Quick Start - creating your first presentation

This section provides a minimal set of instructions to enable you to create a presentation, assuming this is the first time you’ve run the application.

Step Aadding slides

  1. Start Presentation – select Start/Programs/Ability Office/Ability Presentation.

  2. Select a layout that approximately matches your idea for the first slide (you can always edit the layout later). For example, select the top, left "Title Slide" and click OK. Note that Slide 1 appears in the Slide Sorter pane and the first slide prompting you to "click to add text" appears in the Slide pane.

  3. Click each of the text boxes and type some text to represent a title and sub-title for your presentation.

  4. Add a few more slides: click the Insert New Slide button image\prNewSlide.gif (or select Insert/New Slide from the menus). Again, choose a layout to approximately match what you are looking for. If nothing is close, select the blank layout.

  5. Note that you can use the Slide Sorter on the left to move from slide to slide.

Step Bformatting text boxes and objects

Each item or object – text box, Autoshape, and picture – can be formatted in a similar manner and properties such as border, background color, texture and gradient fill can specified.

  1. In the Slide pane, click a text box so that it is selected (it will appear with "handles" on the outline).

  2. Right-click and select Format Object.

  3. Set a two color gradient fill: select Interior and then Gradient and set Two colors and a From Centre gradient and click OK.

  4. You can do the same thing with the slide background – select Format/Background from the menus.

Step Cadd some shapes and pictures

At the bottom of the screen there is a Draw toolbar:

image\prDrawToolbar.gif

  1. Click on the simple rectangle and draw out the shape using your mouse in the Slide pane.

  2. Right-click over the rectangle and set a format as described in Step B.

  3. Click the Autoshape button – look through the menus and note all the different predefined shapes. Select one of the basic shapes and draw it on the slide using the mouse. Again, format it following Step B.

Step D – preview the show

Select View/Slide Show to preview the show. Use the PgUp or PgDn keys to move forward and backward through the show.

Step E – save the show

Click on the Save button image\SAVE.gif. Enter a name for the new presentation. At this point, you could send the presentation to another computer via email using File/Send. Providing they have a Ability Presentation or a PowerPoint viewer installed, they would be able to view the show.