PowerPoint Finesse

Learn sophisticated ways to use PowerPoint 2007 hands-on. We will explore the use of Slide Masters, templates, animated objects, action buttons and control of timing and transitions. We will provide examples of well-constructed presentations and discuss techniques for scale and file organization. We will show how to bring video clips into your presentations.

Questions? Email wic1@pobox.upenn.edu or stop by the Vitale Digital Media Lab.

• Learn what is new in PowerPoint 2007
• Learn about animation and motion paths
• Add narration to your presentations
• Embed videos from YouTube in your slides

Readings and References

• Creating Animations in PowerPoint to Support Student Learning and Engagement by Michael Ruffini, Educause Quarterly, 32 (4), 2009.
• A famous critique: PowerPoint is Evil, by Edward Tufte, Wired, September 2003.
• Research based methods for using powerpoint, animation, and video for instruction by Trevor Murphy, ACM SIGUCCS conference on User services, 2004. (Pennkey authentication needed)

New in PowerPoint 2007

• Slide Masters control the full presentation's look and feel. Also see Biomedical Library Slide Masters Tutorial.
• SmartArt is a new way to handle short sets of related items. Also see Biomedical Library Smart Art Tutorial
• Basic 2007 tutorials from Microsoft
• Animation tutorial
• Custom Motion Path tutorial
• Adding narration to your presentation is easy - Biomedical Library Narration Tutorial

Embedding YouTube Video in PowerPoint:

• Mac Instructions
• PC Instructions

Animation Examples

• Calcium Pathways narrated animation from University of Toronto
• PowerPoint Heaven Animation Collection
• Iceberg Slide - created by Chia-Ying Pan at Weingarten Learning Resources Center (VPUL)
• PowerPoint Game Templates and Countdown Timers

The Weigle Information Commons and Vitale Digital Media Lab make several Lynda.com accounts available to our users. Lynda.com provides over 50,000 professional training videos across 750 online courses on varied topics. To use our accounts, you must watch the videos in the WIC or the Digital Media Lab.Please stop by the Vitale Digital Media Lab or the WIC Desk if you'd like to spend time viewing the videos, and just ask the staff person on duty to log you in. View the list of PowerPoint training videos for Windows OR Mac.