Presentations
Build the deck from a text file, control it from one master slide, edit every object on every slide, then output it on screen or on paper. Create · edit · output — the whole of Paper 2's presentation block, broken down and explained.
Presentations: a third of your Paper 2 mark
Paper 2 is Document production, Databases and Presentations — 70 marks in 2 hours 15 minutes. §19 is one of the three applications, and unlike §17 and §18 it has no separate theory section: it is almost entirely practical skill. That makes it the easiest section to lose marks in by rushing, and the easiest to gain marks in by being methodical.
Create Two things only
The syllabus asks you to create a presentation in exactly two ways worth marks:
1 · Create a new presentation using a text file. You are given a .txt file whose heading levels become slides and whose indented lines become bullets. Get the levels right and the deck builds itself in one step.
2 · Use a master slide. Everything that must appear on every slide — logo, headers, footers, placeholder positions, automated slide numbers — goes on the master, once.
Edit The long middle
Nine separate skills, and the exam script walks you through them in order:
Layouts · insert, move, delete slides · insert and edit objects — text, images, video, animated images, charts, tables, audio, symbols, lines, arrows, call-out boxes, shapes · presenter notes · hyperlinks · action buttons · alternative text and screentips · consistent transitions · consistent animation · hide slides.
Output Two destinations
Display — either a looped on-screen carousel (runs by itself, restarts at the end, no presenter) or presenter controlled (you advance it).
Print — full page slides (one slide per page), presenter notes (slide plus your notes), or handouts (2, 3, 4 or 6 slides per page, usually with lines for writing).
The idea that ties the whole chapter together
Consistency. The master slide exists so that a logo sits in the same place on every slide. Transitions are applied to all so the deck feels like one object. Animation is applied consistently so headings appear the same way each time. Almost every mark in §19 is a consistency mark — and almost every lost mark is a slide that was fixed by hand instead of on the master.
A useful rule for the exam: if you are about to do the same thing twice, do it on the master instead.
marks in Paper 2, shared between document production, databases and presentations
for all three applications — timing, not perfection, is what most candidates run out of
object types the syllabus names and you must be able to insert and edit
output routes: carousel, presenter controlled, full page, notes pages, handouts, outline
The §19 roadmap
Every presentation task in Paper 2 follows the same three stages. Learn the order, and the task stops being a list of instructions and becomes a route you already know.
The running example for this chapter
Everything here uses one deck: Riverside Bookshop — Annual Review 2024, eight slides, built from a text file supplied with the exam. Using one example throughout means you build one mental model instead of eight separate ones — exactly the same approach as the databases chapter.
1 · Title
Title slide layout, logo, footer
2 · Overview
Bulleted list, animation
3 · Sales
Chart object
4 · Top titles
Table object
5 · The café
Image, call-out, alt text
6 · Store tour
Video clip, action buttons
7 · Staff costs
Hidden — board only
8 · Contact
Hyperlinks, action buttons
Creating a presentation from a text file
You are handed a .txt file. It looks like nothing at all — but its indentation is a complete set of instructions, and the presentation software reads it as a slide structure.
The two rules the software follows
Rule 1 — a line at level 1 starts a new slide. The text of that line becomes the slide title.
Rule 2 — an indented line becomes a bullet on the slide above it. One indent is a first-level bullet; two indents is a second-level (sub) bullet.
So this text file:
A year in review
What changed in 2024
becomes one slide, titled Riverside Bookshop, with two bullets underneath it.
How the indentation is written
Depending on the source file, the levels are marked with tab characters, with spaces, or with a heading style. The exam file is usually tab- or space-indented plain text.
The most common mistake is opening the text file, seeing it as a wall of words, and typing every slide by hand. That takes twenty minutes and loses marks for accuracy. Importing takes ten seconds and is exact.
Simulation 1 — The text-file import lab
Click any line to change its level · watch the deck rebuild1 · A level jump. A level-3 line with no level-2 line above it is impossible. The software silently promotes it to level 2 — so your sub-sub-bullet arrives as a sub-bullet. Fix the source file, don't fix the slide.
