Presentations -- Terminology
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The first step of learning how to use presentation software is understanding the terminology you will encounter as you work through this lesson.
- Action Button: An action button is an item that can be added to a presentation that contains pre-programmed commands for performing commonly done tasks. An example of an action button is the right pointing arrow which, when clicked during a presentation, will advance the viewer to the next slide.
- Animation: Animation refers to visual effects that are added to individual items (such as titles, bulleted text and graphics) on a slide rather than to the slide itself. Animation that is applied to the changing of one slide to the next is known as "Transistion".
- Bullets/ Bulleted List: A bulleted list is used to enter key points or phrases. Each key point or phrase begins with a bullet, which is a small dot, square or other graphic. The 'Enter' key on the keyboard is used to end one list item and begin another one with a new bullet. The bulleted list layout is the preferred method of presenting text in a slideshow.
- Color Theme: A predefined set of complementary colors that can be applied to elements in a PowerPoint presentation.
- Design Theme: A design theme is a predefined set of formatting options that control the look and feel of your presentation. Theme settings include backgrounds, layout, colors, fonts, sizes and bullets.
- Flip: Flipping an object (either horizontally or vertically) will create a mirror image of the object in the direction that is chosen.
- Handouts: When printing a PowerPoint presentation, it is important to check the print settings before sending the file to print. One of the options most commonly used is to print a presentaton is the "Handouts" option rather than "Full Page Slides". The handouts options allows you to print multiple slides on a page, saving paper, ink and toner.
- Handout Master: The master view that determines the layout and formatting of the printable handouts. (see also "Master" and "Slide Master").
- Layout (Slide Layout): When adding a new slide to a presentation, you must first decide on the type of layout you would like to use. There are several different types of layouts available in PowerPoint and the layout that you choose depends on the type of information that you will be displaying on the slide. For example, the first introductory slide in a presentation would most likely use the Title Slide Layout, while a Bulleted Slide Layout would be more appropriate for a slide that is covering several key points presented in a list. Other slide layouts include Content Layout (which could contain items such as images, video and charts) and Section Header Layout (which assists you in breaking up and separating sections of a larger presentation into manageable parts). In addition to the predefined layouts, you can also choose the Blank Layout option which would allow you to place items wherever you would like to on the slide.
- Master (Slide Master): The Slide Master is a template that stores all of the design options that you would like to apply including font styles, placeholder sizes and positions, color schemes and background designs and images. The power of the slide master comes when you would like to make a change to all slides in a presentation. For example if you would like to add a logo or image to the bottom right corner to all slides in your slideshow, you could simply add the image to the Slide Master in the desired location. Every slide based on the Slide Master would then have the image added to it. The Slide Master can also be used to make global changes in formatting such as font type, size, bullet shape and color. There are also similar Master templates for speakers notes and handouts.
- Normal View: The Normal View in Powerpoint displays three items as you work on creating your presentation. The items in the normal view are the Slides and Outline Pane (found on the left of side of the window), the Slide Pane (the main area of the window for working on the content of your slides) and the Notes Pane (found at the bottom of the window).
- Notes Master: The Notes Master view determines the layout and formatting of the printable speaker's notes. (see also "Master" and "Slide Master").
- Notes Pane: The Notes Pane is the white area at the bottom of the Powerpoint window, directly below the main Slide Pane. It is used to add speaker notes to your slides that will not appear to your audience during the slideshow.
- Notes Page View:The Notes Page View displays an image of the current slide as well as any Notes that have been added to it in the Notes Pane. In the Notes Page View, the area in which you can type is larger and allows you to add additional items to your notes such as images.
- Outline View: The Outline View is found on the left side of the PowerPoint window with the Slides and Outline Pane. You control how the pane displays your presentation in this pane by using Slides and Outline tabs at the top of the pane. The Slide view will show miniature images of your slides (complete with images, layout and formatting) while the Outline View will only show the text (in bullet form) that exists on each slide. The outline view is very useful for proofreading an entire presentation, editing text, or exporting text-based content to another application such as Microsoft Word.
