Presentations 8 Lesson 1

Lesson 1

Beginning the Slide Set

Description

This is the first lesson in a four-part series aimed at presenting the basic steps to create and modify a slide set in Presentations 8.0. Although all your questions won't be answered in this first lesson, by the end of the series you should have an understanding of the basic options in creating a slide set. This lesson explains the first screens that appear as you start the program, discusses applying gallery masters, has you enter text for your first slide set, introduces slide templates, and has you view and save your slide set.

Objectives

Learn how to apply a background from the gallery.
Use the outline mode to enter text for your slide set.
Learn how to select and use common slide templates (layouts).
Learn to save the slide set.
Learn to view your slide set.
Examine the option of using PerfectExpert.

Why Use this Type of Software?

Presentations software has become quite popular in the last several years, because it is a relatively easy program to learn and people can create attractive materials for giving talks. Keep in mind, however, that there are various ways to use Presentations:

To create a "slide show" on the computer that could either run on a stand alone computer, like at a general meeting or open house display, or could be projected if you have a computer and some type of projection device (like an LCD panel and overhead).
To create a set of overheads that could be projected using a normal overhead. These overheads, however, would have more pizzazz then just a WP document using large fonts, since there would be a common color scheme throughout the overheads and a consistent use of particular font styles and sizes. If you have access to a color printer and can make color overheads, your overheads could be quite impressive. Even if you do not have a color printer, if you select your background carefully, the overheads will look nicer than if you used WordPerfect and creating them will take less time.
To create traditional 35mm slides by printing slides to a film recorder (you print to this special device and then take the 35mm film to a developer). Since this film recorder is fairly expensive (like $5,000 and up), you could elect to take your slide file to a company that provides this service.
To publish your slide show on the World Wide Web. Presentations will let you convert each slide to a graphic image which you may place in one or more HTML documents.

To take advantage of all of the features offered by Presentations, like transitions and sounds, you need to be giving a "live" talk on a computer. Even if you don't have the necessary hardware to do that, Presentations offers features to help you create great looking overheads and handouts.

Keeping this background information in mind, you are now ready to move into how to create a "slide set."

Starting Your Slide Set

Click on the [Start] button on the taskbar, point to Corel WordPerfect Suite 8, and select Corel Presentations 8. The "Document Selection" dialog box appears. There are various options here, including the "Work On" and "Create New" project Tabs. For now, to begin your slide show, select the "Create New" Tab, select "Presentations Slide Show", and click the [Create] button.

The "Startup Master Gallery" dialog box appears. The first step in this dialog box is to select a gallery, which applies a background format for the slides. Click on the category list button to see the possible formats.

Gallery Options

The gallery slide show masters are background patterns created by a graphic artist. After picking one of the backgrounds, all the elements in a slide "fit" into the colors for that background. That is, the colors for titles and bullets and charts "relate" to the color scheme for that master. Typically, the gallery master also has some graphic element that is repeated on all slides, to further help the slide set look like a related unit. The gallery feature is one of the appealing aspects of using Presentations. You do not have to be an artist to create attractive slides.

The backgrounds are grouped into several categories: 35mm, business, color, design, nature, printout, and theme.

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The choices of 35mm, color, or printout determine basic design elements such as color choices and aspect ratio for the type of media. You would use Color if you plan to display the presentation on a color monitor or have a color printer. Choose 35mm if you plan to convert the slides to photographic slides. Choose Printout for simple backgrounds that will print well on a monochrome printer. Note, however, that these groupings are there for your convenience. If you pick another category (like Business), you could still print to 35mm film or a color printer.

If you do not see all of the above categories for galleries, then the complete gallery collection was not installed. To use all of them, go back to the Corel CD Master and install only the Presentations program, but be sure to select all of the galleries. You will need to use the Custom installation option. The complete gallery will need about 12 megabytes of disk space.

Layout Options

Layouts are pre-created templates for a slide. There are seven layout templates with the 8.0 release: title, bulleted list, text, organization chart, data chart, combination, and none. You will learn more about these options in this and subsequent lessons. Just keep in mind that the layout is a template for a type of slide and has existing place holders for information.

