• Unit 1• PowerPoint Basics

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

Finding the toolbars

The toolbars contain graphically illustrated buttons that you

click to perform specific tasks in a program. PowerPoint has

four main toolbars, which can help you create your

presentations quickly and easily.

The Standard Toolbar is located at the top of the PowerPoint

window, below the menu bar. It has buttons for common

tasks such as saving, printing, checking spelling and

inserting charts and tables.

The Formatting Toolbar is located just below the standardtoolbar. Most of its buttons are for formatting text. Use

thesebuttons to change the font type or size, make text bold oritalic, indent text, and insert bullets.

The Drawing Toolbar is located at the bottom of the PowerPoint window. It has tools for drawing shapes, adding lines and curves, and inserting text boxes and WordArt. It also has buttons for manipulating and formatting the objects you draw.

Moving the toolbars to new locations

All PowerPoint toolbars can be moved or docked to any side

of the PowerPoint window. As well, docked toolbars,

including the Standard Toolbar, the Formatting Toolbar, and

the Drawing Toolbar, can be converted to floating toolbars.

A move handle on the left or top of the toolbar indicate that

the toolbar is docked. A title bar indicates that the toolbar is

floating.

Here's how to move one of the toolbars to a

new location:

1.Click the move handle on a docked

toolbar, or click the title bar on a floating

toolbar.

2. Holding down the mouse button, drag the

toolbar to the new location.

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

1.Click the title bar on the toolbar.

2.Drag the toolbar upwards, until the toolbar outline snaps into place along the edge of the program window.

If you see move handles on the toolbar, you know it is successfully docked.

Adding and removing toolbars PowerPoint has several other toolbars to help youaccomplish your tasks.

The Picture Toolbar has several buttons that are useful 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 with animations, and the Web Toolbar helps you create presentations on the Internet. There's also a Reviewing Toolbar, a WordArt Toolbar, and a Control Box Toolbar. When you're a more advanced user, you may wish to add some of these toolbars to your PowerPoint window. Let's say you want to add the animation effects toolbar. Here's what you do:

1. Click the View menu, and then point to Toolbars. 2. In the submenu, click the check box next to animation effects. An animation effects toolbar appears in the PowerPoint window.

Removing a toolbar PowerPoint 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 todeselect it.

The check mark disappears and the animation effectstoolbar is removed from 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 Office Assistant 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 PowerpointHelp.

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 indicates 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. A callout 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. For example, type “insert a Graphic.” 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 from thelist. (Click See More for moreoptions.) The help topic isdisplayed.

Using PowerPoint vocabulary Here are some terms in PowerPoint 97 that are useful to know.

Slide: An individual screen in a slide show.

Presentation File: The file you save to disk that contains all the slides, speakers notes, handouts, etc. that make up your presentation.

Object: Any element that appears on a PowerPoint slide, such as clip art, text, drawings, charts, sounds, and video clips. You can refer to a clip art object, a text 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 how to 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 demonstration with 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 sounds 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 your students 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 and click your "right" mouse button. Choose Animate! from the pop-up menu and be prepared for a surprise.

Take the Quick Quiz to test your knowledge!

UNIT 1: PowerPoint Basics

1. You know a toolbar is successfully docked

when…

a. it moves to the side of the page

b. it turns a different color.

c. move handles appear on it.

d. a loud whistling sound comes from your computer speakers

Click on the correct answer

That answer is incorrect.

A toolbar is successfullydocked when movehandles appear on it.

2. What toolbar helps you to work with animations?

a. Animation Effects

b. Picture

c. Reviewing

d. Common Task

Click on the correct answer

That answer is incorrect.

The Animation Effects Toolbar has buttons for working withanimations.

3. What is the formatting toolbar used for?

a. manipulating page size and orientation

b. changing slide layout and design

c. deleting slides

d. changing the font type or size, make text bold or italic, indent

text and insert bullets

Click on the correct answer

That answer is incorrect.

The Formatting Toolbar is used tochange the font type or size, maketext bold or italic, indent text andinsert bullets.

4. What is one way can you access the Office Assistant?

a. Typing “help” into the search field.

b. Pressing Alt and f4 together.

c. Clicking the Help menu, then click Microsoft PowerPoint Help.

d. Selecting “Office Assistant” under the View toolbar.

Click on the correct answer

That answer is incorrect.

You can active the OfficeAssistant you can either, click theOffice Assistant button on thestandard toolbar

Or

Click the Help menu, then clickMicrosoft PowerPoint Help.

5. What is not an example of a special effect transitionyou can use between slides?

a. fade in from black

b. skipping to the end

c. dissolve from one slide to another

d. fly in

Click on the correct answer

That answer is incorrect.

Skipping to the end is not a special effects transition!

you have successfully completed the Quick Quiz!