Introduction to PowerPoint

PowerPoint is an excellent tool for presentations of any kind, either in the classroom or at a conference. A PowerPoint presentation is made up of a series of slides that can be projected (displayed electronically) or printed in a variety of handout formats. 

PowerPoint can be used for making conference posters — and many people do use it successfully — but we consider Adobe Illustrator a superior tool for this purpose as it is designed for creating high-quality print documents, whereas PowerPoint is designed for viewing on a computer or as a projected image.

Inserting a slide

When you open PowerPoint, a new presentation is created with a Title Slide in place.  To add a new slide, go to the Home Ribbon.

• Click on the icon for new slide to insert a new slide with a duplicate layout as the current one selected in the presentation.
• Click on the text New Slide to select any layout, duplicate from what’s selected, or reuse slides from a different presentation.

The new slide will be added after the currently selected slide.

Move between your slides by clicking on the appropriate slide icon in the left sidebar, or use the double arrows at the bottom of the right scrollbar.

Changing the Slide Layout

You can always change the layout by going to the Home Ribbon and clicking on the Layout icon.  If content is already on the slide, you may need to move things around a little.

Showing and Navigating Your Presentation

To play your presentation, go to the Presentation tab and click "Play from Start" (Keyboard option: hold down Control-Shift and press Enter). Advance through your presentation by pressing the Spacebar or right arrow key on the keyboard. To go back a slide, use either the left or up arrow key on your keyboard. In PowerPoint you can navigate directly to any slide by:

1. Right-click anywhere on the slide, and choose By Title from the shortcut menu.
2. Click on the appropriate slide. If the slide doesn’t have a title, it will say Slide #.

 

Instead of a list, PowerPoint gives you the option to see all of the slides as thumbnails while in the slideshow.

1. Right-click anywhere on the slide, and choose See All Slides from the shortcut menu.
2. Click on the thumbnail of the slide you would like to go to. PowerPoint will automatically restart the presentation from that slide.

 

To exit your presentation (and return to the editing view), press the esc key on the keyboard.

How to Close a Document in Microsoft Word

Learn the two most common ways to close a Microsoft Word document.

This feature works the same in all modern versions of Microsoft Word: 2010, 2013, and 2016.

1.Click the gray "X" in the upper-right-hand corner.

2.Select Close from the File menu.

To close a document in Microsoft Word 2007, click the Microsoft Office button and select Close.

When you close your document, you will be prompted to save if you have made any changes since the last time you saved.

 

How to open and view a document in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is one of the most popular word processing programs used by computer users. Word can open text (.txt) files, rich text format (.rtf) files, XML (.xml) files, web page (.htm or .html) files, and all Word (.doc, .docx, .docm, and more) files.

To open any of the above types of documents in Microsoft Word, you can use any of the options below.

Double-click file

In some cases, you can double click a file to open it in Microsoft Word. However, the file only opens in Microsoft Word if that file type is associated with Microsoft Word. Word documents, like .doc and .docx files, are associated with Microsoft Word by default. However, web page files, text, and rich text format files are often not associated with Word by default, so double-clicking on these files may open in another program.

Right-click file and select program

For any file, you can choose the program to open a file with, including Microsoft Word.

1. Right Click the file you want to open.
2. In the pop-up menu, select the Open with option.
3. If available, choose the Microsoft Word program option in the Open with menu. If Microsoft Word is not listed, select the Choose other app or Choose default program option, depending on the version of Windows on your computer.

4. In the window that opens, find Microsoft Word in the program list and select that option. Microsoft Word should open and the file opened within Word.

Open within Microsoft Word

Follow the steps below to open a file from within Microsoft Word.

Word 2007 and later

1. Open the Microsoft Word program.
2. Click the File tab on the Ribbon and click the Open option.
3. If the Open window does not appear, click the Browse option to open that window.
4. In the Open window, find and select the file you want to open in Microsoft Word. You may need to click the drop-down list next to the File name text field to change the file type, and then select open.
5. Click the Open button at the bottom right of the open window.

Word 2003 and earlier

1. Open the Microsoft Word program.
2. In the menu at the top, click the File menu and select the Open option.
3. In the Open window, find and select the file you want to open in Microsoft Word. You may need to click the drop-down list next to the File name text field to change the file type, and then select open.
4. Click the Open button at the bottom right of the Open window.