Introduction to presentation software

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. Have you seen a teacher explain a topic with pictures on a big screen? That is a presentation. Which software makes it? Today we will learn what presentation software is, what it can do, and the parts of its window.

Let us begin with the meaning. Presentation software is an application used to create slides and show them to an audience. A slide is one screen page, which can hold text, pictures, charts and even video. A presentation is a set of slides saved in one file. We use presentations for school projects, office meetings, training and product launches.

There are several popular choices. Microsoft PowerPoint is the most widely used, and it comes with a paid Microsoft Office or Microsoft three six five plan. LibreOffice Impress is free and open source, which means anyone can use and share it. Google Slides is free and works in a web browser, and several people can edit together. Keynote is made by Apple and is free on Apple devices.

Every presentation is saved as a file with an extension, the letters after the dot. PowerPoint saves as .pptx by default. Very old versions of PowerPoint used .ppt. LibreOffice Impress saves as .odp, which is the OpenDocument presentation format. Any of them can export a .pdf file, which is good for sharing, but not for editing.

Presentation software can do much more than show text. You can add pictures, charts, tables, audio and video to a slide. A theme applies a matching set of colours, fonts and backgrounds to every slide. A transition is an effect when one slide changes to the next. An animation is an effect on a single object, like a line of text flying in. You can also write speaker notes for yourself, and print handouts for the audience.

Now let us look at the PowerPoint window. The Ribbon at the top holds commands arranged in tabs, like Home, Insert and Design. The Slide pane in the centre shows the slide you are editing. The thumbnails pane on the left shows small pictures of all slides, in order. The Notes pane below the slide is where you type speaker notes. The status bar at the bottom shows the slide number and the zoom control.

A view is a way of looking at the same presentation, and you switch views from the View tab. Normal view shows the slide with its panes, and it is used for editing. Slide Sorter view shows all slides as small tiles, so you can reorder them easily. Notes Page view shows a slide with its notes, ready to print. Reading View plays the show inside the window, for checking your own work. Slide Show view fills the whole screen for the audience.

A few keys make presenting smooth in PowerPoint. F5 starts the show from the first slide. Shift+F5 starts from the slide you are on. The right arrow key, or N, goes to the next slide. The left arrow key, or P, goes back one slide. Escape ends the show and returns you to editing.

Here is the usual process of making a presentation. First, plan the topic, the audience and the main points. Next, choose a theme and add the slides you need. Then add text, pictures and charts to each slide. Finally, rehearse in Slide Show view, and fix anything that looks wrong, before you save and present.

Keep these tips in mind for good slides. Put only one idea on each slide. Use short phrases instead of full paragraphs, and around six lines at most. Choose a large font, with dark text on a light background, or the other way round. Add pictures only when they support the point you are making.

Let us check your understanding. You are editing slide seven of a twenty slide presentation. You press Shift+F5. Which slide appears full screen? Slide seven, because Shift+F5 starts from the current slide. Plain F5 would have started from slide one.

Let us revise what we learned today. Presentation software is used to create slides and show them to an audience. Popular choices are PowerPoint, Impress, Google Slides and Keynote. Common file formats are .pptx, .ppt and .odp, and you can export to .pdf. The main views are Normal, Slide Sorter, Notes Page and Slide Show. F5 starts the show and Escape ends it. Open any presentation software today and explore each view.