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Lab 4

You will need to use PowerPoint 2000 to complete this assignment.

Objectives


What is Microsoft PowerPoint?

Microsoft PowerPoint is an application used to create presentations. Instead of the older method of using overhead slides and projectors, PowerPoint is a flexible, fast way to create professional-looking visuals for many different types of presentations. If you haven't already used PowerPoint for school projects, you will very likely need to use it here at Tech.


Assignment

A lot of the course material in this class is aimed at proving that computer science is relevant and useful, even for non-scientists or liberal arts majors. In this lab, you will first research an aspect of computer science that relates to your major or is interesting to you. You will only need to find enough information for 7-10 slides. Since this lab is more about learning to use PowerPoint than your quality of research, don't stress too much about that portion. A great way to get a good amount of information without getting too technical is to read an article about what a group of researchers are working on. Good sources for these types of articles are newspapers and magazines, many of which can easily be found online. If you are unsure about your topic fulfilling the requirements, ask your TA.

Here are some ideas:
For more topics, try Discover Magazine or Apple News.

In your presentation, we want you to present the data you got from your research. Make it interesting, and make sure you focus on a specific project, advance, or other topic that will be easy to discuss in only ten slides.


Slide Layout and Style

Start up PowerPoint, and you'll want to start with a blank template. The first slide will be your title slide. You can pick any layout you want. Just click in the boxes to add text.

To add a new slide, go to Insert -> New Slide. Again you will be asked to select a layout. Pick anything you want.

If you ever want to change the layout of your slide, go to Format -> Slide Layout. You can now select a new slide layout.

In addition to layout, you can set the style of your slides. Go to Format -> Apply Design Template or Format -> Slide Layout (it depends on what version of PowerPoint you're using). By clicking on the different styles in the left list, you should see a preview of the style on the right. Select whatever style you like. You can always change it later.


Inserting a Picture

From within PowerPoint: To insert an image from the files that PowerPoint already has, go to Insert -> Picture. You can then select "Clip Art", which is provided by Microsoft. Other options for graphics and images inside of PowerPoint are also on the Insert menu. Some examples are Word Art, Autoshapes, Organization Chart, and Word Table.

From the Internet: Many images, graphs, and charts on the Internet are available for use. First they must be saved onto your computer. For Windows, you do that by left-clicking on the image, selecting "Save Picture As", and then putting the picture onto one of your disks. For Macs, you hold down the apple button, click, and then choose the "Download Image to Disk" option. Once the graphic is on your computer, go to Insert -> Picture -> From File and then select the image.

Other: You can also use images from a scanner or digital camera. This varies according to the products, but you will go to Insert -> Picture -> From Scanner or Digital Camera on the menus within PowerPoint. You can also use charts or graphs created using Excel in your presentation. This is done by selecting Insert -> Chart or Insert -> Table, and then selecting which file contains the desired chart or graph.

Once you insert your image into your slide, you can resize it and move it around. To resize an image, click on it. This should make little boxes appear around the parameter of the image. By clicking and dragging on the squares, you can change the size and shape of your image. By clicking and dragging on the inside of the image, you can drag it around the slide.


Animating the Presentation

You can animate your text, inserted objects (like pictures and graphs) or slide transition. We'll show you a few basics.

Animating Text
The most common animation effect for text is to have each line or bullet appoint appear one at a time. Select a slide with bulleted text. Go to Tools -> Build Slide Text. This will present you with several animation choices. First try "Fly from Left". Now let's see what it looks like. Go to View -> Slide Show. Each time you hit the space bar or click with your mouse, another bullet point will fly in. A more subtle and probably more professional choice is Dissolve. Go to Tools -> Build Slide Text -> Dissolve. View the slide show again.

Animating Pictures
This will be similar to animating text. Find a slide with pictures or graphs on it. Click on the picture/graph to select it. Go to Tools -> Animation Settings. A pop up window should appear. If the Build Option is set to No Build, change it to Build. Under Effects, there will be a pulldown option with different animations for how you want the picture to appear. You can test the different animations styles by going to Slide Show view.

Slide Transition
You can also animate the way the next slide appears. Go to Tools -> Slide Transition for your options. Go to Slide Show view to see what it looks like.

And A Whole Lot More
Obviously, there's a lot more you can do with animation. You can even add sound effects! But we'll leave that for you to discover on your own.


Drawing in PowerPoint

You can draw in PowerPoint the same that you can draw in Microsoft Word. To make the drawing toolbar show up, go to View -> Toolbars, and select Drawing. The drawing toolbar allows you select some basic shapes (rectangle, oval, line) to make it easier to create drawings. You can even do free-form shapes, but drawing with a mouse can be rather difficult. If you want to include text in your drawing, you should use the special textbox (the button with an A) to add text.

The best way to learn how to draw in PowerPoint is to try it out!


Turnin

Save your presentation as Lab4. Then open JES and use the Turnin option. Select "Lab 4" under the assignments. Attach your file Lab4.ppt in the appropriate box. Add any comments, and then click "Turnin."

Your PowerPoint presentation should include:

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