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Interactive PowerPoint:
an interactive guide
General Vito Belarmino
National High School
For assistance on using this interactive PowerPoint tutorial click the help button above.
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The hyperlink and other methods are covered on these pages (slides) and the slides under
the settings menu cover the change needed there, the settings are stored with the
presentation, they don't effect the PowerPoint program itself.
In simple terms, to create a resource like this one, where the different slides are linked to by
clicking buttons etc. we have to do two things;
Blind Alleys
Are you sure you want to go down a blind alley?
Oh yes please, I
can’t wait!
Maybe not, please
send me back
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Blind Alleys
Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
But since I’m really kind I’ll put in an exit for you in a few moments…
EXIT
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Menus.
Menus typically comprise a set of buttons that enable overall navigation. Deciding
on the underlying theme of the buttons though is not as simple as it may appear and
it is as well to remember that the way you as author of the resource think of the
learning sequence may not be the same as that of the recipient. I could for example
set this resource up as a more didactic tutorial, leading the user through creating an
interactive resource, I could even have a link to an alternative menu structure that
was topic lead instead so both views were covered. (Life is short – I didn’t!).
The menu on this resource is simply a collection of buttons, it could though be a set
of text based hyperlinks set in a table.
Dropdown...
Menus.
Pick Area
Menus typically comprise a set of buttons that buttons
Aligning enable overall navigation. Deciding
on the underlying theme of the buttons though is not as simple as it may appear and
it is as well to remember that the way you as author of the resource think of the
learning sequence may not be the sae as that of the recipient. I could for example
set this resource up as a more didactic tutorial, leading the user through creating an
interactive resource, I could even have a link to an alternative menu structure that
was topic lead instead so both views were covered. (Life is short – I didn’t!).
The menu on this resource is simply a collection of buttons, it could though be a set
of text based hyperlinks set in a table.
Dropdown menus
Dropdown menus in PowerPoint are a trick. The click on the "Menu" button
from the master slide is intercepted by a see-through object on (in this case)
the menu slide, this sends the user to another slide, with the dropdown menu
on it. This menu appears over a copy of the original slide, so the user sees the
menu appear and no other change.
The menu is just a text box, the text is hyperlinked to other slides.
People are conditioned into using dropdown menus by familiarity with other
software so can generally use them but it is important that they realise that this
is the way the menu works.
(This isn't the way that such a technique would be effected on a webpage but
works well in PowerPoint.)
Another clever way of achieving this effect is to use "Triggers" – these are
covered in the Advanced area, they are very effective if a little complex!
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* Note the contents of an external web page are not the responsibility of this resource or its author.
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Wales
Scotland
Northern
England - Area
covers20,779
Ireland,
populationan square
area
area of51,000,000,
5,459
about square
kilometres
78,782km²
miles ofpopulation
(14,139
total area km²), Atabout
oris30,341miles²,
the time
about130410 sq of
kmthe
2,900,000.
population
UK Census
(50352 estimated in 2006
in April 2001,
sq miles). its at
5,116,900.
population was 1,685,000.
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Aligning buttons
When setting up a menu using objects like buttons it is worth knowing about the
alignment tools offered by PowerPoint.
The "Grids and Guides" dialog is reached Snapped
to grid
either through the View menu or the Draw
menu. Typicaly the objects in PowerPoint are
set to click into an invisible grid on the slide. I
Not
recommend that you leave the snap to grid snapped
to grid
option on but use the Alt key while dragging an
object if you want to override it.
You can display the grid on the screen, this is like working on graph paper, you can switch
them off in the same way.
Drawing guides can be useful as a way of guiding your "by eye" judgement of silting
objects, this is especially useful when the objects are not symmetrical (e.g. pictures).
Aligning buttons
When setting up a menu using objects like buttons it is worth knowing about the
alignment tools offered by PowerPoint.
A final issue is to check that the system is set up to produce an Where is this in 2007
"On-screen Show" click here for more details.
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A final issue is to check that the system is set up to produce an Where is this in 2007
"On-screen Show" click here for more details.
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A final issue is to check that the system is set up to produce an Where is this in 2007
"On-screen Show" click here for more details.
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More...
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Sizing Clipart.
Select the illustration by clicking
once on it, the Picture toolbar
may well appear depending on REMEMBER:
d Hitting Delete with an image
the version you are using and ed cte
ect S ele
Sel No
t selected will delete it. (If you do
how it is set up. The object
this by mistake try the Undo
selected should then appear facility! under the Edit menu).
with the "drag handles" round it.
To change a Slide Master select Master from the View menu, and then choose
Slide Master.
The Slide Master appears. You can work on the master just as you would a slide,
adding a logo, changing text attributes, adding a background etc.
When you've finished making changes, from the View menu, choose Slides or
Normal so you're no longer viewing the master slide.
Now, when you look at the slides in your presentation, you see the changes you
made applied to every slide.
