My Office 2016 (2016)
10. Working with PowerPoint Slide Shows
In this chapter, you learn how to work with PowerPoint slide shows, including how to set up slide animations, work out slide timings, record narration, and run the slide show. Topics include the following:
Adding transitions to your slides
Working with predefined and custom animations
Rehearsing the timing of each slide
Recording narration for a slide or entire presentation
Starting and navigating a slide show
In Chapter 9, “Building a PowerPoint Presentation,” I mentioned that your goal when creating your slides should be to achieve a balance between eye candy and content. That is, although you need to tweak your slide fonts, colors, and effects to a certain extent to add visual interest, you do not want to go so far that your message is lost.
The same idea applies to the slide show as a whole, particularly if you want to add some dynamism to the presentation with slide transitions and object animations. These are fine additions to any presentation, but going overboard and therefore overwhelming your content is easy to do. This chapter gives you the details and techniques that can help you create the dynamic and interesting slide shows that audiences crave, but always remember that the message is the most important thing in any presentation.
Defining Slide Animations
Many years ago, someone defined fritterware as any software program that offers so many options and settings that you could fritter away hours at a time tweaking and playing with the program. PowerPoint’s animation features certainly put it into the fritterware category because whiling away entire afternoons playing with transitions, entrance effects, motion paths, and other animation features is not hard. So consider yourself warned that the information in the next few sections might have adverse effects on your productivity.
Animation Guidelines
Before you learn how to apply slide transitions and object animations, it’s worth taking a bit of time now to run through a few guidelines for making the best use of slide show animations:
• Enhance your content—The goal of any animation should always be to enhance your presentation, either to emphasize a slide object or to keep up your audience’s interest. Resist the temptation to add effects just because you think they are cool or fun, because chances are most of your audience won’t see them that way.
• Remember that transitions can be useful—Using some sort of effect to transition from one slide to the next is a good idea because it adds visual interest, gives the audience a short breather, and helps you control the pacing of your presentation.
• Remember that transitions can be distracting—A slide transition is only as useful as it is unremarkable. If everybody leaves your presentation thinking “Nice transitions!” you have a problem because they should be thinking about your message. Simple transitions such as fades, wipes, and dissolves add interest but do not get in the way. On the other hand, if you have objects flying in from all corners of the screen, your content will seem like a letdown.
• When it comes to transitions and animations, variety is not the spice of life—Avoid the temptation to use many different transitions and animations in a single presentation. Just as slide text looks awful if you use too many fonts, your presentations will look amateurish if you use too many animated effects.
• Keep up the pace—For transitions, keep the duration setting low to ensure that the transition from one slide to another never takes more than a few seconds. Also, avoid running multiple object animations at the same time because it can take an awfully long time for the effect to finish, and audiences never like having their time wasted on such things.
• Match your animations to your audience—If you are presenting to sales and marketing types, your entire presentation will be a bit on the flashy side, so you can probably get away with more elaborate animations; in a no-nonsense presentation to board members, animations and transitions should be as simple as possible.
Set Up a Slide Transition
A slide transition is a special effect that displays the next slide in the presentation. For example, in a fade transition, the next slide gradually materializes, while in a blinds transition the next slide appears with an effect similar to opening Venetian blinds. PowerPoint has nearly 40 different slide transitions, and for each one you can control the transition speed, the sound effect that goes along with the transition, and the trigger for the transition (a click or a time interval).
1. Select the slide you want to work with. If you want to apply the transition to multiple slides, select the slides.
2. Select the Transitions tab.
3. Select the More button in the Transition to This Slide group. PowerPoint displays a gallery of transitions.
4. Select the transition effect you want. PowerPoint previews the transition.
5. If the transition effect comes with any options, select Effect Options to see what’s available.
6. In the Sound list, select the sound that you want to play during the transition. (If you are not sure which one you want, you can hover the mouse pointer over any sound effect to hear it played.)
7. Use the Duration spin box to set the time, in seconds, that it takes to play the transition.
8. If you want to move to the next slide by clicking the screen during the slide show, leave the On Mouse Click check box selected.
9. If you want to move to the next slide automatically after a set number of minutes and/or seconds, select the After check box and then specify the time interval.
10. Select Preview to try out your transition.
>>>Go Further: Special “Sounds”
The Sound list contains four special cases:
• [No Sound]—Select this item to run the transition without a sound effect.
