Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours

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Hour 19: Creating Presentations with StarImpress

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Hour 19
Creating Presentations with StarImpress

In this hour, you learn how to create a new presentation using the StarImpress features of StarOffice. You see how to use templates and the AutoPilot to help you get started, as well as how to add text and to format the information on your presentation slides. You also learn how to save your presentation to graphic formats or to HTML, for viewing in a Web browser.

Creating a New StarImpress Presentation


A presentation is usually a little more theatrical than a spreadsheet, and a little less verbose than a document. StarOffice gives you the tools to create professional presentations that can be presented live within your Linux system.

To start a new presentation in StarOffice, you can use any of the methods that are now familiar to you:

When you use any of these methods, the first slide appears in the viewing area, as does the Modify Slide dialog box. In this dialog box, select the auto-layout for the first slide in your new presentation. The view that you're seeing is called the Drawing view. (See Figure 19.1.) Other views are explained in Hour 21, "Formatting and Giving Your Presentation."

Figure 19.1
A blank slide appears and the Modify Slide dialog box opens when you start the creation of a new presentation.

Slides and Pages

StarImpress is like a combination of PowerPoint and CorelDRAW. StarImpress can create multiple-slide presentations with transitions, embedded links, and slide templates (all explained in later hours).

Each slide also has a full set of drawing tools, multiple layers, color capabilities, and so forth. In fact, you'll notice a lot of similarities between the StarDraw tools that you learned about in Hour 6, "Creating Graphics with StarDraw," and the drawing tools that you can use within a StarImpress Presentation.

You can use StarDraw to create a flyer, card, or brochure, or you can use similar tools within a slide to develop a traditional slide presentation.

Making Use of Presentation Templates

Most people are not creative enough to start with a blank slide and create a presentation worthy of the name. Instead, they prefer to use templates that professional designers at StarDivision have created to guide their efforts.

If you're like most people, you might want to use one of the nine presentation templates and more than two dozen background templates that StarOffice includes to start creating your slides.

To start a presentation from a StarImpress template, follow these steps:

1. Choose New from the File menu.

2. Choose From Template... from the New submenu. The New dialog box appears, listing templates that you can use for your new presentation.

Note - You can also press Ctrl+N to open the new dialog box to select a Template.


3. Scroll down the Categories list until you find Presentations. Click on it to see a list of presentation templates in the right side of the dialog box (see Figure 19.2).

4. To see more information about the selected template, including a preview, choose the More button to expand the dialog box.

5. Double-click on the name of the presentation template that you want to use (the Annual Report template is used for this example).

6. The presentation appears onscreen, ready for your text. (See Figure 19.3.)

With the presentation template onscreen, you can see that a lot of your work is done for you. The flow of the presentation, with information that you need to include, is already entered on the slides.

Tip - Use the PageUp and PageDown keys to move between slides. Other navigation methods are described in Hour 21.


Figure 19.2
You can select from nine presentation templates in the New dialog box.

Figure 19.3
A presentation template includes sample text on a formatted slide for each topic.

Using a Slide Layout

Presentation layouts are similar to the slides in a presentation template, but layouts are less complete. They include a background and predefined text or graphics areas, but no sample text. To use a presentation layout, follow these steps:

1. Choose New from the File menu.

2. Choose From Template... from the New submenu. The New dialog box appears, listing templates that you can use for your new presentation.

3. Scroll down the Categories list until you find Presentation Layouts. Click on it to see a list of layouts in the right side of the dialog box (similar to Figure 19.2).

4. Decide on the layout that you want to use and double-click on it in the New dialog box.

5. Select a slide layout for your first slide from the dialog box that appears. When you choose OK, the first slide in a new presentation appears, as shown in Figure 19.4.

Figure 19.4
A slide layout includes a background graphic, but not the format of multiple individual slides.

Table 19.1 explains the similarities and differences between a presentation and a presentation layout.

Table 19.1  Presentations versus Presentation Layouts

Presentations

Presentation Layouts

Applies a graphical background to each slide.

Applies a graphical background to each slide.

Consists of multiple slides, one for each topic in a subject (such as "Finance Report").

Includes only a single slide when opened, to hold the background graphics.

Includes sample text in a set of formatted slides.

Doesn't include any text. Formatted areas for text and graphics are provided to match the layout's background.

Best when your presentation built need some basic presentation templates.

Best when you just fits one of the nine pre-structure and a nice graphic to get you started.


Using the AutoPilot

If you want to create a personalized presentation as rapidly as possible, try the AutoPilot feature. The AutoPilot, which has been described for other types of documents, is similar to the wizards supplied with other programs. It asks you questions, and then creates a document outline based on your answers.

To use the AutoPilot to create a new presentation, follow these steps (you don't have to have a document already open to use the AutoPilot):

1. Choose AutoPilot from the File menu, and then choose Presentation from the AutoPilot submenu. The AutoPilot dialog box for a presentation appears (see Figure 19.5).

2. Click the Next>> button to advance to the first data entry screen of the AutoPilot dialog box (shown in Figure 19.6).

3. Enter your name or company name in the first field. For example


Thomas Travel Corp.

4. Enter a single line topic for your presentation in the second field. For example


Employee briefing: 1999 Cruise Season

5. Enter topics that you want to cover. Type each topic on a separate line, pressing Enter after each. The box scrolls down as you enter each line. For example, you might enter


Changes in industry law
New competitors for travel agencies
Popular areas this year
New information sources for clients
Promotions to watch for

Figure 19.5
The AutoPilot guides you through questions about your presentation, and then creates an outline for you.

Figure 19.6
The first information requested by the Presentation AutoPilot is your name, the company name, and the topic information for the presentation.

Note - The lines that you enter as topics are part of the Agenda, and also headlines on individual slides, depending on the type and length of presentation that you specify.


6. Click the Next>> button to advance to the next screen in the dialog.

7. Choose the type of presentation that you want to make by selecting a radio button on this screen. Note that a description is provided on the left side of the dialog box. The description changes when you select different items in the list. (See Figure 19.7.)

Figure 19.7
Select a type of presentation so that the AutoPilot can assign certain features to the presentation that it creates for you.

8. Click the Next>> button to continue. In the next section, shown in Figure 19.8, select a design style and a duration for your presentation.

Figure 19.8
Select a design style and a duration for your presentation.

9. Click the Next>> button to continue. In the next section, shown in Figure 19.9, select a presentation medium: paper, overhead transparency, or 35mm slide. The medium that you select determines which types of graphics are used in the presentation.

Figure 19.9
Choose a medium for your presentation so that graphics and pages are sized optimally.

Tip - If you intend to use your presentation directly from your computer (running a slide show as described in Hour 21), choose Overhead as the medium.


10. Click Next>> to continue, and then click Create to finish the presentation. After a moment, the first slide appears onscreen, as shown in Figure 19.10.

Figure 19.10
A presentation set up by the AutoPilot includes slides for each of your topics.

Note - You might not always like the results of an AutoPilot presentation, but they can be edited normally after they're first created--and it's a very fast way to get started.


Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours

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Hour 19: Creating Presentations with StarImpress

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