Exercise 1

Load the Presentations 8.0 program. When the "Document Selection"dialog box appears, click the "Create New" Tab, select "Presentations Slide Show" and click the [Create] button. The "Startup Master Gallery" appears. Pick the category of Business, and click on the background called "Corners". This is in the third row of the samples, on the right side. When you click on the gallery sample, its name appears in the window below the sample display area. After you select your gallery master, click on the [OK] button.

Working in Outline Form

After selecting the type of project and gallery background to start with, you are taken to the Corel Presentations Window. A slide layout will automatically be displayed there, with placeholders for elements in that slide (like titles and bullets). The placeholders appear in dotted areas. Although it is a matter of taste whether you create your slides in this mode or in the outline mode, you will probably find it faster to just focus on entering text and ideas first, and then going back and cleaning up the appearance of the slides.

The Corel Presentations window is similar to the WordPerfect 8.0 window. Like WordPerfect, it has, from top to bottom, a title bar, a menu bar, a Toolbar, and a Property Bar displaying above the main document window. The buttons and menu items are different from those in the WP program. You will be using many of these buttons throughout this lesson series.

Something different not found on the WP display is the "View Tabs" at the right of the screen. If you put your mouse pointer on a Tab, a QuickTip appears giving you the Tab name and function. The four "View Tabs" are particularly important to the beginner.

Slide Editor View

Slide Outliner View

Slide Sorter View

QuickPlay

The view currently selected is the "Slide Editor". To change from one view to another, simply click once on the View Tab you want to use. To enter your text ideas in an outline screen, select "Outliner" from the View Tabs on the right side of the display.

The Slide Outliner View lets you enter text for slide titles, subtitles, and bulleted points or text items for those slides. The Outliner View looks something like a sheet of ruled notebook paper. The number at the left of the display shows the slide number.

These are the keystrokes to use as you work in outline view:

<Enter>	Inserts a new line
<Tab>	Promotes (indents) current line
<Ctrl>+<Enter>	Inserts a new slide
<Shift>+<Tab>	Demotes (moves to left) current line
<Backspace>	Removes an extra line or bullet

Normally every slide will have a title. After typing the title, press <Enter> to go to the subtitle line. Press <Enter> after typing a subtitle or leave the line blank. In a bullet chart slide, pressing <Enter> after the subtitle takes you to the bulleted list. After typing one bulleted item, pressing <Enter> takes you to the next line, for another bulleted item. If you are through with bulleted items for that slide, use the <Backspace> key so the insertion point is on the last bulleted line and press <Ctrl>+<Enter> to get a new slide in the outline.

Exercise 2

Using the same display from Exercise 1, put your mouse pointer on each of the four "View Tabs" at the left of the screen to see the QuickTips. Select the Tab for Outliner View. The display will look like lined paper. Your insertion point is on the line for Slide 1.

Using the outliner keystrokes referenced above, type in this text for a talk about newsletter tips. Except for Slide 1, leave the subtitle lines empty by pressing <Enter> on those lines.

1. Newsletter Tips

subtitle: Building Blocks for a Newsletter

2. Introduction

Grids

Nameplates

Reader cues

Visuals

Graphic accents

3. What is a grid?

Structure of invisible lines guiding placement of text, headings, and graphics

Not necessarily the number of columns used

Gives page-to-page consistency but allows variation

4. The nameplate

Provides visual identification

Use short titles and short words

5. Reader cues highlight information

Provide visual relief

Move the reader through the newsletter

Examples are

Headings and subheadings

Tables of content

Pull quotes

Repetitive features

Continuation lines

6. Visuals add page interest

Help set tone of publication

Should have "story-telling" power

7. Graphic accents break up "gray pages"

Lines, boxes, shading, watermarks, symbols, logos, and oversized letters and numbers add interest to pages.

8. Summary

Examine your newsletter for grids, nameplate appeal, reader cues, effective visuals, and graphic accents.

One of the slides (Slide 5) has two levels in the outline under the title. You can have up to six levels in an outline, although six levels of detail may not fit on the slide well.

Saving Your Presentation

Just like working with any type of document on a computer, you should save your work frequently. Regardless of how many slides you have in the presentation, it is saved as one file with a .shw extension, even though that extension may not display. It does not matter what view you are using or where you are in the slide set when you save the file. Click on FILE, Save or click on the [Save] button on the Toolbar. You will be taken to a "Save As" dialog box if the file has not been named. You may save your Presentations files in any folder you want. The default folder used is Myfiles on the C: drive. Once your slide set has a name, clicking on the [Save] button saves over the older version. You would use FILE, Save As to give the file another name or to save to a different folder or drive.

