Notes. SeniorNet Warkworth Microsoft Sway Symposium Notes May 2018 Author Brian Oakes

Transcription

1 Notes Office Sway is a presentation program and is part of the Microsoft Office family of products. Generally released by Microsoft in August 2015, Sway allows users who have a Microsoft account to combine text and media to create a presentable website. 1

2 What is Sway It s not a song from Frank Sinatra and it s not a smooch y dance. Sway is a digital storytelling app for work, school and home that makes it quick and easy to create and share interactive reports, presentations, personal stories, and more. It s like having your own personal web site You can add Photos, videos, sounds and of course text, as well as maps to a Sway and then send a link to your presentation which can then be viewed directly from the cloud on any type of device. There is no programme to download. Sway is web based and all you need to make a Sway is a Microsoft account and best of all its free and simple to use Sways are great for telling your family about your Holiday. You describe the places you visited on your trip along with any Photos and videos you have taken. You can even include sound clips as well maps of the area you visited. What about sending out an interactive Christmas greeting or a special Birthday message to your Family or Friends. In a Sway you can describe some of your activities throughout the year and include Photos and videos and even sounds. You can use Sway to send out a newsletter. Ideal if you are involved with running a club or Church group. All the details of up and coming events can go into a Sway along with photos of previous events. To use Sway all you need is a Microsoft account. You may have already set an account up if not however it s a simple process and its free. To set up an account Go to the Microsoft account sign-up page and tap or click Create account. In the User name box enter your existing address, or tap or click Get a new address to create an Outlook or Hotmail address. Fill out the rest of the form, and then tap or click Create account. 2

3 Once you have your account and password you are ready to use Sway. The Sway App is built directly into windows 10 In the windows 10 search box type Sway. From the menu Click on the Sway App The Sway log in screen will open If the App does not open then Type Swa.com in your browser address bar. At the log in screen type in your address (this should be the one you used to set up your Microsoft account.) Press the Get started button Enter your Password Press Sign in The Welcome to Sway screen will open You are now ready to make your first Sway. 3

4 Making a Sway You can build a Sway from scratch or try using one of the many templates available. In the bottom menu is a Tutorial Sway called How to Sway. It is strongly recommended that you view this presentation which tells you all about the powerful features of Sway. Just click on the thumbnail to Start. Building a Sway from scratch Click the Create New button A Sway Title card will open in the Story Line mode. Storyline Storyline Click to add Title Card Play and Share Mode cards Controls 4

5 The centre section of the screen is the Storyline where you build your Sway. At the top of the Storyline is the Title Card. At the bottom of the Title card is a green plus sign. This is where you add further cards At the top left are two tabs where you switch between the Storyline view and the Design view. The Storyline view is where you make your Sway and add Headings, Text, Videos etc. The Design View shows a preview of your finished Sway. At the Top right is are Play buttons to view you Sway in its finished form and Sharea Share button. Cards are used to build your Sway. There are many types of cards Heading 1 Heading 2 Text cards Image Video Audio Embed You can group image cards together to form different display options such as: - Automatic Stack Comparison Slide show Grid 5

6 There is also a Title Card. This is what you see when you first create a Sway. There is only one Title card and that s the first one and is applied by default to a new Sway. The name that you type in the Title card becomes the name of the Sway. You can t delete the Title Card but you can change the name of it as well as the picture. You don t actually save a Sway once you have given it a Title that s it. Any changes that you make will automatically be saved. Title Card The Title Card has a space on the left for an image (In the first Title card this is named Background but any others will be named Image). This can be one of your own images or one suggested by Sway. Images are suggested according to the Title you have inserted. Napier Click on the Background box and a menu of suggested images appears to the left. Here you can choose to view any of the suggested options or search your device or onedrive for an image. You can also press the Insert button at the top right to open this menu. When you Click on one of the options, Sway will display a selection of images it has found based on your Title. So in the case of the example above (Trip to Napier.) Sway will show a range of images depicting scenes from Napier or the surrounding area. Napier Displayed 6