• [Stop Previous Sound]—If the previous slide transition used a long-running sound effect, select this item to stop that sound.
• Other Sound—Select this item to display the Add Audio dialog box. Select the sound file you want to use and then select OK.
• Loop Until Next Sound—Select this command to repeat the chosen sound effect until the next effect begins.
The Loop Until Next Sound option is appropriate in few circumstances, so exercise some caution with this command. Unless your looped sound is a pleasant snippet of music (that loops smoothly) or an effect that requires some time—such as a ticking clock—the constant noise will just distract or annoy your audience.
Animate Slide Objects
A dynamic presentation is one where the slide text, graphics, and other objects are not static and lifeless on the screen. Instead, such a presentation takes advantage of PowerPoint’s four types of animation effects:
• Entrance—These effects control how the object comes onto the slide.
• Emphasis—These effects add emphasis to an object by altering various text properties, including the typeface, size, boldface, italic, and color.
• Exit—These effects control how the object goes off the slide when you move to the next slide.
• Motion Paths—These effects control the path that the object follows when it comes onto and goes off the slide.
Again, you don’t want to overdo any of these effects, but neither should you ignore them.
Add an Animation
PowerPoint’s Ribbon offers the Animations tab, which makes it easy to select an animation for any object on a slide.
1. Select the slide you want to work with.
2. Select the slide object you want to animate.
Applying Animation
You can apply animation to any object, including the title and text placeholders, individual bullets or paragraphs (select the bullet or paragraph text), and drawing layer objects such as text boxes, shapes, clip art, pictures, SmartArt, charts, and tables.
3. Select the Animations tab.
4. Select the More button in the Animation group. PowerPoint displays the Animation gallery.
5. Select the animation you want to apply to the object. PowerPoint previews the animation.
6. If the animation effect comes with any options, select Effect Options to see what’s available.
7. Use the Start list to determine when the animation begins. On Click means it begins when you click the screen, which is usually what you want. You can also select With Previous to have the animation run at the same time as the previous animation, or After Previous to have the animation run immediately after the previous animation is complete.
8. Use the Duration spin box to set the time, in seconds, that it takes to play the transition.
9. Use the Delay spin box to set the time, in seconds, that PowerPoint waits before starting the transition.
10. To change the order in which the animations occur, click the object and then use the Move Earlier and Move Later commands to move the object up or down in the animation order.
11. Select Preview to try out your animation.
>>>Go Further: Making Bullets Appear One at a Time
One of the most popular animation effects is making bullets appear individually, usually in response to a mouse click. This useful presentation trick gives you full control over the display of your bullets. By animating bullets individually, you can prevent your audience from being distracted by bullets beyond the one you’re currently discussing; you can hide bullets that contain “surprise” results until you’re ready to present them; you can place extra emphasis on the individual bullets because they don’t enter the slide individually as a group; and you add pizzazz by giving each bullet a different animation effect. (Although, of course, you want to be careful here that you don’t induce animation overload on your audience.) If you’ve applied an animation to a text placeholder that contains bullets, you can make the bullets appear one at a time by selecting Effect Options and then selecting By Paragraph.
Preparing a Slide Show
Once you have your slides set up with content, transitions, and animations, you’re ready to start thinking about the slide show that you’ll be presenting. There isn’t a ton that you have to do to prepare for the slide show, but there are a few tasks you should consider. These include rehearsing the timings of each slide, adding narration to individual slides or even the entire presentation, and putting together a custom slide show. The next few sections provide the details.
PowerPoint has a feature that can greatly improve your presentations. The feature is called Rehearse Timings and the idea behind it is simple: You run through (“rehearse”) your presentation, and while you do this, PowerPoint keeps track of the amount of time you spend on each slide. This is useful for two reasons:
• If you have only so much time to present the slide show, Rehearse Timings lets you know whether your overall presentation runs too long or too short.
• After the rehearsal, you can examine the time spent on each slide. If you have consecutive slides where you spend a short amount of time on each, consider consolidating two or more of the slides into a single slide. Conversely, if you have some slides where you spend a great deal of time, consider splitting each one into two or more slides to avoid overwhelming (or boring) your audience.
