Welcome to week five of CPU1000, Computers and Office Automation. This week we will learn about the basic features of PowerPoint. Each program in the Office suite has a different purpose. When you want to create professional documents like brochures, flyers, newsletters, business cards, and letters, Word is the obvious choice. When you want to disseminate information to groups of people, PowerPoint is the appropriate choice. Because of your background knowledge with Word, this week’s lesson should contain some review. New learning will focus on the basics of creating engaging presentations.

Getting Started

PowerPoint is widely used for creating presentations. There are good ways and bad ways to use PowerPoint. Check out these PowerPoint examples to get an idea of what a good presentation looks like: 24 of the Best PowerPoint Presentation Examples Every Marketer Should See

Lesson Objectives

Upon completion of this week's lesson, you should be better prepared to:

Identify parts of the PowerPoint screen
Apply appropriate slide layouts
Apply themes to individual slides
Format and align text
Create bulleted and numbered lists
Insert and style images
Describe how PowerPoint is used in their field and alternatives to PowerPoint.

Readings and Resources

To be better prepared for this week's assignments, please view the following resources:

Getting Started with PowerPoint – This GCF tutorial covers the overall layout of PowerPoint, the ribbon, the quick access toolbar, rulers, guides, and gridlines, and the backstage view.
MS PowerPoint: Slide Basics – This GCF tutorial covers slide layouts, how to insert a new slide, organizing slides, copying and pasting slides, customizing slides and slide layouts, and playing a presentation.
MS PowerPoint: Text Basics – This GCF tutorial covers copying and moving text, formatting and aligning text, and using the Find and Replace
MS PowerPoint: Applying Themes – This GCF tutorial covers different elements within themes, why you should use themes, and how to apply themes.
MS PowerPoint: Lists – This GCF tutorial covers modifying the style of a bullet, modifying numbered lists, and customizing bullets.
MS PowerPoint: Inserting Pictures – This GCF tutorial covers inserting a picture from a file and from online, moving and resizing pictures, and inserting screenshots.
MS PowerPoint: Formatting Pictures – This GCF tutorial covers cropping images, adding a border, adjusting images and applying effects, compressing pictures, and removing the background from images.
5 Steps to a Better PowerPoint– This video discusses 5 steps on how you can create a solid, effective PowerPoint presentation, including sketching your ideas before opening PowerPoint, using the K.I.S.S principle of design, using the notes section, limiting animations and transitions, and sitting in the right place when delivering a presentation.