Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is the name of a proprietary commercial software presentation

HISTORY
Originally designed for the Macintosh computer, the initial release was called
"Presenter", developed by Dennis Austin and Thomas Rudkin of Forethought, Inc.[1] In 1987, it
was renamed to "PowerPoint" due to problems with trademarks, the idea for the name coming
from Robert Gaskins.[2] In August of the same year, Forethought was bought by Microsoft for
$14 million USD ($28.6 million in present-day terms[3]), and became Microsoft's Graphics
Business Unit, which continued to develop the software further. PowerPoint was officially
launched on May 22, 1990, the same day that Microsoft released Windows 3.0.
PowerPoint changed significantly with PowerPoint 97. Prior to PowerPoint 97,
presentations were linear, always proceeding from one slide to the next. PowerPoint 97
incorporated the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) language, underlying all macro generation
in Office 97, which allowed users to invoke pre-defined transitions and effects in a non-linear
movie-like style without having to learn programming.
PowerPoint 2000 (and the rest of the Office 2000 suite) introduced a clipboard that
could hold multiple objects at once. Another change was that the Office Assistant was changed
to be less intrusive.[4]
As of 2012, various versions of PowerPoint claim ~95% of the presentation software market
share, having been installed on at least 1 billion computers; the frequency of use in
presentations had been estimated at around 350 per second globally.[5]

OPERATION
PowerPoint presentations consist of a number of individual pages or "slides". The "slide"
analogy is a reference to the slide projector. A better analogy would be the "foils" (or
transparencies/plastic sheets) that are shown with an overhead projector, although they are in
decline now. Slides may contain text, graphics, sound, movies, and other objects, which may be
arranged freely. The presentation can be printed, displayed live on a computer, or navigated
through at the command of the presenter. For larger audiences the computer display is often
projected using a video projector. Slides can also form the basis of webcasts.
PowerPoint provides three types of movements:

1. Entrance, emphasis, and exit of elements on a slide itself are controlled by what
PowerPoint calls Custom Animations.
2. Transitions, on the other hand, are movements between slides. These can be animated
in a variety of ways.
3. Custom animation can be used to create small story boards by animating pictures to
enter, exit or move.

CULTURAL IMPACT
Supporters say that[6][7][8] the ease of use of presentation software can save a lot of time
for people who otherwise would have used other types of visual aid—hand-drawn or
mechanically typeset slides, blackboards or whiteboards, or overhead projections. Ease of use
also encourages those who otherwise would not have used visual aids, or would not have given
a presentation at all, to make presentations. As PowerPoint's style, animation,
andmultimedia abilities have become more sophisticated, and as the application has generally
made it easier to produce presentations (even to the point of having an "AutoContent Wizard"
(discontinued in PowerPoint 2007) suggesting a structure for a presentation), the difference in
needs and desires of presenters and audiences has become more noticeable.
The benefit of PowerPoint is continually debated, though most people believe that the
benefit may be to present structural presentations to business workers, such as Raytheon Elcan
does.[9] Its use in classroom lectures has influenced investigations of PowerPoint’s effects on
student performance in comparison to lectures based on overhead projectors, traditional
lectures, and online lectures. Not only is it a useful tool for introductory lectures, but it also has
many functions that allow for review games, especially in the younger grades. There are no
compelling results to prove or disprove that PowerPoint is more effective for learner retention
than traditional presentation methods.[10] The effect on audiences of poor PowerPoint
presentations has been described as PowerPoint hell.

CRITICISM
Although PowerPoint has the aforementioned benefits, some argue that PowerPoint has
negatively affected society. The terms "Death by PowerPoint" and "PowerPoint Hell" refer to
the poor use of the software. Many large companies and branches of the government use
PowerPoint as a way to brief employees on important issues that they must make decisions
about. Opponents of PowerPoint argue that reducing complex issues to bulleted points is
detrimental to the decision making process; in other words, because the amount of information
in a presentation must be condensed, viewing a PowerPoint presentation does not give one
enough detailed information to make a truly informed decision.
A frequently cited example is Edward Tufte's analysis of PowerPoint slides prepared for
briefing NASA officials concerning possible damage to the Space Shuttle Columbia during
its final launch.[11] Tufte argues that the slides, prepared by the Boeing Corporation, had the
effect of oversimplifying the situation, and provided false assurance that the ultimately fatal
damage to the shuttle was only minimal. Tufte argued:

 The most critical information was consigned to the lowest level of importance in the outline
style.
 The low resolution of the slides encouraged the use of acronyms and undescriptive
pronouns instead of specific, descriptive terms and language.
 PowerPoint's limited font styling obscured proper notation of key scientific measurements.

Definitions
Presentation: The primary type of file PowerPoint is used to create. Presentations typically
have the file extension .ppt; however, you can also save PowerPoint presentations as Adobe
Acrobat documents with the file extension .pdf. Finally, you can save your presentation as a
web page, with the file extension .html or .htm.

Slides: Individual parts of a presentation. Slides are similar to the individual pages in a print
document, and can contain text, graphics, and animation.

Layout: The specific arrangement of text and images on a slide. Layouts can be very simple,
consisting of simple titles and text, or they can be more complex and include elaborate colors
and images. You can also include animation, sounds, and other multimedia objects in your
layout.

View: Microsoft PowerPoint has three main views: normal view, slide sorter view, and slide
show view. Normal view is the main editing view. Slide sorter view is an exclusive view of your
slides in thumbnail form, helpful for rearranging the order of your slides. Slide show view takes
up the full computer screen, like an actual slide show presentation. In this full-screen view, you
see your presentation the way your audience will.

Design Template: The specific “look” of a slide or group of slides. A design template can be very
basic - with black text on a white background - or it can be very colorful and complex. Typically,
PowerPoint presentations have the same design template for all slides, although it is possible to
select a different design template for each slide. Later, I’ll show you how to select different
design templates.

Slide Show: The way a presentation appears when you are presenting it. When you display your
slides in a slide show, the slides typically take up the whole screen, and they appear in
sequence.

Placeholder: Boxes with dotted or hatch-marked outlines that appear when you create a new
slide. These boxes act as "placeholders" for objects such as the slide title, text, clip art, charts,
and tables. Placeholders are sometimes called “text boxes.”

Sizing handles: Small circles that appear along the edges of the selection rectangle around an
object on your slide. You drag a sizing handle to change the shape or size of an object. To
maintain the proportions of an object while resizing, simply drag a corner handle.
Objectives
This tutorial is designed for people who are new to PowerPoint. You will learn how to:

 Start PowerPoint
 Work with layouts, text, and slides
 Work with templates and images
 Work with drawing tools
 Use different views and printing options
 Put your presentation on the World Wide Web
 Identify and employ elements of a good presentation