PowerPoint also gives you a third reason to use Rehearse Timings: You can save the resulting timings and use them to run a slide show automatically. You find out how to do this later in this chapter (see “Set Up an Automatic Slide Show”).
Rehearse Slide Timings
Before getting started, open the presentation you want to rehearse and collect any notes or props you’ll use during the presentation.
1. Select the Slide Show tab.
2. Select Rehearse Timings. PowerPoint starts the slide show and displays the Rehearsal toolbar.
3. Present the slide exactly as you would during the actual presentation.
Resetting and Pausing
If you mess up a slide, you can start the timing of that slide over again by selecting the Repeat button. If you just need a second or two to gather your thoughts, select Pause, instead.
4. Select Next to move on to the next slide.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the entire presentation. When the presentation is done, PowerPoint displays the total presentation time and asks whether you want to save the slide timings.
6. To save the timings, select Yes; otherwise, select No.
Recording Narration
Part of the appeal of a good presentation is that it feels like we are being told a story. Some words or images appear on a screen, but a person presents the underlying narrative for those words and images. There is something about a live human voice explicating some idea or process that is appealing on a deep level.
However, times may occur when you require a recorded voice for some or all of a presentation:
• You might have a slide that consists of a recorded greeting from the CEO or someone else at your company.
• You might have several slides where an expert does the presenting. If that person cannot be at your presentation, you need to record his or her material.
• You might be setting up an automatic presentation and so require recorded narration for the entire show.
PowerPoint can handle all these situations by enabling you to record narration from one or more slides or for the entire presentation.
Record Narration for a Slide
If needed, you can record narration for just a single slide.
1. Select the slide you want to narrate.
2. Select the Slide Show tab.
3. Select the bottom half of the Record Slide Show button.
4. Select Start Recording from Current Slide. PowerPoint displays the Record Slide Show dialog box.
5. If you have already rehearsed the slide timings, you can deselect the Slide and Animation Timings check box.
6. Make sure the Narrations and Laser Pointer check box is selected.
7. Select the Start Recording button. PowerPoint displays the slide and the Rehearsal toolbar.
8. Run through your narration.
9. When you’re done, select More.
10. Select End Show. PowerPoint adds a sound icon to the slide.
11. Select the sound icon.
12. Select the Playback tab.
13. Use the Start list to select when the narration starts: Automatically (the narration begins when you display the slide) or On Click (the narration begins when you click the slide).
Clearing the Narration
If you’re not happy with your narration, you can remove it from the slide. Select the slide you used for the narration, select the Slide Show tab, select the bottom half of the Record Slide Show button, select Clear, and then select Clear Narration on Current Slide.
Record Narration for an Entire Presentation
If you need to record narration for the entire presentation, collect your notes, pull up your microphone, and then follow these steps.
1. Select the Slide Show tab.
2. Select the bottom half of the Record Slide Show button.
3. Select Start Recording from Beginning. PowerPoint displays the Record Slide Show dialog box.
4. If you have already rehearsed the slide timings, you can deselect the Slide and Animation Timings check box.
5. Make sure the Narrations and Laser Pointer check box is selected.
6. Select the Start Recording button. PowerPoint opens the first slide and displays the Rehearsal toolbar.
7. Present the slide exactly as you would during the actual presentation, including your narration.
8. Select Next to display the next slide.
9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 until the presentation is done. PowerPoint adds a sound icon to each slide in the presentation.
10. For each slide, select the sound icon.
11. Select the Playback tab.
12. Use the Start list to select when the narration starts: Automatically (the narration begins when you display the slide) or On Click (the narration begins when you click the slide).
Running the Show Without Narration
If you need to run the slide show without narration, select the Slide Show tab and then select Set Up Slide Show to display the Set Up Show dialog box. Select the Show Without Narration check box and then select OK.
Clearing the Entire Narration
If you’re not happy with any of your narration, you can remove it from the presentation. Select the slide you used for the narration, select the Slide Show tab, select the bottom half of the Record Slide Show button, select Clear, and then select Clear Narration on All Slides.
Setting Up Multiple Versions of a Slide Show
Having two or more versions of a presentation is common. Here are some examples:
• You might have a short version and a long version of a presentation.
• You might want to omit certain slides depending on whether you are presenting to managers, salespeople, or engineers.
• You might have “internal” and “external” versions; that is, you might have one version for people who work at your company and a different version for people from outside the company.
