• Unit 1• PowerPoint Basics

• Trusty Toolbars• Handy Help• Techie Terms• Cool for School

Finding the toolbarsThe toolbars contain graphically illustrated buttons that youclick to perform specific tasks in a program. PowerPoint hasfour main toolbars, which can help you create yourpresentations quickly and easily.

The Standard Toolbar is located at the top of the PowerPointwindow, below the menu bar. It has buttons for commontasks such as saving, printing, checking spelling andinserting charts and tables.

The Formatting Toolbar is located just below the standardtoolbar. Most of it’s buttons are for formatting text. Use thesebuttons to change the font type or size, make text bold oritalic, indent text, and insert bullets.

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The Drawing Toolbar is located at the bottom of thePowerPoint window. It has tools for drawing shapes, addinglines and curves, and inserting text boxes and WordArt. Italso has buttons for manipulating and formatting the objectsyou draw.

Moving the toolbars to new locationsAll PowerPoint toolbars can be moved or docked to any sideof the PowerPoint window. As well, docked toolbars,including the Standard Toolbar, the Formatting Toolbar, andthe Drawing Toolbar, can be converted to floating toolbars.A move handle on the left or top of the toolbar indicates thatthe toolbar is docked. A title bar indicates the toolbar isfloating.

Here’s how to move one of the toolbars to anew location:

1. Click the move handle on a dockedtoolbar, or click the title bar on the floatingtoolbar.2. Holding down the mouse button, drag thetoolbar to the new location.

Docking a toolbarTry docking a toolbar to the top of the PowerPoint window.This will give you more working area on your PowerPointwindow.

1. Click the title bar on theCommon Tasks toolbar.

2.Drag the toolbars upwards,until the toolbar outline snapsinto place along the edge of theprogram window.

If you see move handles on toolbar, you know itis successfully docked.

Adding and removing toolbarsPowerPoint has several other toolbars to help youaccomplish this task.

The Picture Toolbar has several buttons that areuseful when you work with images. There are buttonsfor Contrast, Brightness, and Cropping. This toolbarwill automatically appear when you insert clip art orpictures.

The Animation Effects Toolbar has buttons for working withanimations, and the Web Toolbar helps you createpresentations on the Internet. There’s also a ReviewingToolbar, a WordArt Toolbar, and a Control Box Toolbar.When you’re a more advanced user, you may wish to addsome of these toolbars to you PowerPoint window. Let’s sayyou want to add the animation effects toolbar. Here’s whatyou do:

1. Click the View menu, and thenpoint to Toolbars.2. In the submenu, click the checkbox next to animations effects. Ananimation effects toolbar appears inthe PowerPoint window.

Removing a toolbarPowerPoint lets you remove toolbars you don’t need. Tryremoving the animation effects toolbar you just activated.

1. Click the View menu, and then point to Toolbar.2. In the submenu, click the check box next to animation effects to deselect it.

The check mark disappears and the animation effectstoolbar is removed form your PowerPoint window.

Activating and using the Office Assistant:The Office Assistant is an animated help system thatanswers your questions, and offers tips and helpfulsuggestions as you work. The standard OfficeAssistant character is Mr. Clipit, an animatedpaperclip, but you can change the Office Assistant’scharacter at any time.

To activate the Office Assistant, click the OfficeAssistant button on the Standard Toolbar.

Or click the Help menu, then click Microsoft PowerPoint Help.

The Office Assistant appears, ready to assist you.Once the Office Assistant is activated, it ‘observes” yourwork and offers tips or suggestions. A yellow bulb above theOffice Assistant indicated that it has a tip.

