Basic Concepts in PowerPoint

Hello Again:

I'm sure y'all thought that I had fallen off the face of the Internet earth or earth itself...or maybe worse, gone out of business!  Despite some challenging economic times, I'm still kick'n (a little of my Texan is coming out).

I don't believe, actually I'm sure, that I haven't blogged anything about PowerPoint, Microsoft's "presentation graphics" software.  So here's my chance...

As with other software, but particularly with PPT (yep, PowerPoint) many people tell me it is very easy to use (and therefore no need for a class) and quite "obvious".

I agree for the most part that PPT is easy to use, but there are several important concepts associated with PPT that may not be so obvious, overlooked, or not understood.  And there are quite a few important details associated with such features as the Masters and Animations (maybe talk about these items in later blogs).

For now though, I would like to address one important basic concept about PPT;  default layouts.

I guess I'd better start at the beginning...

The file created within PPT is called a "Presentation" (*.pptx) for 2007 and later.  The presentation is made of slides that contain various elements such as text boxes, pictures, tables, graphs, etc (objects).

Upon opening PPT a new, unsaved presentation (Presentation1) is created with a single slide.  This slide is considered the Title Slide and has a specific layout called "Title Slide" (what-da-ya-know).  This can be observed by clicking the Layout button in Slides group and seeing the selected layout in the list.

Each slide that is added to a presentation (after slide 1) by clicking the "New Slide" button in the Slides command group on the Home Ribbon has a default "layout" of "Title and Content".  Of course a layout other than "Title and Content" can be chosen.  As a matter of fact, after slide 2, a new slide added to the presentation adopts the layout of the previous slide.  If it hasn't been changed, the layout of all slides after slide 1 will be "Title and Content".

For those of you have "messed" with PPT enough, you have probably figured this out, otherwise you may now understand 'how it is' with slides and layouts.

Whew, I feel better now, I was all blogged up not having said anything in awhile.  Hope I got it all laid out on the layout.

Have fun in the meantime until next time, Joel

Working with Styles in Word

Hello Again:

I know, it's already next year relative to the last time I blogged.  Tempus fugit muy rapido! (Latinol??)

Having been teaching several Word Level 1 classes recently, I have been reminded of some of the great features (in my opinion) that have to do with working with Styles.  Hopefully you saw my blog in March 2011 which explains concepts of formatting including a Style.  Check out the blog to get the big picture..(http://pcapplicationsblog.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html).

What I teach in a Level 1 Word class (and much more!) is how to work with Styles using the Style "Task Pane".  In Word 2007/2010, there is a  Styles Command Group in the Home Ribbon.  As with many Command Groups, there is what is called a "Dialog Box Launcher", the small square button in the lower right hand corner of the Command Group with an arrow pointing to the lower right.  You may notice that many Command Groups have Dialog Box Launchers but not all.  Upon clicking the Dialog Box Launcher, a Dialog Box relative to the Command Group options will appear on the screen.  These Dialog Boxes are the same dialog boxes that have been used in many prior versions and what many people have seen before if they have worked with Word particularly 97-2003.

In the case of the Styles Dialog Box Launcher, it opens the Styles Task Pane (a window pane that "docks" on the right side of the Word window), not a dialog box per se.  It's this Styles Task Pane that can be very useful when working with Styles.

The list of Styles you see in the Styles Task Pane by is controlled by the Style Pane Options accessible through the link in the lower right of the Styles Task Pane, "Options..."; the default list is "Recommend" but consider the other options such as "In Use" or "All Styles".  The order of the list can be controlled as well, the default "Recommended" is set by Microsoft but notice you can choose "Alphabetical" as well as others.

Another significant option is the "Show Preview" check box near the bottom of the Styles Task Pane.  With it "on" the Styles in the list are shown with the actual formatting inherent with the Style name.

