Tips for Microsoft PowerPoint

Quickly Open a Presentation in Slide Show View

Alternate-click the PowerPoint presentation and choose Show from the shortcut menu. The presentation opens in Slide Show mode.

Go to First Slide in Presentation During a Slide Show

No matter where you are in the PowerPoint presentation slide show, press and hold both left and right mouse buttons simultaneously for two seconds and you will move back to the first slide in the presentation.

Set Right-Mouse Click To Go Back

To setup your presentation so that you can right-click to move back a slide:

1. From the Tools menu, choose Options and select the View tab.
2. Under Slide Show, uncheck the option 'show menu on right mouse click.'
3. Click OK to save your changes.

Put Your Company Logo on Every Slide

1. From the View menu, choose Master, Slide Master (or hold Shift & click Slide view button).
2. From the Insert menu, choose Picture, From File.
3. Locate your company logo or the picture you would like to add to the slide show.
4. Use the size handles around the picture to resize as necessary.
5. Move the logo to the desired location.
6. Click back on the Slide View button to review your slide show.
7. If the logo is covering any other object or part of the slide, go back into Slide Master View and move it to a new location.

Move Graphics In Any Direction

You can use the following trick if you have a graphic object that needs to be moved-even slightly. Select the graphic and release the mouse. Press the Left, Right, Up or Down arrow keys to reposition the graphic in the specified direction.

PowerPoint Keystroke Shortcuts

• Press N: Moves you to the next slide
• Press P: Moves you to the previous slide
• Enter the slide number, press ENTER: Moves you to that specific slide
• Press ESC: Cancels a slide show
• Press B: Blanks your presentation with a black screen. Press B again to return.
• Press W: Blanks your presentation with a white screen. Press W again to return.
• Press SHIFT+F10: Displays the shortcut menu

PowerPoint Graphics Down to Size

1. Select the picture in the presentation.
2. Click the Compress Pictures button on the Picture toolbar.
3. To compress all pictures in the presentation, click All pictures in document.
4. Under Change resolution, select how you intend to use your presentation by clicking either Web/Screen or Print.
5. To further reduce file size, select the Delete cropped areas of pictures check box.
6. Click OK.

Apply Animation to Entire Slide Show

1. From the Slide Show menu, choose Animation Schemes to open the Slide Design - Animation Schemes Task Pane.
2. Select an animation option from the Task Pane and click Apply to All Slides.

Change Slide Show Display to Widescreen/Panoramic

1. From the File menu, choose Properties.
2. Change Height from 7.5 to 4.5.
3. Click OK. Run the slide show to see the result.

Save All Components of a Presentation as Separate Files

1. From the File menu, choose Save As.
2. Choose Web Page HTML as the file type.
3. Click Publish.
4. Navigate to where the files were saved in step 3 to see that each element of the slide (including masters, .wav files and more) were saved separately.

Make Objects Appear and Disappear

1. Select an object on the slide (graph, chart, picture or text box containing bullet points).
2. From the Slide Show menu, choose Custom Animation to display the Custom Animation task pane.
3. With the object still selected from step 1, click Add Effect on the task pane and then Entrance, More Effects.
4. Click Appear and then OK.
5. Add another effect to the same object. Click Add Effect, Exit More Effects, Disappear and click OK.
6. Run the slide show to see how your objects now appear and disappear.

Loop Sound Effect

1. Insert a sound file by choosing Insert, Movies and Sounds, Sound from File.
2. Click Automatically if prompted.
3. Alternate-click on the sound object file.
4. Choose Edit Sound Object.
5. Check Loop Until Stopped.
6. Run the slide show from the beginning to hear the sound.

Reduce Presentation File Size

1. Select any picture in the presentation.
2. Display the Picture toolbar if it is not already visible.
3. Click the Compress Pictures button.
4. Choose the option All Pictures in Document and click and to remove the cropped areas of pictures and to compress pictures.
5. Click OK. Save and close the file. If the presentation contained a significant number of pictures, the file size could be greatly reduced.

