Chapter 1. Using the Application
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Chapter 1. Using the Application

First Steps with Presentations

Abstract

Open (and close) a presentation application

Open Impress under Windows

  1. Click Start.

  2. Click Programs.

  3. Click OpenOffice.org

  4. Click Presentation

Open Impress under Linux

  1. Click Start Applications.

  2. Click Office.

  3. Click Presentations.

  4. Click OfficeOffice.org Impress

Depending on how the package was installed, Impress may display a blank slide or it may launch Autopilot which will take you through a number of dialogues shown below.

You may now make use of autopilot to guide you through the creation of a presentation or you may create the slide show manually.

Create a slide show manually

  1. Click Create.

  2. Select an AutoLayout for a slide or None by clicking the first option.

  3. Give the slide a Name.

  4. Click OK.

    A blank slide will be displayed.

[Note] Note

Because we will be making extensive use of the Menu bar, we will make use of the following convention in using the functions of the menu bar.

  • File->Close.

Will mean exactly the same as

  • Click File on the Menu bar.

  • Click the Close option in the menu.

Close a presentation

  • File->Close.

This will close only the active presentation. If it has not yet been saved, Impress will warn you and ask you if you wish to save it.

Close Impress

  • File->Exit.

This command will close all open presentations and exit Impress. If any of the presentations have not been saved to disk, Impress will ask you if you wish to save them before exiting.

Open one, several presentations

  • File->Open.

At this stage there is a difference between what will happen in Linux and Windows.

Linux

The Open dialogue will appear. In general, this will point to your home directory.

In this case, the Open dialogue is pointing to the directory /home/david.

  1. If necessary, navigate to the desired directory.

  2. Set the File type to Presentations.

  3. Highlight the presentation you wish to open.

  4. Click Open.

If you wish to open a file contained on your floppy, navigate to the directory /mnt/floppy.

[Note] Note

On the top right of the Open dialogue, there are three important icons:

Up one level: Pressing this icon will move you to the parent of the current directory.

Create new directory: This option allows you to create a new directory in the current directory. In order to be able to do so, you will need the appropriate user rights.

Default directory: Pressing this icon will move you to the default directory. This is useful if you have moved through several directories and wish to return to your starting point in the directory tree. This will be different for each user.

Windows

If you are running Impress under Windows, the Windows Open dialogue will be displayed.

If you click in the Look in window, a drop down box will display your current directory and available drives. You can switch to another drive by double clicking on it in this window. You can also use the navigation icons to move around your directory structure.

  1. If necessary, navigate to the desired directory.

  2. Highlight the presentation you wish to open.

  3. Click Open.

If you wish to open a file on your floppy disk, first double click on Floppy A: in the Look in window.

The first two icons in the Open dialogue are the same as under Linux.

The third icon allows you to display the contents of the Open dialogue in a number of ways as shown on the screen.

The Details option displays important information such as file type, size, created or last edited and attributes.

Open multiple presentations

You may open several presentations at the same time. Simply repeat the process described above.

Although the files will all be open, only one will be displayed on your screen for editing. We will refer to this as the active document.

Open a slide show from within Writer or Calc

Since OpenOffice.org is a highly integrated application suite, you may open a presentation from within either Writer or Calc. OpenOffice.org will then automatically open Impress.

  1. File->Open.

  2. Select All files (*.*) or OpenOffice.org Presentations under Files of type.

This will display all files saved in the current directory. Depending on the type of file you select, OpenOffice.org will automatically open the correct program in the application suite.

Create a new presentation (default template)

The process of creating a new presentation is the same whether Impress, Calc or Writer is displayed on the screen.

  • File->New->Presentation.

This will initiate the process described in the section called “First Steps with Presentations”. That section described how to create a presentation manually.

Create a presentation using Autopilot

Autopilot is similar to a wizard in Windows. It guides you through the process of accomplishing a task.

The following is meant as a brief outline of the process. The details will be described in Chapter 2, Developing a Presentation.

  1. Select From template.

    You could at this point open an existing presentation or select Empty presentation if you do not wish to use a template.

  2. Click Next.

Select an output medium

  1. Select Screen if you wish to view the presentation on a computer.

  2. Click Next.

Select a transition

A transition refers to the method of fading one slide out and the next one in.

