Krishna Tateneni
KPresenter is the presentations program in the KOffice suite of productivity applications.
Table of Contents
To Be Done In This Manual
There is a lot to be done in the KPresenter manual. The below list is not necessarily complete, and does not follow any particular order.
Flesh out the introduction by describing presentations software and the features of KPresenter in particular.
Add a ‘What should I read?’ section to the introduction.
Expand the tutorial. Introduce more features to the new user.
Write the KPresenter Screen chapter.
Create an outline for the Detailed Guides chapter(s).
Come up with a set of questions for the Q and A chapter.
Write the KPresenter Options chapter.
Write the tool bars/menu items chapter.
Introduction
KPresenter is the presentations program in the KOffice productivity suite. Using KPresenter, you can prepare a set of slides for use in an on-screen slideshow or for printing. Your slides can include text and graphics in a variety of formats, and of course, you can embed all sorts of objects using KParts.
The KOffice productivity suite consists of a number of applications which are designed to work together. Overview documentation for KOffice is available, as well as manuals for each component of the suite. The components of KOffice are:
KWord - a frames based wordprocessor.
KSpread - a spreadsheet application.
KPresenter - a presentations application.
Kontour - a vector drawing application.
Krayon - a bitmap drawing application.
KFormula - an editor for mathematical formulae.
KChart - an application to draw charts and diagrams.
In addition to the above components, KLyX will become part of KOffice in the future. KLyX is a wordprocessor for scientific and mathematical documents based on TeX.
KOffice is a free (or open-source) software project which is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
A Step-By-Step Tutorial
In this chapter, KPresenter is introduced using a simple tutorial. We shall walk through the most basic steps that are involved in creating a presentation, and adding some basic effects.
When you start KPresenter, the Choose Template dialog appears.
The default option is Start with an empty document. Select the template labeled Title (highlighted in red) by clicking on it. This also selects Create new document from a template.
Now click OK. This brings up the slide editor window, where you can view and edit the slides (and objects contained in them) in your document. At the moment, we just have one slide, with one object on it, which is a text box.
Double-click the text box. The cursor changes to a vertical bar to show that you can now type some text.
Go ahead, type some text!
Click away from the text to de-select the text box when you are done typing.
Add a new page
Let's now add a new slide to our document. To do so, click the Insert menu, and then click on Page.
This brings up the Insert Page dialog.
Click OK to accept the defaults, which will add a new page after page 1.
The Choose dialog comes up so that we can decide what the new slide should look like. This time, double click on the One template (highlighted in red.)
The new slide now appears in the editing window. To change between pages of your presentation, you can select slides in the pane to the left (highlighted in red for this screenshot).
The newly inserted page has two text boxes. There is one for a title, and another to contain a bulleted list of items.
Double-click and type a title. Then double-click on the second text box. Note that a bullet automatically appears when you start typing. Type some text and end the paragraph by pressing the Enter or Return key. As you type new paragraphs, bullets automatically appear in front of them.
You can de-select the text box by clicking away from it.
Insert a picture
Let's go back to the first page now. Use the list of slides on the left of your screen.
In this section, we'll liven our presentation up a bit by adding a nice logo to the title page. To do so, the first step is to click on the Insert menu item, and then on Picture.
This brings up a file selection dialog. To learn about this or other standard KDE dialog boxes in detail, please consult the KDE documentation. You can browse by clicking on folder icons or by using the browser style buttons on the toolbar (highlighted in red.) Clicking the up arrow takes you up one directory level.
Find the file named koffice-logo.png, which may be in a different directory than the one shown in the screenshot below. You can also choose any other graphic file if you like! Select the file, and click Open.
The logo graphic is now visible in the top left corner of the editing window. There are selection handles (little black squares) visible around the border of the graphic.
Place the mouse cursor anywhere in the middle of the logo, and drag it to the middle of the title page.
That's it. Now you have a picture on the title page!
Add a shadow to the title text
Let's continue enhancing our title page by adding a shadow behind the title. Right click anywhere on the title text. This achieves two things: the text box containing the title is selected, and a menu pops-up.
