Cambridge IGCSE ICT (0417): Presentations – Study Guide

Presentation software lets you build a set of slides to inform or persuade an audience. In Cambridge IGCSE ICT you are marked on how accurately you follow a list of instructions to create slides, set up a master slide, edit the content and produce the right kind of output. Good slides are simple and consistent, and the master slide is what makes them consistent. This guide covers all four subtopics and works through a typical task from start to finish.

Where this fits in the specification

Topic 19 is a practical topic taught alongside document production, spreadsheets, databases and website authoring. The four subtopics are creating a presentation, using a master slide, editing a presentation and outputting it. The practical paper supplies text and image files and a sequence of tasks, and the written paper may ask you to compare slide layouts, describe the purpose of a master slide or suggest suitable features for an audience.

Create a presentation

Slides and layouts

A presentation is a series of slides. Each slide uses a layout, which is a pattern of placeholders for a title, body text, images, charts or tables. Choose the layout that matches the content instead of drawing text boxes where a placeholder would do, as placeholders keep the position and style linked to the master.

Adding content

• Text can be typed or imported. Keep it short: bullet points, not paragraphs. A common rule of thumb is a few short bullets per slide.
• Images should be relevant and sized with the aspect ratio locked so that they are not stretched. Cropping removes unwanted edges and does not change the original file.
• Charts and tables can be added from the software or from a spreadsheet and should have titles and labels.
• Audio and video can be inserted when the task asks for them.
• Hyperlinks and action buttons link to another slide, a file or a web page, which allows a non-linear presentation with a home or back button.

Animation and transitions

A transition is the effect that plays when one slide changes to the next. An animation controls how objects on a slide appear, move or disappear, for example bullet points that appear one by one. Used sparingly they help the audience follow the order of ideas. Too many different effects distract from the message, so apply the same transition throughout unless told otherwise.

Audience and purpose

A presentation for young children needs large fonts, bright simple pictures and little text. A presentation to business clients needs a more formal style and clear data. Think about contrast between text and background: dark text on a dark background cannot be read from the back of a room.

Use a master slide

The master slide (also called a slide master) is a template that controls the appearance of every slide that uses it. Anything placed or formatted on the master appears automatically on all slides based on it.

Items you normally set on the master:

• fonts, sizes and colours for titles and body text;
• bullet styles and alignment;
• background colour or image;
• a logo or other repeated graphic in a set position;
• slide numbers, the date and footer text;
• the position and size of placeholders.

The benefit is consistency and speed: change the title colour once on the master and every slide updates. The mistake that costs marks is formatting slides one at a time, leaving small differences, or editing individual slides when the instruction was to set the style on the master. Another is placing a logo on a single slide when it was meant to be on all of them. Always check that a change made on the master has actually reached the slides, and remember that text you format by hand on a slide overrides the master.

Edit a presentation

Editing means improving or correcting an existing presentation.

• Reorder slides by dragging them in the slide sorter or the outline pane.
• Delete, duplicate or add slides.
• Change layout if the content no longer fits.
• Edit text and objects: correct spelling, change fonts, resize or move images and align objects with each other. Use alignment and distribution tools instead of guessing by eye.
• Check spelling and proofread, particularly names and numbers.
• Check the story: the slides should follow a sensible order, with an introduction, the main points and a conclusion.
• Speaker notes are notes attached to each slide for the presenter. They do not appear on the screen shown to the audience but can be printed.

Output the presentation

The same file can be output in different forms for different needs.

• Slide show: the full-screen view for an audience, which may be set to move on at a click or automatically after a set time.
• Printed slides: one slide per page, either in colour or black and white.
• Handouts: several slides per page (commonly two, three, four or six), which the audience can take away. Check that the slides are large enough to read.
• Notes pages: each slide with the speaker notes below.
• Outline: the text only.
• File formats: the native presentation format keeps everything editable, while a PDF is better for sharing because it opens the same on any device. A self-running version can be exported for display.

Before printing, check the preview, the orientation, headers and footers (such as your name and candidate number if the task requires them), and the number of slides per page.

Worked example

A task asks you to build a 12-slide presentation for visitors to a school open evening. The master must have a white background, titles in Arial 32 point bold dark blue, body text in Arial 20 point black, the school crest at the bottom right and automatic slide numbers. The show should advance automatically after 25 seconds per slide, and handouts should print six slides per page.

1. Open the slide master. Set the title style to Arial, 32, bold, dark blue, and the body style to Arial, 20, black. Insert the crest in the lower right corner and turn on slide numbers. Close the master view.
2. Create slide 1 with a title layout and slides 2 to 12 with the title and content layout, so all of them pick up the master style automatically.
3. Apply the same transition to every slide and set the slide timing to 25 seconds.
4. Total running time: 12 slides multiplied by 25 seconds is 300 seconds, which is exactly 5 minutes.
5. Output the handouts at six slides per page. 12 slides divided by 6 per page is 2 pages. If there had been 13 slides the handout would need 3 pages, because the last slide would sit alone on page 3.
6. Print the speaker notes pages only if the task asks for them, and save the file with the name given.

Common mistakes

• Setting fonts and logos slide by slide instead of on the master.
• Too much text on a slide, or text too small or low in contrast.
• Distorting images by dragging a corner without keeping the aspect ratio.
• A different transition on every slide with no purpose.
• Handouts printed one per page when six were asked for, or the opposite.
• Forgetting to check slide numbers, footers and speaker notes.
• Not saving a copy before editing the original.

Exam technique

Practical tasks use the words create, apply, insert, format, set, print and save. Treat each as a separate mark. On the written paper, describe questions need a feature and what it does, and explain questions need the benefit, for example: “A master slide makes every slide use the same fonts and logo, so the presentation looks consistent and a change only has to be made once.” When asked to suggest suitable features for an audience, tie each one to the audience, not just to the software.

Check your understanding

1. What is a placeholder? A reserved area on a slide layout for a title, text, image or other object.
2. State two items that you would set on a master slide. For example title font and colour, slide numbers, a logo, background.
3. What is the difference between a transition and an animation? A transition is the effect between slides; an animation controls how objects on a slide appear or move.
4. A 20-slide handout is printed four slides per page. How many pages? 5 pages.
5. Why might you export a presentation as a PDF? It keeps the layout identical on any device and is hard to alter by accident.
6. Give one reason to lock the aspect ratio of an image. To stop it being stretched or squashed.
7. Where are speaker notes used and can the audience see them on screen? They help the presenter and are not shown on the audience screen during the slide show.

Frequently asked questions

What is a master slide used for? In Cambridge IGCSE ICT (0417), a master slide is a template that controls the appearance of every slide based on it, such as fonts, colours, background, logo, slide numbers and footers. A change made once on the master updates every slide, keeping the presentation consistent.

What is the difference between a transition and an animation? A transition is the effect that plays when one slide changes to the next, while an animation controls how objects on a slide appear, move or disappear. Use them sparingly and apply the same transition throughout unless told otherwise.

What is a placeholder on a slide? A placeholder is a reserved area on a slide layout for a title, text, image, chart or other object. Using placeholders rather than drawing new text boxes keeps the position and style linked to the master slide.

Why might you export a presentation as a PDF? A PDF keeps the layout identical on any device and is hard to alter by accident, which is useful for sharing slides or handouts.