Introduction to StarOffice 7 Presentations (Impress) Table of - - PDF document

SO7002 – Introduction to StarOffice Presentations 1

Introduction to StarOffice 7 Presentations (Impress)

Table of Contents

Opening Comments....................................................................................................................... 1 Opening a PowerPoint File (or just about any other Presentation File).........................................1 Creating a New Presentation – Blank............................................................................................2 Creating a New Presentation – Using a Template......................................................................... 2 Changing to a Different Background / Template...........................................................................2 Filling in Text Boxes..................................................................................................................... 3 Formatting Text in Text Boxes......................................................................................................3 Adding New Text Boxes................................................................................................................3 Adding Graphics............................................................................................................................3 Inserting New Slides......................................................................................................................4 Change the Slide Layout (Title, Bulleted List, Graphics, etc.)......................................................4 Changing the Views (Layout, Outline, etc.).................................................................................. 4 Change the Slide Order..................................................................................................................5 Saving Your Presentation ............................................................................................................. 5 Showing Your Presentation........................................................................................................... 5 Printing Your Presentation ............................................................................................................6 Opening Comments The most important thing to remember is that Impress can both read and write PowerPoint 97 files. Even though the StarOffice is able to read and write MS Office PowerPoint slides some of the more 'interesting' things that can be done in either program does not translate well. Basic text and graphics come through fine. However, 3D editable objects from StarOffice become static graphics when saved as a PowerPoint. The same is true with WordArt and OrgChart from PowerPoint into StarOffice. If you are already familiar with the word processing portion of StarOffice then you already know how to do many of the things in the presentation tool. Right click on everything. Opening a PowerPoint File (or just about any other Presentation File)

• Click on File... Open...
• Change the drop-down of 'Files of Type' to Presentations
• Navigate to where the desired file is located and click on it
• Click on 'OK'

SO7002 – Introduction to StarOffice Presentations 2 Creating a New Presentation – Blank

• Click on File... New... Presentation
• When the 'Autopilot Presentation'

window appears click on 'Create.'

• Enter the name for your first slide

(probably title.) This will appear in the tab displayed beneath the slides.

• Select the desired layout for your first

slide (probably Title) and click on 'OK' Creating a New Presentation – Using a Template

• Click on File... New... Presentation
• When the 'Autopilot Presentation' window appears change the type to 'From Template.'
• When the list of style appears select the group (drop down box) and look that you like using the

preview window.

• At this point you probably want to just hit 'Create.' But if you hit next you will be taken through a

series of steps where you can:

• Set a default transition to use from slide to slide
• Set a default timing for each slide to be shown (kiosk mode)
• Set a variety of information to use on various pre-designed pages

NOTE: You can jump out of this step-by-step autopilot by clicking on 'Create' at any time. Changing to a Different Background / Template Once you have your presentation created you may want to select a different look / feel.

• Click on Format... Styles... Slide Design
• Click on the 'Load' Button
• Under 'Categories' find 'Presentation Backgrounds.' You may also want to click on the 'More' button

so you can see a preview of the backgrounds.

• Select the desired background by clicking on 'OK.'
• Double-click on the new style and your presentation will be updated.

SO7002 – Introduction to StarOffice Presentations 3 Filling in Text Boxes Depending upon slide layout initially selected you will have one or more text areas predefined on the slide. Click within the words in the predefined text area to begin typing your text. If you are in a bulleted text area hit enter to start a new bullet. If you want to start a new line without showing a new bullet hold down the 'Ctrl' key while pressing the 'Enter' key. HINT: Think of text boxes as mini-text documents. Just about anything you can do to text within a word processing document you can do within these text boxes. Formatting Text in Text Boxes Just as if you were in a word processing document you can either select text to modify after it has been typed or you can modify the style before your

• type. Either way you have many options depending upon if you want

modify the paragraph settings, the character settings or the numbering / bulleting settings. Adding New Text Boxes Along the left hand edge of the screen you will see the presentations toolbar. Near the top you will find the text box tool. Click once on the icon to turn on the tool. Left-click hold for a moment to see the three options for the text box tool.

• Text box - a box will be drawn that you can fill with text.
• Fill to frame text box - any text entered will be resized to fill the box.
• Callouts - This does not actually create a text box. It creates a graphical box with a movable
• pointer. You can then position a text box inside the graphical box.

Once you have the text box tool turned on, draw a box on the page. You can resize it at any time. Click in the box (other than the callouts) to start typing. Again all formatting commands are available. HINT: Once you are done with the text tool you do need to put it away by clicking on the 'Select' icon located in the left-hand edge toolbar. Adding Graphics

• Graphics (and photos) can be copied and pasted from just about any program.
• You can also use the Gallery by clicking on the Gallery button

and browsing through the available images. Be sure to click on the Gallery button again to put the Gallery away.

• You can also insert graphics files by clicking on Insert... Graphics and navigating to the file

location.

• You an add shapes, lines and even 3D shapes by using the graphics tools along the left-hand

edge toolbar. Remember that any time you see the little green arrow it means you can hold down the left mouse button for a second or so to see the options for the tool.