Select the Shadow option in the pop-up menu.
The Shadow dialog pops up. The distance between the shadow and the text is currently 0 so the shadow cannot be seen (this part of the dialog box is highlighted in red.)
Increase the distance value to 3. The effect of changing the distance can be seen in the preview window. Now click OK.
Now the title has a shadow!
Change the color of the title text
Let's finish by changing the color of the title text from black to blue. To do so, select the title text by double-clicking the text box.
Change the color to blue by clicking on the dark blue icon in the color palette on the right side of the editing window (this icon is highlighted in red.)
Changing the color of the selected text to blue changes its appearance. The exact color that highlighted text turns depends on your system color scheme.
Now click away from the text to de-select it.
Now that there are two slides, why not try a slide show! To start the slide show, press the play button (the grey arrow) on the top toolbar. The first slide should appear on your screen.
To advance from the first slide to the next, just click anywhere on the screen, or use the Page Down key.
To exit the slide show, right click, and then select the Exit presentation option from the pop-up menu.
The KPresenter Screen
This chapter should describe the main KPresenter screen in detail. Keep in mind that the users who choose to skip the tutorial are likely to jump right in here.
Detailed Guides
This chapter should describe how to perform the most common tasks in KPresenter.
Creating templates
The Menu and Toolbar Items
KPresenter presents different types of interfaces for you to interact with the program. Perhaps the most familiar type of interface is the menu which appears on the top of the KPresenter window.
Clicking on the menu items gives you a list of commands from which you can choose the one you want. Many of the commands can also be accessed directly by holding down Ctrl or Alt and pressing another key on your keyboard. In the next section, each of the menu commands is described in brief.
In addition to the menus, KPresenter also has a set of toolbars. Each toolbar consists of a collection of icons. A toolbar icon often presents a convenient shortcut to a command that is found in one of the menus.
Each toolbar has a thin stippled area, which acts as a handle for that toolbar. The stippled area is shown highlighted in red in the screenshot below:
Clicking on the toolbar handle results in that toolbar being ‘flattened’ so that you have some extra space for viewing the main editing window:
Clicking on the toolbar handle a second time brings the toolbar back. You can also move the toolbar around by dragging the handle. Toolbars can be ‘docked’ or attached to any side of the KPresenter window. If you like, you can also have the toolbar ‘float’ in its own window, separated from the main KPresenter window as shown in the screenshot below:
If you don't like dragging toolbars around, right click on the handle and a menu pops up as shown in the screenshot below:
The first few items in the pop-up menu have to do with the placement of the toolbar. You can choose any of the four sides of the KPresenter window, or have the toolbar ‘float’ in a separate window. Choosing Flat hides the toolbar. (If you right click on the handle of a hidden toolbar, this item appears as Unflat instead.)
Choosing the last item in the menu, Mode, leads to an additional menu which lets you control the appearance of the items in toolbar. This additional cascading menu is shown in the screenshot below:
The default view of the toolbar is icons only. In this view, if you don't know what a particular icon means, you can hold the mouse over the icon, and after a second or so, a little hint pops up in a highlighted text box as shown in the screenshot below:
You can choose to display the toolbar items as text instead of icons, or even to combine both icons and text. If you want both text and icons, the cascading menu allows you to select whether the text appears beside the icons or below them. All four styles of displaying toolbar items are shown in the screenshot below:
The KPresenter menus are discussed in the following sections.
- File->New (Ctrl+N)
Begins a new presentation. The Choose dialog will open, allowing you to choose a template for your presentation.
- File->Open (Ctrl+O)
Opens an existing presentation. A standard KDE file open dialog will appear, allowing you to choose a file to open.
- File->Open Recent
Displays a list of recently opened files for you to choose from.
- File->Save (Ctrl+S)
Saves the currently open presentation. If you have not previously saved it, you will be asked to name the file. If you have previously saved the presentation, it will be resaved with the same name.
- File->Save As...
