Redesigned Absorb Activity Post 2

Welcome. In this presentation, you will learn how to create a non-linear PowerPoint. A non-linear PowerPoint is great when you want to share additional information with the audience, but do not want the slides to move sequentially from the first to the last.

As you can tell, you start with a traditional PowerPoint presentation – which I have here. It is full of information on e-learning and instructional design. During the presentation, there are a few sections where I would like the presentation to branch out.

The first time I would like for this to happen is on the slide about varieties of e-learning. As you can tell, I have a bulleted list of items that I would like to click on to share additional information. In order to make this happen, you must hyperlink the item in the bulleted list to another page in your presentation. Therefore, each bulleted item has a hyperlink that takes you (or the viewer of the presentation) to another slide that has specific information on that particular topic. As you can see here, the first item in the list is Standalone Courses. I would first highlight those words, right click on the mouse, and scroll down to the word hyperlink. Once there, a screen will pop up. On that screen you have the option to link the words to another document, a web page, an email, or a location within the same document. In this case, we want to link it to a location within the same document. On the list of places within this document, you must find the slide that holds the information on Standalone courses, click on it, then click ok. The words are now linked to the slide that holds that specific information. Repeat this process for each of the bulleted items.

Once you have created the hyperlinks, you are not done. When the viewer is on each of the specific content pages, he/she will need a way to navigate forward or back to the original bulleted list. This is where you will need to create a home button, a back button, and/or a next button. This is very simple to do. To create a home button (a button that will take the viewer back to the original slide with the bulleted list), you must first choose an image to be your button. This is easily done by selecting a picture through clipart. In this case, for the home button, I selected a picture of a house. I decreased the original size of the clipart to fit my needs and created a hyperlink the same way I did with the bulleted items on the original slide. This hyperlink should be linked back to the original slide. To keep each slide of information the same, I then copied this image and pasted it to the slides that also needed a home button. Check the hyperlink every time you paste it to ensure that you did not lose the slide where the viewer is supposed to be taken back to.

Ok, so now you should have the original slide with each of the bulleted items hyperlinked to slides that contain information about each item, and you should have a home/next button on each of the informational slides to take you either forward to the next piece of information, or back to the original slide with the bulleted list.

You are half-way done with creating your non-linear PowerPoint!

To finish the process, you must created settings so that when the PowerPoint is viewed, it will know which slides to include linearly, and which to exclude (namely the informational slides which you wanted the audience to view separately by clicking on something – be it words or an image). To do this, you must click on the Slide Show tab at the top of the presentation. Then click on Custom Slide Show. When you have clicked on Custom Slide Show, you will be given another screen with the options of creating a new show, editing a previous one, removing a previous show, or copying one that was already created. Click on New. At the top of the new screen, you have the option to name your custom show. Then, you will select which slides you want to appear linearly in your show. For my specific example, I want all the slides up to and including the Varieties of e-learning slide (the one containing the bulleted list), and everything after the last informational slide (in this case everything after the Virtual-classroom courses slide). On the right side of the screen you can assign an order to the slides if you so choose or if they are added in the wrong order by simply clicking on the up and down arrows while the slide you want to move is highlighted.

Now that you have a custom slide show created, there is one final step to make sure that your presentation will show correctly. Under the same Slide Show tab, you must select Set Up Slide Show. On the top right of the new screen that pops up, you will need to select the Custom Show radio button under Show Slides. Under that there is a drop-down menu where you will select the name you assigned your custom slide show. Click ok. Make sure to save your work periodically throughout the process and again at the end. At this point, press F5 to view your presentation to make sure that everything transitions from slide to slide in the correct order and, more importantly, that all of the hyperlinks created function properly.

This process is not difficult and can make a straight-forward PowerPoint presentation more engaging and visually appealing. It keeps the audience involved without asking them to physically do anything. Please keep this method in mind as you create future presentations.

Absorb Activity Redesign - EDU 697

The following videos were created to guide you through creating a non-linear PowerPoint. While all of us are familiar with creating a PowerPoint presentation, a non-linear presentation is just that - the slide to not move from first to last in a sequential order. Somewhere along the way the presenter is branching the audience away from the information to give them something else in addition to what they are seeing and hearing. In this demonstration, you will be shown step-by-step how to create the non-linear portion from beginning to end. The videos are broken down into two portions - the first part is creating the hyperlinks to the various slides; part two is setting up the custom slide show to ensure that it works properly when being viewed.