2 · A stray indent on a title. One accidental tab on a level-1 line turns a slide into a missing slide and its title into a bullet. This is why you count your slides before and after importing.
The master slide
Every slide you make is built from two layers. The master sits behind and holds everything that repeats; the slide sits in front and holds what is unique. Change the master once and every slide changes with it.
What belongs on the master
What must not go on the master
Anything that appears on one slide only: that slide's own title, its chart, its picture, its own bullets. Those are slide objects.
Simulation 2 — The master slide lab
Change the master once · watch all three slides followSlide layouts
A layout is a pre-arranged set of placeholders — empty, labelled boxes that tell you what goes where. Choosing the right layout is faster than arranging boxes by hand, and it keeps every slide in the deck the same shape.
Simulation 3 — Apply a slide layout
Pick a slide · then pick the layout it should haveInserting, moving and deleting slides
Three housekeeping skills that the exam tests constantly, because they are how you correct a deck that has been built from an imported text file. Do them in the slide sorter or the thumbnail pane, where you can see the whole deck at once.
Insert
A new slide is inserted after the selected slide, never at the end. Select the slide it should follow, then insert.
The new slide takes the default layout — usually Title and Content — so you then change its layout and type into it.
Move
Drag the thumbnail to its new position, or cut and paste it. The fastest safe method in the exam is to drag in the sorter view, where you can see both the slide and its neighbours.
Every slide re-numbers automatically — which is exactly why the numbering must be automated.
Delete
Select the slide and delete. If you delete the wrong one, undo immediately rather than rebuilding it.
Ask first: should this slide be deleted, or hidden? Hidden slides stay in the file and can be shown later — see §14.
Simulation 4 — The slide sorter
Click a slide to select it · then insert, move or deleteObjects on a slide
The syllabus lists fourteen things you must be able to insert and edit on a slide. They are all objects: anything you can click, select, move, resize, format or delete. Knowing the names and what each is for is half the marks.
Simulation 5 — The object palette
Click an object to place it on the slide · click again to remove itPresenter notes
Presenter notes (speaker notes) are your own reminders attached to a slide. The audience never sees them. They are typed into the notes pane below the slide, and they matter at three separate points in the exam.
1 · While presenting
On a laptop connected to a projector, the projector shows the slide and your screen shows the slide plus the notes, the next slide and a timer. That is presenter view.
2 · When printing
Printing notes pages gives one slide per page with the notes printed underneath — the hand-out a speaker actually uses. See §16.
3 · When sharing
Saving or exporting as a slide show removes nothing unless you choose to. If a question says "the notes must not be visible", it means do not project presenter view.
Simulation 6 — What the audience sees vs what you see
Type notes for a slide · compare the two screensHyperlinks
A hyperlink turns a piece of text or an object into something clickable. The syllabus names exactly three destinations, and you must be able to create and edit all three.
To a slide
Links to a slide within the same presentation. Used for a contents page, or to jump to an appendix and back.
links to slide 3 of this deck
You pick the slide from a list — you do not type a number.
To an external file
Links to another file — a document, a spreadsheet, a video, a web page. Clicking it opens that file in its own application.
opens accounts.xlsx
Exam trap: if you move the presentation, a link to a file in the same folder may break. Keep all source files together.
To an email address
Written as mailto: followed by the address. Clicking it opens the user's email program with a blank message already addressed.
mailto:[email protected]
The software usually adds the mailto: prefix for you — but the exam may ask you what it is called, or to type it yourself.
Simulation 7 — Build a hyperlink
Choose what to link · then where it goesAction buttons
An action button is a shape with a navigation setting already attached. You draw it, the software asks where it should go, and from then on clicking it during the show takes you there. This is what makes a presentation non-linear.
Action button or hyperlink?
They do the same job and the exam may ask for either. The difference is what it looks like:
Hyperlink — attached to text or to any object you like. The reader sees underlined text, or a picture that happens to be clickable.