Exercise 3

Click on the [Save] button on the Toolbar and save your current presentation as "newsletter tips." Make a note of the folder where the set is saved so you can retrieve it later. It is okay to leave it in the Myfiles folder, if you wish.

Examining Your Slide Show

Using the Editor View

Although it may be convenient to type text in your outline, you are using Presentations to create slides to be viewed visually. So you will need to click on the [Slide Editor View] Tab on the right side of the display. This shows you one slide at a time. To move from slide to slide, click on any "Navigation Tab" at the bottom of the Slide Editor View window. The [Go To] list at the bottom of the Slide Editor View window shows the number of the slide you are viewing. You can click the mouse pointer on the [Go To] list button to see the list of slides and quickly select which slide you want to view.

Exercise 4

Move your insertion point in the Slide Outliner View so you are on the line for Slide 1. (Or use <Ctrl>+<Home> to move to the top of "your document," just as you would in WordPerfect.) Click on the [Slide Editor View] Tab on the right of the display. You can also click on VIEW on the menu bar and pick Slide Editor from the listing. Use the Navigation Tabs at the bottom of the Slide Editor View window to move from slide to slide. Are there any slides where the titles appear too long? Are there any slides where the bulleted list is going off the slide? Use the [Go To] list button at the bottom of the Slide Editor View window to go back to Slide1.

Playing Your Slide Show

Although the Slide Editor view will give you a good feel for what your slide will look like, it displays layout "placeholders" that you may leave empty, like subtitle. To see what your slides will really look like when displayed or printed, you need to play your slide show.

There is a button on the Property Bar that looks like a piece of film; its QuickTip is "Play slide show." When the [Play Slide Show] button is selected, the "Play Slide Show" dialog box appears to let you change display options (if you want) and you can then click [Play] to see each "pure" slide. Press the <Enter> or spacebar or click with your mouse to move to the next slide. You can press <Esc> to stop playing the slide show in the middle of the show. Note: Click the QuickPlay "View Tab" at the right of the screen to play your slide show beginning on the currently selected slide.

Exercise 5

Be sure that your insertion point is on Slide 1 and click on the [Play show] button on the Property Bar. Click [Play] to view your current slide show. Press the <Enter> key or spacebar or click with your mouse to go to the next slide.

As you move through your slide show, notice the placement of titles and bulleted text items. What type of symbol is used for the bullets? What colors are being used? Are items centered or left justified?

More about Slide Layouts

As you saw when you looked at your slides in Slide Editor View, you can see placeholders for the parts of the slides even if they are not in use, like the subtitles. When the slide is printed or played, empty placeholders do not display. There are 7 layouts that you can use. There is a [Select Layout] list button on the Property Bar that shows which type of layout is in use for the current slide. The seven layouts are:

Title	to create a title slide; has title and subtitle areas only
Bulleted list	list perhaps the most common type of slide, it has title, subtitle, and area for bulleted text items
Text	has title, subtitle, and a text area that is not bulleted
Organization chart	has title, subtitle, and an area for a bar/pie/line type chart
Data Chart	has title, subtitle, and an area for a bar/pie/line type of chart
Combination	has title, subtitle, an area for text on the left side of the slide and an area for a chart on the right side
None	gives you the background for your selected master but has no placeholder areas

Even after entering text in Outliner View, you can change the slide layout. Depending on what layout is selected, some of the elements in a placeholder may disappear.

Exercise 6

Change the view to Slide Editor for your "newsletter tips" slide show. Use the Navigation Tabs to move to Slide 1. Click on the [Select Layout] list button on the Property Bar and change the layout for Slide 1 to Title. Take a look at the result on the screen. Move to Slide 7 and change the layout to Text. Notice what happens to the bulleted text box. Move to Slide 8 and change the layout to Text. Save this version of "newsletter tips."

On Slide 8 change the layout to None and notice what happens. Change the layout back to Text before going on.

Change the view to Slide Outliner and look at the [Select Layout] button on the Property Bar. Does it shown a different layout button in use as you move the insertion point up and down the outline?