If you put a menu on your master slide then this will appear on all slides, you can
temporarily disable it by covering it up on a specific slide. You might also investigate
the use of multiple master slides, a feature available in later versions.
You can have multiple master slides within a presentation, each master can be set
to govern a set of slides.
Any changes you make to the Master Slide will affect all the other
slides dependant on it, usually all the slides in the presentation.
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What are the good and bad issues of using interactive PowerPoint?
• The resource site in one file, can be • Using the Microsoft PowerPoint
easily stored, emailed, hosted on an e- platform can give a hostage to fortune,
learning platform and even password Microsoft can happily remove support
protected if needed. for certain features in new versions.
• Easier than a conventional webpage to • Needs a special viewer, i.e.
construct and uses transferable skills, PowerPoint.
building on existing PowerPoint skills. • Requires a new way of thinking about
• Simple to put colour and movement in. structure and delivery, at first this can
• Allows us to be innovative about be difficult.
structure and delivery or the resource. • Can be a great draw on time and
• Browse-able by people with minimal IT encourage us to add more content
skills, just like any web type resource. than we might in other media.
• Can be saved as raw HTML if the • Limited functionality compared to
more complex features of PowerPoint “proper” web authoring tools.
are avoided.
I’m sure there are lots and lots more, enjoy finding them!
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Exit Strategies
How do you create an exit button? Easy, its a button, like
any other, it can say "Exit" on it but might have some
graphic, the "action buttons" are useful, choose a blank
one and change its action settings to "End Show".
Creating a simulated
scrolling text box in
PowerPoint.
Creating a simulated
scrolling text box in
PowerPoint.
How to do it...
First you need a spellchecked version
of the text you want to appear in the
box.
You can have this in one long text box
in PowerPoint, remember that the
textbox in PowerPoint can be set to
automatically resize as more text is
added, this is fine for the initial typing
but we'll need to change it later.
When you have the text in a long
textbox, probably too long to fit the
screen, you can start the fun.
First make an estimate of how many
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Creating a simulated
scrolling text box in
PowerPoint.
A guide to changing
resolution – a simple way. Click to see the pictures larger
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Picture resolution
issues.
The two pictures here seem similar, there is a
difference however in the amount of information
each contains. The lower resolution version
takes up 24.79 KB (25,389 Bytes) of space on
disk and typically takes 16 milliseconds to
display on the screen, the higher resolution one
takes up 90.80 KB (92,983 Bytes) of space on
disk and typically takes 47 milliseconds to
display on the screen.
A larger resolution picture from a digital camera
might well take up 500 KB or more, even several
megabytes if a modern high resolution camera is
used! this makes the presentation very large and
unwieldy and offers no benefit to the viewer,
since the limiting factor is the screen resolution,
it just slows the interaction down.
A guide to changing
resolution – a simple way. Click to see the pictures larger
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A guide to changing
resolution – a simple way. Click the image to switch between low and high resolution
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You can check the file size in the well hidden "Advanced
document properties", or simply look at it on disk to see if
it is smaller.
When the picture looks reasonable choose Save As from the File menu
and change the file type to JPEG (.jpg) – this is the format that saves
space. Then click Save. Once back in PowerPoint, use Insert, Picture,
From file to insert the picture.
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• Good “off-keyboard planning” is the key to a • The plan isn’t written in stone
good structure. A good tip in designing a but should be a fluid thing.
menu structure is to allow for expansion, this
resource originally didn’t have the
“Advanced” menu item, when I added it I put
in an intermediate sub-menu page to allow for
future expansion!
• Sketching out the design is
a useful development step,
you can do it in a way that
has meaning to you. There
is no need to use formal
flowcharting conventions!
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• Only certain types of slide offer a title for you to fill in when they are
created, so if you want a blank slide but also want to title it then you can
create a title only slide, type in the title but then set the text colour for the
title to the same as the background so it can't be seen.
• Be careful, the linking system doesn't work if you try to link to a slide with
certain punctuation in the title! Don't ask me why not, and it might not be
a problem in some versions but in PowerPoint 2003 this is an issue. The
title of this slide is realy "Naming slides secret names and traps"
however, the one you see has all kinds of punctuation in it.
• If you open this presentation in edit mode you’ll see that the title isn't
“Naming slides, secret names and traps. (Tricks and traps when naming
slides.)” but is actually “Naming slides secret names and traps”, this title
is hidden from the user by making the font colour the same as this slides’
background, the title the user sees is realy just a text box. While not an
essential trick it can be useful in complex resources to help the author
keep track!
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Zoom in diagrams.
This very simple demonstration shows the general idea of zooming in/out. Given time and patience the entire
picture could be covered with areas to link to “zoomed in” images. I only did one part as a demo. On a picture
similar to this we might have the clickable areas take us to specific instructions or detail about how the particular
control works, ideal for tutorials about specific equipment or systems.
Zoom in diagrams.
