Category: Presentations

We can add text into the slides in Impress using the ‘Text Box’. There are two ways for adding text into the slides: we can either choose a predefined layout for the text boxes for the slides from the ‘Tasks Pane’, these layouts are known as ‘Auto-Layout Text Box’, or we can insert a text box using a text tool symbolized by ‘T’ in the text toolbar.
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To enter text in the Auto Layout text box, ‘Normal View’ should be selected. Then we add text where ‘Click to add text’ is displayed.

To enter text into text box created by using ‘Text Tool’, ‘Normal View’ should be selected. We can create the text box by clicking on the ‘T’ text icon and drag the mouse in the slide to create the text box. Release the mouse button after creating the desired text box. We can reposition the text box in the slide. Now the text can be entered or pasted in this text box.

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The slide which is used as the starting point for all other slides is known as a Master slide. A slide master has defined characteristics including background color, graphics, headers-footers, placement and size of text frames, and formatting of the text. Any new slide we create has all the characteristics of the master slide. If we change any characteristic of the master slide, it will reflect in all other slides as well.
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Insert a graphical object (picture, image, drawn object) into a master slide.

To insert a graphical object into a master slide, we first open the master view. First of all, go to ‘View’ on the main menu bar, and then from the resulting drop-down click on ‘Master’ and then click on ‘Slide Master’ to open the master view.

After master view is opened, navigate to ‘Insert’ on the main menu bar and from the drop down, select ‘Image’.

This will open the ‘Insert Image’ dialog box from where we can browse to the location where the picture to be inserted is located. After selecting the picture, click on ‘Open’. The picture will get inserted into the master slide.

Remove a graphical object from a master slide.

To remove a graphical object from the master slide, simply select the object and press ‘Delete’ button on the keyboard of your machine.
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The slide which is used as the starting point for all other slides is known as a Master slide. A slide master has defined characteristics including background color, graphics, headers-footers, placement and size of text frames, and formatting of the text. Any new slide we create has all the characteristics of the master slide. If we change any characteristic of the master slide, it will reflect in all other slides as well.
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Insert a graphical object (picture, image, drawn object) into a master slide.

To insert a graphical object into a master slide, we first open the master view. First of all, go to ‘View’ on the main menu bar, and then from the resulting drop-down click on ‘Master’ and then click on ‘Slide Master’ to open the master view.

After master view is opened, navigate to ‘Insert’ on the main menu bar and from the drop down, select ‘Image’.

This will open the ‘Insert Image’ dialog box from where we can browse to the location where the picture to be inserted is located. After selecting the picture, click on ‘Open’. The picture will get inserted into the master slide.

Remove a graphical object from a master slide.

To remove a graphical object from the master slide, simply select the object and press ‘Delete’ button on the keyboard of your machine.
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Copy, move slides within the presentation, between open presentations.

To copy a slide within a presentation, select the slide you want to copy from the slides pane, and then drag and drop that slide to the desired location within the presentation. Similarly, to move a slide, right-click on the desired slide from the slides pane and from the resulting menu, select ‘Cut’. Now go to the desired location where the slide needs to be moved to and then right-click there and from the resulting menu, click on ‘Paste’.
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Slides can also be copied between open presentations. To copy the slide, right-click on the slide from the slides pane and from the resulting menu, click on ‘Copy’. Open the new presentation where you want to copy the selected slide. Now right-click in the slides pane in this new presentation, and from the resulting menu, click on ‘Paste’.

To move the slide between open presentations, follow the same steps as above and Paste the slide in the other presentation.

Delete slide(s).

A slide can be deleted by simply right-clicking on the slide from the slides pane and then clicking on ‘Delete Slide’ from the resulting menu.
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Change background color on specific slide(s), all slides.

To change the background of a slide or of all the slides, click on ‘Format’ from the main menu bar, and from the resulting menu, click on ‘Page’. This will open the ‘Page Setup’ dialog box. In this dialog box, under the ‘Background’ tab, we have the ‘Fill’ area where we have a drop-down list. We need to select ‘Color’ from this list. This displays a number of colors in another list, and we can select the required background color from this list.
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After selecting the color, click on ‘OK’. This will give an alert with the question, ‘Background settings for all pages?’. Click on ‘Yes’ to change the background color of all the slides and ‘No’ to change the background color of only the specific selected slide.

Add a new slide with a specific slide layout like: title slide, chart and text, bulleted list, table/spreadsheet.

In the previous sections, we have already discussed how to add a new slide to a presentation and also how to choose a built-in slide layout for a slide. So in order to add a new slide with a specific slide layout, we can simply add a new slide to the presentation and then apply the required built-in slide layout to this slide.
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Choose a different built-in slide layout for a slide.

A built-in slide layout defines the layout for a slide. A layout means the number and order of the different types of elements that are going to be present in a slide.

In the ‘Tasks’ pane, all the built-in slide layouts are present. In order to choose the different built-in slide layouts, we simply need to select the required one from the Tasks pane.
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The layouts only differ in the number of elements which are there in a slide.

Apply an available design template to a presentation.

A template is simply a format based on which a new presentation will get created in Impress. There are a number of templates which are already present in Impress and if we want to have our own template or make changes to one of the existing ones then this can be achieved easily in Impress.

To apply an available design template to a presentation, we can simply create a new presentation based on the required design template. To create a presentation based on the available design templates, click on ‘File’ from the main menu bar. From the resulting drop-down, click on ‘New’ and from the sub-menu which is displayed, click on ‘Templates’. This will open the ‘Template Manager’ dialog box.

