Whenever you're given an opportunity to create or use a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, it means you or someone on your team is going to communicate something important to someone else. This naturally creates a little excitement and a lot of nervousness; and unfortunately, this tends to make creating your PowerPoint presentation a very stressful time.
If you don't forget for who the PowerPoint presentation is intended for (which of course is for your audience, not you), the content of your presentation should be simple to put together. However, if you need a good reminder of that, be sure to read this article I wrote about that. The only left after that to make things as smooth as possible is how you your presentation. Below are features in Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 that you will help you with that.
View Menu ~ Slide SorterThis is probably the most versatile tool in Microsoft PowerPoint. The original intent of the Slide Sorter is to make it easy to change the order of your slides by clicking and dragging them around. After creating the first slide, I also use the Slide Sorter to copy and paste the rest of the slides I need that use the same layout - which can save you a lot of time. The best time-saver is being able Select-All (Ctrl+A), Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click several slides and perform a task on all of them that are selected. Now you won't have to apply 8 seconds to a slide 20 times; just concentrate on your content, and then configure the slides quickly with the Slide Sorter.
Slide Show Menu ~ Rehearse TimingsI don't have to create a lot of presentations that are on a timer; but when I do, most of them I can get away with applying the same number of seconds to all of them. But if they have to be different, I never know how many seconds each slide should stay on the screen - and the good news is that I don't have to. Using the Rehearse Timings feature in Microsoft PowerPoint gives you the power to run your slide while it records the seconds for you. This is great for when you need your slide presentation to match a voice recording, or a music track.
File Menu ~ Package for CD ...For those of us that don't have a laptop and need our presentation to show on another computer; the Package for CD feature has a lot of advantages over just copying the PPT file onto a floppy or CD. In prior versions of Microsoft PowerPoint, you had to remember to copy the PowerPoint viewer in addition to your presentation - in case the machine you ran it on didn't have the full version of PowerPoint. The Package for CD feature not only includes it for you, but also creates a PLAY.BAT file that you can just double click to start your presentation. Using this also ensures that your presentation is able to run to its full capacity in case the computer you used doesn't have the right version of Microsoft PowerPoint.
Remember Me
