Help! Find PowerPoint answers

Learn how to make your presentations stand out with this helpful program

By Heather Camlot

While Yaël Cohen knew PowerPoint was a useful tool for her job as a promotions and integration assistant at the Toronto Star, she learned just how powerful the software program could be at her brother’s wedding.

“I created a wedding slide show that was displayed during cocktails prior to the dinner,” says Cohen. “PowerPoint has this handy function of looping, which allows you to leave the show running over and over again without having to stay there and monitor it. It’s a very simple program to use; in fact, my knowledge and expertise are self-taught.”

Want to give PowerPoint a try or raise your knowledge to the next level? We provide basic tips and answer your advanced queries.

Learning the basics: Slide show know-how

Creating a master slide

When creating your presentation, instead of making change after change to each slide, you can create a master slide that allows you to choose all of your formatting once and apply it to each slide. To start, open a new document and then click View. In the Presentation Views group, click Master. Next, select a design template from the left-hand navigation pane.

The Slide Master controls a general set of rules for all your slides (except title slides). These rules include theme, font, colour, background and layouts for all the title slides, which are used throughout to introduce new topics.

To add your text, highlight the existing words on the page and proceed as you would in a Word document. To add new slides, click New Slide on the Home tab. Each slide you work on will already be formatted.

Adding a chart

To convey numerical information in a concise way, use a chart. From the designated slide, go to Insert tab > Chart. Select the type of chart you want, and a sample chart will appear in Excel. You can replace the data by clicking on the appropriate cell.

You can also use one of PowerPoint’s designed layouts for your chart. Open a new slide and select a layout from the right-hand navigation. Click on the chart icon in the placeholder box and replace the data with your own.

Wowing your audience: Your questions answered

Creating an original template

How can I create my own template instead of using one of the stock templates?
— Kimberly Silk, mom and marketing consultant

You can create a unique look for your presentation by following the easy steps in Creating a master slide, above. To truly make the template your own, though, you’ll want to add some special elements, such as your own background.

Before you insert a photo or Clip Art background, be sure the image is pale enough to allow your text to stand out. Go to Insert > Picture. Find the image you want and double-click on it. Right-click the image, which now sits on your slide and select Format Picture > Picture tab, and from the Recolor drop-down menu, under Color Modes, choose > Washout. Right-click the image again and Save As Picture. Delete the image on the slide, and then follow these steps to add the washout version as a background: in the Slide Master tab, in the Background Group, click Background Styles > Format Background > click on Fill > Picture or texture fill > Insert from: File. Find the image you want in your documents; then click Apply To All.

To reuse your designed template, you need to save it. Go to View > Normal and make sure you only have one slide in the left-hand navigation. Click the Office Button, click Save As, change the “type” to PowerPoint Template, and save it to the default location, Templates. For more information, read Create your own template.

Importing animation

How do I import a flash animation into PowerPoint?
— Tim Emery, father and creative director

Adding flash animation has many steps, but the result is truly impressive. First, make sure you’re on the slide in which you’d like to import the animation. Then, make sure the Develop tab is visible. Click the Microsoft Office Button; then click PowerPoint Options > Popular > under Top options for working with PowerPoint and click Show Developer Tab in the Ribbon. On the Developers tab, in the Controls group, click the hammer-and-wrench icon, and then scroll to and click on Shockwave Flash Object. Click on your slide. A box with an X through it will appear. Right-click on the box > Properties. In the Alphabetic tab, look for Movie in the left-hand column and type in or copy the drive path of your animation (for example, C:/Documents and Settings/Heather/My Documents/My Received Files/animation.swf).

To play the animation automatically, set Playing to True. To embed the file so it can be e-mailed, select True for EmbedMovie. Return to your slide and resize or resituate the box, if desired. For more information, read Play a Macromedia Flash animation in PowerPoint.

Adding video

How do I embed a video file onto a PowerPoint slide?
— Neige Var, nursing student

To insert a video file directly into your PowerPoint presentation, select the slide you want the video to appear on, and then go to the Insert tab, Media Clips group > Movie > Movie from File. Browse for your video clip in your documents and click OK. You’ll be asked whether you want the video to start automatically or when clicked. Make your selection and then resize or resituate the clip, if desired.

To e-mail the video with your presentation, click the Microsoft Office Button > Publish > Package for CD. Add the video file you want to include, click Copy to Folder and then OK. Zip the package by right-clicking the folder > Send To > Compressed Folder. E-mail this folder with instructions to unzip (or move the unzipped folder onto the desktop), and select your PowerPoint presentation icon.

Embedding a file from another program

How do I embed another file in the document? What happens when they are e-mailed?
— Howard Wiseman, father and national manager, field operations

There are two ways to include files from other Microsoft programs into your PowerPoint presentation: by embedding the entire document or by adding a link.

To embed a file, click in the text box where you want to place the document, go to the Insert tab, and from the Text group, click Object > Create from File. Browse for your document and then click OK. Your entire Excel spreadsheet, for example, will be part of your slide, though only one worksheet will appear.

To change worksheets, double-click on the document and select the appropriate worksheet from the bottom tabs. To add a link to a file, open the document, such as the Excel spreadsheet, highlight and copy the information or cells you’d like to link to, return to your PowerPoint slide, click on the text box where you want the link to appear and go to the Home tab, Clipboard group > Paste > Paste as Hyperlink. Note: The link will only work when you’re viewing the slide show. For more information, read Create a link to a specific location in a different Office program document.

If the presentation links to a web site or to a document on a shared server (or if you can place the document on a shared server), then you can e-mail the presentation itself. If the document is on your computer, you can bundle it with your presentation. To do so, follow the instructions under Adding video, above.