  1. Select an Effect.

  2. Select a Speed.

  3. Click Next.

Enter slide data

  1. Enter details of the presentation.

  2. Click Next.

  3. Click Create.

Select the type of the first slide

  1. Impress names the first slide Slide 1. You may enter a different Name, if you wish.

  2. Select an AutoLayout or None for a completely blank slide.

  3. Click OK.

You would now create your first slide. When you have finished, you would insert a new slides.

  • Insert->Slide.

Save a presentation to a location on a drive

When you work with a presentation on your computer, the working form resides in the computer's RAM. This is temporary memory used for your current activities. Since RAM is volatile, when the computer is switched off, everything that is in RAM is automatically lost. In order to keep your work you will need to transfer the contents of RAM to your hard disk. This process is called saving.

When you save a presentation, you give it a name and you specify where it is to be stored.

Save an existing presentation

If you have opened a presentation and made some changes, the process of saving it is very simple:

  • File->Save

This will change the contents of the stored version so that it is identical to the version that is displayed on your screen. In this case, the previous version on disk is overwritten.

If you use File->Save in a newly created presentation, Impress will automatically assume that you wish to use File->Save as .

Save a new presentation

When you create a presentation from scratch, there is no version stored on disk. To save the file to disk:

  • File->Save as.

Now depending on whether you are using Linux or Windows, slightly different dialogue windows will be displayed.

Linux

The Save as dialogue will appear. In general, this will point to your home directory. It is very similar in appearance and functionality to the Open dialogue.

  1. If necessary, navigate to the directory in which you wish to save the file.

  2. Enter a name into the File name window.

  3. Click Save.

Impress will add the .sxi extension to the file.

Windows

The Save as dialogue window has a very similar structure to the Open window.

If you click the Save in window, your position within your drive and directory structure will be displayed.

  1. If necessary, navigate to the directory in which you wish to save the file.

  2. Enter a name into the File name window.

  3. Click Save.

For the moment we will not be concerned with all the options in the Save as dialogue.

Save a presentation under another name

When you use the File->Save function, the contents on disk are overwritten by the contents on your screen. It often happens that we do not want to do so. In other words, we might wish to keep copies of different versions of the file under different names.

Another possibility is that we wish to keep copies of the same presentation, but in different places.

In both cases use the File->Save as function.

Suppose, for example, you are creating a presentation and are not sure of which version you are going to use. Suppose you initially call the presentation Gimmick Sales. After having made some changes you could use Save as, but this time call the document Gimmick Sales1. The following version could be Gimmick Sales2, and so on.

Save a presentation in another file type

Abstract

You can save a presentation in other file types such as: Rich Text Format, template, image file format, software specific file extension or version number

File formats

There are many different presentation packages. One of the very important aspects of working with information technology is the ability to exchange documents between different systems.

Each application has its own way of storing information in electronic form. This is known as the format of the application. For example, Microsoft PowerPoint stores documents in a different electronic format to OpenOffice.org Impress.

Another issue we need to contend with is that as software develops in sophistication, the format of the documents will change to cater for the increased sophistication. We also need to be able to store a document in a format that could be read by an earlier version of an application package.

There are also a number of generic formats that can be used. These are formats that are not specific to a particular application but which have been designed by the information technology industry to form a common basis for all documents.

Each format has its own file extension. Sometimes we refer to the format by its extension. For example, Impress creates .sxi files while Microsoft PowerPoint creates .ppt and .pps files. Rich text format, a generic format, uses the .rtf extension.

Web browsers can only read documents created in Hypertext Markup Language or .html.

Apart from its own format, Impress allows you to store documents in a wide range of formats.

To save a file in a particular format

The method is the same in both Linux and Windows.

  1. File->Save as.

  2. Click on the Save as type drop down window.

  3. Select the type.

  4. Click Save.

Notice that the Save as type window lists both formats and versions of formats.

The following table provides a reference to some common file types.

Format

Extension

Details

Impress

sxi

This is the natural format in which Writer saves its documents

MS PowerPoint

ppt & pps

Writer enables you to save documents in the formats of the different versions of MS Word

Impress Template

sti

This is a format designed for the creation of a template on which to base other presentations.

