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Designing Presentations
Adding Data to Presentations
When you create a new slide in a presentation program, you are prompted
to choose a slide layout. A placeholder is an area within a slide
layout designed to hold data such as text or pictures. For instance, a
layout might contain a box that asks you to add title. Click (or, in
some programs, double-click) the box and begin typing. The program
automatically formats the text to fit the area with a preselected font and
alignment.
Adding Drawings
Presentation programs often contain a drawing
toolbar- a list of basic drawing tools accessed through icons.
PowerPoint drawing tools also include a large list of ready-to-use shapes,
called AutoShapes. The list includes banners, arrows, borders, frames,
and more. you do not need a placeholder to create a drawing.
Select the desired tool and use it in a blank area of the workspace.
Adding Animation and Sound
A multimedia presentation combines text and graphics with sound and
animation. Both sound and animation, or moving images, are inserted by
a special menu command. In some versions of PowerPoint, this command
is in the Clip Art Gallery or Clip Organizer, a collection of ready-to-use
images and sound.
Designing Presentations
Following these five steps will help you plan and design an effective
presentation.
- Decide How Your Slides Will Be Formatted- To begin designing a
presentation, choose an option for creating it. Choose either a
blank presentation, the AutoContent wizard, or a template. If none
of the templates is exactly what you want, select the one that is
closest. You can change much of its graphic content, format, and
text. Graphics can be resized or deleted. Placeholders can
be added, removed, or resized as well.
- Choose the Slide Layout- Every slide in a presentation can be
formatted in a preset layout. These layouts already have
placeholders in position. This allows text and graphics to be added
immediately. Some examples of slide layouts include bulleted
lists, tables, grids, and flowcharts. Since each slide in a
presentation can have a different layout, select a layout for each new
slide you add.
- Work With Placeholders- Each placeholder is designed to be
filled with data. The data can be text, such as a bulleted list.
It can also be a graphic, such as a pie chart or a photo.
Placeholders make work easier because they recognize the type of
information to be placed. For instance, selecting a text
placeholder will change the cursor to the Text tool. Selecting a
picture placeholder will bring up a prompt asking which image to place.
Placeholder prompts guide you and are overwritten, or replaced, when you
type new text.
- Insert Graphics and Sound- Make your presentations come to
life. Use sound, video, clip art, drawing tools, or imported
images to support or illustrate a slide's text.
- View and Organize the Presentation- Once information has been
added to the slides, preview the entire presentation using the SlideShow
View. Make any changes to the order of the slides in Slide Sorter
view. Typos and text changes can be handled in Outline view or
Normal View.
Creating Effective Presentations
Use the following guideline to help you create an effective presentation:
- Your slide presentation does not have to include every detail.
Just the most important, basic facts should appear.
- Adding too many different media, such as unnecessary graphics,
sound, and animation, can distract the audience from your main message.
They also take up a lot of file space, which may slow down your
presentation.
- Finally, remember to only use features that will help your audience
learn what it needs to know.
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