Unit 1PowerPoint Basics•Trusty Toolbars •Handy Help •Techie Terms •Cool for School

Finding the Toolbars

The toolbars contain graphically illustrated buttons that you click to perform specific tasks in a program. PowerPoint has four main toolbars, which can help you create your presentations quickly and easily.

The Standard Toolbar is located at the top of the PowerPoint window, below the menu bar. It has buttons for common tasks such as saving, printing, checking spelling, and inserting charts and tables.

The Formatting Toolbar is located just below the standard toolbar. Most of it’s buttons are for formatting text. Use thesebuttons to change the font type or size, make text bold oritalic, indent text, and insert bullets.

The Drawing Tool bar is located at the bottom of thePowerPoint window. It has tools for drawing shapes, adding lines and curves, and inserting text boxes and WordArt. It also has buttons for manipulating and formatting the objects you draw.

Moving the toolbars to new locations

All PowerPoint toolbars can be moved or docked to any side of the PowerPoint window. As well, docked toolbars, including the Standard Toolbar, the Formatting Toolbar, and the Drawing Toolbar, can be converted to floating toolbars. A move handle on the left or top of the toolbar indicates that the toolbar is docked. A title bar indicates the toolbar is floating.

Here’s how to move one of the toolbars to a new location:1. Click the move handle on a dockedtoolbar, or click the title bar on the floatingtoolbar. 2. Holding down the mouse button, drag thetoolbar to a new location.

Docking a toolbar

Try docking a toolbar to the top of the

PowerPoint window.

This will give you more working area on

your PowerPoint window.

1.Click the title bar on the Common Tasks toolbar.

2.Drag the toolbars upwards, until the toolbar outline

snaps into place along the edge of the program

window.

If you see move handles on toolbar, you

know it is successfully docked.

Adding and removing toolbars

PowerPoint has several other toolbars to help you

accomplish your tasks.

The Picture Toolbar has several buttons that are useful

when you work with images. There are buttons for

Contrast, Brightness, and Cropping. This toolbar will

automatically appear when you insert clip art or pictures.

The Animation Effects Toolbar has buttons for working with animations,

and the Web Toolbar helps you create presentations on the Internet.

There's also a Reviewing Toolbar, a WordArt Toolbar, and a Control Box

Toolbar.

When you're a more advanced user, you may wish to add some of these

toolbars to your PowerPoint window. Let's say you want to add the

animation effects toolbar. Here's what you do:

1. Click the View menu, and then point to Toolbars.

2. In the submenu, click the check box next to

animation effects. An animation effects toolbar

appears in the PowerPoint window.

Removing a toolbar

PowerPoint lets you remove toolbars you don't need. Try

removing the animation effects toolbar you just activated.

1. Click the View menu, and then point to Toolbar.

2. In the submenu, click the check box next to animation

effects to deselect it.

The check mark disappears and the animation effects

toolbar is removed from your PowerPoint window.

Activating and using the Office Assistant:

The Office Assistant is an animated help system that

answers your questions, and offers tips and helpful

suggestions as you work. The standard Office Assistant

character is Mr. Clip it an animated paperclip but you can

change the Office Assistant's character at any time.

To activate the Office Assistant, click the Office Assistant

button on the Standard Toolbar.

Or click the Help menu, then click Microsoft PowerPoint

Help.

The Office Assistant appears, ready to assist you.

Once the Office Assistant is activated, it "observes" your

work and offers tips or suggestions. A yellow bulb above

the Office Assistant indicates that it has a tip.

You can ask the Office Assistant to help you perform tasks

in PowerPoint. Lets say you want to find out how to insert

a graphic. Here's what you do:

1. Click the Office Assistant. A callout appears, asking you what you want to

do.

2. Type in your request. For example, type "insert a graphic". A list of

related help topics will appear.

3. Select a help topic from the list. (Click See More for more options.) The

help topic is displayed.

Using PowerPoint vocabulary

Here are some terms in PowerPoint 97 that are useful to know.

Slide: An individual screen in a slide show.

Presentation File: The file you save to disk that contains all the slides,

speakers notes, handouts, etc. that make up your presentation.

Object: Any element that appears on a PowerPoint slide, such as clip art,

text, drawings, charts, sounds, and video clips. You can refer to a clip art

object, a text object, a title object, a drawing object, etc.

Slide Show: A series of slides displayed in sequence. A slide show can be

controlled manually or automatically.

Transition: A special effect used to introduce a slide during a slide show.

For example, you can fade in from black, or dissolve from one slide to

another.

UNIT 1

Obviously you're a teacher with a pioneering spirit. So, no doubt,

you'll want to teach your students how to create multimedia

presentations using PowerPoint. Before you get your students all

excited about funky animations and nifty sound effects, you'll

have to equip them with a few PowerPoint essentials.

First and foremost, you have to talk the talk. Introduce your

students to PowerPoint vocabulary by doing a live demonstration

of all the different terms you will be using. Explain the difference

between a slide and an object. Show how a transition is a part of

a slide show. And just to make sure everyone is on the same

wavelength, follow-up your demonstration with a worksheet.

PowerPoint comes with many toolbars-fifteen of them, to be exact. Don't

worry about introducing your students to all of them. Concentrate on the

four main toolbars that appear when you first open the program.

You might want to consider introducing the toolbars one at a time. To start,

you can hide all of the toolbars. When your students need to format text or

add graphics, show them how to add the appropriate toolbar and teach

them the function of each button.

The toolbar-by-toolbar approach sounds radical, but what better way to

prevent your students from clicking every button in sight. Teaching

PowerPoint one toolbar at a time also keeps your students focused and

gives you a nice, systematic way of introducing the program's features and

functions.

Before you introduce the Office Assistant to your students,

consider whether it will be beneficial to them. Will your students

be able to read and comprehend the words in Office Assistant.

Can they navigate through the Help files without your assistance?

Do you have enough class time to let students explore this

feature? Will your students become as addicted to animating with

the Office Assistant as you are?

Note: If you haven't discovered this yet, hold your mouse over the Office Assistant and

click your "right" mouse button. Choose Animate from the pop-up menu and be

prepared for a surprise.

Take the Quick Quiz to

test your knowledge.