Objective 1. Start and Exit PowerPoint

The purpose of any presentation is to influence your audience. Whether you are presenting a new product to coworkers, making a speech at a conference, or expressing your opinion to your city council, you want to make a good impression and give your audience a reason to agree with your point of view. How your audience reacts to your message depends on the information you present and how you present yourself. In the following activities, you will start PowerPoint, become familiar with the PowerPoint window, open an existing PowerPoint presentation, close a file, and exit PowerPoint.

Activity 1.1. Starting PowerPoint and Opening a Presentation

You can open an existing presentation file by clicking Open from the File menu, by clicking the Open button on the Standard toolbar, or by clicking Open or More on the Getting Started task pane.

On the left side of the Windows taskbar, point to and then click the Start button to display the Start menu.

Locate the PowerPoint program, and then click Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003.

Organizations and individuals store computer programs in a variety of ways. The PowerPoint program might be located under All Programs, or Microsoft Office, or some other arrangement. See Figure 1.2 for an example.

Figure 1.2.

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Look at the opening PowerPoint screen, and then take a moment to study the main parts of the screen shown in Figure 1.3 and described in the table in Figure 1.4.

Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.4. Main Parts of the PowerPoint Screen
Screen Element	Description
Outline/Slides pane	Displays either the presentation outline (Outline tab) or all of the slides in the presentation in the form of miniature images called thumbnails (Slides tab).
Slide pane	Displays a large image of the active slide.
Notes pane	Displays below the Slide pane and allows you to type notes regarding the active slide.
Task pane	Displays commonly used commands related to the active slide. Its location and small size allow you to use these commands while still working on your presentation.

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In the lower portion of the Getting Started task pane, under Open, point to More... and notice that your pointer displays as a pointing hand, as shown in Figure 1.5.

Figure 1.5.

Alert!: Does Your Screen Differ?

In most instances, the task pane displays the previous four presentations saved on your system. The settings on your system may differ, and instead of these presentations, you may see Open instead of More. Click Open.

Click More. . .

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In the Open dialog box, at the right edge of the Look in box, click the Look in arrow, to view a list of the drives available on your system, as shown in Figure 1.6.

Figure 1.6.

Navigate to the location where the student files for this textbook are stored. Click p01A_Expansion, and then click the Open button to display Slide 1 of the presentation in the PowerPoint window. Notice that the task pane on the right is closed.

Files opened directly from the CD that accompany this textbook display [Read-Only] in the title bar.

Activity 1.2. Identifying Parts of the PowerPoint Window


1.	Figures 1.7a and 1.7b identify the parts of the PowerPoint window. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the parts of the window shown, and notice that the status bar displays near the bottom of the PowerPoint window. [Page 1142] Figure 1.7a. Figure 1.7b. [Page 1143]The status bar indicates that Slide 1 is the active slide and that there are a total of seven slides in the presentation. The first slide of a presentation is the title slide. The title slide frequently contains special formatting that is different from the other slides in the presentation so that it is easily distinguishable as the title slide. Alert!: Does Your Screen Differ? At the left side of your window in the Outline/Slides pane, your window may display the slide miniatures shown in Figure 1.7, or if the Outline tab is selected, the window displays the presentation outline.
2.	On the right edge of your screen, at the top of the vertical scroll bar, point to the scroll box, and then press and hold down the left mouse button. A ScreenTip is a small box that displays the name of a screen element or, in this instance, the current slide number and the title. The ScreenTip indicates Slide: 1 of 7 The City of Desert Park.
3.	Drag the scroll box down slightly until the ScreenTip Slide: 2 of 7 Reasons for the Project displays, and then release the left mouse button. In the Slide pane, Slide 2 displays and becomes the active slide. One word on the slide is underlined with a wavy red line, indicating a misspelling. Later in this chapter, you will use PowerPoints spelling checker tool to correct spelling errors in the presentation.
4.	At the bottom of the vertical scroll bar, locate the double, upward-pointing and downward-pointing arrows. Refer to Figure 1.7b, and then without clicking, point to them to display their ScreenTipsPrevious Slide and Next Slide.
5.	Click the Next Slide button to display Slide 3 of the presentation, and then click the Previous Slide button two times to return to Slide 1. At the lower left portion of your screen, check to be sure that Slide 1 of 7 displays in the status bar.
6.	Near the lower left corner of the window, locate the View buttons, as shown in Figure 1.7b. With your mouse, point to each of the three View buttons to display their ScreenTips indicating the three different ways to view your presentationNormal View, Slide Sorter View, and Slide Show from current slide (Shift+F5).

