General tips

§        Use the spelling and grammar check button.

Use the AutoContent Wizard to give you ideas what to say.

§        Dont read the presentation.   Practice the presentation speaking  from bullet points.  The text should be a cue for the presenter rather than a message for the viewer.

Make your presentation available on the Web.

§        Give a brief overview at the start.  Then present the information.  and at the end review important points.

Practice, practice, practice.  Use Rehearse Timings

§        It is more effective to have bulleted points appear slowly one at a time so the audience listens to the presenter rather than reading the screen.

Color-coordinate your materials

§         If sound effects are used, wait until the sound has finished to start speaking.

Use the Outline view to write content quickly

§        If the content is difficult then print out the slides so the audience can take notes.

Making Slides Print Correctly

Power Point has certain defaults to determine how it prints each object on the page.  You can see over-ride these defaults by following the next simple steps:  Go to View/Black and White; this will show you a gray-scale preview of how your slide will print.  To change the print settings for any given object, right-click on it, then click "Black and White", and then choose the appropriate print option for that object.  Master objects can be selected by going to the Master page View.

     Setting the Default Text Style

 If you want to change the style of the text that appears when you type things that aren't the title or the slide body, do the following:
Make sure no objects are selected.
From the Format menu, select Font. Make all the changes that you want there, and click OK.
From that point on, new text will be created in that style.

To Set the formatting for the title or slide body objects, go to the Slide Master and format these objects on the master.

    Using Different Backgrounds within one Presentation

 Users of PowerPoint 2000 and lower will only have two background designs automatically supplied with the Masters (counting both the Slide Master and the Title Master).  However, you can have any design you want on any slide. From the Format menu, select Background. Check the box that says "omit background items" and this will make the slide ignore the Slide Master's design. You are now free to add whatever design you want to this slide. If you want to do this to many slides at once, go to the Slide Sorter, select the slides, and then use the Format menu command. Remember though that if you choose to do something like put a photographic background on many of your slides instead of doing it once on the Master, that your file size may increase dramatically.

      Editing Drawings

Anything you draw with the pencil tool, can be edited. To get the object into "points mode", either double-click on the object, or select it then hit the Enter key. You will then see points at every vertex, which you can move. You can add points by holding down the shift key and clicking, you can subtract points by holding down the ALT key while clicking, and you can of course just drag points around.

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