PowerPoint
Effective learning using a structured approach

This is the second part of a tutorial on PowerPoint.  If you haven't read the first part you can find it here in this PowerPoint page.

Main Editing Area

The next screen area I want to describe is the main editing screen.  This is the area that lets you create the slides that your audience will see.  Here you can build slides that include both text and graphics.

For this part of the tutorial it would be helpful, to reinforce your learning, if you try out some of the ideas directly in the program.  The easiest way to do this is to open up PowerPoint at the same time as this browser page.  You can then switch between the two programs by using the boxes at the bottom of the screen or by holding down the alt key and pressing tab.

You should see a screen like this:

 

Click where it says “Click to add title” and you’ll now be able to type in text.  This page is the title page of your slide show.  You can add a title and a subtitle.  Often people put in a title for the slide show and then in the second level (Click to add subtitle) they'll put in their name.

Try adding some text now.

You’ll notice that PowerPoint automatically formats the text in a large size.  In my version it puts the text at 44pt.  If  you want to see the final look of the slide then click on the slide show icon in the bottom right hand corner.

To edit the text you simply click on it and delete or insert words as you require.  Often you’ll want to change the font or make it bold or change it’s colour.  To do this you simply highlight the text you want to change and then select the appropriate tool in the top tool bar.

I’ve marked each of the possible tools in the above image. You should take five minutes away from this tutorial and try playing about with the various attribute settings.

Layout Change

The next part of this PowerPoint tutorial covers using the layout change part of the screen.  You can find the layout change at the right hand side of the screen.  You can see that there are a number of different slide “types”.  These are predefined slides that you can choose from.

If you can't see the layout picker then right click in the main area.  This will bring up a box from which you can choose "Slide Layout...".  This is shown below.

Try selecting different layouts.  You’ll find that the layout of the current slide changes as you select different slide types.  Try inserting some new slides and typing text in the various optional boxes.

Layout change can also be swapped to show the various automatic colour schemes.  This is done by right clicking in the main area and selecting "Slide Design...".  Try picking some different styles and seeing the effect of them.

Notes Pages

The final part of this initial PowerPoint tutorial is learning a little about the notes pages.  These are pages of plain text that are attached to slides.  They are useful for adding notes as you prepare the oral commentary that you’ll use with the slide show.

To expand the notes area you use the same click and drag method you used earlier for expanding the slide sorter area.  Once you’ve expanded it try adding some text.

The text in this area can also be formatted. You can add bold or italics for emphasis.

One of the best features is PowerPoint's ability to print out both the notes and a thumbnail of the slide together.  You can find this option in the Print box which appears when you click the print icon.  This is very useful if you want some notes pages for use during your presentation.

This has been a brief tour of the major parts of PowerPoint.  The areas covered should provide a great starting platform and enable you to quickly improve your ability to create slide shows.