(AnIntroductiontoMicrosoftPowerpoint)

Before we use this tutorial, you need to take note of various terms and procedures, these are outlined below:

Terms you need to understand:

Textbox

This is a boxed outline into which text is typed, only textual material can be placed into a textbox

Left click

To click with the left mouse button

Right click

To click with the right mouse button

Mouse pointer

The small white arrow that moves around the screen when you move the mouse

Highlight

Text or any object on a page that is a different colour than the rest by selecting it using the method below

Icon

A small picture which gives an idea of what the option does

Sizing handle

A small circle or square on the outside edge of a picture or text box that allows you to resize the box

Picture box A square outline that holds a picture (graphic)and only allows you to

insert a picture into

To select (highlight) text:

1. Place the mouse pointer at the left hand side fo the first character in the section of text you wish to highlight

2. Press and hold down the left mouse button

3. Whilst the keeping the left mouse button pressed, drag the mouse to the right until all the text you wish to select is highlighted, you may need to move the mouse pointer down to the next row in order to select over more than one line

4. Release the left mouse button when all of the text you wish to select is highlighted

What is Microsoft PowerPoint?

Microsoft PowerPoint is part of Microsoft’s Office suite of programs and is a presentation program. With it you can present anything you wish to an audience, it could be something you are selling, a lesson you are giving, anything that has a message you wish to get across to someone else.

Microsoft PowerPoint can be used on a computer, and overhead projector or any device which display the screen of a computer. Before you can use it you need ot open it, this si done as follows:

Open PowerPoint

1. Move the mouse pointer down to the start button , this is the start button for Windows XP, the start button for Windows 7 is a globe but still found in the bottom left hand corner of the desktop (screen)

2. Click with the left mouse button and move the mouse pointer to the all programs option and let it rest there for a brief moment and the list of programs will appear similar to that shown below

3. Navigate to the Microsoft Office folder and select click on PowerPoint as shown in the example above

4. PowerPoint will open and you will see a screen similar to that shown below

If you have used Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel you will notice that the User Interface (UI) is more or less the same and all the text formatting icons are in the same place, however there are one or two differences one of those being the drawing section, items of which you will use more often in a presentation.

How do we use it now we have opened it?

Now that we have opened it and created a document, we need to add some text or a picture, this is the first page of your presentation so you may wish to make it punchy and have a picture to two and a nice fancy title or just have it say what it needs to say, (no frills)

I have entered some text into the two text boxes in order to show you that you can type whatever you wish format it how you wish, (I have turned the text in the lower text box blue.

How to type text into a text box

The first thing you see on the initial start up screen are two text boxes, these will form the first page of your presentation and you type text into them as follows:

1. Place the mouse pointer on the textbox you wish to type into

2. Click with the left mouse button, this will cause the existing text to vanish and be replaced with the flashing text cursor without which you can’t type any text.

3. Type whatever text you wish into the text box

4. Format the text however you wish, (see below for how to format the text)

5. The example below shows you some text typed into both the text boxes

NOTE:- you can if you wish just have one textbox on the page and delete the other one, maybe replace one textbox with a picture, you’ll see how to place pictures a little later.

How to change the colour of the text

After you have typed in some text as in the example above, you may wish to change it’s colour, (in the example above I changed the colour of the text in the lower textbox to blue). This is done as follows:

1. Place the mouse pointer at the beginning of the section of text you wish to change

2. Click and hold down the left mouse button

3. Keeping the left mouse button pressed, drag the mouse across the text you wish to change until it is highlighted

4. Release the left mouse button

5. Move the mouse pointer up to the small downward pointing arrow on the right hand side of the font colour button you will see the font colour box displayed as shown below

6. Checking to see if your text is still highlighted, move the mouse pointer to the colour you wish to change the text to

7. You will notice that the highlighted text changes to the colour you mouse over, for example, if your mouse moves over the brown, then the text you highlighted will turn brown, this is so that you can see what it looks like before you select the colour

8. When the selected text is the colour you wish it to be, click the left mouse button on that colour.

9. Your highlighted text will now be that colour.

To make the text bold

You may wish to enhance the text and make it bold, maybe to make a title stand out or certain important words stand out, this is making the text bold and is done in the following way:

1. Select the text you wish to make bold using the method outlined on the second page (to select (highlight) text)

2. Move the mouse pointer up to the bold button

3. Click with the left mouse button

4. The selected text will now be in bold

To underline text

1. Select the section of text you wish to underline by using the method outlined on page two (selecting (highlighting) text)

2. With the text highlighted, move the mouse pointer up to the underline button

3. Click with the left mouse button

4. The text you highlighted will be underlined

To place a picture on a page

Sometimes we may wish to place a picture on a page, as a background or to make an initial impression, whatever the reason this is done as follows:

1. Ensure you are on the page you wish to place the picture

2. Move the mouse pointer up to the Insert tab and the bar will look like that shown below, these are all the objects you can insert into the page

3. Place the mouse pointer on the picture icon

4. Click with the left mouse button and the insert picture dialogue box will be displayed as shown below

5. This is a standard windows find file dialogue box and all you need to do is navigate to the folder in which the picture you wish to place is in, double click on the folders until you find the file (picture) you wish to place

6. Click on it with the left mouse button to select it

7. Move the mouse pointer to the Insert button found in the bottom right hand side of the dialogue box

8. The picture you selected will be inserted into the page of your document as shown below with the pictures of the sun.

NOTE:- the example above has two pictures inserted, one of which also shows you that the picture in the bottom right cannot be inserted into text boxes, the picture will just obscure any text in the text box if you try to place it on or over a textbox, pictures must be placed in a picture box. You can if you wish place a picture in a picture box and put that into a text box and make the text wrap round it which you will see later in the tutorial.

To move a picture box or text box on a page

When you first place a picture on a page, it may not be in the place you wish it to be, it may be covering some text or it may be overhanging the edge of the page, in this case you will need to move the picture, this is done in the following way

1. Place the mouse pointer anywhere on the picture

2. Press and hold down the left mouse button

3. Whilst holding down the left mouse button, drag the mouse around and the picture will follow, you can then place it where you wish on the page

To resize a picture box or text box

Initially, the picture will too big, or you may just want to resize the picture to make it fit into a space or make it larger or smaller to suit the page content, whatever you resize the picture for, the steps are outlined below

1. When you click on a picture you will see some little white circles on each corner and in the middle of all four sides, these are sizing handles similar to that one shown below

2. Place the mouse pointer on any of the small white circles and you will see a double headed arrow indicating which ways you can resize the picture using that sizing handle, for example, if you place the mouse pointer on the small white square on the right hand side of the picture, you will see that the arrow indicates that you can resize the picture left and right, moving the mouse left will make it narrower, moving it right will make it wider

3. The four corner circles resize the picture proportionately, this means that all the sides will resize together and keep the picture in proportion, (it will not be wider or narrower or higher or squashed) it will still be the same shape but smaller

To rotate a picture box or text box

You may wish to have your pictures or text skewed or rotated to make the presentation more interesting, rotating a picture box or text box is done as follows:

1. Move the mouse pointer to the picture box or text box you wish to rotate and click with the left mouse button to select it, it should look similar to that shown below

2. The box will have resizing handles round it. Place the mouse pointer on the green coloured circular handle in the middle of the top edge similar to that shown below, it is a black circle with an arrow at the top

3. Press and hold down the left mouse button, whilst keeping the left mouse button pressed, move the mouse to the left or right and the picture box or text box will rotate as shown in the picture (bottom right above)

How to Insert Another Page

The pages in a Powerpoint presentation are known as slides. You will need to make your presentation more than one slide long, how to add more slidea is shown below:

1. Ensure that you have the Home tab selected, if not move the mouse pointer up to the top of the page, place the mouse pointer on the Home tab and click with the left mouse button.

2. Move the mouse pointer to the New slide button and click with the left mouse button, you will see the choice of slides displayed similar to that shown below

3. From this selection box you can select various slide designs but for this tutorial I have selected the first one for simplicity, When you have decided which slide you wish to insert, click on it with the left mouse button and it will be inserted into the presentation as shown below

NOTE:- You will see in the column down the left hand side of the page that number of slides in you presentation and a view of what they look like.

This concludes the introduction to Powerpoint and I hope you find it helpful and useful. The tutorial contains enough information to help you get started and you should be producing some interesting presentations in no time.