You could accommodate these different scenarios by creating copies of the presentation and then removing or reordering the slides as appropriate. However, this process takes a great deal of work, wastes disk space, and is inefficient when one slide changes and you have to make the same change in every version of the presentation that includes the slide.
A much better solution is to define one or more custom slide shows, which is a customized list of slides and the order in which you want them to appear.
Create a Custom Slide Show
You create a custom slide show by deciding which slides you want to appear in the presentation and then positioning those slides in the order you prefer.
1. Select the Slide Show tab.
2. Select Custom Slide Show.
3. Select Custom Shows. PowerPoint displays the Custom Shows dialog box.
4. Select New. PowerPoint displays the Define Custom Show dialog box.
5. Type a name for the custom slide show.
6. Select the check box beside each slide you want to include in the custom show.
7. Select Add. PowerPoint adds the selected slides to the Slides in Custom Show list.
8. Select a slide.
9. Select Up or Down to reposition the slide within the custom show.
10. Select Remove to delete the slide from the custom show.
11. Select OK to return to the Custom Shows dialog box. PowerPoint displays the name of your custom slide show in the Custom Shows list.
12. Select Close.
Editing a Custom Slide Show
To make changes to your custom slide show, select Slide Show, Custom Slide Show, Custom Shows; select the custom slide show and then select Edit.
Running a Slide Show
With your slides laid out, the text perfected, and the formatting just right, you are now ready to present your slide show. The next few sections show you how to start and navigate a slide show, as well as how to set up an automatic slide show.
Start the Slide Show
You can start a slide show from the beginning or from a particular slide.
1. If you want to start the slide show from a particular slide, select that slide.
2. Select the Slide Show tab.
3. If you rehearsed the slide show timings, as described earlier in this chapter, and you want the slides to advance automatically, select the Use Timings check box.
4. To start the slide show from the current slide, select From Current Slide; otherwise, select From Beginning. PowerPoint starts the slide show.
Keyboard Shortcut
You can start your slide show from the beginning by pressing F5. To start the slide show from the selected slide instead, press Shift+F5.
>>>Go Further: Starting a Custom Slide Show
If you configured a custom slide show, as described earlier in the “Create a Custom Slide Show” section, you can also launch that custom show. To start a custom slide show, select the Slide Show tab, select Custom Slide Show, and then select Custom Shows to open the Custom Shows dialog box. Select the show you want in the list that appears and then select Show.
Navigate Slides
With your slide show running, you now need to navigate from one slide to the next.
1. Click the screen. PowerPoint displays either the next slide or the next animation in the current slide.
2. Move the mouse pointer. PowerPoint displays the slide show controls in the lower-left corner of the screen.
Displaying the Controls
If you have trouble getting PowerPoint to display the slide show controls, press A to make the mouse pointer visible, then move the pointer until the controls appear.
3. Click Previous to return to the previous slide or undo the most recent animation.
4. Click Next to move to the next slide or play the next animation.
5. Click Pointer Options.
6. Select the type of pointer you want to use.
7. Select a pointer color.
8. Select More. PowerPoint displays a menu of slide show controls.
9. Select End Show to stop the slide show before you reach the last slide.
>>>Go Further: Navigating the Slide Show from the Keyboard
PowerPoint gives you quite a few keyboard alternatives for navigating and controlling the slide show. These are useful alternatives because displaying the shortcut menu can look unprofessional, and pressing a key or key combination is also usually faster.
Set Up an Automatic Slide Show
What do you do if you want to show a presentation at a trade show, fair, or other public event, but you cannot have a person presenting the slide show? Similarly, what do you do if you want to send a presentation to a customer or prospect and you cannot be there to go through the slide show yourself? In these and similar situations, you can configure the presentation to run automatically.
1. Select the Slide Show tab.
2. Rehearse the slide show timings and save the timings when you are done.
Advancing Slides Automatically
As an alternative to rehearsing the slide show timings, for each slide in the show, select the slide, select the Transitions tab, select the After check box in the Timing group, and then use the After text box to specify the number of seconds after which you want each slide to advance.
3. Add narration to the presentation.
4. Select Set Up Slide Show to display the Set Up Show dialog box.
5. Select the Browsed at a Kiosk option.
6. Select OK.
