1. Uses for the Slide Sorter view in PowerPoint
Most people use the default view in PowerPoint, known as the Slide view or Normal view, which allows you to easily edit your slides. And for most purposes, it is the best view to work in. But if you haven’t done so yet, I encourage you to explore the Slide Sorter view. You can access this view by clicking on the View menu and clicking on the Slide Sorter menu item or you can click on the Slide Sorter view toolbar button at the bottom left of the screen (it looks like four slides in a box configuration). This view displays all of your slides as miniature slides. It does not allow direct editing of the slides, so you may ask why you would want to use this view. One thing I use it for is to get a sense of the overall flow of my presentation. I am checking for logical sequence from one slide to the next. The main use for the view is that you can move slides to a different spot in the presentation. Just click and drag a slide to a new position in this view – you will know the new position by the vertical bar that moves as you drag the slide. If you want to see more slides on the screen, you can change the zoom factor by selecting the percentage in the drop down list in the top toolbar. You can also copy and paste slides in this view by selecting the slide you want to copy, pressing Ctrl+C (hold the Ctrl key down while pressing the C key), then click on the position you want to copy the slide to (you will see the vertical slide position bar) and press Ctrl+V. To return to the usual editing view, click on the View menu and click on the Normal or Slide view (different versions of PowerPoint call it different names). Check out the Slide Sorter view and let it be a new tool in your PowerPoint toolbox.
2. Office Recently Used File List
One feature I use almost every day in Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) is the recently used file list. This is a list of the last few files you accessed in the program and is displayed at the bottom of the menu list when you click on the File menu. I use it to quickly access documents or presentations I need to do more work on without having to root through all the directories and files on my computer. If it isn’t turned on in your Microsoft Office program, click on the Tools menu and click on the Options menu item. You will see a series of tabs that allows you to set and change the default settings for your program. The recently used file list option is on the General tab. Make sure that the checkbox beside it is checked so that the feature works. I also increase the default number of files shown to the maximum of 9 (you can’t choose any higher than 9) so that I have the greatest number of recent documents shown in the list. You can then click the OK button to save your changes to the default options. To access the recently used file list, just click on the File menu and then click on the name of the file you want or you can just press the number of the file in the list. For example, if you wanted file number four in the list, you could just press the 4 key on your keyboard when the list of files is displayed. I have found the recently used file list to be a time saver and encourage you to use it as well.
3. Useful Resource – School Resources
Most schools in North America have let out for the summer school break by this time (our kids finished a couple of weeks ago). As a parent, you are always concerned with making sure your children don’t lose what they have learned over the summer. If your child had challenges with a subject the past year, you may want to use the summer as a time to help them prepare to do better in that subject in the upcoming year. I discovered a web site that may help in both of these objectives. It is a site that lists links for teachers, but I discovered that many of the sites it links to have worksheets and other instructional material that parents can print and use for their children. If you need some help this summer preparing your children for next year, you should check it out at: http://www.sitesforteachers.com P.S. Make sure the kids have a ton of fun this summer too!