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Applying a design

There are two ways to apply a design to your PowerPoint presentation.  First, you can select a design when you first open the PowerPoint program or click "New..." under the File menu.  In this case, however, a design is instead called a "template."  For example, when you open the program, the following pop-up window (or one similar to it) will likely appear:

newppt.jpg (20580 bytes)

To select a design, click on the "radio button" next to the word "Template" then click OK.  You may then select from one of the designs that appear under the "Presentation Designs" tab and click OK.  These templates do not contain any content - just the design for the slides you create. The AutoContent Wizard, which is the top option above, will open a sample presentation that contains suggested content and design.

The second way to apply a design to a blank presentation or an existing one is to go to the "Format" menu and select "Apply Design" as follows:

design.jpg (10150 bytes)

You may also apply a design by clicking on the "Apply Design" button in the toolbar, which looks like the following:

designbt.jpg (946 bytes)

In the "Apply Design" pop-up window, you would select a design and click "Apply."  Every slide in an existing presentation would then change to the selected design.  The following is an example of a PowerPoint slide with a design called "Brown Bag."   The design also formats the font and bullets as shown in the sample text below.

brnbag.gif (56379 bytes)

For your assignment, create a PowerPoint presentation and apply a design to the slides.   Your presentation should include 10 slides containing content suitable for use in a classroom or other educational or work environment. There is a saying that an overhead should not contain more than seven words on seven lines, but I would recommend using even less text on screen.  Audiences often do not want to hear a presenter read material to them.  Additional text can be provided in the "Notes" view of the presentation, which will appear when "Notes pages" are printed out for the audience or presenter.  Another option is to turn one slide into two or three slides and increase the font size.

Please continue to the following section on Slide Layouts.

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Copyright © 2001-2002 Valerie Irvine. All rights reserved.
Revised: March 12, 2002.