Impress is the presentation component of OpenOffice.org (OOo), a free, open source office suite which is similar to Microsoft Office. Impress itself is so similar to Microsoft PowerPoint that presentations created with PowerPoint can be run with Impress and, to a limited extent, vice versa.
OpenOffice.com can be downloaded for free from: www.openoffice.org. If you don't know how to download and install a program, see the post:
Downloading and Installing a Program with Firefox.
This tutorial shows how to create a basic Impress presentation that combines text, pictures and audio. I took a lot of screenshots, to illustrate every little step in the process, so this post is somewhat long. Don't be intimidated. It's really very easy. In practice, it usually takes less than a minute to assemble a multimedia slide.
The screenshots were taken while creating a presentation under Windows Vista. The procedures under other operating systems are virtually the same.
(1) To launch OOo Impress from the Start Menu, left click on the Windows Start Button at the bottom right of the desktop, left click on "All Programs," then
(a) scroll down to the OpenOffice.org folder, open it and
(b) left click on OpenOffice.org Impress.
(2) Impress opens with a menu that lets you choose what to do. For the purposes of this tutorial, left click on "Create" to create a new presentation.
(3) The main Impress window will now appear. In addition to the toolbars, there are three major parts to this window:
(a) The Slides Panel at the left, which contains thumbnails (i.e., little pictures) of all the slides in the presentation, in the order they will appear.
(b) The Layouts Panel on the right, which allows you to select from preformatted templates for your slides.
(c) The workspace in the center, where you assemble the actual slides.
(4) Initially, there is only one slide, which is blank. The format of the slide pictured in the Slides Panel will mach the current layout (the one highlighted in blue) in the Layouts Panel.
(5) We want the first slide of the presentation to contain a title with a little explanatory text. To change to this format, left click on the "Title Slide" template in the Layouts Panel. The formats of the thumbnail in the Slides Panel and the workspace will change to match this template.
(6) To add the title, left click inside the title box and type the name of your presentation.
The title, and all other information you add to a slide can be edited at any time. Don't agonize over your title. If you don't like it, you can always go back and change it when you come up with a better name.
(7) Next, left click inside the text box and type any additional information you want to appear on the title slide.
(8) Note that the thumbnail in the Slides Panel changes to match the slide you are building in the workspace.
(9) From time to time, it is good to save the presentation you are creating to limit what is lost in the event of a computer problem. The procedure is the same as with any word processor:
(a) Left click on the "Save" icon in the toolbar.
(b) Navigate to where you wish to save the presentation.
(c) Give the presentation a name.
(d) Left click on "Save."
Note: Naming Your Presentation: When you play an Impress presentation, all the images, audio and video files used in it need to be in the same folder as the presentation itself. With longer presentations, it is very easy to use hundreds of these associated files. This can make it difficult to locate the actual presentation file in the folder when it's time to launch it. To get around this, I precede the presentation's file name with "0 " (zero + space). Depending on whether you use an ascending or descending sort order for your folder, this will force the presentation to either the beginning or the end of the list of file names, making it easy to find.To either (1) continue creating or editing an existing presentation or (2) run it, you will need to bring it up within the main Impress window. For me, the easiest way to do this is to navigate to the folder containing the presentation and then double clicking on the "0 [presentation name]" file. Impress will launch automatically, with the presentation opened in the main Impress window.(10) To add a new slide after the title slide (or any other slide), left click on the "Slide" icon in the toolbar at the top of the main Impress window.
(11) A new slide will appear in the Slides Panel and there will be a blank template in the workspace. Both will be in the same format as the previously current slide (the title slide).
To change the format:
(a) left click on the thumbnail of the slide you wish to make current (it will be highlighted in blue) and
(b) left click on the template for the new format in the Layouts Panel.
(12) I prefer to use free formatting when I build a slide instead of using one of the preformatted layouts. To do this, I select the "Title Only" layout.
(13) The slide in the workspace and the thumbnail in the Slides Panel will change to contain only a title box.
(14) Type in a title, as you did with the title slide.
(15) Now, we want to insert a picture I took of the beach on Assateague Island.
To do this:
(a) left click on "Insert" in the toolbar,
(b) left click on "Picture" in the menu that appears and
(c) left click on "File . . ." in the subsequent menu.
(16) Next,
(a) navigate to where you've saved the image on your computer,
(b) left click to select the image from the list of files contained in the folder and
(c) left click on "Open."
Note: Use GIMP or another photo editing tool to prepare the image ahead of time. For basic information on how to do this, refer to the tutorial
Using GIMP for Quick and Dirty Image Editing.
(17) Depending on the size of the image, it may cover the entire workspace. We will need to reduce the picture's size.
(18) To reduce the picture's size, right click anywhere within it and left click on "Position and Size . . ." in the menu that pops up.
