Insert Macromedia Flash movie into PowerPoint

Play different music across different slides

How to embed a Sound file

Display a PowerPoint presentation on two screens

A Different PowerPoint Background

Adjusting Line Spacing

1. Line Spacing increases or decreases the amount of space between every line in the text block.
2. Before Paragraph increases or decreases the amount of space between each bullet point and the PREVIOUS one.
3. After Paragraph increases or decreases the amount of space between each bullet point and the FOLLOWING one.

You can use the Up or Down arrow to make spacing adjustments or type the value you want directly in the text boxes in the Line Spacing dialog box. And you can make your adjustments in your choice of units, Lines or Points. Click Preview to see the effect of your changes.

Tip in a tip: If you want your slides to look their best and be as legible as possible, avoid decreasing the line spacing too much--for example, don't set it to less than one line.   

Sometimes you need to apply line spacing to some but not all of the lines in a text block. Suppose, for example, that you have first- and second-level bullet points and want the second-level bullets to sit closer to the first-level bullet they
belong with and a little further away from the first-level bullet point that follows. It couldn't be simpler:

For each first-level bullet point in the text you're working with, click the point to get an I-beam text cursor; choose Format, Line Spacing; and increase the Before Paragraph space setting to taste. Don't forget that you can use the Preview button to see the effect your changes will have when you click OK.

By increasing the Before Paragraph setting for each first-level bullet point, you're putting a little more "air" between it and the previous text. So the previous second-level bullet points will appear to "belong to" the first-level bullet point above them and not sit too close to the first-level bullet point that follows.
      
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Setting the Default Text Style

• Make sure no objects are selected.
• From the Format menu, select Font. 

Make all the changes that you want there, and click OK. From that point on, new text will be created in that style.

To Set the formatting for the title or slide body objects, go to the Slide Master and format these objects on the master

Selecting Small Objects

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Building Presentations for Distribution to Others

1. Stick with the fonts that come installed with Windows; Fancy fonts that appear on your machine will cause problems if everyone else doesn't have them.
2. Avoid embedding sounds and videos: these will not go from Mac to Windows gracefully, and you have to be very careful about how you insert the files in order to get them to "travel" properly. See the FAQ section for more information on this.
3. Design the presentation on the lowest version that you think might be in use. For example, if you want the presentation to be able to be viewed by Mac users (who may not have upgraded to the latest version), you will want to design your presentation in PowerPoint 4.0. If you don't have PowerPoint 4, then you'll want to save your presentation in the lowest format you think people will have. For cross-platform distribution, 4.0 is still your safest bet; for Windows-only distribution, save to PowerPoint 95. When you down-rev save, be prepared for some visual changes in your file--the previous version may not support some of the features you've put in, so be sure to sanity check your file on several different machines and versions BEFORE you distribute it!

Creating Pages with Slides and Descriptive Text

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Using Different Backgrounds within one Presentation

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Making Presentation Files Smaller

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Editing Drawings

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Change the default colors

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Using Hyperlinks

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Importing Art into the Clip Gallery

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Graphics-Editing Capabilities

PowerPoint offers some powerful graphics-editing capabilities. For example, if you have a clip art picture that you could use a portion of, all you have to do is separate what you want from what you don't, and get rid of the portion you don't want. For example, let's say you want to keep only the dog portion of the Veterinary Medicine picture in the Animals category.

First, insert the picture in your slide by clicking the Insert Clip Art button on the Drawing toolbar or by pulling down the Insert menu, pointing at Picture, and choosing Clip Art. Select the category, click the picture, and choose Insert Clip. Back on the slide, right-click the picture, choose Grouping, and select Ungroup. Answer Yes to verify that you want to convert the picture to PowerPoint objects.

Next, click somewhere on the slide away from the picture to deselect every object, then click on an individual object you'd like to get rid of and press Delete. Continue this process until all the unwanted parts have been deleted. Finally, select the remaining parts of the picture, right-click, choose Grouping, and select Group. Doing so will make the remaining picture act as a single unit.

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Animate Individual Objects

For the most part, PowerPoint makes you animate individual objects. A few days ago we showed you how to animate individual parts of a clip art picture all at once. The trick there was to make sure each object was selected before you opened the Custom Animation dialog box.

If you've never animated text in a numbered or bulleted list, you might wonder how you do so--do you animate each bullet point individually or do you select all the pieces of text as you did with the clip art picture? Fortunately, you don't have to do either. As long as your list items exist as individual paragraphs inside a single text box, PowerPoint makes it real easy on you.

