Step-by-steps and tips for building a PowerPoint presentation

To create or edit a template, or master slide

From the main PowerPoint menu, choose View > Master > Slide Master. To return to content slides: View > Normal or View > Slide.

• Change font
  1. Select the text to change
  2. Format > font
• Change bullet or number style
  1. Select text and bullets to change
  2. Format > Bullets and Numbering
• Pick a template
  Format > Slide Design
• Change the Master layout
  Format > Master Layout
• Change colors
  Format > Slide Color Scheme

To insert graphics

Insert > Picture > From File

Tips

• Use photographs instead of clip art.
• Drag the corner “handles” on the graphic to maintain proportions.
• Create the image in the correct size in a graphics program. It is better to decrease the size of an image instead of increase to prevent fuzzy graphics.
• If outputting as a movie, keep the graphics minimal and with a small file size (use low jpeg and gif settings) or your movie will have a huge file size.

To insert video

Insert > Movies and Sounds > Movie from File
OR embed a hyperlink:

1. Slide Show > Action Buttons > Movie
2. Drag your cursor to draw the button
3. Select the “Hyperlink to” radio button and select “Other file”
4. Browse for your movie file, select it, and click “OK”
5. The movie file will open in another application during the presentation

   Tip
   It is better to play the video in a video application than in PowerPoint, so you can resize it to maximize screen use.

To insert Web links

1. Select the text to hyperlink
2. Insert > Hyperlink
3. Type in or copy and paste the URL in the “Link to” field”

   Tips

   • Do not display the URL if the link is very long – use representative words instead
   • If you are using Internet Explorer as your main browser, you can select from your favorite bookmarked links and from your history links

1. Select the object or text from which you want to remove the hyperlink
2. Insert > Hyperlink
3. Click the “Remove Link” button in the lower left of the Edit Hyperlink window

1. Slide Show > Action Buttons > Document (or movie, audio, etc.)
2. Drag your cursor to draw the button
3. Select the “Hyperlink to” radio button and select “Other file”
4. Browse for your file, select it, and click “OK”
5. The file will open in another application during the presentation

Output options

Set up show

Slide Show > Set Up Show
For a presenter or a student browsing after downloading from your Web site. They can easily scroll through the slides.

Save in different file types

1. File > Save As
2. Select the file type you want from the “Format” pull-down menu

   Tips

   • Web Page format: Creates all the HTML for you along with an outline used as navigation.
     This format sometimes drops content and resizes text so your slides may look very different from their PowerPoint appearance.
   • PowerPoint Movie: Saves the presentation in a movie format (.avi, .mov)
   • Graphics formats (tif, jpeg, gif): Saves each of your slides as a separate graphics file.

Save as PDF

A PDF is a Portable Document Format file that can be viewed using the Acrobat plug-in.

1. File > Print
2. Select “Microsoft PowerPoint” from the “Copies and Pages” pull-down menu
3. Choose a “Handout” from the “Print What” pull-down menu
4. Click the “Preview” button to make sure the handouts appear as expected
5. Click the “Save as PDF” button
6. Print or upload to your Web site

   Tip

   PDF is an excellent way to post the handouts to your Web site (or Blackboard site) for students to print out before class.