You can ask the Office Assistant to help you perform tasks inPowerPoint. Let’s say you want to find out how to insert agraphic. Here’s what you do:

1. Click the Office Assistant. Acallout appears, asking youwhat you want to do.

You can ask the Office Assistant to help you perform tasks inPowerPoint. Let’s say you want to find out how to insert agraphic. Here’s what you do:

2. Type in your request. Forexample, type “insert aGraphic”. A list of related helptopics will appear.

You can ask the Office Assistant to help you perform tasks inPowerPoint. Let’s say you want to find out how to insert agraphic. Here’s what you do:

3. Select a help topic form thelist. (Click See More for moreoptions.) The help topic isdisplayed.

Using PowerPoint vocabularyHere are some terms in PowerPoint 97 that areuseful to know.

Slide: An individual screen in a slide show.

Presentation File: The file you save to disk thatcontains all the slides, speaker’s notes, handouts,etc. that make up you presentation.

Object: Any element that appears on a PowerPointslide, such as clip art, text, drawings, charts, sounds,and video clips. You can refer to a clip art object, atext object, a title object, a drawing object, etc.

Slide Show: A series of slides displayed in sequence.A slide show can be controlled manually orautomatically.

Transition: A special effect used to introduce a slideduring a slide show. For example, you can fade infrom black, or dissolve from one slide to another.

Unit 1

Obviously you’re a teacher with a pioneering spirit.So, no doubt, you’ll want to teach your students howto create multimedia presentations using PowerPoint.Before you get your students all excited about funkyanimations and nifty sound effects, you’ll have toequip them with a few PowerPoint essentials.

First and foremost, you have to talk the talk.Introduce your students to PowerPoint vocabulary bydoing a live demonstration of all the different termsyou will be using. Explain the difference between aslide and an object. Show how a transition is a partof a slide show. And just to make sure everyone is onthe same wavelength, follow-up your demonstrationwith a worksheet.

PowerPoint comes with many toolbars-fifteen of them, to beexact. Don’t worry about introducing your students to all ofthem. Concentrate on the four main toolbars that appearwhen you first open the program.

You might want to consider introducing the toolbars one at atime. To start, you can hide all of the toolbars. When yourstudents need to format text or add graphics, show themhow to add the appropriate toolbar and teach them thefunction of each button.

The toolbar-by-toolbar approach sound radical, but whatbetter way to prevent your students from clicking everybutton in sight. Teaching PowerPoint one toolbar at a timealso keeps your students focused and gives you a nice,systematic way of introducing the program's features andfunctions.

Before you introduce the Office Assistant to your students,consider whether it will be beneficial to them. Will yourstudents be able to read and comprehend the words inOffice Assistant? Can they navigate through the Help fileswithout your assistance? Do you have enough class time tolet students explore this feature? Will your students becomeas addicted to animating with the Office Assistant as youare?

Note: If you haven’t discovered this yet, hold your mouse over the Office Assistant andclick your “right” mouse button. Choose Animate! from the pop-up menu and beprepared for a surprise.

Take the Quick Quiz to test your knowledge!

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UNIT 1: PowerPoint Basics

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1.  You know a toolbar is successfully docked when...

 

it moves to the side of the page.

it turns a different color.

move handles appear on it.

a loud whistling sound comes from your computer speakers.

 

Click on the correct answer.

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A toolbar is successfully docked when move handles appear on it.

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2.  Clip art, text, sounds, video clips, a drawing etc. are considered as…

 

slides

objects

transitions

presentation file

 

Click on the correct answer.

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Objects: Any elements that appear on a PowerPointslide, such as clip art, text, drawings, charts, sounds,and video clips. You can refer to a clip art object, atext object, a title object, a drawing object, etc.

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3.  This toolbar lets you create shapes and graphics…

 

formatting

standard

drawing

reviewing

 

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Click on the correct answer.

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4.  PowerPoint has this many toolbars when it is first opened…

 

15

10

8

4

 

Click on the correct answer.

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PowerPoint has four main toolbars that appearwhen you first open the program

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5. can be used to___ floating toolbars and the Office Assistant 

 

open

close

minimize

maximize

 

Click on the correct answer.

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you have successfully completed the Quick Quiz!