PowerPoint Template

pot

The microsoft version of the above.
Save a presentation as HTML

Documents that are meant to be read by web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Netscape must be saved in HTML format. This is an abbreviation for HyperText Markup Language. To save as html,

  1. Click on File->Export.

  2. Select the directory in which you wish to save the file.

  3. Enter a file name.

  4. Click Save.

Save a file in pdf format

Portable Document Format -this is a particularly important format. If you create a file in pdf format, you can send this to other users who can view it with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. They are, however, unable to edit it.

  1. File->Export as PDF.

  2. Select the directory in which you wish to save the file.

  3. Enter a file name.

  4. Click Save.

If you wish to send an Impress presentation to someone who only has Microsoft Office, you can save the presentation in PowerPoint format.

Switch between open presentations

Suppose you have a presentation open on your screen. If you open a second presentation, Impress will move the first presentation to the background without actually closing it. You may repeat the process and open a third presentation. The presentation displayed on your screen is the active one. It is on this one that you may do your editing. You may bring any presentation to the foreground for editing as explained below.

  1. Click Window.

  2. Click the presentation you wish to switch to.

    You may have a mixture of application types open at a time. For example, you might have documents, spreadsheets and presentations all open. As you switch between windows containing the different types of files, OpenOffice.org will automatically activate the appropriate application.

Use available Help functions

The help system of OpenOffice.org provides a complete reference to the system.

Contents

  1. Help->Contents.

    This accesses the help system of OpenOffice.org, not just Writer.

  2. Click on the Contents tab.

    Each book represents a major section.

  3. Double click on any book icon, for example Text documents. This will display the contents which may be further subsections or actual entries.

  4. Double click on a subsection, for example Creating text documents.

  5. Double click on a entry, for example Selecting and navigating with the keyboard. The right hand pane will contain a detailed description of the topic.

The Contents tab is the same as the table of contents at the front of the book. This organises entries by function.

The Index tab functions in the same way as the index at the back of the book. This provides an alphabetic listing of topics.

Index

  1. Click on the Index tab.

  2. Begin typing a term that you are interested in into the Search term window. Type for example the word template.

    OpenOffice.org will attempt to anticipate what you are searching for. As you type in the Search term window, the alphabetic listing of topics will change. The entries are divided into headings and actual topics. The headings are flush against the left hand side of the pane while the actual topics are slightly indented.

  3. Double click on an entry.

    The right hand pane contains the details of the topic you have selected.

    Within the details of the entry you will also see a number of hyperlinks. These are underlined in blue. These are references to related topics. To jump to one of these entries, double click the hyperlink.

OpenOffice.org provides yet another method of searching for information. Whereas both Contents and Index are based on an alphabetic listing of topics, Find allows you to search within the text of the entries for topics using a keyword.

Suppose you did not find the previous description of the term hyperlink adequate and you wish to find all topics in OpenOffice.org that make reference to this term.

Find

  1. Click on the Find tab.

  2. Type the work hyperlink into the Search term window.

  3. Click Find.

    A list of entries that contain the word hyperlink are displayed.

  4. Double click on the entry that you wish to read.

    The occurrences of the search word are highlighted in the details window.

Print entries in Help

  • Click the print icon, .

When you read a book you may sometimes turn the corner of a page to mark important pages for easy later reference. A bookmark is the electronic equivalent.

Create bookmarks

  1. Click the create bookmark icon, , to mark an entry.

  2. Enter a name for your entry in the Add to bookmarks dialogue.

  3. Click OK.

Use bookmarks

  1. Click on the Bookmarks tab.

    A list of bookmarks you have created will be displayed.

  2. Double click on an entry to read the details.

Close a presentation

Although you can have several presentations and documents open at a time, it is not a good idea to have unnecessary documents open as these use up system resources and can slow your machine down. Just as important is the fact that it is just simply very confusing to have too many documents open at once. This is similar to working with a cluttered desk and not putting things away when you have finished with them

To close a document:

  • File->Close.

If the version in the work area corresponds to what is saved on disk, Writer will close the document immediately. If you have edited the document since it was last saved, Impress will check whether or not you wish to save or discard the changes before closing.

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