Does your Online Help…

need some help?

22

TYPICAL ONLINE HELP* | BEFORE

Technical products and services can be really productive. And intimidating. Maybe this is true for your company.

Online help systems aren’t always as helpful as they could be. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Using a real Microsoft help article, just as an example, here’s a look at unlocking the value in your help system.

Source:http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/creating-powerpoint-presentations-from-word-outlines-

HA010197798.aspx

33

TYPICAL ONLINE HELP | AFTER

Believe it or not, this is the same material as the “before” example on the previous page. It’s colorful and broken into smaller, more digestible chunks of information.

Next Slide

Go ahead.Click any slide to get a closer view.

4

Online help is a crucial part of any support structure. Here’s a look at transforming an online Microsoft help article in an easier to read…and use…support tool.

Beforewebegin

AnexerciseGettingstarted

Thecorrectway

Creating Powerpoint Presentations from

Word

Go Back

5

creating presentations from Word

Before we begin

All examples and ideas illustrated within this article were created using Office Word 2003 and Office PowerPoint 2003, both Microsoft Office 2003 programs.

The techniques should work similarly for the last two versions of both programs — but they haven't been tested by me. Having said that, let us proceed with the rest of this article.

Using PowerPoint and Word

section 01

Before we beginGetting startedAn exerciseThe correct wayMore optionsNote!Finally

In this article

Go Back

6

creating presentations from Word

Getting started

In this article, we will discuss ideas that help create complete presentations within PowerPoint from suitable Word content.

Word often acts as a storyboard in the foundation stage of a concept. It is quite normal to find people creating plans and jotting inspirations in Word to form outlines which can be

refined and fine-tuned to be used later as content for brochures, press releases, and presentations.

In this article, we will discuss ideas that help create complete presentations within PowerPoint from suitable Word content.

Microsoft provides an easy way to create PowerPoint presentations from Word documents as long as you have both programs installed on the same computer.

On the Word File menu, point to Send To and click Microsoft Office PowerPoint. This opens up PowerPoint with a basic presentation that contains text elements contained within the Word document.

If you just tried this procedure using a Word document you already have, you might be quite unhappy with the results. That is because PowerPoint accepts only a distinct style of formatting within a Word document.

Using PowerPoint and Word

section 01

Go Back

7

creating presentations from Word

An exercise

Let us create a sample Word outline to illustrate the point.

Open Word and type the following:

Slide 1

Line 1

Line 2

Line 3

Save the document, and on the File menu point to Send To and click Microsoft Office PowerPoint. PowerPoint will open in the background and present you with at least four slides with titles that match our four lines — that is not what we required!

On the Word File menu, point to Send To and click Microsoft Office PowerPoint.

Using PowerPoint and Word

section 01

Go Back

If you followed all the steps correctly, you will find that PowerPoint has created a single slide presentation with one title and three bullets in the text area — exactly like a conventional presentation!

You can create multiple titles and bullets in Word using the Heading 1 and Heading 2 styles respectively, for all your content. This in turn will translate into multiple slides within a PowerPoint presentation.

Help…

that’s helpful.

The End