Building Presentations for Distribution to Others: If you're making a PowerPoint presentation that you intend to distribute to lots of different people, here are some important things to watch out for that will cause problems:

1. Stick with the fonts that come installed with Windows; Fancy fonts that appear on your machine will cause problems if everyone else doesn't have them.

2. Avoid embedding sounds and videos: these will not go from Mac to Windows gracefully, and you have to be very careful about how you insert the files in order to get them to "travel" properly. See the FAQ section for more information on this.

3. Design the presentation on the lowest version that you think might be in use. For example, if you want the presentation to be able to be viewed by Mac users (who may not have upgraded to the latest version), you will want to design your presentation in PowerPoint 4.0. If you don't have PowerPoint 4, then you'll want to save your presentation in the lowest format you think people will have. For cross-platform distribution, 4.0 is still your safest bet; for Windows-only distribution, save to PowerPoint 95. When you down-rev save, be prepared for some visual changes in your file--the previous version may not support some of the features you've put in, so be sure to sanity check your file on several different machines and versions BEFORE you distribute it!

Subliminal Messages: These can be pretty sneaky in the right circumstances. Create a text object. With the text object selected, click on the Animation Effects button on the tool bar (the one that looks like a yellow star), and then click on the "flash once" button. Go to slide show and see the message quickly flash and then disappear.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Sometimes using the keyboard is quicker than using the mouse.  Shortcut keys can help you bypass menus and carry out commands directly. You can use shortcut keys in many ways with PowerPoint, from accessing commands and toolbar buttons to inserting a new slide. Shortcut keys are sometimes listed next to the command name on PowerPoint menus. For example, on the Edit menu, the Find command lists the shortcut CTRL+F.

Here are some of the most useful PowerPoint shortcut keys:

To preview a presentation in black and white

Click on View…Black and White.

To embed TrueType fonts that that your presentation will display the current font even when used on a different PC that does not have the fonts you have used installed locally

Create you presentation as normal. Click on the SaveAs command. From within the SaveAs dialog box, click on the Tools icon drop down menu. Select the Embed TrueType fonts command.

Saving Shows

Save your presentation as a ‘PowerPoint Show’ (.pps) and your presentation will open straight into screenshow mode.

Hiding Screens

Once your presentation is open you can hide your first (or any other) screen until you are ready to start by pressing ‘B’’ to blackout the screen or (‘W’ to ‘whiteout’ the screen) then press the ‘B’ or ‘W’ again to reveal the screen when you are ready.

Jumping to Screens

In show mode type a number then hit ‘enter’ to go to straight to that screen i.e. ’1’ to go back to the 1st screen. This is particularly useful if you have a large show for multiple speakers - just make a note of the slide number where each one starts - and during rehearsal (or following a cock-up) simply keying it in jumps you straight to the right place. Quick and efficient.

To go to the First Slide or Last Slide

Ctrl+Home will take you to the first slide in a presentation, Ctrl+End will take you to the last slide.

Setting up the Show

To set up the presentation to run continuously, click Slide Show…Set Up Show.  Check ‘loop continuously until ESC’ and click OK. 

To set up the presentation with timed settings on each slide, click Slide Show…Rehearse Timings.  As each slide appears a rehearsal clock will appear in the upper left corner.  When the desired time has expired click the mouse to progress to the next slide.  After viewing the entire show you will be asked if you wish to save the rehearsed time.  Click Yes. 

To record your own narration for the presentation click Slide Show…Record Narration. 

Music Accompaniment for PPT Presentation

Music can be added to your PowerPoint presentation as a background sound. Choose Insert... Movies and Sounds...Sounds from File and select the sound file you wish to use. You can even record your own narration for the presentation however be sure you will be running the presentation on a powerful computer if you choose to do this. To run a sound file continuously, choose Slide Show from the top menu line...Slide Transition...click the Sound drop down arrow and locate the desired sound file.  Click the box "loop until next sound" and make sure no other sound has been inserted in the slide show. 

Scrolling Credits:  Scrolling text can be an effective means of ending or beginning a presentation.  Click the desired text.  When the Custom Animation text box opens, click the Effects tab. Click the arrow at the right side of the Entry Animation list box to expand the list. Locate Crawl From Bottom and select it.

   Check the list box labeled Introduce Text. If it isn't set to All at Once, click the arrow at the right side of the list box and select All at Once. Click the Timing tab and select the radio buttons labeled Animate and Automatically. Click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.