To animate individual bullet points inside a text object, just right-click inside the bulleted or numbered list and choose Custom Animation. On the Effects tab, choose an effect (something like Fly From Right, Zoom In, Wipe Down, or Peek From Top are good choices here) and, if desired, a sound. You can choose to hide or dim each previous bullet when a new one appears by selecting an option from the After Animation palette. Next, select a Grouped By setting--the default option is 1st Level Paragraphs. This is the most vital setting with numbered or bulleted lists--be sure to preview the current setting to make sure it works the way you want.

Now, click the Order & Timing tab, and determine when the animation should start--when you click the mouse, or immediately after a certain number of seconds. Finally, click OK when your list is set up the way you want it.

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How to embed a Sound file

To embed your sound file into PowerPoint:

1. Choose "Options" from the Tools main menu and then select the General tab.
2. Set the value next to "Link sounds with file size greater than" to 4000 kb. Now you will be able to embed sound files of up to 2 MB (megabytes) each. You can enter a higher number if you wish to embed larger sound files.
3. Click OK.

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Insert a Macromedia Flash movie into PowerPoint

In order to insert a Macromedia Flash movie into PowerPoint, be sure that Flash Media Player is installed.

1. Open your presentation.
2. Select View>> Toolbars>> Control Toolbox. This will open the ActiveX Control Toolbar.
3. Click the "Other controls" icon, this icon looks like a little hammer and wrench.
4. A scrolling menu will now appear. Scroll down and select "Shockwave Flash Object".
5. After selecting "Shockwave Flash Object", your cursor will change to a crosshair. Move the crosshair over the slide. Click and drag to define the area the Flash movie will play in. The Flash movie can take up as much of the screen as you wish.
6. Right click the box you have just drawn and select "Properties".
7. At the top of the resulting Flash Object Control properties menu, you will see an entry titled "(Custom)". Click on this field, then click on the (...) button to the right of (Custom).
8. The resulting menu should now be "Property Pages". Enter the path or URL of the .SWF file that you would like to use.
9. Click OK in the "Property Pages" window, then save your presentation.
10. Run the presentation in Presentation view. The Flash content will play just as it does in the Flash player.

Display a PowerPoint presentation on two screens

PowerPoint makes it possible to show your presentation to your audience on one screen while controlling the presentation from another. This is very helpful if you have made lots of notes in your presentation that you do not want your audience to see. In order to use this function, your system must support dual monitors which usually consists of adding a second PCI graphics card. Check with your PC manufacture for further details. Here is how to set it up in PowerPoint:

1. Open your presentation on one screen.
2. Select "Set Up Show..." from the Slide Show main menu option.
3. You will now see the Set Up Show dialog box. From here you can choose to use a projector by clicking the "Projector Wizard" button.
4. Under "Show on:" you will see an expandable menu that gives you your display options.
5. From the main menu, select "View", then select "Notes Master".
6. Now, go back to "Set Up Show..." from your Slide Show main menu options.
7. You can now select what type of display you wish to view your notes on.

That's it! Now you can show your presentation to your audience while viewing the same presentation along with all of your notes on another.

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Play different music across different slides

1. Go to the Insert main menu option and select "Movies and Sounds".
2. From here, you can select from any of the listed options:

• Sound From Clip Organizer
• Sound From File
• Play CD Audio Track
• Record Sound

3. Locate the Sound file that you would like to play across any number of your slides.
4. Insert the sound.
5. Once the sound is inserted, the sound icon will appear in your slide. If you do not want this to appear, just drag if off the slide.
6. You should receive a prompt asking if you would like the sound to play automatically. Select YES.
7. From the resulting popup menu, right click the sound's icon and select "Custom Animation". The Custom Animation dialog box will open and your sound file should now be listed.
8. Click the down pointing arrow to the right of the sound icon to open the drop down menu.
9. Select "Effect Options", then on the Effects tab, tick the radio button next to "Stop Playing after XXX slides".
10. Select the number of slides that you would like the music to continue to play through. If you want the sound to continue playing through to the end of the presentation, enter a large number, for example 999.
11. Select the Timing tab. To play automatically, the timing should be set to "Start After Previous" with a 0 second delay.
12. Click OK to close the dialog box.
13. Go to the slide where you want your next music or sound track to begin playing.
14. Repeat steps 1 - 12 as necessary to add the next music or sound track to your presentation.