Action button — a ready-made button shape (an arrow, a house, a question mark) that looks like a control. Use it when the user needs to see that something is clickable.
What they are for
Simulation 8 — Place an action button
Choose a button · choose its destination · then click it in the showAlternative text and screentips
Two invisible settings that most candidates never open, and that are worth easy marks. Both are added to an object, and both have a completely different purpose.
Screentip — for the mouse user
A screentip is a small box of text that appears when you hover over an object. It is usually attached to a hyperlink or an action button, and it tells the user what will happen before they click.
→ Opens accounts.xlsx
It is set in the same dialog as the hyperlink, in the Screentip button. Without one, the user has to guess.
Alternative text — for everyone else
Alternative text (alt text) is a written description of an object. It is read aloud by a screen reader for a blind or partially sighted user, and it is shown in place of the image if the image fails to load.
"Riverside Bookshop frontage: blue door, bay window, hanging sign"
Describe what the object shows and why it is there — not "image1.jpg".
Simulation 9 — Hover, then listen
Hover an object to see its screentip · switch on the screen readerWrite alt text like a caption, not a file name
Bad: "cafe.jpg". Better: "The new café area: six tables, a counter and a coffee machine". The test is simple — if the image vanished, would the sentence tell the reader what they had missed?
Transitions between slides
A transition is the movement you see as one slide leaves and the next one arrives. It happens between slides — never inside one. The syllabus asks for consistent transitions, and that word is where the mark is.
Simulation 10 — Set the transition
Pick an effect · set the speed · then decide: this slide or all of themAnimation effects on objects
If a transition is what happens between slides, animation is what happens inside one. You animate an object — a piece of text, an image, a chart — so that it appears, moves or changes while the slide is on screen.
The three triggers
On click — the object appears when you click. Good for revealing bullet points one at a time while you talk about each.
With previous — it starts at the same moment as the animation before it, so several objects move together.
After previous — it starts automatically once the previous one finishes, with no click.
Order, delay and duration
Animations on a slide play in the order shown in the animation pane, numbered 1, 2, 3… You reorder them with the arrow buttons, not by re-adding them.
Duration is how long the movement takes. Delay is how long it waits after the trigger before starting. A common requirement is a heading that appears immediately and bullets that follow one by one — that is a delay, not a duration.
Simulation 11 — Build an animation sequence
Give each object an effect and a trigger · then play the slideHiding slides
Hiding a slide keeps it in the file but takes it out of the show. It is not deletion — nothing is lost, and you can unhide it at any moment. This is the correct answer whenever a slide must exist but must not be shown to this particular audience.
When to hide rather than delete
What hiding actually does
Hidden slides are skipped in the slide show. Going from slide 6 to slide 8, the audience sees no gap and no number jump, because automated numbering counts only the slides that are shown.
Hidden slides stay in the file — in the sorter, in the outline, and usually in printouts unless you choose otherwise.
Simulation 12 — Hide a slide and run the show
Hide slide 7 · then play from slide 6 and watch it get skippedDisplaying the presentation
The syllabus asks you to display a presentation for a variety of purposes, and names two of them. Everything about the way you set the show up follows from one question: is there a person operating it?
Looped on-screen carousel
No presenter. The deck runs on a screen at a stand, in a shop window, in a reception area or at an exhibition. It advances by itself on a timer and, when it reaches the last slide, it starts again — that is what "looped" means.
Settings that matter: each slide must have a timed advance (or a default timing for all), the show must be set to loop continuously until stopped, and the show type is usually kiosk / browsed at a kiosk so that a passer-by cannot break it by clicking.
Content that suits it: no narration, no click-to-reveal animation — nobody is there to click. Everything must be readable in the few seconds each slide is on screen.
Presenter controlled
A person is running it. The presenter decides when to move on, using the mouse, the keyboard, a clicker, or an action button on the slide itself.
Settings that matter: advance on click, not on a timer. Animation triggers can safely be on click, because the presenter is there to click.
Presenter view is available: the projector shows only the slide, while the presenter's screen shows the slide, the notes, a preview of the next slide and the elapsed time.
