Component Parts of a PowerPoint
PowerPoint, Microsoft's presentation software, has useful components found in other types of programs such as Word. Use Powerpoint's components to construct compelling business presentations, or simply to create entertaining slideshows. Its user friendly interface lets you drag and drop objects onto slides and view changes instantly. You can learn PowerPoint by experimenting and studying help files.
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User Interface
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PowerPoint's user interface houses all its components and serves as the application's framework. The UI consists of a ribbon with menus, a design area for creating slides, and a side panel. The side panel displays thumbnails of all slides in a presentation. The "File" menu allows you to open, create and save files. Users access PowerPoint's settings and options from the "File" menu as well. The "Review" menu has features that allow you to validate spelling, look up word synonyms and add comments to one or more slides.
Text
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Text is a key component in many applications. Most PowerPoint slideshows contain text. The UI has an editing toolbar similar to the one in Microsoft Word. Use buttons on that toolbar to format text properties such as font size, color and font weight. You can also use the paragraph tools to align blocks of text on a slide. Familiar "Find" and "Replace" buttons help users locate text within a project. Add perfectly centered titles to slides by simply typing them in.
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Drawing
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PowerPoint is not an image editor, but you can use it to perform basic image editing operations. Drag and drop dozens of pre-designed shapes onto a slide and tweak their appearances. Your mouse becomes an arranging tool as you use it to resize and move shapes around the slide. PowerPoint also has professional looking backgrounds, textures and gradients that you can apply to objects. If your presentation needs lines and arrows, add those too from the "Drawing" toolbar.
Sound, Animation and Effects
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Many PowerPoint users may find its multimedia and special effects capabilities entertaining as well as functional. Sound and movement capture attention. Using PowerPoint's free animation effects, you can make objects move, fade, and even rotate in unison. Transitions, such as "Glitter," "Zoom" and "Vortex," add eye-catching special effects to the show as one slide ends and another begins. You can also import video and images or use clipart that comes with PowerPoint. To make presentations come alive with sound, add sound effects and even background music to the slideshow.
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References
Resources
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