Easily Create Training Manuals Based on your Presentation

MS Powerpoint 2003, MS Word 2003

I just received a call from a colleague. She is in the midst of creating a training manual based on her PowerPoint presentation, and she wondered if there's an easy way to transfer the information.

Copying and pasting the information slide by slide was taking all day.

Fortuntately, there is.

On the File menu, click Send to, then Microsoft Word.

When the dialog box pops up, click Outline Only, and then OK.

All of the information in your PowerPoint slides will be transferred into a new Microsoft Word document.

I often use this when creating training manuals for my Software and Internet Marketing Courses. It makes the PowerPoint presentation and training manual in sync, and makes creating manuals a snap.

MS Office Tip - Save Time by Adding Buttons to your Toolbar

This tip shows you how to add buttons to any toolbar in the Microsoft Office 2003 suite (Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, etc.)

Why would you use this, may ask? I have found that adding a couple of buttons to the toolbar for frequently used commands speeds up my productivity. A perfect example, from Microsoft Excel, is the button to delete a row from a spreadsheet. Clicking on a button is a lot faster than having to go through the Edit menu each time I need to remove a row.

Here are the instructions for adding the Insert Rows button to your toolbar. Although this is an Excel command, similar steps will work for all MS Office programs.

• Right click in the blue area to the right of any of your toolbars.
  
  
• Click on Customize.
  
  
• When the dialog box pops up, click on the Commands tab.
  
  
• Under the Categories list box, click on Edit.
  
  
• Scroll down the Commands list box until you come to Delete Rows
  
  
• Click on Delete Rows and drag it to any toolbar.

Voila! You're done. The next time you need to delete a row, simply click on the button you've added to your toolbar.

Now, go and experiment to see how many buttons you can add to your existing Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint or Publisher toolbars to save you tons of time.

PowerPoint Tip: Use Custom Slide Shows to Get More Mileage out of your Presentation

PowerPoint's Custom Slide Shows


PowerPoint's Custom Slide Show feature allows you to use the specific slides from a single presentation in a customized presentation.

For example, I have a workshop on Winning Website Strategies for Small Business Owners. One of the topics in my workshop explores 3 Keys to a Website that Sells. Another offers tips for Selecting the Right Web Development Team. While the full workshop runs for 3-4 hours, the two shorter sections are perfect for lunch and learn presentations.

I could have two or three separate PowerPoint presentations. In the 10 years I've been conducting website strategy workshops, however, I know that information changes rapidly. I do not want the hassle of synchronizing information in two or more presentations. Instead, I use PowerPoint's Custom Slide Shows.

Creating a Custom Slide Show

• Launch PowerPoint and open your presentation.
  
• From the Slide Show menu, select Custom Show
• Click the New button.
• Next to Slide Show Name, type in the name of your show (ex., DPA_Teachers).
• Double-click on each slide you'd like to add to your custom show.
• Once you've added all of the slides, click the OK button.
  
• Click Close.

To use a Custom Show.

• Click the Slide Show menu
• Click Setup Show
• Click the name of the show you'd like to select (ex., DPA_Teachers).
• Run the presentation.

PowerPoint Tip: Upload your PowerPoint Presentation to the 'Net

Are you looking for an easy way to upload and share your Powerpoint presentations? AuthorStream may have the answer.

With AuthorStream, you can upload your PowerPoint presentation to share it on blogs, websites, YouTube and even iPods.


All you have to do is create the PowerPoint presentation. Include your audio narrations, timing, and animations. Upload the presentation. AuthorStream keeps all of your content.

Best of all, Authorstream is 100% free.

Powerpoint Tip - Screen Presentation Tips

While running a PowerPoint slide show, you may want to temporarily turn the screen off so that the audience focuses on what you are saying.

Here's a quick way to do so.

Type B to turn the screen Black.

Type W to turn the screen White.

PowerPoint Tip - Pause Slide Shows

Version 2003


While running a Microsoft PowerPoint slide show, you may want to temporarily turn the screen off so that the audience focuses on you.

Type B to turn the screen black, or W to turn the screen white.

Press Esc to resume the slide show.

PowerPoint Tip - Create A Summary Slide

Works in Microsoft PowerPoint versions 2000 and 2003
If you've taken any presentation training, you've probably heard this:

Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em.
Tell 'em.
Tell 'em what you told 'em.

One way to "Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em" is to have an overview slide at the beginning of your presentation.

PowerPoint offers a quick way to create a slide that contains the headings from all of the slides in your presentation.

* Make sure your outlining toolbar is visible.
Click on the View menu, Select Toolbars, then Outlining.


* Select the slides whose titles you want to use in your outline. In slide sorter bar, which is usually on the left hand side of your screen, select the first slide. Hold down the SHIFT key as you select the last slide. If you need to select non-adjacent slides, use the CTRL key instead.


On the Outlining toolbar, click the Summary Slide icon.
A new slide, with bulleted titles from the selected slides, appears in front of the first slide in your selection.