Why do you want to use PowerPoint?

Some notes on using PowerPoint are now available, with illustrations from an XP2003 version, probably the most used at the moment and with significant differences from the old 97 style notes. Of course now I'll start getting requests for 2007 which I haven't even seen myself yet. Anyway the complete set and some tasks will be released via the Studyzone wiki as an experiment. I'll also publish them on either a site or a blog too but, at 22 pages, that's not as easy as it sounds! here's the first page, though. The rest at this link.

• Presenting information as you might have done with OHTs in the old days
• Supporting a speech or lecture – bullet points reminding you of what to say
• Displaying images in a big way
• A slide show (literally)
• A simple way to create graphics

Getting started

• Plan what you want to put on the slides (which will be different to, and much less than, what you want to say!)Start, end and middle etc. Find the images you might need and save them somewhere. If you intend to use links to web sites, store them as Favourites or Bookmarks
• Use the defaults. Leave the fonts alone. Type where suggested. Ignore all the designs and groovy backgrounds (at least until the content is finished)
• Use supplied slide layouts. Don’t add your own text areas to a blank slide unless all your doing is a picture show.
• Use a Master slide for anything that needs to appear on every slide (like a corporate logo, name, date etc.

more

When's a good time to . . .

Biorythms. Hmmm. Maybe you think they're a load of nonsense and will immediate scroll off somewhere else or wonder why on earth I'm taking so long to come up with those PowerPoint notes. If you're still here, Google have a nice little gadget that can sit on your desktop and indicates when your emotional senses, physical state or intelligence might be at a peak or trough, based on the assumption that each varies over time in a sine wave fashion. If nothing else, it might help explain why some days are just plain lousy!

Get it here

You can also see at a glance how old you are. You can also do that in Excel quite simply.
Type you date of birth in cell A1. In another cell type =NOW()-A1. That'll give you a funny date. Use Format|Cell to change the display to a Number, General to get the number of days.