If you have several layouts you want to change as a group, this can be done by using FORMAT on the menu bar, then selecting Layout Gallery. The Appearance Tab lets you change all of the slides to another layout or change selected slides.

Changing the Gallery

In the "Document Selection" dialog box when you begin creating a file, you pick out a background master from the gallery. However, you can apply another gallery at any point in creating a slide show. You will probably want to be in Slide Editor View so you can see the effect. The button to the left of the [Select Layout] button is the [Master gallery] button. Clicking on this button redisplays the "Master Gallery" dialog box. You can pick another category, select another background and then click on [OK] to apply it to the slide show. You cannot apply more than one background to a slide show.

In the "Master Gallery" dialog box is a button for [Save as Default] . Clicking on this button changes the default gallery selection that appears when you start another new slide show later.

Exercise 7

Using your "newsletter tips" slide show, click on the [Master Gallery] button on the Property Bar. Pick the category of Color and pick the option Purple, click OK. Using the Navigation Tabs, move through the slides and look at the effect. How have the elements in each slide changed?

Change the category to Printout and select either Arrows or Boxes and view your slide show again.

If you have the complete gallery installed, change the category to Nature and pick the option of Fall. View your slide show.

What is your reaction to these various backgrounds? When would you want to use one and not another?

You do not need to save this new version of "newsletter tips." Close the screen display by clicking on FILE, then Close. The "Document Selection" dialog box appears.

Using an Existing Slide Show

When you first load Presentations, the "Document Selection" dialog box appears. Clicking on the "Work On" Tab shows a list of recently used files for Presentations created on the computer you are using. To open an existing file, click the files name and click [Open]. To open a file created by someone else, or from another computer, click the [Browse] button and the "Open File" dialog box appears. You can use the "Look in" window to change or browse to another folder or another drive.

Exercise 8

If the "Document Selection" dialog box is not displaying, close the current display. (If you need, exit out of Presentations and then reload it.) Open the "newsletter tips" file that you have been working with, and then close this document, using FILE, Close.

What Is PerfectExpert?

On the "Create New" Tab in the "Document Selection" dialog box is a list of PerfectExpert slide show projects. You can pick from some existing types of talks, like "Budget or Annual Report slide show", "Persuasive slide show", or "Teach a skill or concept". After selecting the talk you want and clicking on [Create] you are taken to the Slide Viewer. A panel appears on the left side of the document window. You can use the options on the PerfectExpert panel to finish creating the slide show you are working on. This time there is sample text to help you come up with a talk. You can use some of the text as it appears and change other lines of text to meet your needs. Remember, if you want to turn off the PerfectExpert panel, click the PerfectExpert button on the toolbar.

Exercise 9

In the "Document Selection" dialog box, pick out one of the PerfectExpert Projects that interests you and click [Create]. Look at the resulting slide text. If you want, change text as needed and save this new slide show under an appropriate name.

Exiting Presentations

After creating and saving a slide set, use FILE, Exit to quit the program.

Command Summary

*FILE, New*	To create a new slide set when you have another slide set on the screen
*FILE, Open*	To open an existing slide set
*FILE, Close*	To remove a slide set from display
*FILE, Save*	To save a new slide set or an existing slide set under the same name
*FILE, Save As*	To change the name of a slide set or save in another folder or drive
*VIEW, Slide Editor*	One way to change the view mode on the screen
*VIEW, Outliner*	To Change screen to the outline mode
*FORMAT, Layout gallery*	One way to change the layout for one slide or to apply a layout to a group of contiguous slides
FORMAT, Master gallery	One way to pick another gallery background
*VIEW, Play Slide show*	One way to play the slide show as it will appear, without placeholders

Summary

The initial screen that appears when Presentations loads is the "Document Selection" dialog box. Click the "Create New" Tab to begin a new slide show, and then select "Presentations Slide Show" and click [Create]. Choose a gallery for the background theme and click [OK]. The gallery can be changed later by using its button on the Property Bar or using FORMAT, Master gallery. There are seven templates that come with Presentations. The Presentations window has View Tabs at the Right of the screen. Slide Editor lets you see each slide, one at a time. Outliner lets you focus on the text for your slides. The Slide Editor shows placeholders for parts of the slide, even though they will not appear when the slide show is played.