This very simple demonstration shows the general idea of zooming in/out. Given time and patience the entire
picture could be covered with areas to link to “zoomed in” images. I only did one part as a demo. On a picture
similar to this we might have the clickable areas take us to specific instructions or detail about how the particular
control works, ideal for tutorials about specific equipment or systems.
Zoom in diagrams.
This very simple demonstration shows the general idea of zooming in/out. Given time and patience the entire
picture could be covered with areas to link to “zoomed in” images. I only did one part as a demo. On a picture
similar to this we might have the clickable areas take us to specific instructions or detail about how the particular
control works, ideal for tutorials about specific equipment or systems.
Click here,
the text This text is triggered by the bottom oval but has an exit animation
should stay
only 2
set to make it dissolve 2 seconds after it is triggered to appear
seconds
Click here to see how to set up triggers.
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Time remaining
0
1
2
3 seconds
Time done, how
many did you get?
did you get all ten?
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This animation will cycle through repeatedly, just let it wash over you a few times then have a go on a blank slide.
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Quizzes
I recon there are three basic ways to set up a quiz in interactive PowerPoint –
there may be more, but three is enough for me!
1. Putting a yes/no or other selectable link after the question, the link takes the
user to a slide saying the answer is correct or not. These feedback slides
can be common and just link back to the "last slide viewed". This method is
simple but can lead to a lot of slides. (To link back to the previous slide
viewed right click the button or item that activates the link and use the
Action Settings menu to hyperlink to "last slide viewed".)
2. Use the trigger technique to give answers and feedback, this works well
and allows quite in depth feedback but is complex to set up and may not
transfer well to HTML if the resource is to be converted later. (Example)
3. Use the "Highlight click" action setting in older versions BUT it doesn't work
if viewed in version 2007. This enables the answer to be hidden on the slide
and revealed when an area is clicked on. The first two methods are covered
in this tutorial though not in the context of testing, the last is explained here.
This is an excellent system that works well in versions prior to Office 2007.
Unfortunately it appears to be interpreted differently in this later version!
however there is a workround.
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56.00
54.00
How do we do it?
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From the menu that drops down pick "Timing" and then "Trigger on the dialog box,
select the button for "Start effect on click of:" and use the dropdown to select the Histogram
object that will trigger the objects appearance. This method is quite complex and
it is easy to get confused, do be sure to check that the objects do as you want
before releasing the resource to a wider audience! You can of course make the
object trigger itself, the last of the three answer boxes does this. Instead of having
a second box for the answer we simply change the font using the "Emphasis"
option rather than the "Appear" option, the button itself has the text already in but
in the same font as the background, by triggering "Change font colour" as the type
of emphasis we can make it change to a contrasting colour, the effect options are
useful, we could set "rewind after playing" so the answer disappears after
appearing. To get used to using this method I recommend trying it out on a
sparsely populated slide.
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56.00
had stopped
54.00
Year ending
How do we do it?
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Versions of PowerPoint
There are many versions of PowerPoint available on the PC and Apple Mac
platforms. Typicaly versions after version 97 support most of the features covered
in this resource. There are some changes in using version 2007. In v2007 the menu
structure is very different from the previous versions, this is likely to be quite a
barrier to many users – it certainly surprised me! Microsoft have created a simple
online tutorial designed to help people translate from version 2003 to 2007. The link
may decay in time but presently accessible here.
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Help.
About.
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Help.
Help.
Help.
Help.
Annotated Bibliography (1 of 2)
NORMAN K L. (1991), The Psychology of Menu Selection: Designing Cognitive Control at the Human/Computer Interface Ablex
Publishing Corporation, also online at; http://lap.umd.edu/POMS/
Written at the dawn of computer science this book covers basic menu structure issues but before the general acceptance of WIMP
technology. It covers types of menus and cognitive structures, which is highly relevant to informing the menu structure for this
resource. Menu selection is emerging as an important mode of human/computer interaction. This book is gives detailed theoretical
and some empirical information of general interest to people designing human useable interfaces to complex information systems.
GILLESPIE J, (2005) Web Page Design for Designers [online] last accessed in November 2006 at; http://www.wpdfd.com/index.htm
The power of colour is an important one if not over used, in the resource Joe Gillespie gives many ideas for the use of colour,
contrast and tone as well as addressing some more technical such as palette complexity and its possible effects on transferability.
Specific colour and palette issues are addressed at; http://www.wpdfd.com/wpdpal3.htm
Idaho State University, Instructional Technology Resource Center (2005), Enhancing PowerPoint Presentations for PowerPoint XP
and 2003 [ONLIN] LAST ACCESSED November 2006 AT; http://www.isu.edu/itrc/resources/enhancingppt.pdf
This short guide on additional features of PowerPoint is a useful starting point for more advanced PowerPoint skills development. It
covers embedding additional media types into the slides and gives links and references to other useful resources.
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