Simulation 13 — Run the show two ways
Choose a mode · then start it and watch what you can and cannot doPrinting the presentation
A deck is a screen object; paper is a different medium with different rules. The print dialog gives you several layouts, and choosing the wrong one is the fastest way to lose the final mark of a task.
Simulation 14 — Choose a print layout
Pick a layout · count the pages · check what lands on each oneExam guidance, model answers and worked tasks
§19 is assessed practically, but Paper 1 can still ask you to describe or explain what you would do. Those answers are marked on the names of things and the order you do them in — so learn the vocabulary and the sequence.
The command words that appear in §19
| Word | What it is asking you to do |
|---|---|
| Create | Produce the file — import the text file, or set up the master. The result is something new that did not exist before. |
| Insert | Put a new thing in: a new slide, a new object, a hyperlink, an action button. |
| Edit | Change something that is already there: the text, the format, the destination of a link, the order of an animation. |
| Apply | Attach a setting to something: apply a layout, apply a transition, apply an animation. |
| Add | Almost always add presenter notes, add alt text or add a screentip — a piece of information attached to an existing object. |
| Hide | Keep the slide in the file, take it out of the show. Never delete it. |
| Display / Print | Output it. The word tells you which route: screen or paper. |
Model answer — 4 marks
Question: A logo must appear in the same position on every slide of an eight-slide presentation. Describe how you would do this.
1 · Open the slide master (View → Slide Master), not an individual slide. [1]
2 · Insert the logo image onto the master slide. [1]
3 · Position and resize it once — it will then appear in that exact position on all eight slides. [1]
4 · Close the master view; the logo cannot be selected or moved on a normal slide, which guarantees consistency. [1]
Model answer — 3 marks
Question: Explain the difference between a transition and an animation.
1 · A transition is the effect seen as the presentation moves from one slide to the next; it is applied to the slide itself. [1]
2 · An animation is applied to an object on a slide — text, an image, a chart — and controls how it appears, moves or changes while that slide is on screen. [1]
3 · Both should be applied consistently: the transition using Apply To All, the animation the same way on every slide. [1]
Model answer — 3 marks
Question: The presentation must run by itself on a screen at an exhibition stand. Describe how you would set this up.
1 · Set the show type to kiosk / browsed at a kiosk so it runs full screen and the public cannot interrupt it. [1]
2 · Give the slides a timed advance and set the show to loop continuously so it restarts at the end. [1]
3 · Use no on-click animation and no narration, because there is no presenter to click or speak. [1]
A worked task, in the order you should do it
You are given review.txt, logo.png, cafe.jpg and figures.xlsx. The task asks for a presentation with a logo on every slide, automated slide numbers, a chart, a hyperlink and a handout.
Nine ways marks are lost in §19
How to check your own work in the last two minutes
Chapter 19 quick quiz
Sixteen questions covering every bullet of §19. Answer them all, then check — each one explains itself.
The §19 checklist
Everything in this chapter on one page. Tick it off honestly.
Create — I can…
Edit — structure — I can…
Edit — objects — I can…
Edit — links, movement — I can…
Output — I can…
The one-paragraph summary
Create the deck by importing the text file — a level-1 line is a slide title, an indented line is a bullet — and check the slide count. Open the slide master and put everything that repeats there: background, logo, header, footer, placeholder positions, heading and bullet formatting, and the automated slide number. Close the master. Give each slide the right layout, then insert, move or delete slides in the sorter. On each slide insert and edit the fourteen object types — text, images, video, animated images, charts, tables, audio, symbols, lines, arrows, call-outs and shapes — and attach the invisible settings: hyperlinks to a slide, a file or a mailto: address, action buttons with a destination, screentips for the mouse user and alt text for the screen reader. Apply the transition to all slides and the animation consistently, with a sensible order and trigger. Add presenter notes. Hide any slide that must not be shown. Finally output it: a looped carousel if there is no presenter, presenter controlled if there is, and print full pages, notes pages or handouts — counting the pages before you send them.