Now for some of the functionality.  I you simply click in text of your document or select text (of the same style) there will be an outline around the Style in the Styles Task Pane so you immediately know what the specific style for the select text is.  Furthermore, if you move over the selected style in the Styles Task Pane and click the down arrow button that appears, you have a list of options.  Notice you can see how many times the Style occurs in the document as well as select all of them if desired.  I use this a lot to change one format to another.  For example, let's say I have typed in several paragraphs in a document that are all "Normal" style (the defult style for all documents).  I decided to change all "Normal" styles to "Heading 1" style.  Using the concepts above, I could click on text that is "Normal" and see the "Normal" style selected in the Styles Task Pane.  I click the down arrow and choose "Select All # Instances" where # is the number in my document.  Then I click "Heading 1" Style in the Styles Task Pane to apply the new Style to my selected text.  There are actually other ways to find and replace text formatting but this is a very straight forward method.  Of course there are several other options as what can be done with the Styles Task Pane such as select and clear specific Styles, modify Styles and even create your own custom style and I encourge you to have a look at this.

So what's your Style??

Have fun in the meantime until next time, Joel

Using Hyperlinks in MS Office Applications

Hello Again;

Yes, Tempus Fugit (Latin for "time flies")...And you thought you were going to learn about hyperlinks...

Is it Vidi Vici Veni or Veni Vidi Vici ??

Oh yeah, hyperlinks...

You might say "you mean hyperlinks like on websites" ( or probably say "you mean like hyperlinks on the Internet"?)  You do know the difference, right?

My mind drifts back...it was 1989 when the concepts of websites on the Internet was created by Dr. Tim Burners-Lee (not Al Gore) by implementing http (hypertext transfer protocol) on the Internet allowing hypertext (as it was originally called) to work.  Now referred to as hyperlink, the concept is to click on something (originally blue underlined text) and link to information in this "web" of connected information via the Internet.  Currently, several things might happen upon clicking a hyperlink:  go to another place on the current page, go to another place in the current website, go to another website, a small picture (thumbnail) gets bigger, an email is compiled and ready to be sent, a file (like pdf) opens...

Over the years Microsoft has integrated this concept into the Office applications such a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and others.  Once one knows how to create a hyperlink in one application, it is pretty much the same for all other Office applications.

I will use MS Word 2007 as an example.

Why would I want to use a hyperlink anyway?  As with the Internet you can use the hyperlink to have someone click in the Word document and end up at your website.  You can have someone click and send you an email.  Another option would be able to "link" to any other file within you computer or network (that could be handy; don't even have to know where the file is but could click and wa la, it's open in my face).

Although there are a number of steps, there is not necessarily a "right" order to getting it done... here's just how I tend to do it.

I type some text as in the first case like "See Website".  I select the text and then on the Insert Ribbon, Click Hyperlink.  The Insert Hyperlink dialog box appears.  At the top, Text to Display shows the selected text which can be edited.  On the left, the default Link To button is Existing File or Web page.  At the bottom is a line for Address.  In the Address line type in the address of the website or web page.  You could click the Internet Browse button (the globe with magnifying glass icon) to find the site or page on the Internet first.

The button at the top of the dialog box "Screen Tip" allows one to create such (Screen Tip - a caption that appears upon moving the cursor over the hyperlink).  Click the button and type.

As far as linking to a file.  Just think of the concept first.  I could have someone reading a Word doc click to see a related PowerPoint presentation, click to see the supporting information in an Excel file, click to open a related Word doc, etc...(of course one must have the associated application installed on the computer they are using).

Note by default the Insert Hyperlink dialog box contains files in the current directory folder.  At the top, you can click the drop down button in Look In and change the directory location.  By choosing a file in the list, the Address will contain the information to hyperlink to the file.

So now let's look at the two types of hyperlinks discussed so far.  Upon clicking OK on the Insert Hyperlink dialog box your selected text should appear blue and underlined.  Upon moving your cursor over the hyperlink, you would see the Screen Tip if created.  The cursor will change to a hand with the pointing index finger and upon clicking, you will be looking a website in IE or a file such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF...

Another hyperlink option I mentioned is to send an email via the hyperlink.  In the Word doc for example I might type "For More Info", select the text and Insert Hyperlink as before.  In this case, click on the "Email Address" button in the Link To bar as it is called.  The dialog box changes to enter information about the email address to send to and the subject line.  Click OK and now the hyperlink in the document upon clicking with generate a new email with the email address and subject line already filled in.  The user could then type in the body of the email and send.  The user must already have email software (like Outlook) loaded on their computer for this to work.

So you might agree this hyperlink thing can be VERY useful in the MS Office applications.

Where do you want to go with a click??

Have fun in the meantime until next time, Joel