WebJunction

Creating a PowerPoint Kiosk

This handout will assist you in creating a PowerPoint Kiosk. To complete this activity you will need an existing PowerPoint show. Follow the following instructions to turn your PowerPoint show into a state of the art Kiosk!

Adding Slide Transitions

Slide transitions are special effects you can use to move from one slide to another in a slide show. Adding slide transitions can make a presentation more visually interesting - especially in a self-advancing kiosk!

Hint: You may be tempted to use a different transition for each slide, but this can confuse the audience. Your presentation is more effective if you use the same transition between each pair of slides in a series of slides. You should use one transition for each logical section. When you change to another section, change to another transition. This is a subtle way of telling the audience that you have changed to a new subject.

Open an existing PowerPoint slide show.

1. In Slide Sorter View ensure the Slide Sorter toolbar is showing. If not, select it from Toolbars in the View menu.

Hint: You can assign transition effects in Slide Sorter View or in Normal View. However, in Normal View you can only add transition effects to one slide at a time.

2. Click the slide you would like to apply a transition effect to (a black border appears around it).

• To apply a transition to a group of slides, click the first slide and hold down the Shift key, then click on the last slide. The group of slides is now selected.

3. After selecting the slide(s) you want to add transitions to, click the slide transition tool
or click the Slide Show Menu and choose Slide Transition. The Slide Transition dialog box appears.

4. Choose the transition effect you want from the drop-down list. View a preview of the transition in the Effects window.

5. Choose Slow, Medium, or Fast to control the speed of the transition.

6. Select Automatically After and enter the length of time the slide must be on the screen before moving to the next slide.

7. Choose to play a sound when the slide is shown. Choose the sound you want from the drop-down list. You can decide to play the sound once or over and over again (loop). If you choose loop, and want the sound to stop when the next slide appears, add the sound called Stop Previous Sound to the next slide.

8. Click Apply.

Automating Your Presentation

The next thing to do when building a kiosk with your presentation is to automate the presentation. You do this by setting timings for the slide show.

1. Click the Slide Show menu and then click Rehearse Timings.

2. Rehearse your slide show in the speed you would like to see it displayed.

• To advance the rehearsal slide show click the arrow
on the rehearsal dialog box.

• If you have animated texts or images in your slides, you will be able to time the animation as well as the slide transition.

3. When your presentation is done, a message box appears asking you if you want to record the timings. Click Yes. PowerPoint will record the time you spent on each slide and apply this to your presentation. Your slide show will now run automatically.

4. Preview the slide show in Slide Show View.

Hint: Rehearsing slide timings is very useful for two things. You can use it to rehearse your show and to insert the timings for an automatically advanced slide show.

Creating a Kiosk

You have added timing and you are pleased with the slide transitions. However, does a human have to be there to run the presentation? Not at all!

With PowerPoint you can put a computer in a room and PowerPoint will do the presentation by itself. This is very handy at conventions, school science fairs, and open houses — where the presenter can't be there, or doesn't need to be there, all the time.

1. Automate your presentation using the four steps shown above.

2. Click the Slide Show menu then click Set Up Show. The Set Up Show dialog box appears.

3. Under Show type, click Browsed at a kiosk (full screen).

4. Under Advance slides, click Using timings, if present.

5. Click OK. Your presentation is now self-running. Once it is started, it will loop over and over until someone presses the Esc key.

6. Preview the slide show in Slide Show View.

Questions to Consider

• What if my presentation has a lot of textual information? People read at different speeds. How can an automatic slide show handle that?

• What if I'm doing an automatic presentation of my jokes? I need to give space for people to laugh, but I never know how long people will laugh.

The answers to these questions are actually quite simple. PowerPoint offers a feature that allows the viewer to advance the slides at his or her own pace.

Letting the Viewer Run the Show

Follow these steps to set-up a viewer-run show.

1. Click the Slide Show menu then click Set Up Show.

2. Under Show type click the option Presented by a speaker (full screen).

3. Under Advance slides, click the option Manually.

4. View the show in Slide Show view. Note how you can advance through the slides using the right mouse button (to access a menu of commands) or use the arrows on the keyboard.

Adding Navigation Buttons

When you set up a viewer-run show, the viewer must move through the slides by clicking the mouse or using the keyboard. However, not all viewers will know how to advance slides this way.

Make your presentation easier to view by adding action buttons. When you add an action button to a slide, you give the viewer an obvious place to click the mouse.

The following steps show you how to add a forward action button to your slides. When viewers click the forward button they will advance to the next slide.

1. Display the slide you want to add the action button to in Normal View.

2. Click the Slide Show menu; point to Action Buttons, and then click the forward action button. The pointer changes into a cross.

3. Click and drag the button until the action button is the size you want. The action settings dialog box appears.

4. Notice the option next to Hyperlink to Next Slide is already selected. Click OK to close the Action Settings dialog box.

Hint: The forward action button advances slides, but it does not start animations. If you have animations in a viewer-run show, set timing for the animation with these steps:

5. Open the Custom Animation dialog box and check the box of the button under check to animate slide objects:.

6. Click the Order and Timings tab, then select the option to Start Animation Automatically.