Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours |
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Hour 21: Formatting and Giving Your Presentation |
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StarOffice provides many different settings for preparing and running a presentation. You can choose from among these options using two dialog boxes: one for general presentation settings and one for slide show options.
You can open the Presentations Options dialog box by selecting Presentations on the Options submenu under the Tools menu. This dialog box, shown in Figure 21.17, includes settings for what is displayed and how graphic snap and grids function, and for various layout and measurement options.
Figure
21.17
The
Presentation Options dialog box includes settings for display choices, drawing
with graphics tools, and measurement options.
The Contents tab contains options for how objects are displayed in slides as you create them. You can select a checkbox to make any of the following substitutions in the slide display:
Picture placeholders --These are of the same size and shape as the picture, to save time redrawing graphic images.
Object outlines --To save time redrawing objects.
Text placeholders --To see where text goes on a slide without displaying it.
Line contours --Contours, without filling in the complete curve and details of the line, again to save time in drawing the line.
In the Layout tab (shown in Figure 21.18), you can set which items to display to assist you with slide layout:
Figure
21.18
In
the Layout tab, select which tools are displayed to assist with slide layout
and how measurements are calculated.
Rulers that show vertical and horizontal position of objects on a slide. A line in the ruler tracks the mouse pointer position as you work.
Guides when moving objects, to show you the location that objects are being moved to.
All handles on a Bezier object (default is to display only a few of the handles on these objects).
The complete contour of each object (you can de-select this option to limit the contours shown and speed up the display).
In addition to these display options, in this tab you can set the distance between tab stops and choose a measurement unit such as inches, picas, or centimeters.
Note - The Measurement units drop-down list includes Miles and Kilometers in addition to inches, millimeters, and picas. Who knows how they ended up on the list, but they're not much help in building a slide. |
The Snap tab (shown in Figure 21.19) and the Grid tab (which is the same as the Grid tab in the Spreadsheet Options dialog box) are both used to assist in precisely positioning graphics and objects within a slide.
Figure
21.19
The
Snap tab defines how snap-to functions operate when creating objects that need
to be aligned with other items (such as the grid or page margins).
For example, you can use the Snap tab to define that when an object is moved to within 5 pixels of the page margin, it is automatically snapped to the page margin. This helps you line up all the objects on your slides.
Note - The Print tab is described later in this hour. It can also be accessed from the Options... button on the Print dialog box (which is opened from the File menu). |
The options that apply to running a slide show are not part of the Presentation Options dialog box. Instead, you can find them by selecting Presentation Settings from the Presentation menu. The Slide Show dialog box appears (see Figure 21.20).
Figure
21.20
In
the Slide Show dialog box you can select settings that define how your slide
presentation will be run.
The following list describes each of the features that you can select in the Slide Show dialog box (most of the default settings will be acceptable):
Range--You can select the All slides radio button to include all slides in the slide show, or you can select the From radio button and choose a slide title from the drop-down list. If you choose the From button, the slide show starts from the selected slide.
Tip - An item on the Other tab of the Presentation Options dialog box (in the Options submenu under Tools menu) enables you to choose to start a slide show from the current slide. This option is not selected by default. |
Repeat continuously --If this checkbox is selected, the slide show is repeated continuously, linking from the last slide back to the first slide, until the Esc key is pressed to end the show.
Change slides manually --This checkbox works in conjunction with an option in the Slide Transition window (which was described earlier in this hour). The Slide Transition window, under the Extras button, enables you to choose Automatic or Manual advance for the current slide, and to enter a delay in seconds (see Figure 21.21).
Figure
21.21
You
can select automatic slide advance with a timed delay in the Slide Transition
window.
The Change slides manually checkbox forces you to manually advance slides even if an automatic setting is part of any slide transition.
Mouse pointer visible --If this checkbox is not selected, the mouse pointer is not visible during the presentation. However, not all Linux systems are configured in a way that allows this feature to work properly, so you might just have to move the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen as you give your presentation.
Mouse pointer as pen --If you select the Mouse pointer visible checkbox, you can also select the Mouse pointer as pen checkbox, which changes the mouse pointer from an arrow to a small pen. This looks better than having the familiar arrow floating around the screen as you speak.
Navigator visible --During a slide show, the Navigator window contains a list of all the slides in the presentation. If you select this checkbox, the Navigator window is visible over the top of your presentation at all times. Figure 21.22 shows how this window looks during a presentation.
The Navigator window is helpful if you are moving to different slides a lot because you are reviewing your presentation. For a public presentation, the Navigator window might be in the way.
Figure
21.22
The
Navigator window can be displayed during a presentation to help you move among
the slides in your presentation.
Animations allowed --If this checkbox is selected, any animations that you have defined within your slides are executed as each slide is displayed. Uncheck this option if you're concerned about speed, or if you just want to try the presentation without animations running.
Change slides on mouse click --With this checkbox selected, you can use the mouse to advance to the next or previous slide during a presentation. If this checkbox is not selected, you must use the keyboard to advance the slides.
Presentation in window --If this checkbox is selected, the slide show appears within the StarOffice window, looking as it did when you were editing the slide in the Drawing view.
After you select options for your slide show, choose OK in the Slide Show dialog box to apply your settings and close the dialog box.
Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours |
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Hour 21: Formatting and Giving Your Presentation |
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