Briefly introduce the topics that will be covered in this lesson so students are aware of the new skills they will learn. Remind students that all the information is available in the book as a reference so they don’t need to commit anything to memory or take notes.
Unlike other Office applications, PowerPoint does not offer a Track Changes feature. This feature, in Word for example, allows another user to edit a document, with all changes tracked so the author can review them. In PowerPoint, changes are made directly to the presentation, and then the compare and combine feature (next slide) may be used to identify the differences. Alternatively, a reviewer may use the comments feature to note questions, concerns, etc. on slides. Comments are just like yellow sticky notes – written on and stuck on a slide, then removed when no longer needed.Demonstrate how to add, edit, and remove comments, how to hide all of them, and how to navigate from one to the next. Also demonstrate how to delete all comments on a slide and in the presentation.
As mentioned on the previous slide, there is no Track Changes feature in PowerPoint as there is in Word. Instead, a reviewer makes changes directly to a presentation, and then the creator can compare the original to the modified version to identify and review changes, which works pretty much as well as Word’s Track Changes feature. Use the example in the book to demonstrate how to compare two presentations and review the differences, incorporating or rejecting them as needed.
Demonstrate how easy it is to set a password on a presentation in Backstage. Setting a password that allows opening but not editing is buried in Save As > Tools > General Options, so not as easy to get to, but useful in some cases.
Demonstrate how this feature works, showing the yellow Marked as Final bar that appears when opening a presentation marked as final. Be sure to explain that this feature doesn’t prevent editing, just discourages it.
Students may question the value of metadata. You may explain that other software, such as SharePoint and search engines, can extract it to build searchable indexes. It’s not easy to demonstrate the end-use of this information, but do show students how to edit the document properties for their presentation. Also demonstrate the Document Inspector as a way of reviewing whether a presentation has document properties, comments and other embedded information.
It may seem ironic to print something usually designed to be displayed on a computer screen or through a projector, but… printing a hard copy of a presentation can be useful when editing it, and can be used to provide a handout to attendees, particularly one they can add notes to. Review the different layouts available and the different print options (e.g. color vs. greyscale). Be sure to point out that a preview of the printed version appears in Backstage to the right of the print options.
While there are many predefined layouts available for printing, students may wish to export the content to Word to make further modifications there, or to create their own layout. Demonstrate how to export the presentation, in various formats, to Word.
Review the topics covered in this lesson to remind students of what they have learned and accomplished, and to invite questions on any topics not entirely clear.
