placeholders), click on the Insert menu --> Text Box, or on the text box icon on the drawing toolbar.
Click and hold down the left mouse button while you drag the mouse. When l the box is the size you want it, release the mouse button.
Click inside the text box and start typing.

Note: if you click outside the text box before typing in it, the box disappears. However, it is still there, but invisible. As this may cause problems later, we suggest that if you 'lose' your text box, undo the box (Click on the Edit menu, then Undo) and start over.

Resizing a text box

You can reposition the text box anywhere in the slide by moving the mouse pointer over the gray border until it becomes a four-way arrow (a hand in Macintosh), and then clicking and holding down the mouse button while dragging the box to the desired location.
In order to resize the text box proportionally you need to select the box first by click on the four-way arrow (you know that the text box is selected when you see the gray border around it). Then position the pointer over one of the four square "handles" on the text box's corners until the pointer becomes a diagonal, two-directional arrow . Then click and drag the border to resize the box.
You can also change just the height or the width of the text box by selecting it and positioning the pointer over the handles on the sides until the pointer becomes a vertical or horizontal two-directional arrow . Then click and drag the border to change the height or width of the text box.

The same technique is used for resizing images. Note: using the side handles to resize an image will distort the image, so use with caution. To preserve the proportions of the image drag the corners of the image as discribed above.

Formatting a text box

If the text box is not already selected, select it by moving the cursor over it until the cursor becomes a four-way arrow and clicking on it until you see the text box border highlighted.
Right-click on the text box and select Format Text Box or select Format menu > Text Box. On the Format Text Box dialog you can use the tabs on the top to make your selections.
On the Colors and Lines tab you can select a fill color (if you choose a dark fill color it is a good idea to check the Semitransparent box to make your text more visible) and a line color and style for the text box border.
On the Text Box tab you can choose a particular vertical alignment for the text, word wrap, automatic resizing or rotation of the text.

For example, the following selections

will have the following effect:

You can also rotate a text box: select the text box and click on the rotate icon . Click on green handles and drag as much as you want it to rotate.

Notes | Headers & Footers

Inserting
There are two ways to insert notes to a slide:

From the Normal View, click on the notes area at the bottom of the screen and start typing:
This method works fine when you have just a couple of lines to add as notes.

If you want to add longer notes, you can click on the View menu > Notes Page. In the Notes View each page corresponds to a slide in your presentation and includes a reduce image of the slide. You can insert text, drawings and even pictures in the Notes view in the same exact way that you do in Slide View.

Click on the View menu > Header and Footer
If you wish to add the date and time on your slides, you have the option to add a fixed date or choose to have the date update automatically(arrow 1). If you choose 'update automatically', the date that will appear on your slides will always be the date you run the slide show.

You can check the "slide number" box to show the slide number show on a slide (2).
If any of the header boxes contains information that also appears on the title slide, it may be a good idea to check the box "Don't show on title slide" (3). If you don't, you will end up having the same information twice on your title slide.
At any point you can check the Preview Box (4) to see which areas you have already used and which ones remain available.
Click on the ' Notes and Handouts' tab to specify your header and footer preferences for your handouts (5).

For more advanced options for headers and footers, see section on Master Slides.

text | lists

Formatting text

The functions for formatting text in PowerPoint are very similar with other Microsoft programs, especially Microsoft Word. Select the text you want to format and click on the Format menu --> Font to make changes such as font size, style type and effects:

or you can use the Formatting toolbar to make one change at a time:

To format a list, highlight the list or the part of the list that you want to format and then click on Format-->Bullets and Numbering. On the Bulleted dialog you can select the type and color of bullets you want on your list, or even choose to use a special character or picture that you have saved as a bullet:

If you want a numbered list, click on the Numbered tab and select the type of numbering you want (numerical, alphabet, Roman). You can also use the Start at feature to make the list start from a number other than 1. This is a very handy feature especially if you have a very long list and you want to split it into two slides.

If you don't highlight the list before making your selections, PowerPoint will automatically apply your selections only on the line that your cursor is when you make the selections.

background | color scheme

Changing background (changing the "wallpaper" of a slide)

From the menu bar, select Format > Background
Select one of the background colors from the pull-down menu, or choose from a more extensive palette by selecting the More Colors menu item
You can preview your selections before committing to them by clicking on Preview
If you are satisfied with the results, you can proceed to committing to the changes:
click Apply button to change the current slide.
click Apply to all to make the changes to all of your slides.

If you are using a template and for some reason you need to get rid of the graphics that the template includes (for example, if you want to insert a graph and the template graphics are in your way), you can check the box 'omit background graphics from master'. Again, you can apply this change to the current slide or to all of your slides.