View and Edit a Presentation Simultaneously

Before you get in front of your audience, you will want to run through the slide presentation at least once, to check timing, animation and the flow of information. If you discover that an element needs to be changed, you would typically exit slideshow mode and go into edit mode to fix the slide.

There is an undocumented trick that allows you to have both a slideshow and editable version on the screen simultaneously and to easily move between them.

1. Open an existing PowerPoint presentation or create a new one.
2. Hold the Ctrl key and click the Slideshow From Current Slide button in the lower-left corner of your screen. A miniature window opens with the slide show while keeping the larger, editable version displayed.
3. Click on the slides in the miniature window to move throughout the presentation (or click on the forward and back arrows that appear in the lower-left corner of the small window).
4. Click on the large version of the presentation if you find a slide that needs to be edited.
5. To resume the slideshow in the small window, click Resume Slide Show on the displayed Slide Show toolbar.

Avoid Fumbling and Awkward Startup

Don't make the audience sit through while you launch the application and open the presentation file in edit mode. Instead, save a copy of the PowerPoint presentation as a PPS file (PowerPoint Slideshow). When you double-click the icon to open the file, it starts in slideshow presentation mode.

1. Open an existing PowerPoint presentation.
2. From the File menu, choose Save As.
3. Click the arrow next to Save As Type and select PowerPoint Show.
4. Close the file and then reopen it. The file starts in slideshow mode.

Control the Focus

Sometimes the most effective tactic during a presentation is to blank out the screen; thus redirecting the focus back to what you are saying. PowerPoint includes a hidden tool that allows you to quickly do this. You can make the screen white or black.

1. When in slideshow mode, alternate-click on the active slide.
2. From the shortcut menu, choose Screen, then Black Screen or White Screen depending on your preference.
3. Click on the slide with the left (primary) mouse button when you are ready to resume the presentation and bring the focus back to the screen.

Mark It Up!

PowerPoint includes presentation tools that allow you to quickly mark up a slide as you are using it to present your ideas. Pointer options include ballpoint pen, felt-tip pen and highlighter.

1. In slideshow mode, alternate-click on a slide.
2. From the shortcut menu, choose Pointer Options and choose the type of pen to use to markup the slide.
3. Click onto the slide and mark it up as you would a paper copy.
4. When you get to the end of the slide show you will be prompted as to whether to save the ink annotations or discard them.

Just the Right Amount of Motion

You can jazz up your presentations with animation – but remember, a little goes a long way. Microsoft includes some built-in Slide Design Animation Schemes to get you started; however, you can add your own custom touch with a few easy steps.

First the Built-In Animation Designs

1. From the Slide Show menu, choose Animation Schemes. Or if you prefer, click the down arrow on the Task Pane if visible and choose Slide Design – Animation Schemes.
2. Choose a scheme from one of the three categories: Subtle, Moderate or Exciting.

The more you use PowerPoint, the more impressed you will be at what you can do with it. For example, you can instruct bullet points to move to the right in sequential order and then have another graphic or object fly in from the left to take the place of the recently vacated bullet points. Once you master some of the basic techniques that are described in the following section, you can apply what you've learned to creating legal exhibits with overlapping and animated graphics and much more.

1. Create a new presentation. Add two or three slides, with at least one slide containing several bullet points.
2. From the Slides Show menu, choose Custom Animation.
3. Select the first bullet pointed text.
4. On the Custom Animation Task Pane, click Add Effect.
5. Select Motion Path, Right from the expanded menu.
6. Select each of the bullet points individually and repeat steps five and six.
7. Click on the Rectangle button on the Drawing toolbar (you may need to display it by choose View, Toolbars, Drawing. Draw a rectangle off to the left of the slide (in the gray area).
8. Click on the rectangle to select it if necessary. Click the Add Effect button and choose Motion Path, Draw Custom Path, Scribble.
9. Draw the path where the object should move (for example to the location where the text was previously located before it moves to the right).
10. From the View menu, choose Slide Show to see your handiwork.