SO7002 – Introduction to StarOffice Presentations 4 Inserting New Slides

• Click on Insert... Slide
• If you give slide a name, that name will appear in the tab along the bottom edge of the screen.
• Select the slide layout and click on OK.

Change the Slide Layout (Title, Bulleted List, Graphics, etc.) Sometimes you may need to change the basic layout of a slide. WARNING: Some changes will result in the loss of data already typed into text boxes. It may be a better choice to create a new slide with the correct layout and then copy / paste the information into the new text areas.

• Click on Format... Modify Layout
• Select the new format, click 'OK'
• Click on 'Yes' when the warning screen appears.

Changing the Views (Layout, Outline, etc.) There are several different ways to look at your presentation. Some people find the outline view is best for quickly entering the basic content of the presentation and then tweaking each page. Others prefer to work through each slide one at a time adding text and tweaking layout / graphics as they proceed. Your choices for views are:

• Drawing View – Fully interactive view used to add / modify text and graphics to be

shown on the slide.

• Outline View – A purely text view of each slide in an outline format. Neither graphics

nor added text boxes appear in this view.

• Slides View – A non-editable view of all of the slides in your presentation. This view is used for

changing the order of the slides of for modifying the transitions and timing between slides.

• Notes View – In this view you will see each slide at the top of the page with a text area below. The

text area below can be used for speaker notes.

• Handout View – There is nothing to edit here. This is just a preview of what the handouts will look
• like. Please note that the only handout view is four slides per page.

You can switch between views by either:

• Clicking on View... Workspace... and selecting the desired view
• OR -
• Using the quick controls located in the top right-hand corner of the main area.

NOTE: You can move from slide to slide in Drawing View by either clicking on the tabs along the bottom edge (hence the benefit of naming pages) or by pressing the 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' buttons

• n your keyboard.

SO7002 – Introduction to StarOffice Presentations 5 Change the Slide Order There are two ways to change the slide order:

• Change to the 'Slides View'
• Grab the slide you want to move and drop it where you want it to appear.
• OR -
• Change the to 'Drawing View'
• Grab the slide tab at the bottom of the screen and drop it where you want it to appear.

Saving Your Presentation To save your presentation as a StarOffice file:

• Click on File... Save As...
• Verify that the 'Save as Type' is set to StarOffice Presentation.
• Navigate to where you want the file saved
• Give the file a name and hit 'Save.'

To save your presentation as a PowerPoint file:

• Click on File... Save As...
• Verify that the 'Save as Type' is set to PowerPoint Presentation.
• Navigate to where you want the file saved
• Give the file a name and hit 'Save.'

Showing Your Presentation There are many ways to start a presentation:

• Click on the 'Slide Show' button along the right-hand edge button bar:
• Click on the 'Start Slide Show' button along the left-hand edge by the view buttons:
• Click on Slide Show... Slide Show
• Press F-9 on your keyboard.

SO7002 – Introduction to StarOffice Presentations 6 Printing Your Presentation There are many options for printing. The problem is that you need to remember to set the option by clicking on options once you start the printing process:

• Click on File... Print
• Select the desired printer
• Click on 'Options'

You will now see a dialog box filled with four sections and many options. One nice thing is that you can ask for both a handout and an outline to both be printed at the same time. These are the four areas and some hints as to what each option does:

• Contents Area
• Drawing - Specifies whether the graphical contents of the pages are to be printed.
• Notes - Specifies whether to include notes when printing.
• Handouts - Specifies whether to include handouts when printing.
• Outline - Specifies whether to print an outline.

SO7002 – Introduction to StarOffice Presentations 7

• Quality Area
• Default - Specifies that you want to print in original colors.
• Grayscale - Specifies that you want to print colors as grayscale.
• Black & white - Specifies that you want to print the document in black and white.
• Print Area
• Defines additional elements to be printed on the page margin. You cannot select some elements if

you marked Brochure in the Page options area.

• Page name - Specifies whether to print the page name of a document.
• Date - Specifies whether to print the current date.
• Time - Specifies wither to print the current time.
• Hidden pages - Specifies whether to print the pages that are currently hidden from the presentation.
• Page options Area
• Default - Specifies that you do not want to further scale pages when printing.
• Fit to page - Specifies whether to scale down objects that are beyond the margins of the current

printer, so that they fit on the paper in the printer.

• Tile pages - Specifies that pages are to be printed in tile format. Select a page format that is larger

than the paper format.

• Brochure - Select the Brochure option to print the document in brochure format. You can also

decide if you want to print the front, the back or both sides of the brochure. You can decide whether to want to print on one side of the paper or on both sides. To print on one side, select both Front and Back and print. To print on both sides, first select only Front and start

• printing. Then put the paper into the printer with the other side up, select only Back and print

again. Fold the pages in the center, put them together, and the brochure is ready.

• Front - Select Front to print the front of a brochure.
• Back - Select Back to print the back of a brochure.