7 The search results are based on images that are free to use without copyright protection. This is indicated by the checked Creative Commons Only box. If you untick this box, you will have more options but may have copyright issues. You can also use the search box to search for an image. You can also use an image from your computer or device To do this Click on the downward facing chevron next to the Suggested button at the top left under the Sway icon. This will open a menu with a range of options. Select My device to go to your computes file system and Browse to a Photo of your choice. In either method Select a picture and drag it to the Background box. Be sure to choose one with a large pixel size otherwise you will see a pixelated image. Your image will be inserted into your Sway. 7

8 Preview You can preview this image and text by clicking on the Design Tab at the top left. You will see a preview of your Sway. However, you will only see the finished Sway which will include some animations when you press the Play button at the top right, but the Preview will give you a good idea how your Sway will look.. Design View gives a Preview of your Sway You can Edit the Sway in The Design Window. Click on the Text and Click on the Edit button. The Text will open in the Edit mode where you can make any necessary changes or add emphasis (Bold) or Accent. To return to the Storyline click on the Storyline tab at the top left of the screen. Return to the Storyline 8

9 Adding more content. To add more content to your presentation, click on the plus sign below any card to open up the Card menu. Card Menu This menu gives you options to add various suggested cards:- Heading 1, Text, Image as well as some other options. Notice there is no Title card as there is only one and that is used at the Start of your Sway. To select a card, Click on the card button and it will be inserted into your Sway. Clicking on the menu tabs opens up more options. Example:- Opening the Text Tab gives the option of Text as a large heading (Heading 1) or a smaller heading (Heading 2) or just Text alone All cards grouped below a Heading 1 card Example of 4 cards added to Sway by clicking + button. Each press adds another card. They are all grouped to the Heading 1 card. 9

10 Note that after the Heading 1 card has been added, each time you add another card such as Heading 2, text or image, they are all grouped to the Heading 1 card. By inserting a Heading 1 card you get another group formed. You use the Heading 1 and 2 cards to make a space between your subjects. Adding a Heading 1 card separates the groups The Heading Cards are similar to the Title Card as they both allow you to add a background image. A Header Card will divide your Sway into sections -- thus in many ways, a Heading Card is almost a Title of a Section within the Sway. Use Heading 1 cards to separate groups. Heading 1 card Heading 2 card Text Card Image Card Example showing the Design Preview of 4 types of cards. Heading 1, Heading 2, Image and Text cards. 10

11 Sways are built up using the different cards. Headings and sub Headings are added as well as images or videos as required. Text can be typed or copied from a Word document or even from a website. Continue building your Sway checking using the Design Preview Tab on the overall look of the Sway. Adjusting Text size You can t adjust Text in the conventional way as you would do in a Word Document. There are however a few things you can do with Text. You can emphasise a Word to make it Bolder to make a statement in your presentation. You can place an accent on your text to differentiate a word. Add Bullet points Add numbers Make the Words bigger by emphasising further to Subtle or Moderate emphasis. Highlight the words and press the appropriate button. Emphasis to Accent to Add bullets or Make Text larger by using Make Bold Text Italicise Text numbers Subtle and moderate emphasis Trash Delete a card You can delete any card by clicking the Trash can in the top right corner of the card Adjusting Images You can add a caption to an image card by typing in the caption field on the card. There are similar controls available on an image card to Emphasise, Accent and add bullet points and numbers to the Caption. However, you can t change its size. 11

12 You can also adjust the image size to Subtle, Moderate and Intense to make it really large. This could be interpreted to mean Small, Medium and Large. Add a caption Intense Emphasis to make image really large Grouping Images. Images can be grouped together and displayed in a number of different ways. Click the Plus sign to open the card menu Select the Stack option. A group stack card will be added Group Stack card added Open the Group Type Menu and from the menu at the right choose a group option from the 7 types. Example the Stack option. Whichever you choose you can change it later Group Type Options 12

13 Click on the Add content area and the suggestions menu opens. Here you can click on images you want to use. A tick will appear in the corner of each image you select. You can use your own images by clicking on the Chevron next to Suggested and browsing your own drive. Click the Add button at the top. Your pictures will be inserted. You will now have a group stack of images. Click the Design to see what the stack will look like. The Photos will be stacked one on top of the other and when you click them the photos will move through the stack. Return to the Storyline Four Photos grouped in a Stack Preview view of Stack. Click to Enlarge Stack. Close the stack of image cards by clicking on the Chevron in the stack title. Change group type Change Emphasis 13

