Office 2010: PowerPoint 2010

Showing posts with label PowerPoint 2010. Show all posts

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

Tuesday, 14 July 2009

Office 2010 - News

Technical Preview

The ‘official’ Technical Preview is here

Yesterday, Microsoft began its ‘invitation only’, but none the less impressive, Technical Preview of the Office 2010 package. Still no mention of that underestimated little word, price. The price will be a major concern for anyone who already owns Office 2007 especially considering that it doesn’t do anything fundamentally different and there is also the less glamorous but still functional OpenOffice Suite for free.

Online Office

Office 2010 will also be available in an online version, albeit reduced. The programs that will be available are Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Use of the remote Office will also be compatible with Safari and Firefox. The fact that they were not really highlighting of the online version of Office 2010 is more a response to Google docs rather than a shift in emphasis from the software package. As I understand it you will need a Windows Live account to access it but there’s no cost involved even for non-Office users, though one if its main attractions is the ability to collaborate with other Office 2010 licence owners.

The Office 2010 web applications will have a restricted functionality but more than enough to make adjustments to existing documents including using formulas in Excel and adding web clips and the like to OneNote. We will have to wait for the full release of Office 2010 to try out the web-based features which are not available in the Technical Preview though, apparently they will be available later this year. You can read more about it from their site, here.

Next, SharePoint Workspace...

Friday, 10 July 2009

Office 2010 - Publisher II

Office Publisher 2010

To demonstrate how Publisher 2010 works I’ve decided to take a piece of text of three short paragraphs in length, use a landscape page layout with three columns. Half of the last column will be used for an image and the top of the first two columns will contain a title. The problem to be resolved is to fit the text perfectly into the remaining space.

The text I will use it taken from the Microsoft Security Essentials home page. There are several reasons for returning to the page (it’s the same page used in PowerPoint IV). Firstly, the program, when it is released, will be free so there is no issue with advertising it. Secondly, the page has lived its short life, it appeared on June 23 to launch the limited (I think it was 75,000 downloads) beta version which in turn was limited to 3 specific countries. And lastly, I have the page bookmarked for later reference.

Open Publisher, the program opens on the New Tab from the Office Button. I will use a landscape format but, for now, I will open the Blank A4 (Portrait). Go to the Page Design Tab > Page Setup > Orientation and select Landscape.

Still on the Page Setup Group, click Margins, at the bottom of the list select Custom Margins.

On the Layout Guides select the Grid Guides Tab > Column Guides > Columns and increase the number to 3, leave the Spacing at 0.5cm, Rows at 1 click and close.

We now have thin blue lines (Guides) separating the columns. Select Insert > Text > Draw Text Box. Drawing objects, in this case a text box, between the guides is quick and easy. Place the cursor anywhere near the blue line and the box will snap to the guides. Insert three boxes using the full size of the columns.

Reduce the height of the first two boxes by about 1.5cm using the side ruler has a guide. Shorten the size of the third column by half, leaving a space at the bottom. We now need to connect the boxes so the text will flow from one to the other.

With box one (left) selected, from the Text Box Tools > Format Tab > Linking, click Create Link, click on the Text Box you want to link to (middle). A pointer will appear on the left of the middle box pointing to the box it is linked to, and vice versa. Click on the middle box, to select it and repeat the process linking it to the box to its right. The reason for linking the boxes is that when we paste the text into box one the overflow will appear in boxes two and three.

I will now go back to the Microsoft website, copy the three paragraphs and paste them into text box one. The text has filled column one and part of column two.

Unfortunately, Publisher has used hyphenation (added hyphens "-", on the ends of lines). With the text highlighted go to Text Box Tools > Format > Text > Hyphenation, in the dialogue box deselect 'Automatically hyphenate this story'.

Returning to box one, highlight the heading ‘Collection and use of your personal information’. Change the size and type of font in the Home Tab to Times New Roman, 26pt bold, highlight the rest of the text and change its size to 12pt and justify the text (excluding the heading).

The intention is to fill the third box fully without adding anymore txt. Highlight the ‘W’ from ‘When’, the first letter of the first sentence, Text Box Tools > Format > Typography > Drop Cap. Click Drop Cap > Custom Drop Cap > Dropped > Size of letters: 4. Repeat the process for the first letter of the other two paragraphs changing the Size of letters: 2. Change the font of the three letters, W, E & M to Times New Roman and their colour to Accent 3 from the Scheme colours Home > Font > Font Colour.

