An introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 STM Training Program By: Emilio Macas
What is Microsoft PowerPoint? Microsoft PowerPoint is a world-wide software that gives you the facility to create stunning presentations that incorporate video and/or PowerPoint animations. It is a part of the Microsoft Office suite that include office tools like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access. PowerPoint offers word processing, outlining, drawing, graphing, and presentation management tools. It is mainly used for business, training, or educational purposes; the software is designed to be easy to use and learn. The following gives you a quick overview of what you can do in PowerPoint 2016: Tell Me Box: A pretty handy new feature, this saves you the time you would normally use to look for a specific function within the Ribbon. For example, if you decide to change the layout of your presentation simply type layout and it will give a view of the different slide layouts available. Quick Shape Formatting: This feature increases the number of default shape styles by introducing the new preset styles in PowerPoint. The preset styles allow you to choose the intensity of the color you want to apply, from coloring just the border to filling the shape with an intense color. Smart Lookup : Only available in Word and Outlook, this is now available in Excel and PowerPoint. It helps you learn more about your content by bringing you precisely the right information in context of what you are reading and writing about. This feature can be accessed by right clicking a word or phrase, through the Review tab on the ribbon, or via the Tell Me box. New Chart Types: In addition to the existing charts available to use in PowerPoint, there are five new chart types: Treemap, Sunburst, Histogram, Box & Whisker and Waterfall. These will of course all be compatible with Microsoft Excel 2016. Embedding video code: An easy-to-use and reliable tool to embed video code links from websites such as YouTube. Simply copy the embed video code links from the website, then click Insert-Video-Online Video. Paste the code in the box next to From a Video Embed Code.
PowerPoint Interface: A. File Menu: By clicking the File menu, you will open the backstage view that contains all the creation, save, share, and print options for your presentations. B. Quick Access Toolbar: Is a customizable toolbar placed by default above the Ribbon. In this section you can add icons of your often used features.
C. Ribbon: The Ribbon has tabs that contain groups of buttons for various options. Some groups of tabs in the Ribbon contain galleries; galleries for themes and theme colors. D. Slides Pane: Placed on the right-hand side of the interface, the slides pane shows thumbnails of all the slides in the open presentation. E. Slide Area: Displays the active slide. F. Task Pane: This pane contains more options and appears when you choose an option in one of the Ribbon tabs. For example, if you click the Format Background button within the Design tab of the Ribbon, the Format Background task pane opens. G. Status Bar: The bottom horizontal strip that provides information about the current open presentation like the slide number and applied Theme. It also includes the view and zoom options. H. Notes Pane: Right below the active slide, this is where the speaker notes are written for the current slide that is shown. But you must remember that none of this content is visible on the actual slide presentation, although it is visible in both Notes Page and Presenter view. I. View Buttons: There are three view buttons on the Status Bar displayed toward the of the zoom-in and zoom-out options: Normal: This option will bring you back to the default view (Normal). For example, if you are in some other view such as Slide Sorter view, click the Normal button on the Status Bar to switch back to Normal view. Sorter Sorter: By clicking this button you switch from any other view to Slide Sorter view. The Slide Sorter view displays thumbnails of every slide in the open presentation. Reading View: Clicking this button to switch from any other view to Reading view. Slideshow: This option will show the current presentation as a full screen slideshow from the current selected slide.
J. Mini Toolbar: Lastly, this toolbar is a semitransparent floating toolbar that appears right next to the selected text. If you hover the cursor upon it, and you can see the Mini Toolbar. Creating a PowerPoint Presentation: 1. Click on Start and on the search bar type Microsoft Office and double-click on Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 2. After starting the software you will be prompt with selecting a desired theme for your presentation. 3. After choosing your desired theme you should have a blank slide with a Title placeholder and a Subtitle box. Click on the Title placeholder to type the title of your presentation and the subtitle to type your name.
4. To add as many slides as you wish simply click the Home tab and clicking on the New Slide tab. To change the layout of your added slide or slides simply click on the Layout tab located on the right side of the New Slide tab. 5. To change the layout of your added slide or slides simply click on the Layout tab located on the right side of the New Slide tab. As seen in the image below you have a variety of layouts; Title slide, Title and Content, Section Header, Two Content, Comparison, Title Only, Blank, Content with Caption and Picture with Content.
Inserting a New Slide with Image/s 1. Click on the New Slide tab from the Home Menu and select the Picture with Caption layout as shown in the previous image. 2. Click on the Picture placeholder in the slide to add the picture. 3. Browse your saved image in your computer and add it to your slide. 4. When your image is placed in the layout the Picture Tool will appear in the Menu tab. You can use this tool to resize, crop, change picture settings. You may also move the picture freely in its surroundings to your liking.
Adding Animation and Transition to the Slides: 1. Start by selecting the picture or text that you would like to animate. 2. Click on the Animation tab from the Menu bar. 3. Click on the animation that you would like to use. Remember that the animation will only be applied to the picture or text that you click on. 4. You will notice a number on the top left corner of either the selected picture or text, this indicates the order in which they will appear in the slideshow presentation.
5. To add transitions between slides, first you must click on the slide you wish to apply a transition. 6. Click on the Transition tab. 7. Choose your desired transition. Clicking on any transition you will see a preview in your slide.
Adding background picture in your slide/s: 1. Click the Design tab 2. On the far right corner, click on the feature Background Styles. 3. You will be prompted with a new window on your right side, check the option Hide Background graphic. 4. On the same window, select Picture or Texture file and click on Insert file. Browse the file you desire for the background. If you want the same background applied to your whole presentation just click on Apply to All.
Adding audio/video in your slide/s: 1. Click on the Insert tab. 2. On your far right corner the audio and video options are available.
3. For inserting a video, you will be given two options; add a video from the web or browse your computer. For uploading a video from the web click on the Online Video option, you will then be prompted with a window that has two options searching on YouTube or pasting an embed code. 4. For inserting an audio file click on the audio option.
5. You will be given two options, uploading the file from your computer or recording one from scratch. Adding Narration in your slideshow: 1. Select the slide where you want to add narration. 2. Click on the Slideshow tab. 3. Click on Record Slide Show. 4. Have a working microphone ready and when you want to start recording click on Start Recording. 5. You will be given the option to start recording from the beginning or from the current slide. 6. Once you are done with the recording you will see the sound icon in your current slide where you have added the narration.