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A Different PowerPoint Background

1. Navigate to the slide that you would like to change.
2. Click on Format | Slide Background.
3. Check the box that says "Omit background graphics from master".
4. Click Apply.

You can even change multiple slides at one time. Here's how:

1. Go to the View menu and click on Slide Sorter.
2. Hold down the CTRL key and click on the slides you would like to change.
3. Once they are all selected, you can go to the Format menu and repeat the steps to omit the background as outlined above.

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Drawing Perfect Circles or Squares in PowerPoint

1. Double-click the Oval button and draw one circle.
2. Position your insertion point at the place on your slide where you wish to add another circle and click the left mouse button. Continue adding more circles by left clicking your mouse button.
3. When you are finished adding circles, simply de-select the Oval button on the Drawing toolbar.

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Create Effective Presentations

• DON'T USE ALL CAPS

Stay away from using all caps in your presentation. Many people find it hard to read words where all the letters are the same size. This also takes up a great deal of horizontal space. If it is a larger font size that you would be trying to achieve by using all caps, then just go ahead and use a larger font size or a different font style instead.

• Bullet References

Do not use more than 6 bulleted references per slide. More than this makes the slide hard to read and can make for a lengthy discussion on one slide. Bullets should not have more than 6 words. A bullet reference should not be complete sentences, they serve as highlighted points of interest.

• Title your slides

Be sure that you use descriptive titles on all of your slides. This will grab the audiences interest right a way and also helps to prepare them mentally for the topic at hand. As an example, if I were to just start talking about using a soft damp cloth and wipe gently in one direction...you will eventually catch on that I am talking about cleaning your LCD monitor screen. So, to prepare your audience for the topic, title your slide: "Cleaning Your LCD Monitor Screen".

• Emphasize your important text

Try to use very common fonts in your presentation. The most commonly used are; Arial, Helvetica or Verdana. Be sure that you do not use bold or italics throughout your presentation. Use these to emphasize your text so that your important points stand out.

• Image file size

Stay away from image formats such as BMP (bitmap) and TIF. Try to use JPG format for your images. JPG is a compressed format that will greatly reduce the file size of your presentation but will keep the high quality image that you require. Also, your image size will affect the file size. So, keep your images to a size that your audience can comfortably see, but won't create a huge file size.

• Spelling and Grammar

Nothing says "Amateur" more than spelling errors and bad grammar. Carefully double check your slides. Be sure that it reads correctly. The best way I have found to check the readability of a presentation is to read it out loud.

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Insert an e-mail address into a PowerPoint slide

1. Open your PowerPoint presentation.
2. Choose the text, shape or object that you would like to attach an e-mail address to.
3. Right-click the item and select "Action Settings" from the resulting menu.
4. The Action Settings dialog box will now appear. Click "Hyperlink to:" and then select "URL..." from the drop-down list.
5. Enter your e-mail address and subject line for the e-mail into the text boxes. Be sure to use the proper e-mail format (eg: email@domain.com).
6. Click OK.

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Hiding Slides in PowerPoint

1. Open PowerPoint
2. Go to the Slide Show menu
3. Ensure that the slide that you would like to hide is the current slide, then click the Hide Slide tool.

You can recall this slide during the presentation by opening the Slide Show Controls menu. From here, click Go, then you can recall the slide by choosing either the "Title" or "Slide Navigator" options.

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Reduce Your Presentations File Size

1. Open your presentation and select a slide that contains an image.
2. Right-click the graphic and choose Format Picture from the resulting menu.
3. In the Format Picture dialog box, click the Picture tab and then click the Compress button.
4. In the Compress Pictures dialog box (see Figure #1), select from two options:
    
   • Selected pictures option:
     When you select this option, you will be able to select any image in your presentation that you would like to compress. To select multiple images in your presentation, hold down the CTRL button on your keyboard and click the images you would like to compress. Once you have all of the images highlighted, right click your mouse over one of them and select "Format Picture".
      
   • All pictures in document:
     This option will format all of the pictures contained in your presentation.
      
5. In the "Change resolution" section, select the Web/Screen option if you are going to project your presentation or put it up on the Web.
6. In the Options section, place a checkmark in both of the options listed:
    
   • Compress pictures
   • Delete cropped areas of pictures
      
7. Click OK, then OK once again.

Figure #1

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Set up and use AutoLayouts

• Reformat the font, bullets, and even the line spacing of text.
   
• Alter the size and positioning of AutoLayout areas, which are the areas of the master that control slide layouts for the active presentation.
  
  Note: These options are also available in the Format menu.

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