With all three paragraphs highlighted, including the heading, go to the Home Tab > Font > Character Spacing > More Spacing. From the dialogue box Character Spacing > Kerning > Use this option to fine-tune the spacing between two characters. Expand: By this amount: 1.6pt (sometimes you have to play around with it until you get the right size). The text will now have filled the third column.

From the Insert Tab add an image, Insert > Illustrations > Picture, drag the image to the space in the bottom right, resizing if necessary. Insert a text box for the title, Insert > Draw Text Box and type in the title. With the title highlighted set the font size to 36pt. In Drawing Tools > Format > Shape Styles choose an appropriate style, in this case Linear Up Gradient - Accent 1.

See how it looks

Wednesday, 8 July 2009

Office 2010 – PowerPoint IV

Office PowerPoint 2010 – Continued

Having chosen the slide format from Page Setup, (see Office – PowerPoint III) click on View Tab > Master Views > Slide Master. Formatting the background, Text format and images individually will take time so we use the Slide Master to make a Master Slide whose characteristics will appear in every slide in the presentation.

The Slide Master Tab Groups are:

Edit Master
Master Layout
Edit Theme
Background
Page Setup
Close

It is important to close the Slide Master before adjusting individual slide content otherwise the content will be added to every slide in the presentation.

The subject of the presentation is Microsoft Security Essentials. The program, originally codenamed ‘Moro’ (most Microsoft applications have pre-release names) was released in beta version last month (June 23) in a small handful of countries.

The small handful is in fact three countries, United States (Microsoft’s home base) Israel (where the ‘Morro’ development team are) and Brazil (Microsoft’s target launch market). The version I use was ‘borrowed’ from the internet (series of tubes).

Microsoft Security Essentials (beta version) is a free Anti-virus/Malware/Spyware suite and successor to Windows Live OneCare and will allegedly be released by the end of 2009.

On the Slide Master Tab I prefer to set the background and images before setting the text format, that way you can see how the text will look against the background that will be constant throughout the presentation.

Right-click on the slide, select Format Background

From the Format Background box Fill > Picture or texture fill > Insert from: choose your background image, Apply to All and Close.

Click/Select the textbox at the top of the slide and select/evidence the text ‘Click to edit Master title style’, when an object is selected the Drawing tools are visible, with the text highlighted Drawing Tools > Format > WordArt Styles. I’ve selected the first one:

Fill – Tan, Text 2, Outline – Background 2

In the lower textbox I will delete all but the Third level, change the font to a serif font (serif fonts are the ones with the curly bits on the end of the letters ‘semi-structural details’, sans serif, the title text, are without) the serif font selected is Times New Roman. I will also add two images which will appear on each slide, close the Master Slide.

I will use text directly from the beta website to describe the program, (I will review it fully closer to its release date) and add slides from Home Tab > New Slide when needed.

Having added the text go to the Transitions Tab > Transition to This Slide, my own preference is the Checkerboard. A Transition is the animation which moves from one slide to the next. To keep it simple and to save time (it’s also a nice effect) I will keep the same Transition throughout the presentation by clicking Apply to All. In Effect Options I selected ‘From Top’ (the other option being 'From Left').

In Transitions > Timing > After, set the time to 00:05.00. Click the Slide Show Tab > Start Slide Show > From Beginning. Run the presentation.

Here is how the presentation should look:

Tuesday, 7 July 2009

Office 2010 – PowerPoint III

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Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010 – Continued

Before I look at how to create a presentation in PowerPoint here are the options from the Office Button.

The Office (PowerPoint) Button:

Info

Recent

New

PowerPoint Options

Options

General:

General options for working with PowerPoint.

User Interface options
Personalise your copy of Microsoft Office

Proofing:

Change how PowerPoint corrects and formats your text.

AutoCorrect options
When correcting spelling in Microsoft Office programs
When correcting spelling in PowerPoint

Save:

Customise how documents are saved.

Save presentations
Offline editing options for document management server files
File merge options for shared document management server files
Preserve fidelity when sharing this presentation:

Language:

Set the Office Language Preferences.

Choose editing languages
Choose display and Help languages

Advanced:

Advanced options for working with PowerPoint.

Editing options
Cut, copy and paste
Chart
Image Size and Quality
Display
Slide Show
Print
When printing this document
General
Web Options

Customise Ribbon:

Customise the Ribbon.

Choose commands from:
Customise the Ribbon:
New Tab
New Group
Rename
Restore Defaults
Import/Export

Quick Access Toolbar:

Customise the Quick Access Toolbar.

Choose commands from:
Customise Quick Access Toolbar:
Restore Defaults
Import/Export

Add-Ins:

View and manage Microsoft Office add-ins.