Presentations
Build the deck from a text file, control it from one master slide, edit every object on every slide, then output it on screen or on paper. Create · edit · output — the whole of Paper 2's presentation block, broken down and explained.
Presentations: a third of your Paper 2 mark
Paper 2 is Document production, Databases and Presentations — 70 marks in 2 hours 15 minutes. §19 is one of the three applications, and unlike §17 and §18 it has no separate theory section: it is almost entirely practical skill. That makes it the easiest section to lose marks in by rushing, and the easiest to gain marks in by being methodical.
Create Two things only
The syllabus asks you to create a presentation in exactly two ways worth marks:
1 · Create a new presentation using a text file. You are given a .txt file whose heading levels become slides and whose indented lines become bullets. Get the levels right and the deck builds itself in one step.
2 · Use a master slide. Everything that must appear on every slide — logo, headers, footers, placeholder positions, automated slide numbers — goes on the master, once.
Edit The long middle
Nine separate skills, and the exam script walks you through them in order:
Layouts · insert, move, delete slides · insert and edit objects — text, images, video, animated images, charts, tables, audio, symbols, lines, arrows, call-out boxes, shapes · presenter notes · hyperlinks · action buttons · alternative text and screentips · consistent transitions · consistent animation · hide slides.
Output Two destinations
Display — either a looped on-screen carousel (runs by itself, restarts at the end, no presenter) or presenter controlled (you advance it).
Print — full page slides (one slide per page), presenter notes (slide plus your notes), or handouts (2, 3, 4 or 6 slides per page, usually with lines for writing).
The idea that ties the whole chapter together
Consistency. The master slide exists so that a logo sits in the same place on every slide. Transitions are applied to all so the deck feels like one object. Animation is applied consistently so headings appear the same way each time. Almost every mark in §19 is a consistency mark — and almost every lost mark is a slide that was fixed by hand instead of on the master.
A useful rule for the exam: if you are about to do the same thing twice, do it on the master instead.
marks in Paper 2, shared between document production, databases and presentations
for all three applications — timing, not perfection, is what most candidates run out of
object types the syllabus names and you must be able to insert and edit
output routes: carousel, presenter controlled, full page, notes pages, handouts, outline
The §19 roadmap
Every presentation task in Paper 2 follows the same three stages. Learn the order, and the task stops being a list of instructions and becomes a route you already know.
The running example for this chapter
Everything here uses one deck: Riverside Bookshop — Annual Review 2024, eight slides, built from a text file supplied with the exam. Using one example throughout means you build one mental model instead of eight separate ones — exactly the same approach as the databases chapter.
1 · Title
Title slide layout, logo, footer
2 · Overview
Bulleted list, animation
3 · Sales
Chart object
4 · Top titles
Table object
5 · The café
Image, call-out, alt text
6 · Store tour
Video clip, action buttons
7 · Staff costs
Hidden — board only
8 · Contact
Hyperlinks, action buttons
Creating a presentation from a text file
You are handed a .txt file. It looks like nothing at all — but its indentation is a complete set of instructions, and the presentation software reads it as a slide structure.
The two rules the software follows
Rule 1 — a line at level 1 starts a new slide. The text of that line becomes the slide title.
Rule 2 — an indented line becomes a bullet on the slide above it. One indent is a first-level bullet; two indents is a second-level (sub) bullet.
So this text file:
A year in review
What changed in 2024
becomes one slide, titled Riverside Bookshop, with two bullets underneath it.
How the indentation is written
Depending on the source file, the levels are marked with tab characters, with spaces, or with a heading style. The exam file is usually tab- or space-indented plain text.
The most common mistake is opening the text file, seeing it as a wall of words, and typing every slide by hand. That takes twenty minutes and loses marks for accuracy. Importing takes ten seconds and is exact.
Simulation 1 — The text-file import lab
Click any line to change its level · watch the deck rebuild1 · A level jump. A level-3 line with no level-2 line above it is impossible. The software silently promotes it to level 2 — so your sub-sub-bullet arrives as a sub-bullet. Fix the source file, don't fix the slide.
