Adding text, images and transitions

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. Plain slides with only black text can be boring. How do you add a text box, a picture, and a smooth change between slides? Today we will learn all three in LibreOffice Impress.

There are two ways to put text on a slide. The easy way is to type in a placeholder, which is a ready box from the layout. For text anywhere else, open the Insert menu and choose Text Box. Pressing F2 starts typing in a box you already selected. Then drag on the slide to draw the box, and start typing.

First select the text you want to change. Bold makes it thick, with Ctrl+B. Italic makes it slanted, with Ctrl+I. Underline draws a line below, with Ctrl+U. The font and size are in the Character section of the sidebar. The font colour button changes the colour of the letters.

A text box can be moved and resized. Click its border to select the whole box. Drag the border to move the box to a new place. Drag a small square at the corner, called a handle, to make it bigger or smaller.

Now let us add a picture. Open the Insert menu and choose Image. Find the picture file, such as a JPEG or PNG, and click Open. Drag a corner handle to resize it, so it does not look stretched. Use your own photos or free images, and do not copy anyone's picture without permission.

Impress can insert more than text and pictures. The Drawing toolbar gives shapes like arrows, circles and stars. The Insert menu also has tables and charts. You can even add a sound or a video clip from Insert, then Audio or Video.

Now the third part. A slide transition is the effect you see when one slide changes to the next. Fade, Wipe, Push and Cover are some examples. Do not confuse it with animation. An animation moves one object on a slide, like a picture flying in, while a transition works on the whole slide.

Here are the steps to add a transition. First, select the slide in the slides pane. Next, open the Slide Transition panel in the sidebar. Click an effect, and Impress shows a quick preview. Set the duration, which is how many seconds the effect takes, and a sound if you want. If every slide should use the same effect, click Apply Transition to All Slides.

Let us look at the settings more closely. Variant chooses the direction or style of the effect, like from the left. Duration is the time the effect takes, in seconds. Sound plays a sound as the slide changes, but it can be left as none. Advance slide decides whether the next slide comes on a mouse click, or automatically after some seconds.

Pause and predict. A slide is set to advance automatically after five seconds. During the show, you do not click at all. What happens? After five seconds the next slide appears on its own, with its transition.

Effects should help, not distract. Choose one or two simple transitions for the whole show. Keep text large and short, so it can be read from the back of the class. Too many flying effects and sounds take attention away from what you say.

Let us revise what we learned today. Add text in a placeholder, or with Insert, Text Box, or F2. Format it with Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, Ctrl+U and the sidebar. Add a picture with Insert, Image, and resize it from a corner. A transition is the effect between two slides. You can set its variant, duration, sound and how the slide advances. Add one picture and one transition to your own project today.