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Activity 1.3. Accessing the Menu Commands

On the menu bar, click File.

The File menu displays in either the short format shown in Figure 1.8 or the full format shown in Figure 1.9. PowerPoints commands are organized in menuslists of commands within a category. A short menu will display fully after a few seconds. Alternatively, you can click the small double arrows at the bottom to display the full menu. The File menu lists the last four to nine presentations used on your computer.

Figure 1.8.

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Figure 1.9.

NoteDisplaying the Full Menu

Many individuals prefer the automatic full menu display. To set a system to always display full menus, display the Tools menu, click Customize, and then click the Options tab. Under Personalized Menus and Toolbars, select the Always show full menus check box.

Be sure that the full menu is displayed, as shown in Figure 1.9, and notice that there is a keyboard shortcut to the right of some commands; for example, Ctrl+N for the New command.

If you press and hold down and then press , the result is the same as clicking File on the menu bar and then clicking New on the File menu. Many commands in PowerPoint can be accomplished in more than one way.

On the displayed File menu, to the left of some command names, notice that there is an image of the button that represents this command on a toolbar.

This is a reminder that you can initiate the command with one click from a toolbar, rather than from the menu.

On the displayed File menu, pause the mouse pointer over Print, but do not click.

When you point to a command on a menu, the command is shaded and bordered by a rectangular outline.

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Look at the full File menu on your screen and notice the various symbols and characters that are standard across all Microsoft products. Take a moment to study the table in Figure 1.10 for a description of these elements.

Figure 1.10. Characteristics of Office Menus
Characteristic	Description	Example
...(ellipsis)	Indicates that a dialog box requesting more information or a task pane will display.	Print...
(triangle)	Indicates that a submenuanother menu of choiceswill display.	Send To
No symbol	Indicates that the command will perform immediately.	Exit
(check mark)	Indicates that a command is turned on or active.	Standard
Gray option name	Indicates that the command is currently unavailable.	Properties

With the File menu still displayed, move your pointer into the menu bar and point to Insert.

The Insert menu displays. After a menu from the menu bar is displayed, you can move your pointer over other menu names and they will display without clicking.

Move your mouse pointer anywhere into the slide pane area of your screen, and then click once to close the menu without accessing a command.

Activity 1.4. Identifying and Displaying Toolbars and ScreenTips

Toolbars are the rows of buttons that display below the menu bar. The buttons on the toolbar provide a one-click method to perform commonly used commands and tasks. The three toolbars that you will use most often in PowerPoint are the Standard toolbar, the Formatting toolbar, and the Drawing toolbar.

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Depending on how your system is set, you might see the Standard and Formatting toolbars each occupying separate rows as in Figure 1.11. Or, you might see shortened Standard and Formatting toolbars docked side by side below the menu bar. When the Standard and Formatting toolbars share one row, you can click Toolbar Options to view additional buttons, as shown in Figure 1.12. The instruction in this textbook assumes that your toolbars occupy separate rows.

Figure 1.11.

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Figure 1.12.

Look at your screen to determine how the toolbars are displayed. If they are not displayed on two rows, as shown in Figure 1.11, click the Toolbar Options button , as shown in Figure 1.12, and click Show Buttons on Two Rows.

On the Standard toolbar, point to, but do not click, any button.

