PowerPoint Presentation

 

PowerPoint Presentation

I have always considered PowerPoint presentations to be one of the most crucial teaching and learning tools since I started college. I have observed all the tutors utilize PowerPoint presentations to teach their lesson, and even when students are asked to present something, they almost always use PowerPoint presentations. As a result, I believe PowerPoint presentations to be one of the most important teaching learning tools, and I encourage everyone to use it.

So, in order for everyone to believe that PowerPoint presentation is the most convenient and significant teaching and learning tool, let me define PowerPoint presentation with its inventor’s name, and show you how to make PowerPoint presentation as well as its benefits.

What is PowerPoint presentation?

PowerPoint is a presentation program that enables users to create dynamic slide presentations. These presentations can incorporate animations, videos, images, and much more. It was developed by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin for the American computer software company forethought, Inc

How to make PowerPoint presentation? (Step-by-step)

1.      1. Start with a blank document?

The first thing you will need to do is to open PowerPoint. Then in the left pane, you will have to click on New Slide dropdown and choose one slide layout from your PowerPoint template.

 

2.      

2.  Add text to slide

Adding text to the slide is an easy thing. All you have to do is click inside the placeholder, and then type or paste the text.

 

3.      3. Insert more slides into your presentation

To add more slides, simply go to the Home Tab and click on New Slide. This adds a new slide to your presentation following the one you were on before. You may also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + M to insert a new blank slide in PowerPoint.  Then you may also use the New Slide dropdown menu to examine all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template instead of hitting the New Slide command.

4.      4. Change the overall design

If you want to change the style and feel of your slides after texting all the required information, you can use the Design tab to do so.

A.    A. Selecting a PowerPoint theme

To select different theme, go to the Design tab in the Ribbon, and click on to dropdown arrow in the theme section.

 

B.    B.  How to change your font in PowerPoint presentation

Ø  i. Click View> Slide Master.

Ø   ii. On the slide Master tab, click the Font drop-down menu. Select the font you want to use for all the slides in the presentation. Click Close Master View. The text throughout your presentation is automatically updated to the new font.

 

5.      Adding Animations and transitions

A.    Adding Animation

Animations are movements that you can apply to individual objects on your slide. To add PowerPoint animation to an element of your slide, you will have to:

Ø  Select the element.

Ø  Go to the Animation tab in the ribbon.

Ø  Click on the dropdown arrow to view your options and select the animation you want.

 

B.    5.  How to add Transition to your PowerPoint presentation

 In PowerPoint, transitions are the movements (effects) as you move between two slides in PowerPoint.   To add transition to a PowerPoint slide:

Ø  i. Select the Slide.

Ø  ii. Go to the Transitions tab in the Ribbon.

Ø  iii. In the Transition to This Slide area, click on dropdown arrow to view your options.

Ø  iv. Select the transition you want.

 

6. 
   6. Save your PowerPoint Presentation

T    To save your PowerPoint Presentation, you will have to:

           i. Navigate to the File tab.

          ii. Select Save as on the left.

          iii.  Chose where you want to save your presentation.

       iv. Name your presentation.

           v. Click Save.

Five Rules for better PowerPoint Presentation

You should constantly remember these five guidelines to have great PowerPoint presentation:

1.     1.  Keep Things Simple

Ø  A good slide should include simple content, short sentences, and only a few slides. You should not overdo it by cramming too many texts onto the slides.

Ø  To communicate your ideas to the audience, you should utilize limited text and graphics because unnecessary details and clashing colours will only serve to distract them from the main point you are trying to make.

2.      2. Design is Everything

Ø   Your slide should be simple to follow and appealing to the eye. From the fonts to the theme colors, every aspect of your design should be flawless.

Ø   There are basic design principles to keep in mind, such as using dark text on the light background, blending colors carefully, and inserting graphics, charts, and other visual elements properly into your slides.

3.      3. Let your Slide tell a Story

Ø   One of the most crucial communication techniques is storytelling. The human mind responds more effectively to stories, and you should leverage this to make your presentation more impactful. Rather than making your presentation a structureless series of information (which can get boring quickly), turn those facts into a story and see how engaged people are.

4.     4.  Engage your Audience

Ø  Don’t simply read from the slides. To make your PowerPoint presentation more appealing, you must put forth the effort. The more your audience participates in your session, the more effectively you can communicate your message to them. This is why you should try to incorporate as many interactions into your presentation as feasible.

5.      5. Close with a Call to action.

A call to action is highly suggested at the end of your presentation. This might be a thought-provoking question for your audience, a request for their participation in a project, or anything else to keep the conversation going after your presentation. Closing like that gives your presentation life outside what you have shared.

Benefits of using PowerPoint

1.      1. It can be used virtually everywhere

Ø  You can put your presentation on a USB flash drive or in any cloud storage app and you will have your presentation at hand anytime.

2.      2. It is a collaborative solution

Ø  During the pandemic situation, work from home became a normal thing to do and tools that provide solutions for working together with your team even if you are in different locations are in high demand. PowerPoint presentation adapted to this situation, and with its online Cloud storage, you can now work on presentations at the same time, or work on the same presentation without sending it to each other.

3.      3. You can choose to create your own design or use existing ones

Ø  PowerPoint presentation offers you full control over your slides appearances. You have the freedom to customize your presentation with your own design.

4.      4. Time saving

Ø  Time management is very important in today’s society, and PowerPoint presentation helps us save time as we don’t have to write all the ideas we want to present on paper; instead, we can type them in a computer in a short amount of time.