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Lights! Camera! Action! Using Action Buttons in PowerPoint by Marie Herman
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Add action and excitement to your PowerPoint presentations by including Action Buttons. These handy little icons allow you to perform actions with one click of your mouse during a presentation.

To insert an Action Button, click Slide Show-Action Buttons. Select one of the icons (they'll be described in more detail below) and then click and drag on your slide to enter a button of a specific size. Your action buttons don't do anything in any view other than Slide Show.

You'll see 12 different choices, each of which is intended for a unique purpose. Although you can assign any function to any button, the pictures are intended to be standardized in the following ways:

Blank - Custom, set it to be anything you wish.

House -Home (or starter) page of the presentation.

Question Mark - Help

I in a Circle - General information or details

Left/Right Facing Triangles - Previous and Next slides (respectively).

Left/Right Facing Triangles With a Vertical Line - First and Last slides of your presentation (respectively).

Curved Arrow - Returns you back to where you just came from (last slide viewed).

Paper - Opens up a file (i.e. a Word or Excel document).

Megaphone - Opens up a sound file.

Movie Camera - Opens a video file.

After you click on the particular icon that you want to include in your presentation and draw the shape to the size desired, a window will pop up to get the details.

The first tab says Mouse Click and the second tab says Mouse Over. The options on each tab are identical. The only difference is whether you actually need to click with your mouse during your slide show or if you can simply move your cursor on top of the button to activate it.

Your options include:

None - No action results from clicking (turns off any action currently assigned)

Hyperlink To - This is where you assign the actions that go with many of the existing buttons (previous or next slide, first or last slide, last slide viewed for return,) You can also hyperlink to a custom slide presentation, a particular slide in your presentation, an internet web site, a PowerPoint presentation or another type of file (such as audio or video).

Run Program - This allows you to actually execute a program, such as a Calculator. It's the equivalent of clicking Start-Programs and choosing a program to run.

Run Macro - You can run a prerecorded macro (a series of keystrokes that has been recorded).

Object Action - This is used when you already have an object on the slide (could be anything not created in PowerPoint). For example, if you have a bitmap image on the slide and right mouse click on top of it and choose Action Settings, then click Object Action, it would give you the choice of setting a mouse click on the picture to either open the image or edit the image. The object options would depend upon the individual object.

Play Sound- This option is in addition to the previous choices. It allows you to associate a sound (such as breaking glass or a cash register cha-ching) with the action setting. You can use the pre-recorded sounds that come with PowerPoint or you can choose any .wav file that you have on your computer by scrolling down to the end of the list and choosing Other Sound.

Highlight Click - This option is not available if the current object is text. With any other type of object however, this will highlight the object when you click or mouse over the object.

By using the action buttons found within PowerPoint, you can give your presentation a starring role!



Bio: Marie Herman CPS/CAP, CIWD is an accomplished administrative professional Marie also operates a successful business, MRH Enterprises (www.mrhenterprises.com), whose services include teaching computer and cooking classes, writing articles, and conducting workshops and other speaking engagements. She lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and squanders her free time learning nifty new computer tricks and tending her "backyard wildlife habitat"-certified yard. She can be reached at advertising@mrhenterprises.com.
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