PowerPoint
PowerPoint organizes your public presentations (thesis defense, lectures, dog & pony show for your family reunion) for display on a monitor or projected onto a screen. Most of the procedures used in PowerPoint were also also used in Word or Excel. I will attempt to demonstrate the following:
Opening a new presentation
Kinds of slides
Text in slides
Format and font
Text boxes
Images in slides
Editing images in slides
Saving your work
Backgrounds
Apply design
Objects
Organizing slides
Drawing tools
Lots of these!
Equation editor
Animation
Sound
Printing slides and handouts
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Video clips can also be shown if the drivers are active in your computer- we recently purchased the hardware and software to (although I have downloaded some from the Web and inserted them into slides). Video takes up a lot of space in storage.
Large images saved as bitmaps take a lot of file space. I use the image processor to resize images to fit the screen (dimensions 640 by 480 rasters usually works) and then save as .jpg. To make my own backgrounds, I use the image processor to wash the color out of a photograph.
You need a microphone to record your own voice on sound files. Collections of sounds are available for download at several Web sites - search Google for wav files - numerous pop-up ads are a price you might have to pay, but I like my selection of sounds more than Microsoft's various beeps and chirps.
In addition to sound effects in PowerPoint, these can also be used to customize sounds your computer makes when you open Windows, empty the recycle bin, open a program, close a program, log off, etc. (Start - Settings - Control Panel - Sounds takes you to that dialog window). You might have heard something when opening this Web page, a short audio clip from a movie.
Faculty and students also use PowerPoint to assemble poster papers. File - Page setup allows you to reset the dimensions of your sheet. Our large-format printer has 36-inch paper, but the inch next to each edge is not usable, so poster makers must set width no larger than 34 inches. One of these days we might purchase some 42-inch paper. Big posters take a lot of time and ink, so poster builders must carefully inspect their work before sending it to the printer.
Assignment: develop a PowerPoint slide presentation that shows me what you have learned in this class. Copy something from the Web; insert an Excel chart; save a Surfer map as an image and turn it into a slide; save an Abode Illustrator drawing as an image and convert into a slide; etc., one topic per slide. Tell me in the caption of each slide which skills you have mastered that permit you to make this slide. Use appropriate animation and sounds. Attach your entire show (file) to e-mail and send it to me! I will post your work on the Web, at a URL that only members of this class will be able to find, so that all of you can enjoy one another's artistic inspiration. Due by 12 noon on 4/05/05.
NEXT WEEK we begin 4 intense weeks: introduction to simple database procedures and to spatial database technology. You will need your flash or ZIP drives, the files I have prepared for you to work with are enormous. It is unlikely that you have the software on your home computer so I will expect you in class.
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