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About this lesson

A simple lesson where we will learn how to duplicate and modify slides, replace images and change the z-order of objects on a slide. We will also learn how to re-organize and arrange slides using the thumbnail view and slide sorter view.

Quick reference

Managing Slides

Once a slide-deck starts to get longer, its beneficial to know some methods to manage and organize slides effieciently. 

In this lesson we are going to start by seeing how quick and easy it is to create multiple diver slides and modify them, control the Z-order of objects on a slide and finally how to manage and organize slides. 

Instructions

Modify a Slide Efficiently. 

If we have a slide that repeats throughout the presentation, such as a divider slide it's not particularly efficient to create the slide from scratch each time. Instead, we should think about duplicating the slide and then switching out the pictures, icons and text we don't want to keep with different information. 

For our divider slide, we want to keep the general layout and feel, but switch out the picture and change the number and the subheading text. 

  1. Click on the Divider Slide. 
  2. Select the transparent shape.
  3. Right-click and select Format Shape. 
  4. From Shape Options, in the Fill group, change the color to a dark blue. 
  5. Change the transparency to 10%. 
  6. CTRL+D to create two more divider slides. 
  7. Click on the second divider slide. 
  8. Change the number to '02' and the subheading to 'Our Services'. 
  9. Click on the picture. 
  10. From the Picture Format tab, in the Adjust group, select Change Picture. 
  11. Select From a file. 
  12. Browse to the folder where the image is saved and click Insert. 
  13. From the Picture Format tab, in the Size group, select the lower-half of the Crop button. 
  14. Click Fill. 
  15. Position the picture as desired. 
  16. Click Crop. 
  17. Repeat this process for the other divider slides. 

Organizing the order of shapes (Z-Order)

Elements on a slide are effectively contained on a layer. If we were to move one shape on top of another, depending on the order of the layers, one shape would overlap the other. This is called the z-order. We can control the z-order of shapes by using tools in the Arrange group. 

  1. Use the Zoom slider in the bottom right-hand corner of the status bar to zoom into the quote. 

Notice that the border of the shape runs over the top of the quote icons. Ideally, the border should run behind the icons. 

  1. Select both the quote icons. 
  2. From the Graphics Format tab, in the Arrange group, select Bring to Front. 

Re-organizing Slides

Often you will need to review your slides and reorganize them to change their order. 

  1. From the Slides Pane, select a slide. 
  2. Drag and drop the slide to its new location.  

A better way to re-organise slides is to switch to Slider Sorter view. Slide Sorter provides a clearer overview of the slides contained within the presentation and more room to manage them. 

  1. From the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click Slide Sorter. 
  2. Drag and drop slides to rearrange. 

Once re-organized, we can switch back to normal view and continue editing. 

  1. From the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click Normal view. 
  2. Alternatively, click on the Normal icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the status bar. 