2 · A stray indent on a title. One accidental tab on a level-1 line turns a slide into a missing slide and its title into a bullet. This is why you count your slides before and after importing.
The master slide
Every slide you make is built from two layers. The master sits behind and holds everything that repeats; the slide sits in front and holds what is unique. Change the master once and every slide changes with it.
What belongs on the master
What must not go on the master
Anything that appears on one slide only: that slide's own title, its chart, its picture, its own bullets. Those are slide objects.
Simulation 2 — The master slide lab
Change the master once · watch all three slides followSlide layouts
A layout is a pre-arranged set of placeholders — empty, labelled boxes that tell you what goes where. Choosing the right layout is faster than arranging boxes by hand, and it keeps every slide in the deck the same shape.
Simulation 3 — Apply a slide layout
Pick a slide · then pick the layout it should haveInserting, moving and deleting slides
Three housekeeping skills that the exam tests constantly, because they are how you correct a deck that has been built from an imported text file. Do them in the slide sorter or the thumbnail pane, where you can see the whole deck at once.
Insert
A new slide is inserted after the selected slide, never at the end. Select the slide it should follow, then insert.
The new slide takes the default layout — usually Title and Content — so you then change its layout and type into it.
Move
Drag the thumbnail to its new position, or cut and paste it. The fastest safe method in the exam is to drag in the sorter view, where you can see both the slide and its neighbours.
Every slide re-numbers automatically — which is exactly why the numbering must be automated.
Delete
Select the slide and delete. If you delete the wrong one, undo immediately rather than rebuilding it.
Ask first: should this slide be deleted, or hidden? Hidden slides stay in the file and can be shown later — see §14.
Simulation 4 — The slide sorter
Click a slide to select it · then insert, move or deleteObjects on a slide
The syllabus lists fourteen things you must be able to insert and edit on a slide. They are all objects: anything you can click, select, move, resize, format or delete. Knowing the names and what each is for is half the marks.
Simulation 5 — The object palette
Click an object to place it on the slide · click again to remove itPresenter notes
Presenter notes (speaker notes) are your own reminders attached to a slide. The audience never sees them. They are typed into the notes pane below the slide, and they matter at three separate points in the exam.
1 · While presenting
On a laptop connected to a projector, the projector shows the slide and your screen shows the slide plus the notes, the next slide and a timer. That is presenter view.
2 · When printing
Printing notes pages gives one slide per page with the notes printed underneath — the hand-out a speaker actually uses. See §16.
3 · When sharing
Saving or exporting as a slide show removes nothing unless you choose to. If a question says "the notes must not be visible", it means do not project presenter view.
Simulation 6 — What the audience sees vs what you see
Type notes for a slide · compare the two screensHyperlinks
A hyperlink turns a piece of text or an object into something clickable. The syllabus names exactly three destinations, and you must be able to create and edit all three.
To a slide
Links to a slide within the same presentation. Used for a contents page, or to jump to an appendix and back.
links to slide 3 of this deck
You pick the slide from a list — you do not type a number.
To an external file
Links to another file — a document, a spreadsheet, a video, a web page. Clicking it opens that file in its own application.
opens accounts.xlsx
Exam trap: if you move the presentation, a link to a file in the same folder may break. Keep all source files together.
To an email address
Written as mailto: followed by the address. Clicking it opens the user's email program with a blank message already addressed.
mailto:[email protected]
The software usually adds the mailto: prefix for you — but the exam may ask you what it is called, or to type it yourself.
Simulation 7 — Build a hyperlink
Choose what to link · then where it goesAction buttons
An action button is a shape with a navigation setting already attached. You draw it, the software asks where it should go, and from then on clicking it during the show takes you there. This is what makes a presentation non-linear.
Action button or hyperlink?
They do the same job and the exam may ask for either. The difference is what it looks like:
Hyperlink — attached to text or to any object you like. The reader sees underlined text, or a picture that happens to be clickable.
