Using PowerPoint s Slide Show


Using PowerPoint's Slide Show

One of the best ways to see the overall effect of your presentation is to run a simple slide show; that is, walk through your presentation displaying your slides in sequence, moving from one slide to another, transitioning (changing) from one slide to the next without any special effects, but automating the moving at a preset timing that you can control.

An automated slide show is useful for creating self-running demonstrations , product presentations, and conference information distribution. PowerPoint screens use the term kiosk to describe the idea of a self-running presentation. Although you can control each and every detail of a self-running slide show, start with the basics and then expand your skills: add a timer to the presentation to control the amount of time each slide is displayed.

To Do: Time Transitions

The Slide Transition task pane is the easiest place to specify slide transition details such as the timing required before the next slide in a presentation appears. Select Slide Show, Slide Transition to display the Slide Transition task pane. Figure 14.1 shows the Slide Transition task pane that appears.

Figure 14.1. Select the transition effect and timing.

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Follow these steps to automate the presentation:

  1. Towards the bottom of the task pane, you will find an Advance Slide section. Uncheck the option labeled On Mouse Click. Doing so ensures that the presentation speed will not be affected by mouse clicks; the presentation will be fully automated to change slides at a preset time interval.

  2. Check the option labeled Automatically After (if it is not already checked).

  3. Adjust the value of the minutes and seconds box to 3 seconds (displayed as 00:03 ).

  4. Click the Apply to All Slides button so PowerPoint does not apply the timed transition just to the current slide. Leave all other values in the task pane alone for now. You have just informed PowerPoint that you want your slide show to run in a kiosk-style with each slide transitioning to the next every 3 seconds.

  5. Start the slide show by clicking the Slide Transition task pane's Slide Show button or by pressing F5. The presentation begins. Each slide displays for 3 seconds before the next slide appears. When the final slide displays, PowerPoint displays a blank screen that you can click to exit and return to PowerPoint. During the presentation, click the mouse button and notice that the click has no effect on the presentation's speed. Ordinarily, a mouse click sends the presentation to the next slide.

  6. Press Esc to stop the presentation and redisplay your presentation.

Just as Hollywood sometimes fades from one scene to the next, PowerPoint provides some interesting transitional effects that can make your slide transitions more interesting, as you'll learn next.

Transition Effects

If you want more control over the transition, display the first slide in the presentation and select Slide Show, Slide Transition to display the Slide Transition task pane (if it is not still showing from the previous section). The top portion of the task pane determines how your slides can transition from one to the next.

You can control the way an individual slide transitions or the way all slides in your presentation transition. For example, to make the first slide transition to the second by dissolving from the first to the second, click the Dissolve option under the task pane's section labeled Apply to Selected Slides. PowerPoint shows you what the dissolve will look like by dissolving the current slide (as long as the box labeled AutoPreview is checked at the bottom of the task pane). Figure 14.2 shows the dissolve in progress.

Figure 14.2. You can dissolve from one slide to the next.

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To adjust the speed of the transition, click the Speed drop-down list. As soon as you select a speed, PowerPoint dissolves the current slide once more at the new speed so that you can review the speed and adjust again if necessary.


For an even more interesting effect, select a sound as well as a transition. PowerPoint will play the sound, such as applause, when that slide transitions. Some sounds are shorter than the dissolve effect. To repeat the sound until the next sound begins (so that the sound plays during the entire slide's appearance), click the option labeled Loop Until Next Sound.

For both sounds as well as transitions, if you don't click the Apply to All Slides button at the bottom of the task pane, PowerPoint applies the transition and sound only to the current slide.

If you want to use a uniform transition for all slides, click the Apply to All Slides button.

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Run through your presentation, using all transitions, before you make your presentation to your audience. Too many transitions can be distracting and can often slow down a presentation and reduce its effectiveness.


Setting Up Shows

PowerPoint provides a Set Up Show dialog box, shown in Figure 14.3, that you display from the Slide Show, Set Up Show menu option. The Set Up Show dialog box lets you control several features of your presentation and is useful whether or not you want to present an automated slide show.

Figure 14.3. The Set Up Show dialog box helps you manage your slide show.

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Table 14.1 explains the various options of the Set Up Show dialog box.

Table 14.1. Set Up Show Dialog Box Options

Option

Description

Show Type

Determines whether the presentation is fully automated, controlled by a speaker, or run by an individual at the keyboard. The latter option displays the slide show inside a window, and the other two options display the slide show in full-screen mode.

Show Slides

Determines whether all the presentation slides appear or only a range of slides during the presentation.

Show Options

Enables you to run the slide-show presentation without narration or animation. In addition, you can select a pen color for marking during the slide show and set the slide show to loop continuously until you press Esc.

Advance Slides

Determines whether the speaker or PowerPoint transitions one slide to another.

Multiple Monitors

If your computer has multiple monitors, as might be the case if you use a laptop and connect a projection screen to a second monitor card, you can request that the slide show appear on the second monitor while you control the presentation from the first monitor.

Performance

On slower computers, checking Use Hardware Graphics Acceleration can speed up a slide show, assuming the computer has no system problems with the acceleration. (Errors will appear the first time you try this if the PC will not work.) In addition, you can specify the resolution of the slide show no matter what the screen resolution was before the slide show began .

Rehearsing Your Slide Show

If you want your slides to transition at various speeds, you can manually adjust the speed one slide at a time. Some slides might require more time to read than others, and you'll want such slides to remain on the screen longer than others. One of the easiest ways to adjust the timing between slides is to select Slide Show, Rehearse Timings.

As soon as you select the Rehearse Timings option, PowerPoint begins the slide show. As each slide appears (with whatever transition you've applied to that slide's appearance), keep the slide on the screen as long as you think it should remain and then click Next to move to the next slide. Keep clicking through the presentation at the speed you want PowerPoint to move. As you click, PowerPoint records the timing of each slide. At the end of the presentation rehearsal, PowerPoint displays a message box with the total amount of time that the presentation requires. You can save the timings or re-run the rehearsal to specify different timings.

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If only one or two slides need their time adjusted, after you walk through the entire rehearsal, you can adjust those slides' transition time individually from the Slide Show task pane.




Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Office 2003 in 24 Hours
Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Office 2003 in 24 Hours
ISBN: 0672325535
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 272
Authors: Greg Perry

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