Introduction to presentation software (Impress); parts of the presentation window

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. Your teacher asks for a project on saving water, with slides. Which software will you open, and what are all those bars and panes on the screen? Today we will meet LibreOffice Impress and learn every part of its window.

First, the meaning. Presentation software is an application used to create slides and show them to an audience. It lets you add text, pictures, charts and even sound on each slide. It can also run a slide show, where slides fill the whole screen one by one. Common examples are LibreOffice Impress, Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides.

In this course we use LibreOffice Impress. A suite is a group of office programs, and Impress is the presentation program in the LibreOffice suite. It is open source, which means it is free to download, use and share. Impress saves files in OpenDocument Presentation format, with the extension .odp. It can also open and save PowerPoint files with the extension .pptx.

Here are the steps to start Impress. First, open LibreOffice from the Start menu or the desktop icon. On the start centre, click Impress Presentation. A box may show ready-made designs called templates, so choose one or simply close it. A blank first slide appears in Normal view. Now you are ready to work.

Now let us study the window, from top to bottom. The title bar is at the very top, and it shows the file name. The menu bar sits below it, with menus like File, Edit, View, Insert and Slide. The standard toolbar has icons for common jobs like new, open, save and undo. The formatting toolbar changes the look of text, such as font, size and bold.

The middle of the window is where you work. The slides pane on the left shows small pictures of all the slides, called thumbnails. The workspace in the centre shows the selected slide in a large size for editing. The sidebar on the right has panels for properties, slide layouts, transitions and animations. The drawing toolbar, usually near the bottom, has shapes, lines and text boxes.

At the very bottom is the status bar. It is a thin line that gives information about your work. It shows the slide number, for example Slide two of five. It shows the name of the master slide in use. It also has a zoom slider to make the slide look bigger or smaller.

The workspace can show your presentation in different views, chosen from the View menu. Normal view shows one slide and is the main view for editing. Outline view shows only the titles and points, which is fast for typing. Notes view shows a slide with space for speaker notes below it. Slide Sorter view shows all slides as thumbnails, so you can drag them into a new order.

A few basic actions use these parts together. To add a slide, open the Slide menu and choose New Slide. A layout is a ready arrangement of title and content boxes, and you can choose one in the sidebar. To delete a slide, right-click its thumbnail in the slides pane and choose Delete Slide. To start the slide show from the first slide, press F5, and press Escape to leave it.

Now pause and think. You want to move slide five so that it comes before slide two. Which view makes this easiest? The answer is Slide Sorter view, because you can see all slides and drag one to a new place.

Finally, always save your work. Use File, then Save, or press Ctrl+S. Give the file a clear name, like water project. The default type is .odp, but you can pick PowerPoint format in the Save As box if needed. Save often, so you never lose your slides if the power goes off.

Let us revise. Presentation software is used to create and show slides. Impress is free and open source, and it saves files as .odp. At the top are the title bar, menu bar and toolbars. In the middle are the slides pane, the workspace and the sidebar. At the bottom are the drawing toolbar and the status bar.