Action button — a ready-made button shape (an arrow, a house, a question mark) that looks like a control. Use it when the user needs to see that something is clickable.
What they are for
Simulation 8 — Place an action button
Choose a button · choose its destination · then click it in the showAlternative text and screentips
Two invisible settings that most candidates never open, and that are worth easy marks. Both are added to an object, and both have a completely different purpose.
Screentip — for the mouse user
A screentip is a small box of text that appears when you hover over an object. It is usually attached to a hyperlink or an action button, and it tells the user what will happen before they click.
→ Opens accounts.xlsx
It is set in the same dialog as the hyperlink, in the Screentip button. Without one, the user has to guess.
Alternative text — for everyone else
Alternative text (alt text) is a written description of an object. It is read aloud by a screen reader for a blind or partially sighted user, and it is shown in place of the image if the image fails to load.
"Riverside Bookshop frontage: blue door, bay window, hanging sign"
Describe what the object shows and why it is there — not "image1.jpg".
Simulation 9 — Hover, then listen
Hover an object to see its screentip · switch on the screen readerWrite alt text like a caption, not a file name
Bad: "cafe.jpg". Better: "The new café area: six tables, a counter and a coffee machine". The test is simple — if the image vanished, would the sentence tell the reader what they had missed?
Transitions between slides
A transition is the movement you see as one slide leaves and the next one arrives. It happens between slides — never inside one. The syllabus asks for consistent transitions, and that word is where the mark is.
Simulation 10 — Set the transition
Pick an effect · set the speed · then decide: this slide or all of themAnimation effects on objects
If a transition is what happens between slides, animation is what happens inside one. You animate an object — a piece of text, an image, a chart — so that it appears, moves or changes while the slide is on screen.
The three triggers
On click — the object appears when you click. Good for revealing bullet points one at a time while you talk about each.
With previous — it starts at the same moment as the animation before it, so several objects move together.
After previous — it starts automatically once the previous one finishes, with no click.
Order, delay and duration
Animations on a slide play in the order shown in the animation pane, numbered 1, 2, 3… You reorder them with the arrow buttons, not by re-adding them.
Duration is how long the movement takes. Delay is how long it waits after the trigger before starting. A common requirement is a heading that appears immediately and bullets that follow one by one — that is a delay, not a duration.
Simulation 11 — Build an animation sequence
Give each object an effect and a trigger · then play the slideHiding slides
Hiding a slide keeps it in the file but takes it out of the show. It is not deletion — nothing is lost, and you can unhide it at any moment. This is the correct answer whenever a slide must exist but must not be shown to this particular audience.
When to hide rather than delete
What hiding actually does
Hidden slides are skipped in the slide show. Going from slide 6 to slide 8, the audience sees no gap and no number jump, because automated numbering counts only the slides that are shown.
Hidden slides stay in the file — in the sorter, in the outline, and usually in printouts unless you choose otherwise.
Simulation 12 — Hide a slide and run the show
Hide slide 7 · then play from slide 6 and watch it get skippedDisplaying the presentation
The syllabus asks you to display a presentation for a variety of purposes, and names two of them. Everything about the way you set the show up follows from one question: is there a person operating it?
Looped on-screen carousel
No presenter. The deck runs on a screen at a stand, in a shop window, in a reception area or at an exhibition. It advances by itself on a timer and, when it reaches the last slide, it starts again — that is what "looped" means.
Settings that matter: each slide must have a timed advance (or a default timing for all), the show must be set to loop continuously until stopped, and the show type is usually kiosk / browsed at a kiosk so that a passer-by cannot break it by clicking.
Content that suits it: no narration, no click-to-reveal animation — nobody is there to click. Everything must be readable in the few seconds each slide is on screen.
Presenter controlled
A person is running it. The presenter decides when to move on, using the mouse, the keyboard, a clicker, or an action button on the slide itself.
Settings that matter: advance on click, not on a timer. Animation triggers can safely be on click, because the presenter is there to click.
Presenter view is available: the projector shows only the slide, while the presenter's screen shows the slide, the notes, a preview of the next slide and the elapsed time.