14 Here you can change the group type as well as the size or emphasis of the pictures. Subtle, Moderate, Intense. You can also ungroup them or delete them. Press the plus symbol to add more images Select another group and check the results in the Design Tab. Group type Menu You can reduce the group to a single card by Clicking on the Small chevron next to the Group Stack at the top left. This closes the Stack. There are other options in the group menu such as change the size of images, Ungroup them or Trash them. Changing the Focus point of an image The Focus point option allows you to change the area of the image that Sway focuses on. Click on the Focus Points button. The Focus Points Menu opens. You can choose to display the complete picture by clicking in the Entire Image is important check box. Or Click anywhere on the picture that you want to focus on. A round green indicator will appear where you clicked. A thumbnail of the focused area will show below the picture. You can Click again to find another suitable point and Sway will focus on the picture between the two selected points. You can also see a thumbnail of what the picture looks like on mobile phone. 14

15 Click the picture to set Focus points Thumbnail shows view of selected focus points. Also shown is view on mobile phone Focus Point Theme Changes If you want to change the style of your Sway, switch to the design tab and then click the Styles button at the top right. This opens up a Styles pane that shows you a preview of the various style combinations you can select. Styles in the same row differ in small ways, like font and background, while styles in different rows change more substantially, such as in layout and structure. Sway offers seven core styles that differ in the way content is laid out, in the use of decorators, image caption treatment, and in the use of colour and textures in the background. When you click on one of the designs the whole of the Sway automatically is reformatted to the theme of the chosen design. 15

16 The first row offers a unique style, which combines image filters, bold and sophisticated title treatment and backgrounds, a framed image treatment, and is left-aligned. With this style you could explore different image treatment that fit the mood of your Sway. The second style offers a clean and elegant design, centre-aligned text and images, and places images one below the other. The third style uses sophisticated title treatment and backgrounds, a framed image treatment, and is left-aligned. In this style, images are positioned side by side, or one under the other, depending on available space. The fourth style offers a modern design perspective and offers left-aligned text. Image layout is optimized to fit available space. The fifth style offers a bold design attitude, using a rich variety of background textures, vivid decorators, and playful interplay between the content and the background. Images are laid out in a non-formal manner, giving this style a more personal feel. The Sixth style, optimized for photo album scenarios, offers a clean yet sophisticated approach by focusing on user content first. It centre-aligns text and images, and automatically arranges the images in the best possible grid layout. The seventh style offers an expressive perspective, using playful backgrounds, text back-planes and decorators. Style 1 Style 2 Style 3 Style 4 Style 5 Sway Styles Style 6 Style 7 16

17 In Sway, selecting a style also means changing whether the text will be centre or left aligned, or whether the image captions will be laid on the right, below, or over the images. Customising designs Sway does give a small degree of customisation to any design. Click on the Customise button at the top of the Styles pane to open the Customise menu. In this menu there are tools available to change the colour pallet and the type of Font you want in your Sway. You can t change individual Fonts however; all the Fonts change to the new one. A slider at the bottom allows you to change the sizes of all the Fonts in the Sway (not individually) A second slider allows you to increase the animation emphasis. These animations are applied to images allowing them to Zoom or pan to give movement to your Sway. Note though these animations only appear when you use the Play button in Sway and do not appear in the Design tab Preview. Sliders to adjust animation emphasis and Font size. 17

18 Sway Design You can adjust the way your Sway is displayed in the Styles Menu. There are three choices: - The Sway Scrolls in the vertical direction from top to bottom. The Sway Scrolls in the horizontal direction from left to right. Each section of the Sway is displayed on the screen and then by Clicking the next arrow buttons at the bottom, the next page appears. Similar to how a PowerPoint display operates. Remix A quick way of changing your Sway is to press the Remix button at the top right of the styles pane. The Remix option randomly changes the design and navigation features to your Sway. Think of Remix as a dice that has infinite rather than just six choices. You never know what you will end up with! Since Remix may change the appearance of your Sway, you may want first to duplicate your Sway. If you do not care for the new style that Sway applies, you can click the Undo button as shown immediately to undo the Remix and revert.to your original Sway. Alternatively, click the Remix button again to use another style. Play around until you are happy! 18

