Farewell, IS101

     I took IS101 as an elective, and I didn't know exactly what I was getting into. I was familiar with what information technology and information systems were, but I wondered what my professor and classmates were going to be like, the classwork, etc.

    Getting to fully learn the ins and outs of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint was really fun. I always used Google for these things, but now I'm definitely going to be using Microsoft. As for the classwork, getting LabSim tasks done after spending minutes trying to understand what it was asking me, taking hours in the Fun with Functions worksheet to figure out the formulas, I found it both gruesome but satisfactory at the end.

    Although I enjoyed doing the classwork, I found myself enjoying the people around me the most. After all, a big part of college is forming relationships and making connections with others. I liked seeing people have similar experiences with me before this class and during this class and the presentations they shared. Blogger was a good way to interact with each other as well. I know I wasn't much of a talker, but I felt welcomed in this class and everyone treated each other kindly.

    Lastly, I'd like to thank Professor Wu as he's been incredibly supportive for each of us, even doing a Webex meeting at 10PM with me one time because I couldn't figure out a formula for Fun with Functions. And as everyone goes on their separate ways, I hope everyone finds success and happiness in their lives.

How to Deliver a Powerpoint Presentation to a Non-live Audience

     Whenever you create a PowerPoint, it is very likely that you are using that PowerPoint to deliver a presentation to a live audience. But what if you're not presenting live? Let's say you're a teacher who teaches an online class where you upload PowerPoint lectures, or maybe even an employee who needs to share a PowerPoint to other employees who can't attend your presentation. PowerPoint not only has the tools to assist in live presentations, but also when you're not presenting to a live audience.

    In the Slide Show tab in the ribbon, there is a feature named Custom Slide Show. This feature allows us to give a presentation on slides we choose to include. By clicking on that button and creating a new custom slide show in the window, you can manually select which slides you want to present and even reorder them to your liking. To run that custom slideshow, click the Custom Slide Show button again and then click the one you just made. If you simply want to hide a slide, you can just click the Hide Slide button as well.

    The Rehearse Timings feature is incredibly useful no matter if you're presenting live or not. When selected, it displays a timer to see how much time you spend on a slide (which can be paused), giving you an opportunity to rehearse your slides over and over. It will also show the time you've spent overall in your presentation. It even gives you the choice if you want to save the your timings if you want to play the slideshow automatically.

    Lastly, the Record Slideshow option is quite similar to the Rehearse Timings feature, except that you narrate and annotate your slides as part of the recording. You get a laser pointer, pen, and highlighter to annotate. This would be something you would see a teacher use when giving an online lecture, using the laser pointer to point to what they're talking about and the pen to write whatever they please.

    If you decided to record your slideshow and want to upload a video of it, click the File button at the top left, then Export, and then Create a Video. Here, you can choose the video compression quality as well as the recorded timings and narrations if you chose to save them. If you don't want to use narrations or annotations, click on the dropbox and select Don't Use Recorded Timings and Narrations. All slides will then spend however much time as you choose in the dropbox below.

    So whether you're teaching an online class or posting a PowerPoint presentation for employees who can't attend your presentation, PowerPoint has all the things you need in order to present a PowerPoint to a non-live audience.