Chapter 2. Developing a Presentation
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Chapter 2. Developing a Presentation

Presentation Views

Abstract

Understand the uses of different presentation view modes

Impress has a number of ways you can view the presentation.

Slide view

Slide view is the normal way of working with a slide. Depending on the zoom factor you use, you will see the slide or part of the slide in the way it would appear if viewed as part of a slide show on-screen.

The following two screens illustrate a presentation in slide view with different zoom factors.

  • View->Zoom->Entire page.

[Note] Note

In Slide view, you can navigate between the slides by clicking on the appropriate slide name next to the Horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the screen.

  • View->Zoom->Page width.

Master view

A slide master is a slide that contains elements that are common to all the slides in the presentation.

You can think of the slide master as the background on which other slides are created.

In Master view you are able to create or edit the slide master.

Layers

Layers are transparent containers for objects that make up a slide.

The following description may seem a bit confusing when you read it for the first time. Treat it as a reference that will make more sense once you become familiar with Impress.

There are three default layers in Impress:

  • Layout

  • Controls

  • Dimension lines

The Layout layer contains the position for the title, text and various objects on a slide. When you make use of an autolayout, you are imposing a different layout layer on the slide.

The Control layer contains buttons that have been assigned an action. For example, if you insert a control on a slide that will close the presentation, this will be stored in the control layer.

[Note] Note

These layers may not be deleted.

You can add your own layers. You could, for example, create a Text layer which contains all the text of the slides. If you add a new layer to a slide, this will automatically be added to all slides.

If you switch to Layer view, you are able to view the different layers of a slide.

In layer view, the different layers will be displayed next to the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the screen. You can click on any of these to work with the different layers.

Preview

In Preview mode, a reduced view of the entire current slide, as it would appear in a presentation, is displayed on-screen. This is useful where you are working with a magnified view of the slide and can see only part of the slide at any one time. This is illustrated on the next screen.

Workspace views

There are a number of Workspace views. These display the slides in a variety of different ways.

Drawing

This is the normal view for editing a single slide.

Slides

In this mode, the slides are displayed side by side in reduced form as shown on the following screen. Slides view is the same as the term Slide sorter used in Microsoft Office.

Outline

In Outline view, the slide is displayed in text form and is very useful for editing purposes. It can be used in conjunction with Preview as shown on the following screen so that you can see what the finished slide will look like.

Notes

Using Notes view, you can add notes to a slide for later use. These will not be displayed when you show the presentation, but can be printed.

Handouts

Handouts are printed copies of a presentation. You may view a presentation as it would appear on the printed page in Handouts view.

Change between presentation view modes

This section will only be concerned with switching between workspace views. Master slides will be covered in the section called “Master Slide” while layers fall outside the scope of these notes.

Preview

You can switch on a preview at any stage. The preview can co-exist with the view mode.

  • View->Preview.

The preview can be closed by executing this command again or by pressing the Close icon in the top right hand corner of the preview.

Workspace

The different workspace views are accessed via the commands:

  1. View->Slide.

  2. View->Workspace.

  3. Select the appropriate view:

    Drawing view, Outline view, Slides view, Notes View or Handout view.

Slides

[Tip] Tip

The only way to master an application is through practice. The following sections explain how to carry out the various tasks. You should create a presentation for yourself similar to the one used in this example. Use this for practicing the different techniques.

Add a new slide with a specific slide layout such as: title slide, chart and text, bulleted list, table

Suppose you start with a blank presentation. To create the first slide:

  1. Insert->Slide.

  2. Use the name Title for the slide.

  3. Select Title slide as the Layout and Click OK.

For the moment, we will work with the defaults that are supplied when we select a layout.

The title slide comprises two areas, one for the title and one for additional text. If you click on one of the areas, the message in it will disappear and you can begin typing.

  • Create a slide similar to the one shown below.

  1. File->Save as.

  2. Navigate to a suitable directory, give the slide show a suitable name and save.

  3. Insert->Slide.

  4. Enter the name Features.

  5. Select the Title, Text layout and Click OK.

  6. Complete the slide as shown on the next screen.

  7. Insert->Slide.

  8. Enter the title Entrance fees, and select Title, Spreadsheet layout.

The spreadsheet layout can be used for creating tables in a slide.

  1. Double click on the Spreadsheet icon in the slide. This will display the spreadsheet.

  2. Create the slide shown below.

  3. Double click outside the spreadsheet and it will display as a table.

  4. File->Save

Suppose you wish to insert a slide after slide 2.

  1. Click on the Features tab to make this the current slide.

  2. Insert->Slide.

  3. Enter the title Telescope and select the Title, text, clipart layout.

  4. Double click on the clipart icon. You will then be prompted for the location of the graphic image. Locate a suitable image and insert it.

  5. Complete a slide such as the one below.

[Note] Note

The text area will initially have a bullet. You can remove this by clicking on the bullet icon on the Object bar. In this case, you will also need to reset the indents to 0 using the Format->Paragraph command as in Writer.

  • File->Save

Now insert another slide.

  1. Insert->Slide.

  2. Enter the title Entrance Fees Chart and select the Title, Chart layout.

  3. Double click on the chart icon. A default chart will appear. Right-click on it and select Chart Data.

  4. This will open up a mini spreadsheet.

  5. You will need to replace the default data and also create some extra rows and columns using the icons on the toolbar, to make it look like the example below.

  6. When finished click on the last icon on the toolbar which will send the data to the chart and update it.

  7. It should look like the one below on completion.

  8. Click File->Save.

  9. Create some additional slides. Experiment with using the different layouts.

  10. Use the different Workspace views.

Change between built-in slide layouts

You can change the layout of a slide.

  1. Go to the slide that you created called Features.

  2. Format->Modify layout.

  3. Select the Title, 2 Text Blocks layout. Impress refers to Bulleted Lists as Text blocks.

[Note] Note

Impress will warn you that this could lead to a loss of features. Be very careful when changing the layout of a slide. You can always use Edit->Undo or Ctrl-Z if the result is not what you had expected.

Change background colour on specific slide(s), all slides

The default background of slides is white. To change this:

  1. Format->Page.

  2. Click the Background tab.

  3. Click Color.

  4. Select a colour from the palette and Click OK.

  5. You will then be asked whether you wish to apply this background to all pages. If you answer No, the background will be applied to the current page only.

Apart from a uniform colour, you can use the same method to apply a Gradient, Hatching or Bitmap to the background. These are illustrated below.

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