- Placeholder: A placeholder on the slide is a holding area where you will add your content. When you choose a particular slide layout, it will included standard placeholders (in the shape of rectangles) in which you can click to either type text or insert another item, such as an image. Additional placeholders can be added to the standard slide layout as needed.
- Presentation File: A presentation file is the end result of what is created using the PowerPoint application. The presention file contains any work that you have done in PowerPoint such as your slides, text, images, sound, transitions, animations, timing settings and notes pages.
- Rotate: Rotating an object is the action of turning an object on a slide so that it faces another direction. When a placeholder is selected in Powerpoint, a green dot will appear at the top of the placeholder. This dot can be used to rotate the object to the desired new angle.
- Slide: A slide is an individual page (or screen) in a slideshow. Content such as text (bullets), images, sound, animations, etc. are added to each slide.
- Slide Layout: When adding a new slide to a presentation, you must first decide on the type of layout you would like to use. There are several different types of layouts available in PowerPoint and the layout that you choose depends on the type of information that you will be displaying on the slide. For example, the first introductory slide in a presentation would most likely use the Title Slide Layout, while a Bulleted Slide Layout would be more appropriate for a slide that covering several key points presented in a list. Other slide layouts include Content Layout (which could contain items such as images, video and charts) and Section Header Layout (which assists you in breaking up and separating sections of a larger presentation in to manageable parts. In addition to the predefined layouts, you can also choose the Blank Layout option which would allow you to place items wherever you would like to on the slide.
- Slide Master: The Slide Master is a template that stores all of the design options that you would like to apply including font styles, placeholder sizes and positions, color schemes and background designs and images. The power of the slide master comes when you would like to make a change to all slides in a presentation. For example if you would like to add a logo or image to the bottom right corner to all slides in your slideshow, you could simply add the image to the Slide Master in the desired location. Every slide based on the Slide Master would then have the image added to it. The Slide Master can also be used to make global changes in formatting such as font type, size, bullet shape and color.
- Slide Show: A slide show is a series of slides that are saved together in a presentation and are displayed to an audience in sequence. A slide show can be manually advanced from slide to slide by the presenter, or made self-running based on timing settings saved in the presentation file. In PowerPoint, you can view your slide show using the slide show menue and have the option to begin from the beginning of the presentation or from the current slide that you are working on.
- Slide Sorter View: The Slide Sorter view in PowerPoint allows you to view thumbnail versions of all slides contained in a presentation on one screen. This view is commonly used to duplicate, delete or rearrange slides in a slideshow, add or modify slide transitions and timing and make a change to a number of slides at once.
- Template: A template is a file that you begin with when creating a new presentation. It contains predefined settings much like a theme, but also can contain layout items and graphical items that pertain to a particular topic or type of presentation. Examples of existing templates in Microsoft PowerPoint include: calendars, agendas, flyers, labels, reports and certificates. It is also possible to create your own template if there is specific type of presentation that you create frequently.
- Theme (Design Theme): A design theme is a predefined set of formatting options that control the look and feel of your presentation. Theme settings include backgrounds, layout, colors, fonts, sizes and bullets.
- Timing: When creating a presentation with animation and transitions, you have a choice as to how and when items appear. One option is to have items appear when the presenter clicks the mouse button. The second option is to set timing options on the individual animations so that they occur on their own with no intervention needed by the presenter. Most often, a combination of both options is used. For example, the transition from slide to slide may be set to manual so that the presenter controls when the slideshow advances based on how long it takes to complete the topic on the slide. In the same presentation, however, individual animations may be set on the slide (such as bullets that fly in from the right). These may be set to automatically appear, after a 2-3 second delay.
- Transition: Transitions in a slide show refer to the animation that is applied to make one slide forward to the next. Slide transitions range from simple to quite dramatic and should be used selectively for effect as too much movement on the screen can cause viewer distraction. Often the very basic "blank" transition is best. This transition simply changes the view from one slide to the next without special animation.
- Views (Slide Views): There are different ways to view your presentation while working in PowerPoint and each has its own purpose. Views are broken into two groups: Presentation and Master. Examples of Presentation Views include Normal, Slide Sorter, and Notes. Master Views include the Slide Master, Handout Master and Notes Master.
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