Mouse Clix

By: Hobie Lunin

PowerPoint your Holiday Photos

It was in 1996 that I first came to sit in front of a computer that had Windows. I was on my own. I was teaching myself, as there was no one available at work to spend time with me. I was responsible for the production of all the product made by the company. I thought I should use the computer for improving the manufacturing process. This is how I came to develop a process for learning new computer applications. I find something that I can or need to do. I then look in a program that I think has possibilities to help in that regard, and then proceed to teach myself how to do it. Some of the details follow.

Help is normally available in several places. One is the Help that is linked from the upper tool bar in most any program. Printing some of these pages out for reference was helpful. (I filled up two loose-leaf binders). Other help is available from publications at the bookstore. I found myself looking through manuals at the Barnes and Noble almost every night. Carefully clicking on all the options I could find in a program helped me to get my project moving. This brought up more questions followed by more answers from my references. I made steady progress until I was using the computer as a very powerful and accurate aid to the manufacturing process.

OK, why am I telling you this? Every so often, someone asks me about PowerPoint. They have seen the name and wonder what it is about.

A recent article in the New Yorker magazine on the subject of PowerPoint was very much to the point. Anyone doing a presentation these days is using it. This program, which is available in most editions of Microsoft Office, is an easy way to put together what formerly would be called a slide show. The presentation can be made on a screen or can be shown on a desktop. For traveling salesmen wanting to make a pitch at your desk, a laptop presentation is also effective.

The program can have sound, graphics or photos; can be run all by itself or under the control of a projectionist. Power Point has a number of templates, so it is easy to get a project going. It also has so many ways to personalize your work that it seems like a daunting task to try to describe it in one article.

I would rather see you try it yourself with some encouragement from me. The first thing is to see if you have it by looking for it under Programs. It should be listed between Outlook and Word. If you have it, the next thing is to have a project for it. Remember that it is a slide show program so, if you are in business, this is a great way to make a presentation. Use a projector for a group or on a laptop for a person-to-person presentation at a business or at home.

But what about everyone else? Well, by now you may have already gotten back some of your holiday photos from the film processor, or if you are using a digital camera, you will have many of those pictures available now. Why not think about making a slide show? This can be shown on your desktop, e-mailed to friends or family where it can be played on their desktop. It can be recorded on a CD-ROM if you have a CD-R and sent to anyone with a computer and it can be put on the Internet where it can be viewed by nearly everyone.

If you would like to make a slide show with family photos and with music or voice accompaniment, the following would be a reasonable way of getting started. First, get your photos into your computer using whatever method you can (scanning, loading from the camera, film pix that have been put on floppy, whatever). Make sure you have cropped them and checked that the quality is the way you want it. Remember how to locate them in your computer.

Click on the program if you have it. (It would be a good idea to determine whether you have the Office 97 version or PowerPoint 2000.) Now, open PowerPoint and start following the “AutoContent Wizard.” Try to make a basic slide show starting with an opening slide or two describing what the “show” is about, where the pictures were taken, etc. The pictures themselves can be put on a slide that can have the names of the people who are in the picture and the location printed on it. The graphic design around the photo on the slide can be coordinated throughout the slide show. You can have the show run automatically, the timing can be controlled and special effects can be made such that the slide changes can appear on the screen in a number of ways to keep your audience interested. Sound, voice over or music can be made to accompany your show.

It will be your task to explore all these possibilities by clicking on the various indicators and options, checking in the Help and perhaps even purchasing a book on PowerPoint that will give you hints on making a successful slide presentation. Teaching yourself to use an application such as PowerPoint will go a long way in helping you to master some of the other applications you may run across.

Remember if you are stumped and need some help you can e-mail me (I respond to all letters from readers).

Hobie Lunin is a Computer Instructor and Consultant, and can be reached at mouseclix2@yahoo.com. Previous articles can be seen at http://mouseclix.tripod.com. Information about taking free lessons with the author of this article is on this web site.

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