Hints & tips

  • Slides cannot be edited in Slide Sorter view. 
  • When re-organizing slides in the Slides Pane, the black line will show you where the slide will be positioned when you release the mouse. 
  • If you can't see the View shortcuts or the Zoom slider in the status bar, right-click on the status bar and ensure there is a tick next to both items in the list. 
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  • 00:04 In this lesson, we're going to talk about managing and organizing a slide deck.
  • 00:08 So slide three is the divider slide that we created in the last lesson.
  • 00:13 And all I've done here is really change that background color,
  • 00:16 that transparency color from purple to blue.
  • 00:20 The reason why I've done this is because in general,
  • 00:23 I like my divider slides to stand out from the rest of the deck.
  • 00:27 What I've then done is duplicated this slide a couple more times because I'm
  • 00:31 going to use a few more dividers in my presentation.
  • 00:34 So if we take a look at divider number two, I've changed the image.
  • 00:39 And of course, you could change the quote as well, I haven't just to save time.
  • 00:44 And I've also changed the number 02 our services and
  • 00:47 then the final one is pretty much the same.
  • 00:50 I've changed the image again and it says 03 our success.
  • 00:54 So now I have three divider slides in my presentation.
  • 00:58 So let me show you how I made these changes and
  • 01:00 then I'm going to talk you through a few tips and
  • 01:02 tricks when it comes to managing and organizing your slide deck.
  • 01:06 So the first thing we're going to do here is change this background fill
  • 01:10 color to blue.
  • 01:11 So let's select our shape, right click and format shape.
  • 01:15 Hopefully you're getting used to going into this little pane by now.
  • 01:19 In the color drop down, I'm going to choose this blue color and
  • 01:23 I'm going to take the transparency down to 10, and click on Close.
  • 01:28 Now I just want to point out to you another really useful tip, and for
  • 01:31 this I'm going to zoom in by using my zoom slider at the bottom.
  • 01:35 Let's zoom all the way in.
  • 01:37 Scroll across and up to where we have this quote.
  • 01:41 Now, if you take a look closely at this quote, and even this one down here,
  • 01:46 you can see that the outline of that shape runs through or
  • 01:49 over the top of both of those quotes.
  • 01:52 It doesn't particularly look too gray.
  • 01:54 I would prefer to have those quotes sitting on the top.
  • 01:57 So this is where you can essentially reorganize your layers of objects.
  • 02:02 So if I click on these quotes and jump up to the graphics format tab in
  • 02:07 the arrange group, I have an option just here to bring to front.
  • 02:12 And look what happens when I do that.
  • 02:15 You can see that now the border of that shape looks like it runs behind those
  • 02:19 quote marks.
  • 02:21 Let's do the same for the other pair.
  • 02:23 Click on the icon, up to bring forward and select bring to front.
  • 02:27 So that bring to front and it's equivalent option send to back allows you to
  • 02:32 organize the way that different objects are stacked on your page.
  • 02:37 So now that we've got that sorted out, I want to create two more divider slides.
  • 02:42 Because everything is basically the same on each slide,
  • 02:45 I'm simply going to duplicate.
  • 02:47 Now we haven't really spoken much about cut, copy and paste.
  • 02:50 And I will say that most of the time when I'm working in PowerPoint,
  • 02:54 I tend to use duplicate more.
  • 02:56 So let's move on to slide two and make the obvious change.
  • 03:00 So the first thing I'm going to do here is change this to number two.
  • 03:04 And I'm going to change that heading to our services.
  • 03:09 And let's just drag to align that with the end.
  • 03:12 And I'm going to make this line a bit longer.
  • 03:15 I always want this line to be the length of the word above,
  • 03:18 so I can just drag that out.
  • 03:20 Now the other thing that I need to do here is just switch out this picture.
  • 03:23 Now if you already have a picture like this, and
  • 03:26 if you remember this is the picture we inserted using that merge in union option.
  • 03:30 It is fairly straightforward just to change this for
  • 03:33 a different picture that you have saved off.
  • 03:35 So let's click on this merge shape and on the picture format tab In
  • 03:39 the adjust group, there is an option here to change the picture.
  • 03:44 So I don't have to recreate this again from scratch.
  • 03:48 I can say select an image from file.
  • 03:51 And for this one, I'm going to use this image just here,
  • 03:54 another Pexels image I might add, click on Insert, it inserts it but
  • 03:59 as we've seen before, we need to utilize crop and fill.
  • 04:03 And then I can drag that round to the correct position.
  • 04:06 So I think possibly about there.
  • 04:09 And click on Crop.
  • 04:11 So very quickly I've been able to create a second divider slide.
  • 04:15 And in just a few clicks I've changed the text.
  • 04:17 I've also replaced the image.
  • 04:20 Let's do it again on this final slide.
  • 04:22 I'm going to change the number to 3, and
  • 04:27 this time this is going to say our success.
  • 04:31 Once again, I'm going to do a little bit of jiggery pokery just to move these
  • 04:36 objects around a little bit.
  • 04:39 There we go.
  • 04:40 Click on the picture, up to picture format, change picture from file.
  • 04:47 And I'm going to use this lovely lady just here and then crop,
  • 04:52 fill, drag the picture into the correct position.
  • 04:56 So I think I want her about, let's say, just there,
  • 05:01 click on crop and it's that simple and quick.
  • 05:06 Now, when it comes to managing your sides, as you've seen,
  • 05:09 you can reorganize rearrange your slides from this slides pane.
  • 05:13 So if I want to switch these around, I can simply drag them and
  • 05:17 drop them wherever I want them to be.
  • 05:19 Now, when you have a lot of slides,
  • 05:21 it's sometimes easier to do this in a different view.
  • 05:25 And quite often, I'll switch into slide sorter view because it gives me a better
  • 05:29 overview of all of my slides, I don't have to scroll up and down.
  • 05:33 So, on the View tab in the presentation views group,
  • 05:36 one of the options we have is Slide Sorter.
  • 05:40 This is going to show you all of your sides and
  • 05:42 again, you can just pick these up and you can drag and
  • 05:45 drop to move them around, you can even cut, copy and paste if you wanted to.
  • 05:50 It's worth noting that you can switch between your different views on
  • 05:54 the View tab.
  • 05:54 Alternatively, if you cast your eyes all the way down to the bottom right hand
  • 05:59 corner, next to the zoom slider, you can see we have different views,
  • 06:02 Slide Sorter is the one highlighted.
  • 06:05 If I want to switch back to my normal view, I can use this first icon, and
  • 06:09 it's going to take me back to my editing view.
  • 06:12 That's it for now.
  • 06:13 I will see you in the next lesson.

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