(19) In the next menu, left click on "Keep ratio" to place a check mark in the box.
(20) Now, reduce either the width or the height of the image. The size of the other dimension will automatically change to keep the proportions of the picture correct. Left click on "OK" when you are done.
(21) The size of the picture will now be reduced.
If you are not happy with the size, use the same process to resize it again.
(22) To move the picture to a new location on the slide:
(a) left click anywhere within the image and, while holding down the left mouse button,
(b) drag and drop it in its new location.
Repeat the process until you are happy with its location.
(23) To add text to the slide:
(a) left click on the text tool (T) in the drawing toolbar at the bottom of the main Impress window and
(b) left click in the workspace where you would like the text to begin and begin typing.
(24) To reposition a text box, left click anywhere within it to bring up the green "handles" and drag and drop it to its new location.
(25) To increase the size of a text box, "grab" one of the green handles by left clicking on it and dragging it away from the center of the box while holding down the left mouse button.
(26) To increase or decrease the size of the text,
(a) highlight the text,
(b) select a new font size from the toolbar at the top of the main Impress window.
Note: this is the same process you use to change the font size of text in a word processing document.
(27) W now need to resize the text box, so it doesn't intrude on the picture.
(28) To do this, left click on the text box to make the green handles appear then, grab the appropriate handle and drag it toward the center of the box. The text box will automatically resize itself.
(29) To change the color of the text,
(a) highlight the text,
(b) left click on font color in the toolbar and
(c) left click on the color of your choice.
(30) The color of the highlighted text will now change.
(31) To truly make this a multimedia presentation, we would like to add a recording we made of ourselves reading the text aloud that will begin playing when the slide is displayed. (Refer to the post:
Using Audacity to Record Your Voice.)
To do this:
(a) left click on "Insert" in the main toolbar and
(b) left click on "Movie and Sound" in the menu.
(32) Next,
(a) navigate to the folder that contains the audio file (Excuse my typo in the screenshot. It should say "audio file" instead of "image." The process for inserting audio files, images and videos is basically the same and I forgot which one I was doing when I annotated the screenshot.),
(b) select the audio file you wish to include in the slide and
(c) left click on "Open."
Note: When using a lot of audio files in a presentation, its good to come up with a system for naming them. To leave room for inserting slides with audio at a later point, I generally name my audio files in alphanumeric increments of five (A-005, A-010, . . . A-100, A-105, etc.). This keeps the numbering of the audio files in sequence with the slides themselves.(33) A speaker icon will now appear in the middle of the slide you are building.
(34) To move the speaker icon off the slide, so it doesn't appear when the slide is displayed, simply drag and drop it into the gray area surrounding the slide in the workspace.
(35) Now, the audio will be heard but not seen when the slide is displayed.
(36) Now we would like to run a preview of what we've done so far, to see how the actual presentation will appear to others.
First, left click on the title slide (Slide 1) in the Slides Panel to make it current. It will be highlighted in blue. This will start the slide show from the beginning.
To view a single slide, make that slide current and follow the same process described below.
(37) In the toolbar at the top of the main Impress window, left click on "Slide Show." This will start the actual show.
Note: This is also the procedure for playing the slide show when it is completed.
(38) Slide 1 will now fill the computer screen.
To move forward through the presentation, use either the "Page Down" key or the down arrow on your computer keyboard. To move backward, use the "Page Up" key or the up arrow.
To end the slide show and return to the main Impress window for further editing, right click anywhere within the slide and select "End Show" from the menu that appears.
(39) After reviewing what we have done so far, we decided it might be a good idea to introduce the vocabulary before we begin the actual presentation. To do this, we will need to insert a new slide between the title slide and the current second slide.
(40) First, left click on the thumbnail of the slide you want to proceed the new slide to make it current. In this case it is Slide 1, the title slide.
(41) Next, left click on "Slide" in the toolbar at the top of the main Impress window. This will insert a new slide immediately after the current slide.
(42) The new slide will be in the same format as the one that was current when it was added. To change the format of the new slide, make sure it is current and select a template from the Layouts Panel.
(43) The new format is a title and text layout, which automatically adds outline bullets to the text box.
To disable the bullets, left click on "Bullets On/Off" in the toolbar.
(44) The bullets will now disappear.
(45) Using the same processes described earlier in this tutorial, we now add a vocabulary list to the slide and include audio of ourselves reading it aloud.
(46) After previewing the latest version of the slide show, we changed our minds again and want the vocabulary slide at the end of the presentation instead of at the beginning.
To do this, we simply drag and drop the slide to it's new location within the Slides Panel.
(47) The slide is now at the end of the presentation.
(48) To delete a slide,
(a) right click on the thumbnail in the Slides Panel and
(b) left click on "Delete Slide" in the menu.
You can also delete a slide by left clicking on it's thumbnail to make it current and then pressing the delete key on your keyboard.
