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Course 6 – Basic Presentations

Do you want to impress potential employers or clients with slick presentations? Or maybe you need to present as part of a college course? If you have never used Presentation Software before (or have used it very little) then this basic beginners PowerPoint course show you how to put together a simple but effective and engaging presentations.

Pre-requisites: Course 1 – Jargon Buster AND Course 2 – Get Started, Get Connected AND Course 3 – Get Up to Speed with Computers OR pre-course assessment evidencing required skills

Equipment Required: Desktop or Laptop Computer, Office Software (preferably Microsoft Office, but OpenOffice or similar will be sufficient)

Duration: 3 Hours

Learning Outcomes

1. Learn your way around the PowerPoint interface

    1. Tabs, Ribbons and Groups
    2. Getting acquainted with the layout of the PowerPoint screen
    3. Working with the Slide pane, Design Area and the Speaker Notes area
    4. The Thumbnail panel
    5. Slide Sorter view

2. Learn the basics of PowerPoint

    1. Creating, saving, opening, closing and updating a presentation
    2. Running a presentation
    3. Navigating through a presentation

3. Learn how to design a stylish presentation

    1. Adding a title slide
    2. Exploring different slide layouts – bulleted lists, tables, graphics, charts and movie clips
    3. Choosing a slide design
    4. Creating a slide background

4. Learn how to work with charts

    1. Creating a chart
    2. Working with different chart types
    3. Setting the chart title, chart axes, gridlines, legend, data labels, data tables.
    4. Changing the chart colours
    5. Adding or changing source data
    6. Using a chart that you have already created in Excel

5. Learn how to add some basic enhancements to make your presentation look professional

    1. Proofing your presentation with the Spell Check and Synonyms
    2. Linking to other slides, other presentations, other files, web pages and emails
    3. Using preset animations for text and other content
    4. Using the Slide Master to create consistency
    5. Adding slide numbers

6. Learn how to prepare and run your presentation

    1. Using the Slide Sorter to copy, rearrange, delete or hide slides
    2. Using the Outline View to rearrange presentation content
    3. Preparing speaker notes and handouts
    4. Navigation keys for operating the show
    5. Activating the slide show