Uses of PowerPoint

William M. Pegram

August 30, 2006

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Uses of PowerPoint

• Present information through text, images, video, or sound to supplement verbal presentation

• Organize speaker’s presentation• Present text information• Present charts of data• Present links to websites• Animate text and objects• Container/menu for graphics, movies, sounds

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Visual format supplements verbal

• Providing info in alternative format assists those with different learning styles

• Text and images typically remain in front of the audience for awhile, whereas verbal communication is linear and transitory

• Written supplement assists communication where instructor has heavy accent, or instructor or student has limited knowledge of English

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Organize speaker’s presentation

• Quite aside from any communication benefits to the listener/viewer, using presentation software like PowerPoint encourages the speaker to organize, think about what the key points are, etc.

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Present text information

• PowerPoint provides various slide layouts so that one can achieve a consistent look across slides

• The format of this slide is called “Title and Text” with information separately entered into the title and the text

• Use of a footer can also achieve a consistent look across pages

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Present text information (cont.)

• Because the presentation is usually projected, font size should be kept large

• In PowerPoint 2002 (XP) and later versions, the font size on the slide automatically adjusts to the quantity of information being presented whereas in previous versions, the material would run off the slide if the font were too large

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Present charts of data

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

East

West

North

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Working with charts

• Double click the chart to bring up the data sheet for the chart to make changes in the data

• To change the chart type, after double clicking the chart, on the Chart Menu, click Chart Type.

• To chart data from another application, copy and paste the data into the PowerPoint datasheet

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Present links to websites

• George Mason University

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Animate text and objects

• Text and objects can be animated in a variety of ways

• On this slide, each mouse click will bring up a new bullet. When the bullets are finished, another click will bring up the picture

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PowerPoint as graphics container

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PowerPoint as sound container

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PowerPoint as container for video

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Application to Control Other Applications

• When PowerPoint functions as a container for images, sounds, or movies, no other application is launched; PowerPoint does the display and plays the sound itself

• In PowerPoint, clicking on a hyperlink (Insert>Hyperlink or F5) to a file, will launch the application that is associated with the extension of the file

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Application to Control Other Applications (cont.)

• If the files are on the same computer, use relative links so that they aren’t broken by a switch from the c drive to a removable drive

• If you link to .exe file, click OK if you get a warning