19 Play a Sway What you have seen in the Preview window is not how the Sway will be seen by others. Press the Play button at the Top right and Sway will go into Play mode. All the dynamic animations that are built in to the chosen design template will operate with your graphic images zooming and appearing. To return to the Storyline screen where you can edit your Sway, Click on the Edit option (Pencil) at the top right of the screen. Duplicate a Sway Sometimes you may need to duplicate your Sway so that you can add new content or change the appearance. As there is no save function in Sway as soon as you make a change that s it, the change is automatically saved and the only way to return to the original is to use the undo button. Click on the Discover more available options button (three horizontal dots) in the menu at the top right of the screen. From the Menu Click on the Duplicate this Sway option. You will be notified that a duplicate of your Sway will be made. And you can give it a name if you like. You can change the name later. Press the Duplicate button Sway will duplicate your presentation. You will then be offered the choice off Going to My Sways (The filing system where your Sway presentations can be accessed.) Or you can choose to Edit your Sway. 19

20 Sharing Once you have completed your Sway you can Share it with others using the Sharing Menu. Click on the Share button in the menu at the top right. In the Share menu you can choose to invite people to view or edit by clicking the radio buttons. Its more normal to only allow people to view your Sway. You can choose select the copy link option or the get visual link. The visual link produces the nicer option. Once you have copied your link then you can paste it to an or other document. You can also add it to a website or webpage such as a newsletter. The recipient can view the Sway by clicking on the link. In this menu you can also post to Facebook or Twitter 20

21 How to get to your Sways Your Sways are stored in Microsoft s servers but they are all available for viewing via the Sway button. Press the green Sway button at the top left of the screen. You will be taken to the Sway welcome screen. This is the first screen you went to where the Sway templates are featured. Here you will see all the Sways you have created. To Delete a Sway To Delete a Sway Click on the menu in the Top right of the Sway Thumbnail. Click the trash can The Sway will be deleted. In this menu you can also Play the Sway Create a link Make a copy of the Sway. Other Options Sway allows you to create a presentation directly from Word or PowerPoint. In the Welcome Screen Click on Start from a document. File explorer will open and browse to the document in you file structure and Click open. Sway will produce a presentation based on your document. This is not always too successful so it may pay you to start from scratch and copy and paste the relevant content from your document into Sway. 21

22 Tutorials There a many tutorials available on how to use Sway. On the Welcome screen click on the Tutorials button at the top right. You will be taken to YouTube where you can view the range of Tutorials on how to use Sway. Size Limits Although Sway is free to use there are limits on the amount of content you get for free. The table below shows the limits of the free version compared to the Office 365 version. You are allowed to have 150 images and 150 Paragraphs. However, the total items you are allowed is 200 which includes all the items that make up your Sway such as Headings, Paragraphs, Images, Videos etc. When you reach the limit a warning ribbon appears above your Sway telling you that you have gone over the limit. You will then need to cut out some of the content to reduce the limit. Info 1 The paragraph limit counts every new line in each Text card, Title card, Heading card, or captions in other cards. It doesn't count as a new one when the text wraps to a newline, but if you press Enter to manually get a newline then that counts as a new paragraph. Bullets and numbering also each count as a new paragraph. To reduce the count, you can delete some of the Enter points you added. There are also limits to the size of the files you can upload from your own local drive or one drive which are detailed in the second table below. 22

23 Although these sizes may seem at first restrictive the Sways you make in the free version can be quite large and more than adequate for the casual user. If you want a bigger Sway, then you can link one Sway to another from within a Sway using the embed card. Table showing limits of Free version to Office 365 Version 23

24 Table showing Maximum size limit of Files used in a Sway Sway is a fantastic free App from Microsoft we Hope you enjoy Swaying Extra Tips Duplicating Cards You can copy an existing card and paste it in any Sway to duplicate the text, images, media or styles that it contains. Click on the bottom right of any card and put a tick in the Check box. Press Ctrl C to copy the card Select the area where you want the copy of the card to go and press Ctrl V. The card will be duplicated You put a check mark in as many cards as you like and copy them just the same. You can also copy between Sways. Scrolling Text over an image A great feature of Sway is that you can make text scroll over a fixed image. To do this you must have an image card followed by a text card with a large amount of text on it. The image must be set to Intense Emphasis. (largest size) Insert an image card and set the image emphasis to Intense. 24