When you have finished viewing the demonstration, you are asked to create a non-linear PowerPoint of your own and submit it to me. This can be on any topic, but it may be more simple to create a presentation about yourself and include some pictures. Good luck and have fun!

Part 1


Part 2

Video Script: Welcome. In this presentation, you will learn how to create a non-linear PowerPoint. A non-linear PowerPoint is great when you want to share additional information with the audience, but do not want the slides to move sequentially from the first to the last. As you can tell, you start with a traditional PowerPoint presentation – which I have here. It is full of information on e-learning and instructional design. During the presentation, there are a few sections where I would like the presentation to branch out. The first time I would like for this to happen is on the slide about varieties of e-learning. As you can tell, I have a bulleted list of items that I would like to click on to share additional information. In order to make this happen, you must hyperlink the item in the bulleted list to another page in your presentation. Therefore, each bulleted item has a hyperlink that takes you (or the viewer of the presentation) to another slide that has specific information on that particular topic. As you can see here, the first item in the list is Standalone Courses. I would first highlight those words, right click on the mouse, and scroll down to the word hyperlink. Once there, a screen will pop up. On that screen you have the option to link the words to another document, a web page, an email, or a location within the same document. In this case, we want to link it to a location within the same document. On the list of places within this document, you must find the slide that holds the information on Standalone courses, click on it, then click ok. The words are now linked to the slide that holds that specific information. Repeat this process for each of the bulleted items. Once you have created the hyperlinks, you are not done. When the viewer is on each of the specific content pages, he/she will need a way to navigate forward or back to the original bulleted list. This is where you will need to create a home button, a back button, and/or a next button. This is very simple to do. To create a home button (a button that will take the viewer back to the original slide with the bulleted list), you must first choose an image to be your button. This is easily done by selecting a picture through clipart. In this case, for the home button, I selected a picture of a house. I decreased the original size of the clipart to fit my needs and created a hyperlink the same way I did with the bulleted items on the original slide. This hyperlink should be linked back to the original slide. To keep each slide of information the same, I then copied this image and pasted it to the slides that also needed a home button. Check the hyperlink every time you paste it to ensure that you did not lose the slide where the viewer is supposed to be taken back to. Ok, so now you should have the original slide with each of the bulleted items hyperlinked to slides that contain information about each item, and you should have a home/next button on each of the informational slides to take you either forward to the next piece of information, or back to the original slide with the bulleted list. You are half-way done with creating your non-linear PowerPoint! To finish the process, you must created settings so that when the PowerPoint is viewed, it will know which slides to include linearly, and which to exclude (namely the informational slides which you wanted the audience to view separately by clicking on something – be it words or an image). To do this, you must click on the Slide Show tab at the top of the presentation. Then click on Custom Slide Show. When you have clicked on Custom Slide Show, you will be given another screen with the options of creating a new show, editing a previous one, removing a previous show, or copying one that was already created. Click on New. At the top of the new screen, you have the option to name your custom show. Then, you will select which slides you want to appear linearly in your show. For my specific example, I want all the slides up to and including the Varieties of e-learning slide (the one containing the bulleted list), and everything after the last informational slide (in this case everything after the Virtual-classroom courses slide). On the right side of the screen you can assign an order to the slides if you so choose or if they are added in the wrong order by simply clicking on the up and down arrows while the slide you want to move is highlighted. Now that you have a custom slide show created, there is one final step to make sure that your presentation will show correctly. Under the same Slide Show tab, you must select Set Up Slide Show. On the top right of the new screen that pops up, you will need to select the Custom Show radio button under Show Slides. Under that there is a drop-down menu where you will select the name you assigned your custom slide show. Click ok. Make sure to save your work periodically throughout the process and again at the end. At this point, press F5 to view your presentation to make sure that everything transitions from slide to slide in the correct order and, more importantly, that all of the hyperlinks created function properly. This process is not difficult and can make a straight-forward PowerPoint presentation more engaging and visually appealing. It keeps the audience involved without asking them to physically do anything. Please keep this method in mind as you create future presentations.