This dialog box, under the ‘Presentations’ tab, displays the different template categories available for creating new presentations. You can select any of these by double clicking and this will display the different templates under that category. Double click on the required template and this will create a new presentation based on this template.
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Choose a different built-in slide layout for a slide.

A built-in slide layout defines the layout for a slide. A layout means the number and order of the different types of elements that are going to be present in a slide.

In the ‘Tasks’ pane, all the built-in slide layouts are present. In order to choose the different built-in slide layouts, we simply need to select the required one from the Tasks pane.
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The layouts only differ in the number of elements which are there in a slide.

Apply an available design template to a presentation.

A template is simply a format based on which a new presentation will get created in Impress. There are a number of templates which are already present in Impress and if we want to have our own template or make changes to one of the existing ones then this can be achieved easily in Impress.

To apply an available design template to a presentation, we can simply create a new presentation based on the required design template. To create a presentation based on the available design templates, click on ‘File’ from the main menu bar. From the resulting drop-down, click on ‘New’ and from the sub-menu which is displayed, click on ‘Templates’. This will open the ‘Template Manager’ dialog box.

This dialog box, under the ‘Presentations’ tab, displays the different template categories available for creating new presentations. You can select any of these by double clicking and this will display the different templates under that category. Double click on the required template and this will create a new presentation based on this template.
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Recognize good practice in adding slide titles: use a different title for each slide to distinguish it in outline view, when navigating in slide show view.

When we create a new slide in Impress, we need to add a title for the slide. There are a number of points which should always be considered while adding slide titles. First and foremost, the slide title should always be meaningful and of a reasonable length.
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Another important consideration is that we should always use a different title for each slide. Having a different title for each slide helps us in distinguishing the slides easily in the ‘Outline View’ and also when we are navigating through different slides in the ‘Slide Show’ view.

Change between presentation view modes: normal view, slide sorter view, slide show view.

We have already studied about the different presentation view modes. To switch between these modes, we need to use the different tab options which are present right above the main slide area. We have a tab for each of the different presentation view modes. We simply need to click on the required presentation view tab and the display will get changed to that particular view mode. This is how we can change between different presentation view modes.

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Understand the uses of different presentation view modes: normal view, outline view, handout view, notes view, slide sorter view.

Impress offers us different views to work on our slides and presentations. These views can be used to understand the slide structures in a presentation in different ways.

The main view in which we create individual slides is known as ‘Normal View’. This view is used to design and format slides, add effects, text or graphics to slides.
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To add a new slide in the Normal View, click on ‘Insert’ from the main menu bar and select ‘Slide’ or ‘Duplicate Slide’ as per the requirement from the drop down which gets displayed on clicking the ‘Insert’ button. Below is the illustration of how to add a new slide in the normal view.

In ‘Outline View’, all the slides of the presentation are displayed in a numbered sequence.
‘Outline View’ shows all the topics, titles, bulleted lists and numbered lists for each slide in an outline format.

In ‘Outline View’ only the text in the default text box of the slide is shown. If we add text boxes or graphics in slides then it will not be shown in the outline view.

‘Notes View’ is used to add notes pertaining to a particular slide. These notes are not visible when the presentation is shown to audience or some extra display monitor connected to your machine.

To create notes in the ‘Notes View’, we click on the ‘Notes’ view tab and select the slide from slide pane. A text box appears below the slide where we can add notes.

The notes text box can also be resized by using the resizing handles which appear when we click on the border of the text box. The text box can also be moved by clicking on the edge of the box and then moving the cursor to the desired location.

‘Handout View’ can be used to set up the layout of the slides of the presentation for creating a hardcopy. We select the layout from the ‘Tasks’ Pane. We can print 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 9 slides per page.

All the slide thumbnails are contained in the ‘Slide Sorter’ view. We can work with groups of slides in this view.

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Set user preferences in the application: user name, default folder to open and save files.

To set the basic options in the Impress application, click on ‘Tools’ from the main menu bar. From the resulting drop-down, click on ‘Options’. This will open the ‘Options’ dialog box.

In the ‘Options’ dialog box, under ‘LibreOffice’, in ‘User Data’ we have options to enter user info. The user name can be set here.
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In the same dialog box, under ‘LibreOffice’, we have ‘Paths’. Here, we can set the different default paths for the folders to open and save files.

Use available Help functions.

All the components of LibreOffice offer extensive help system to the users. Impress is no different. To get the complete help system, click on ‘Help’ button from the main menu bar. Click on ‘LibreOffice Help’ from the drop down which gets displayed and this will open the full help system.

Additionally, you can click on ‘Tools’ from the main menu bar and then click on ‘Options’ from the resulting drop down menu. Select the ‘LibreOffice > General’ tab from the dialog which gets opened and you can then choose to check or uncheck the available help options like ‘Tips’ and ‘Extended Tips’.

If ‘Tips’ are enabled you can place the mouse pointer over any icon to see a small tooltip box, which provides a small explanation for the functioning of that icon.

If a more detailed explanation is desired, then click on ‘What’s This?’ from the ‘Help’ dropdown on the main menu bar. Holding the pointer above any icon after this will provide a detailed explanation.

Use magnification/zoom tools.

The view magnification can simply be changed by clicking on the + or – sign in the zoom slider on the status bar.

In order to make more custom changes, click on the percentage figure on the status bar. This opens the ‘Zoom & View Layout’ dialog. The appropriate changes can be made by selecting the desired values from this dialog.

Display, hide built-in toolbars. Restore, minimize the ribbon.

Whether to display or hide the different toolbars in Impress can be controlled by using the ‘View’ button on the main menu bar. Click on ‘View’ and then click on ‘Toolbars’ from the drop down. You get a list of different toolbars which can be checked or unchecked in order to display or hide them respectively.

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