25 Add a text card below the image card. In the Styles menu make sure the Layout is set to Vertical. Note that you must also be in Play mode as you will not see it in the preview. Image card followed by a Text Card Emphasis set to Intense The Picture fills the screen and the text scrolls over the picture. Pinning an image to the side of a long text paragraph. You can set Sway up so that when you scroll through a long section of text The image related to that Text will be pinned alongside the text. 25

26 You will require a long section of text and you will need to place the image below the text. With the emphasis set to small. The image should be grouped with the text Insert a long section of text into a text card Below the Text card place an image card. Set the emphasis of the image card to small. Click in the checkbox to the bottom right of the Image Card Do the same with the Text card. You will be informed that you have 2 selected Click in the Text card and in the in the top menu select Group. In the Group type menu use the default Automatic option In the Styles menu make sure the Layout is set to Vertical. Note that you must also be in Play mode as you will not see it in the Design mode. Image and Text tick boxes checked Long section of Text with Image card below 2 Selected Press to Group 26

27 The Text Card and the Image Card are grouped Use the default Automatic setting Image remains pinned as text is scrolled With the image grouped and with sufficiently long text the image will remain pinned to the text as you scroll down. 27

28 Editing in Design Mode This can be very useful as it allows you to see instantly what the edited text or image looks like. While in Design mode. Click on the any Text or Image and an Edit menu becomes available With Text you can Edit the text to make changes or you can Emphasise the text to make it bolder. You can also Delete the Text. Click on an Image and you get slightly different editing options Here you can Change the Focus Point, Emphasise the image to three different sizes. Or Delete the image. Allow the recipient viewer to make Changes to the Sway You may wish to allow someone who you have shared a Sway with to make changes. You do this when you Click on the Share button. At the top of the Share Menu are radio buttons that give you the option to invite people to View or Edit your Sway. Click on the Edit Radio button if you want to allow someone to Edit your Sway. Adding an embedded Map to a Sway When you embed a map in a Sway it becomes a live link to the map. This allows you to move inside the map and zoom in and out. 28

29 To obtain the Link that you need to embed, go to Google Maps. Search Google Maps for the required address. Click on the Hamburger Menu to the left of the search box to open the menu. Select the Share or embed Map option. Click on the Embed map tab. The link is created Do not use the Shared link as it won t work. Press Ctrl and C to copy the link to the clipboard. Return to your Sway and insert an Embed card where you would like your map to be in your Sway by Clicking the green Plus button. From the card menu select the Media option. Select the Embed Card. Place the cursor in the area where it says Tap here and paste your embed code Press Ctrl and V to paste the embedded map code. The Map will appear in your Sway and can be moved and zoomed. You can change the map size with the emphasis buttons. 29

30 Export your Sway Click on the more options menu at the top right. Select Export You are given two options Word or PFD. Choose your option and the Sway will be converted to a Word or PDF document. You can Print a Sway by Clicking the Print Option which converts the Sway to a PDF Format ready for printing. Navigation in Sway You can easily Navigate to different Sections of a sway using the Navigation Menu at the bottom right of both the Design page and the Play Page. Change the settings when the Sway is in Play mode. The viewer of any Sway is able to change the way the Sway Plays Move the mouse to the top right corner of the Sway and Click on the Settings Icon. In the Settings Menu the Sway can be changed to Scroll Down, Scroll Horizontal or Move one screen at a time. The Animations can also be switched off. The Viewer can also Share a link to the Sway Click the Share button and chose to get a visual Link. 30

31 Press the Copy button Paste the Link into an More Options Menu In this Menu the viewer can Export the Sway or Print it. Audio Recording You can record your voice directly within the app. This makes Sways more engaging as well as interactive. Insert an Audio card in your Sway by Clicking the green Plus button. From the card menu select the Media option. Select the Audio Card. Click on the Record symbol You will be greeted by Get Ready and a Countdown. Record your Narration and then press the Stop or pause button. 31

32 Select the Play button to hear your recording. Re- Record or Add to Sway View Count You can see who has viewed your Sway by going to the My Sway s page. The number of views recorded for your Sway are shown in the bottom right of each thumbnail. Click on the 3 dots at the top right to open a menu. Here you can Play your Sway, share a link, make a copy of your Sway, or Delete it. 32