Simulation 13 — Run the show two ways
Choose a mode · then start it and watch what you can and cannot doPrinting the presentation
A deck is a screen object; paper is a different medium with different rules. The print dialog gives you several layouts, and choosing the wrong one is the fastest way to lose the final mark of a task.
Simulation 14 — Choose a print layout
Pick a layout · count the pages · check what lands on each oneExam guidance, model answers and worked tasks
§19 is assessed practically, but Paper 1 can still ask you to describe or explain what you would do. Those answers are marked on the names of things and the order you do them in — so learn the vocabulary and the sequence.
The command words that appear in §19
| Word | What it is asking you to do |
|---|---|
| Create | Produce the file — import the text file, or set up the master. The result is something new that did not exist before. |
| Insert | Put a new thing in: a new slide, a new object, a hyperlink, an action button. |
| Edit | Change something that is already there: the text, the format, the destination of a link, the order of an animation. |
| Apply | Attach a setting to something: apply a layout, apply a transition, apply an animation. |
| Add | Almost always add presenter notes, add alt text or add a screentip — a piece of information attached to an existing object. |
| Hide | Keep the slide in the file, take it out of the show. Never delete it. |
| Display / Print | Output it. The word tells you which route: screen or paper. |
Model answer — 4 marks
Question: A logo must appear in the same position on every slide of an eight-slide presentation. Describe how you would do this.
1 · Open the slide master (View → Slide Master), not an individual slide. [1]
2 · Insert the logo image onto the master slide. [1]
3 · Position and resize it once — it will then appear in that exact position on all eight slides. [1]
4 · Close the master view; the logo cannot be selected or moved on a normal slide, which guarantees consistency. [1]
Model answer — 3 marks
Question: Explain the difference between a transition and an animation.
1 · A transition is the effect seen as the presentation moves from one slide to the next; it is applied to the slide itself. [1]
2 · An animation is applied to an object on a slide — text, an image, a chart — and controls how it appears, moves or changes while that slide is on screen. [1]
3 · Both should be applied consistently: the transition using Apply To All, the animation the same way on every slide. [1]
Model answer — 3 marks
Question: The presentation must run by itself on a screen at an exhibition stand. Describe how you would set this up.
1 · Set the show type to kiosk / browsed at a kiosk so it runs full screen and the public cannot interrupt it. [1]
2 · Give the slides a timed advance and set the show to loop continuously so it restarts at the end. [1]
3 · Use no on-click animation and no narration, because there is no presenter to click or speak. [1]
A worked task, in the order you should do it
You are given review.txt, logo.png, cafe.jpg and figures.xlsx. The task asks for a presentation with a logo on every slide, automated slide numbers, a chart, a hyperlink and a handout.
Nine ways marks are lost in §19
How to check your own work in the last two minutes
Chapter 19 quick quiz
Sixteen questions covering every bullet of §19. Answer them all, then check — each one explains itself.
The §19 checklist
Everything in this chapter on one page. Tick it off honestly.
Create — I can…
Edit — structure — I can…
Edit — objects — I can…
Edit — links, movement — I can…
Output — I can…
The one-paragraph summary
Create the deck by importing the text file — a level-1 line is a slide title, an indented line is a bullet — and check the slide count. Open the slide master and put everything that repeats there: background, logo, header, footer, placeholder positions, heading and bullet formatting, and the automated slide number. Close the master. Give each slide the right layout, then insert, move or delete slides in the sorter. On each slide insert and edit the fourteen object types — text, images, video, animated images, charts, tables, audio, symbols, lines, arrows, call-outs and shapes — and attach the invisible settings: hyperlinks to a slide, a file or a mailto: address, action buttons with a destination, screentips for the mouse user and alt text for the screen reader. Apply the transition to all slides and the animation consistently, with a sensible order and trigger. Add presenter notes. Hide any slide that must not be shown. Finally output it: a looped carousel if there is no presenter, presenter controlled if there is, and print full pages, notes pages or handouts — counting the pages before you send them.