Resources
Basic Help for MS PowerPoint
This section provides access to information about some of the features of PowerPoint as well as your tips on how to use it more effectively.
Useful links
Accessing PowerPoint templates
Their are, of course, plenty of built in templates you can look at within PowerPoint. There are also even more templates available from Office Online.
I have a very simple, basic template which I use and you are more than welcome to download it and edit it to suit your purposes:
Basic PowerPoint Skills
The tutorials below will help you to develop your presentation and your PowerPoint skills, whilst showing you how to access some of PowerPoint's features
- Default View (video)
- Using Different Views (video)
- Using the Design Templates (video)
- Changing the Colour Scheme (video)
- Applying transitions (video)
- Using Animation Schemes (video)
- Using Custom Animation (video)
- Modifying Custom Animation (video)
- Packaging Presentations for CD (video)
This tutorial shows you the function of the four panes that appear in PowerPoint's default view: the task pane, outline pane, slide pane and notes pane.
This tutorial shows you how to organise your PowerPoint workspace to suit your needs and style.
Design templates are PowerPoint's preset slide designs and colour schemes. You can apply them at any time to a single slide or a whole presentation.
Each PowerPoint presentation uses a palette of eight primary colours as its colour scheme. This tutorial shows you how you can modify these colours.
You can increase the impact of your presentations by adding visual effects or sound effects to your slide changes. This tutorial shows you how.
Animation schemes allow you to add visual entry effects such as fading or wiping to your slides. You can add a scheme to a single slide or a whole presentation.
You use custom animation to add visual entry effects such as flying, wiping, bouncing, or fading in to individual elements on your slides.
Custom animation makes your text or images fly, bounce, drop, fade or wipe in. This tutorial shows you how to further customise these effects.
The packaging feature will save your presentation to a CD along with the supporting files needed to run it on a computer that does not have PowerPoint installed.
Using animation
Text, graphics and other objects on your slides can be animated so that you can focus on important points and add interest to your presentation. There are many animation and transition effects you can apply to your presentation, but remember: less is more! If you use too many effects it distracts from what you are saying.
Limiting the amount of text you put up on the screen is advisable. If the majority of your presentation is up there, it gives your presentation an air of predictability.
- Microsoft: Preset and custom animation tutorial
Delivering a slide show
Because there are several ways to accomplish most tasks in PowerPoint, you might wonder whether you know the quickest or easiest method. Sometimes the most obvious way isn't the most effective one.
Move efficiently within the PowerPoint window as you create a show, and to navigate confidently between slides when you present a show. Knowing these handy menus and keyboard shortcuts can bring you a new mastery and comfort level in PowerPoint.
The link below shows you how
- to use the Slide Show toolbar
- to move freely and precisely between slides, and
- task panes and the keyboard can shorten your work:
View:
- Microsoft: Navigation know how
Tips and tricks