Powerpoint Cheat Sheet

An InfoHelp How To...? Guide

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PowerPoint is a complete presentation graphics package. It offers word processing, outlining, drawing, graphing, and presentation management tool.

Starting Up & Finishing

Open a File, Saving Naming and Retrieving Files

Creating a new Presentation

Inserting Text & Pictures

Adding Slides & Deleting Slides

Moving between, Sorting & Viewing Slides

Starting Up

Double-click on the MS PowerPoint icon.

Use the File menu to do the following operations on documents (files):

• create a New file;
• Open an existing file;
• Close a file;
• Save a file.

Finishing Up

Choose Exit from the File menu. You will be asked to Save the file, giving it a name, if you have not already done so.

See Saving, Naming and Retrieving Files below.

To Open a Document

Choose File: Open you will see a screen showing the current directory the PC is looking in, and a list of files in that directory. To find a particular file, you have to select the correct drive in the Drives box, and also to select the appropriate directory by clicking on the folder icons in the box above the Drives box.

To list all files in a directory, you can type *.* in the File Name box. You then scroll through the files listed until you have found the one you want.

Saving, Naming and Retrieving Files

When you save your files you have to place them in specific parts of your floppy or hard disk so that they can be found again. Just as you need to file documents in a filing cabinet in such a way that you can retrieve them.

When you are saving your file on the computer you start by checking that the disk drive is correctly allocated i.e. A: (for your floppy disk) and C: (normally) for the hard disk in your computer. This is equivalent to specifying the correct filing cabinet. You then move on to specifying into which directory you will save the file, i.e. into which drawer in the filing cabinet.

Finally when you are saving a file for the first time, or you are renaming a file, you provide a name for the file.

To save a file for the first time you use File; Save.

To rename a file, use File; Save As. Check at this stage that you have the correct drive and directory.

Try and give your file a name that is meaningful now and later. It can have a 3 letter extension (or suffix) which classifies the kind of document you are saving, such as .ppt for PowerPoint documents. This allows you to search for a file you want without having to look at all the files on your disk.

If you omit the 3 letter extension, PowerPoint will automatically assign .ppt to the end of the file name.

The Save command stores all changes made to the file. It is good practice to Save frequently to make sure you do not accidentally lose your work, e.g. through a power failure.

Creating a New Presentation

To create a new presentation, choose New from the File menu. When you choose Blank Presentation, an AutoLayout screen will appear. You can select from these 24 layouts.

To begin with choose the blank layout. Now you are ready to put something on your slide.

PowerPoint gives you the option of inserting text, pictures, charts, files (previously created in another application), and objects (created with another application).

Inserting Text

To put text onto your slide you will first need to insert a Text Box.

To do this, choose Text Box from the Insert Menu.

A cursor which will appear on the slide, hold down your left mouse button, drag the cursor across the screen and a box will appear. The cursor will be in the text box, so you can now type in the required text.

You can then change the format of the text using the Format Menu.

Inserting Pictures

Pictures can be inserted from either Clip Art or from your own file.

To insert a picture, choose Picture from the Insert menu.

Choose either Clip Art or From File.

If you choose Clip Art you will be presented with a choice of pictures. Choose the picture to insert and click on the Insert button.

If you choose the From File option, then you will need to find the name of an image file that you have on your disk. Choose the file and then click on the Insert button.

Once you have inserted the picture, you can move it and resize it, so that it is placed correctly on the slide.

Adding Slides

Once you have completed one slide you will want to add another. To do this from the Insert menu, choose New Slide. The AutoLayout screen will appear, choose the layout you want.

Deleting Slides

You can delete slides by choosing Delete Slide from the Edit menu - be sure to be at the slide that you want to delete before you select this option.

Moving between Slides

To move forward a slide, use the <Page Up> key and to move back use the <Page Down> key.

Sorting Slides

You can change the order in which the slides appear.

From the View menu, choose Slide Sorter.

You can now move the slides around by dragging and dropping them in the desired position.

Viewing Slide Show

Before you view your slide show, you will need to set it up for viewing.

These options are found under the Slide Show menu.

Choose Setup Show to set up as automatic or manual.

If you choose Automatic you will need to choose Rehearse Timings to setup the timing of the show.

You may also want to set various transition styles for your slides. This can be done by choosing Slide Transition and then choosing transition styles. Once you have done this you are ready to view the show.

Choose View Show. If you are not satisfied you can go back and edit any of the slides that you have created.

Further Help

The Help menu has an index that allows you to search for guidance on a specific topic.