PowerPoint Guys (1 Viewer)

[TheIronSheik]

Back in the mid-aughts, I had to create a bunch of training materials for my job.  I was in charge of it all.  Classes, study guides, quick reference guides, user manuals...  I started using PowerPoint to create tutorials on how to use certain aspects of an application.  In a lot of cases, the PP presentation was just two slides: A title card, and then a card with a screenshot of the app screen.  By having the user click enter, I would have boxes appear with arrows and some small instructions on what to do.  It worked really well for these small instructions.  But if you started to have more than 5 steps, things began to overlap quickly on the slide.  Now, the finished product would look fine because you would have only the relevant boxes/arrows on the screen at one time.  But behind the scenes, it was a mess.

It always was like a shaky house of cards.  As long as I got it right on the first try, everything was fine.  But if I ever needed to go back and edit something (which was always), sifting through the overlapping text boxes was a PITA.  

Anyway, fast forward to now and I'm creating some again.  And these have enough steps that when I have to go back and edit something, it's a nightmare.  I know I'm not a PP guru.  I'm probably a 5 out of 10 on using it.  But is there anyone out there who can explain to me how to better edit these things?  I have my animation pane up and it shows me everything.  I wish I could just click on that to do editing, but either I'm doing it wrong or it's not possible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

TIS

 

[xulf]

Copy the main slide and do one animation per slide?  More brute force than anything, but will get it done with no mess.

 

[Scoresman]

Fun fact: The use of Powerpoint was a contributor to the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster.  

Sorry I cant be of help to you, I try to use powerpoint as little as possible because of how terrible it is.  

 

[wlwiles]

Back in the mid-aughts, I had to create a bunch of training materials for my job.  I was in charge of it all.  Classes, study guides, quick reference guides, user manuals...  I started using PowerPoint to create tutorials on how to use certain aspects of an application.  In a lot of cases, the PP presentation was just two slides: A title card, and then a card with a screenshot of the app screen.  By having the user click enter, I would have boxes appear with arrows and some small instructions on what to do.  It worked really well for these small instructions.  But if you started to have more than 5 steps, things began to overlap quickly on the slide.  Now, the finished product would look fine because you would have only the relevant boxes/arrows on the screen at one time.  But behind the scenes, it was a mess.

It always was like a shaky house of cards.  As long as I got it right on the first try, everything was fine.  But if I ever needed to go back and edit something (which was always), sifting through the overlapping text boxes was a PITA.  

Anyway, fast forward to now and I'm creating some again.  And these have enough steps that when I have to go back and edit something, it's a nightmare.  I know I'm not a PP guru.  I'm probably a 5 out of 10 on using it.  But is there anyone out there who can explain to me how to better edit these things?  I have my animation pane up and it shows me everything.  I wish I could just click on that to do editing, but either I'm doing it wrong or it's not possible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

TIS

It's all about the order of animation.  I imagine from what you said that you have maybe 12 animations, and when you want to go edit one of them or insert a new #3, now #3 becomes #4, #4 is #5, etc.  You have to manually change the order of animation usually.  Sorry dude, I feel your pain

 

[bushdocda]

Sounds like you layered a bunch of animations on top of each other by covering/uncovering things. 

If so, I think the current version of ppt will be easier to use for the add and remove of different animations. I still use a good bit but something like Prezi is better. 

 

[CallMeNeil]

This is actually really easy in the latest versions - you want to use the Morph transition. Instead of one slide with tons of layers, you create slides with each of the "states," and Morph can create the animation between. Hit me up, teaching this is my job.

 

[[icon]]

PPT Animations make me stabby 

 

[Otis]

Back in the mid-aughts, I had to create a bunch of training materials for my job.  I was in charge of it all.  Classes, study guides, quick reference guides, user manuals...  I started using PowerPoint to create tutorials on how to use certain aspects of an application.  In a lot of cases, the PP presentation was just two slides: A title card, and then a card with a screenshot of the app screen.  By having the user click enter, I would have boxes appear with arrows and some small instructions on what to do.  It worked really well for these small instructions.  But if you started to have more than 5 steps, things began to overlap quickly on the slide.  Now, the finished product would look fine because you would have only the relevant boxes/arrows on the screen at one time.  But behind the scenes, it was a mess.

It always was like a shaky house of cards.  As long as I got it right on the first try, everything was fine.  But if I ever needed to go back and edit something (which was always), sifting through the overlapping text boxes was a PITA.  

Anyway, fast forward to now and I'm creating some again.  And these have enough steps that when I have to go back and edit something, it's a nightmare.  I know I'm not a PP guru.  I'm probably a 5 out of 10 on using it.  But is there anyone out there who can explain to me how to better edit these things?  I have my animation pane up and it shows me everything.  I wish I could just click on that to do editing, but either I'm doing it wrong or it's not possible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

TIS

Try Prezi. Slicker.

 

[wilked]

Prezi , and join us in the 21st century 

 

[TheIronSheik]

Copy the main slide and do one animation per slide?  More brute force than anything, but will get it done with no mess.

Why is it the simple answers always seem to be the ones that elude me?  This makes perfect sense.  I was trying to make it all fit on one slide when there was actually zero reason to do so other than that's how I started doing it.  

When it only had 3 animations, it was fine.  But as it got more complex, I tried to find a more complex answer.  But just copying the main slide and reusing it over and over is the perfect answer.  Thanks, GB!

 

[TheIronSheik]

Since I don't do a lot of presentation stuff, PP is not really my jam.  I looked at Prezi just now and it looks interesting.  Not sure if I want to learn something new right now, but I might take a look.

One question I have is do you need the application to run the presentation?  Because these are meant to be something someone can just open from their work PC and see how to use an application.  I don't present the info.  

 

[tommyboy]

Duplicate the main slide, then break up your animations to like two or three per slide. Much easier to  edit