Add-ins

Trust Center:

Help keep your documents safe and your computer secure and healthy.

Protecting your privacy
Security & more
Microsoft PowerPoint Trust Center
Trust Center Settings

Creating a PowerPoint Presentation

Open PowerPoint from the start menu, here I’m using Windows 7 32bit but the same applies to Windows XP, Vista Etc. Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > PowerPoint 2010. The program opens with a default 4:3 slide showing the Home Tab.

You can, of course, create a new presentation using an existing template or theme, Office Button > New > Available Templates and Themes. Click on the icons to see a preview (at the moment the online content isn’t active but will be when the application is officially released).

For now I will be starting a presentation from scratch although I can add a theme at any point from the Design Tab.

Save

Before I do anything to anything I will give it a name and save it. Although PowerPoint hasn’t crashed here it has crashed several times whilst running the 32bit version on a 64bit drive. Having crashed, the program restarted itself with a list of last saves and auto saves to choose from.

Regardless of PowerPoint having its own safety net, most Office 2010 applications do; exceptions being OneNote saves everything and Access database entries are automatically updated, I like to know where a document is and its name.

A logical place to keep the file is My Documents > Office > PowerPoint and a descriptive, appropriate name for it is, in this case ‘officetwoten.pptx’. It has been saved with PowerPoint’s default PowerPoint Presentation format.

The complete list of Save As options are:

PowerPoint Presentation
PowerPoint Macro-Enabled Presentation
PowerPoint 97-2003 Presentation
PDF
XPS Document
PowerPoint Template
PowerPoint Marco-Enabled Template
PowerPoint 97-2003 Template
Office Theme
PowerPoint Show
PowerPoint Macro-Enabled Show
PowerPoint 97-2003 Show
PowerPoint Add-In
PowerPoint 97-2003 Add-In
PowerPoint XML Presentation
Single File Web Page
Web Page
Windows Media Video
GIF Graphics Interchange Format
JPEG File Interchange Format
PNG Portable Network Graphics Format
TIFF Tag Image File Format
Device Independent Bitmap
Windows Meta File
Enhanced Windows Metafile
Outline/RTF
PowerPoint Picture Presentation
OpenDocument Presentation

Page Setup

The first thing I would do having saved the presentation is decide the slide format. For me there is no choice to be made, if there is the possibility to present something in 16:9 format, I will use it.

Golden mean

The Golden mean (Golden section/Golden ratio) in both mathematics and art are the proportional qualities of the whole in relation to the section divided from it when the larger (whole section) is the same proportion as the smaller section. There are no, to the best of my knowledge, aesthetic or mathematical values to the 4:3 ratio (unless your screen is that proportion and you want to fill it).

From the Design Tab click Page Setup and from the dropdown list choose the appropriate setting. Slides sized for options are:

On-screen Show (4:3)
On-screen Show (16:9)
On-screen Show (16:10)
Letter Paper (8.5x11in)
Ledger Paper (11x17in)
A3 Paper (297x420mm)
A4 Paper (210x297)
B4 (ISO) Paper (250x353mm)
B5 (ISO) Paper (176x250)
35mm Slides
Overhead
Banner
Custom

I have selected On-screen (16:9) leaving the Slide orientation Landscape and Notes in Portrait, click Ok.

Next, PowerPoint continued...

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Monday, 6 July 2009

Office 2010 – PowerPoint II

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010 (Presentation)

A screen recording using PowerPoint 14

Next, PowerPoint continued...

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Sunday, 5 July 2009

Office 2010 – PowerPoint

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010 is a slide presentation program. A presentation program, of which there are many, includes three basic functions. 1. The text editing/formatting capabilities. 2. The graphic and media insertion. 3. A display program to show the presentation.

There are, of course, alternatives to Microsoft Office applications and later I will be comparing them with their Open source counterparts, the most attractive, and probably the only plausible one, being the OpenOffice project. Having previously only produced presentations using Office PowerPoint 2003/07 I’m looking forward to see how OpenOffice Impress compares to PowerPoint, not to mention the other OpenOffice applications.

PowerPoint started its life as Presenter, owned by the Forethought Company in California. In 1987 it was released as PowerPoint for the Mac, later that same year it was acquired by Microsoft and ever since has been used widely and is still considered the most effective form of persuasive technology by many.

One ironic fact about PowerPoint and other presentation software is that they use what are known as ‘slides’. Slides themselves, and slide projectors, were made obsolete by the use of programs like PowerPoint for slide presentations.