Tips of the Week - Information Technology

Technology Tip of the Week - September 11, 2006

Creating an Instant PowerPoint Show

To save a presentation that will automatically run as a slide show when opened:

Create your PowerPoint presentation or open an existing one
On the File menu, click Save As.
In the Save as type box, select PowerPoint show (.pps).
In the File name box, enter a file name, and then click Save

As soon as your students double-click on this file, PowerPoint will start directly in full screen mode, without giving them any option to edit the presentation or to modify it. This approach works well since it eliminates the user having to launch the presentation and does not require that the the students have any knowledge of how to use PowerPoint

A .pps is just a .ppt file with a different file extension that tells PowerPoint "Open me directly into slide show view, not editing view." Users can "convert" from one to the other simply by renaming the files. Either the free PowerPoint viewer or the full PowerPoint software is still needed to view either format. A .pps file does not lose the sound transitions, or animation, and the embedded sounds still hold their functionality, unlike htm versions of PowerPoint presentations.

One consideration in using this format is that users may not modify or print directly from a .pps file. In order to modify or print a .pps file, users must have the full PowerPoint program on their computers and must convert to .ppt first.

For more help with these features, please contact one of the IT Instructional Support team (Norm Grant, Gene Grande or Linda Beith) or faculty mentors Tony Basilico or Kathy Beauchene.

Website of the Week

Presenters University

Faculty mentor Kathy Beauchene has suggested the Presenters University website as a great website of the week. This site allows subscribers to download lots of free PowerPoint templates and free art, read some great tips on using PowerPoint effectively, and even pose a presentation question to an experienced user group. Check it out at: http://www.presentersuniversity.com/ All you have to provide is your e-mail address to join.

Feel free to post your thoughts or opinions of this site in the Teaching Forum message board.

These tips are provided by the Department of Information Technology instructional support team. If you have any questions on these tips, or wish to offer your own, please feel free to contact Linda Beith at lbeith@ccri.edu. View an archive of past technology tips at http://it.ccri.edu/Training/Tips/tip_week.shtml.