After a few seconds, the ScreenTip for the button displays. Recall that a ScreenTip is a small box that displays the name of a button or part of the PowerPoint window.

On the Formatting toolbar, point to, but do not click, any button. The ScreenTip displays.

More Knowledge: Displaying a Toolbar

Right-click any toolbar to select another toolbar.

If a toolbar is missing entirely, point to an existing toolbar or to the menu bar and click the right mouse button (also known as right-clicking). On the shortcut menu that displays, point to the name of the toolbar you wish to display and click the left mouse button. Alternatively, display the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click the name of the toolbar you wish to display.

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Activity 1.5. Closing and Displaying the Task Pane

When you open the PowerPoint program, the task pane displays on the right side of your window. A task pane is a window within a Microsoft Office application that provides commonly used commands. Its location allows you to use these commands while still working on your files. In PowerPoint, the task pane allows you to complete many tasks, including opening and creating files, adding graphic images, and changing the design of your slides. When you open your presentation, the task pane closes. In this activity, you will redisplay and then close the task pane.

On the menu bar, click View, and then click Task Pane.

The task pane displays at the right side of the window. At the top of the task pane, two buttons display. The Other Task Panes button displays a menu of 16 task panes in PowerPoint. The Close button closes the task pane. See Figure 1.13.

Figure 1.13.

Click Other Task Panes to view the list and compare your screen with Figure 1.13.

At the top of the task pane, click Close .

Activity 1.6. Creating a New Folder and Saving a File

In the same way that you use file folders to organize your paper documents, Windows uses a hierarchy of electronic folders to keep your electronic files organized. Using Windows hierarchy of folders, you can group your files in a logical manner. Currently, the file p01A_Expansion is displayed in your PowerPoint window. To change the name of the file or its directory or drive location, or to create a new folder in which to store your files, use the Save As command on the File menu.

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1.	Check with your instructor or lab coordinator to see where you will be storing your documents, for example, on your own disk or USB flash drive, or on a network drive, and be sure that storage location is available. Then, on the menu bar, click File, and then click Save As.
2.	In the Save As dialog box, at the right edge of the Save in box, click the Save in arrow to view a list of the drives available to you.
3.	Navigate to the drive on which you will be storing your folders and presentationsfor example, 3 ½ Floppy (A:), a USB flash drive that you have connected, or the drive designated by your instructor or lab coordinator.
4.	To the right of the Save in box, notice the row of buttons. Click the Create New Folder button and notice that the New Folder dialog box displays, as shown in Figure 1.14. Figure 1.14.
5.	In the Name box, type PowerPoint Chapter 1 to create a new folder on your disk, and then click OK.

6.	In the lower portion of the Save As dialog box, locate the File name box. [Page 1151]The file name p01A_Expansion may be highlighted if you selected the default location in the Save in box. If you selected a different location in the Save in box, p01A_Expansion may not be highlighted.
7.	Click to position your insertion point in the File name box and type as necessary to save the file with the name 1A_Expansion_Firstname_Lastname See Figure 1.15. Figure 1.15. Throughout this textbook, you will be instructed to save your files using the file name followed by your first and last name. Check with your instructor to see if there is some other file naming arrangement for your course.
8.	In the lower right corner, click the Save button or press . The new file name displays in the title bar.

Activity 1.7. Closing a File and Exiting PowerPoint

When you are finished working on a presentation, you should save and close it. Closing a file means that you are removing it from your systems random access memory (RAM). You should save a file before closing it, but if you forget to save, PowerPoint will remind you. You can exit the PowerPoint program by clicking Exit from the File menu or by closing all open presentations and then clicking the Close button at the extreme right edge of the title bar.

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With your file 1A_Expansion_Firstname_Lastname still displayed, move your pointer to the menu bar and click File. Click Close.

Another Way: To Close a File

You can also close a file by clicking the Close Window button.

On the menu bar, click File, and then click Exit to close PowerPoint.

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Windows XP