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Advantages: Slides

• Your audience can follow along, even if they dozed off (for just a minute, of course!).

• Pictures and charts explain some things much better than words.

• Sounds, music, and video can make a strong impact and show what even still pictures cannot.

Advantages: Print-outs

• Your audience can review your points later from the print-out.

• Your audience can take notes along side your points.

• Your audience can share what they learned with others who missed your excellent presentation.

• You can use the Notes Page print-out to include all the other stuff you would like to say to expand on the slide points. They can act as your cue cards.

First slide of the example

Fortunately, you do not have to choose between these different kinds of "presentations". You can do them all from the same software!!

In this set of lessons you will learn how to create, edit, and run a presentation. You will also learn how to put your presentation into hard copy and into a self-running format.

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What you need

1. Basic Windows skills: The skills covered in the Windows unit - using a mouse to click, double-click, drag, & right click; parts of a window; moving, resizing, maximizing, & minimizing a window; scrolling; using the folder tree; creating and managing folders; naming files; opening a program; opening and saving files; using dialog boxes; using Help; printing.
   
2. Typing skills and word processing: You need to be familiar with the computer keyboard and basic word processing like selecting text, deleting text, moving text.
   
3. Resource files: Files that you need to create the documents in the projects are provided for download in a zip file or in a self-extracting exe file. Your instructor may have put these files on your computer already.

   To get these resource files, click on one of the following links to download either a zipped set of files (if you have WinZip or similar software for the PC) or a self-extracting file which will extract the compressed files for you. (Some folks are intimidated by the exe extension... and for good reason!)

   resources-presentations.zip OR  resources-presentations.exe

   A download dialog of some sort will appear, depending on your browser. Choose to save this file. Pay attention to which folder on your hard drive that the file will be downloaded into or choose one yourself. 

   After the file is downloaded, you need to extract the compressed files. If you downloaded the zip version, use your WinZip or similar program to do this. If you downloaded the exe version, you want to 'run' the file. You may be offered this choice in a dialog along the way. If not, find the file in an Explorer or My Computer window and then run the file by double-clicking it.

   By default, the files will be put in c:\My Documents\complit101\presentations\. Of course you can choose a different location if you wish. Just be sure to remember where you put the files.

   One at a time: You can open a list of files online and download or open each one as you need it. If you are viewing this page from the CD version or from a local copy of the lessons, the link above will open your local copy of the resource files. Link to the online files
   

4. Removable File Storage: USB drive

   If you are doing these lessons at school or at work, you need removable storage for a working copy and for a backup copy of your documents.

   If you have a computer of your own, keep an up-to-date copy of your work on your home computer, too. Start good backup habits early and you won't kick yourself later when your files are lost or corrupted.

   USB drive: Recommended
   Called by many different names: flash drive, flash pen,  thumb drive,  key drive, jump drive, and mini-USB drive, a USB drive is an excellent choice for storing your class work. Recent drives can hold a large number of documents, if you don't fill it up with music files!

   Before you buy:
   Check the following for both the classroom computer AND your home computer-
   

   • Computer does have USB ports.
   • You are allowed to use one of the USB ports.
   • You can physically get to the USB port.
     Some are on the the back of the computer case.
   • Operating system will recognize a USB drive.
     All versions of Windows since Win98 will automatically recognize your drive and set up the drivers needed to use the USB drive.
   • Physical arrangement of USB ports - Are they side by side? one above the other?
     Some USB drives are wider or thicker than others and may not fit all port arrangements, especially if a neighboring USB port has something plugged into it. Many drives come with a short extension cable. Or you can plug in USB hub, which will have several USB ports on it.

   If you do not have a computer at home, consider buying two USB drives so that you can use one to keep a backup copy of your work. Don't lose them both at the same time!

   More on caring for data in Computer Basics

   How to handle a full disk
   

5. Software: You must have presentation software to create a presentation! This tutorial was written for Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 and 2010 with most illustrations taken from PowerPoint 2010 on a Windows 7 computer.

   Comments and directions are marked with icons for the version, when there are differences:

   PowerPoint 2007
    PowerPoint 2010

   For lessons on earlier versions of PowerPoint, go to Working with Presentations: PowerPoint 97-2003

   Other presentation programs probably offer a similar set of features. Of course the Step-by-Step directions are not likely to work for something besides PowerPoint.

   You will need Microsoft Word or a similar word processing program for the step-by-step about using outlines in Project 3.

   You will need Microsoft Excel or a similar spreadsheet program for the step-by-step about importing data in Project 3.
   

6. Templates: PowerPoint comes with a few templates but more are available online.

   Different versions of PowerPoint come with different templates. Some types of animations and transitions will not work in the earlier versions of PowerPoint.

   Microsoft has 3 zipped files for download that contain most of the templates that came with earlier versions of PowerPoint,  versions 4.0, 95, 97, and 2000.

   Download details: PowerPoint Templates Pack 1 - names from A - EL - 1268 KB
   Download details: PowerPoint Templates Pack 3 - names from EM - P - 1357 KB
   Download details: PowerPoint Templates Pack 2 - names from Q - Z - 1554 KB
    
   The files are named ppttpml1.exe and similarly.
   The directions on the download pages for these template packs are written for PowerPoint 2003 but later versions of PowerPoint can use the templates also.

   Self-installing:  When you click the Download link you may or may not get a dialog, depending on your browser.

   • If a dialog appears, choose to Run this file. After the download finishes, a Microsoft Installer appears. Follow the directions in the Installer.
     
   • If a dialog does not appear,  you must find where the file was saved, which is probably in your default Downloads folder, but it will depend on your browser.
     (Win 7: Start > current username at the top right of the menu > Downloads).
     Double-click the file name and follow the directions in the Installer.
   • If PowerPoint was already open, restart PowerPoint.
     The new templates show in the My Templates section of the window when you create a New presentation.

   Manual extraction: You can extract the templates manually if the self-installer did not work or if you only want a few of the templates. After downloading, open the .exe  file with WinZip or similar program. From the list of files in the compressed .exe file, open Office1.cab with WinZip. You will see a list that includes the actual template files (.pot). Select the .pot files that you want and extract them to an appropriate directory, preferably the folder where PowerPoint will look for templates (which varies with the version of PowerPoint). For recent versions the path is one of the following:
   C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates\Presentation Designs or C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Templates\1033  
               Shows up in the Samples folder when you are creating a new presentation.
    C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
                <username> is a placeholder for the user name of the current login. The templates show up in the My Templates folder when you are creating a new presentation and are logged in with <username>.

7. Writable CD or DVD for Package for CD lesson and a CD/DVD drive that will burn files to a disc.

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Icons

    marks the hands-on topics in the menu, where you are to follow Step-by-Step directions.

marks a tip - something you might find useful to know.

marks a warning about possible problems.

marks directions for what to do in case of trouble

PowerPoint 2007
 PowerPoint 2010

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