Everyday Computing Advanced Computing The Internet At Home Health, Mind & Body Making & Managing Money Sports & Leisure Travel Beyond The Classroom
Handheld Computing
Hardware
Money Management Software
Multimedia
Office Productivity Software
Operating Systems
Win a Trip to New York City to see Monty Python's SPAMALOT!
PowerPoint 2002 For Dummies

Doodling on Your Slides during a PowerPoint 2002 Presentation


Adapted From: PowerPoint 2002 For Dummies

If you've always wanted to diagram plays on-screen the way John Madden does, try using the pen during a PowerPoint 2002 slide show. Here's how:

1. Start a slide show.

2. When you want to doodle on a slide, press Ctrl+P.

The mouse arrow pointer changes to a pen shape.

3. Draw away.

Figure 1 shows an example of a doodled-upon slide.

figure

Figure 1: John Madden would love PowerPoint's Pen feature

4. To erase your doodles, press E.

Drawing doodles like this requires good mouse dexterity. With practice, you can create all kinds of interesting doodles. Work on circling text or drawing exclamation or question marks, smiley faces, and so on.

Keep these tasty tidbits in mind when doodling:

  • To hide the mouse pointer temporarily during a slide show, press A or the equal sign (=). The pointer returns the moment you move the mouse, or you can press A or (=) again to summon it back.

  • If you use the pen, be sure to say "Bam" and "Pow" a lot.

  • To turn off the Doodle button, press the equals sign (=) on your keyboard.

icon

You can also right-click the mouse for a floating menu of these choices; however, this may be a little more distracting for your audience than the keystrokes as the audience will suddenly be privy to all your fancy footwork. But, do notice that the menu allows you to change pen colors and a few other tricks. You can set up the pen color before you begin your presentation so as not to distract via the Slide Show-->Set Up Show command. If you have a remote mouse and you won't have access to your keyboard during your presentation, I suggest you investigate the floating menu method.

Related Articles
Using Animation Schemes in PowerPoint 2002
Using Office XP on Your Pocket PC
Encrypting Your Office XP Files
Creating the Right Environment for a Business Meeting
Working with a Catering Manager
Related Titles
Office 2007 For Dummies
Microsoft Office 2000 For Windows For Dummies
Office XP 9 in 1 Desk Reference For Dummies
Office XP for Dummies: Quick Reference
Cutting Edge PowerPoint For Dummies