Saves the currently open presentation with a new name.
- File->Create HTML Slideshow...
Starts the HTML wizard, which is described in the section the section called “Using the HTML Wizard”.
- File->Create Template From Current Slide...
Allows you to save the current slide as a template. In future the template will be available for you to use to build slides with. Creating a template is further discussed in section the section called “Creating templates”.
- File->Use Current Slide As Default Template
Sets the current slide as your default template. Especially useful if you have created a template of your own to fit into corporate style guidelines, or if you just use a particular layout very often.
- File->Print... (Ctrl+P)
Prints the presentation. More precisely, it opens the print settings dialog, where you can adjust the settings before printing your presentation.
- File->Print Preview...
Displays the presentation with a PostScript® viewer, exactly as it would look if printed.
- File->Document Information...
Allows you to enter information about the document. This includes information about the author, and an abstract on the documents contents.
- File->Close (Ctrl+W)
Close the current presentation. You will be given an opportunity to save any changes first.
- File->Quit (Ctrl+Q)
Close KPresenter. You will be given an opportunity to save all changes in all open presentations first.
Edit Menu
- Edit->Undo: Last task (Ctrl+Z)
Undo the last action you performed.
- Edit->Redo: Last undone task (Ctrl+Shift+Z)
Redo the last action you undid. If you have not undone any actions, or the last undo action is not reversible, this menu item will instead read No Redo Possible and is disabled.
- Edit->Cut (Ctrl+X)
Copy the selected item to the clipboard, and remove it from the document.
- Edit->Copy (Ctrl+C)
Copy the selected item to the clipboard, while leaving it intact in your presentation.
- Edit->Paste (Ctrl+V)
Insert the contents of the clipboard into your presentation.
- Edit->Delete (Ctrl+Del)
Remove the currently selected item from your presentation.
- Edit->Select All (Ctrl+A)
Select all the objects and text on the current slide.
- Edit->Copy Page
Copy the current slide to the clipboard.
- Edit->Duplicate Page
Insert an exact copy of the current slide.
- Edit->Delete Page...
Delete the current page from the presentation. You will be asked to confirm this action.
- Edit->Find... (Ctrl+F)
Search for text within the presentation.
- Edit->Header/Footer...
Insert a header and/or footer into the presentation. This will display on every page.
View Menu
- View->New View...
Opens another window with the same presentation loaded so you can work on more than one slide at a time.
- View->Close All Views
Close all views on the presentation. You will be given a chance to save any changes, or to cancel closing.
- View->Split View
Splits the window into two (or more) views on the same presentation. The default split is horizontal.
- View->Remove View
Close only the currently active view. The presentation, and any other views you have open, remain open, and any changes you have made remain unsaved.
- View->Splitter Orientation
Toggle the split view between Horizontal (the default) and Vertical.
- View->Show Sidebar
Toggle the display of the sidebar where you can see an overview of all the slides in your presentation.
Insert Menu
- Insert->Page... (F2)
Add a new page to your presentation. A dialog will open allowing you to choose a template, and whether to insert the new page before or after the currently selected page.
- Insert->Picture... (F3)
Insert a raster image. These are not as easily scaleable as vector images or ‘clipart’. KPresenter currently understands many formats, including .tiff, .jpg, .png and many more.
- Insert->Clipart... (F4)
Insert scaleable clipart in vector format. KPresenter can currently import clipart in the .wmf or ‘Windows Meta File’ format, which is common on Windows®.
- Insert->Scan Image...
Scan an image with a scanner. This requires you have a scanner installed. TODO: Document how to set up a scanner that KPresenter can use.
Format Menu
- Format->Pen And Brush...
- Format->Configure Pie/Arc/Chord...
- Format->Configure Rectangle...
- Format->Lower Objects (Ctrl+L)
- Format->Raise Objects (Ctrl+R)
- Format->Rotate Objects
- Format->Shadow Objects
- Format->Group Objects
- Format->Ungroup Objects
- Format->Align Objects->Align Left
- Format->Align Objects->Align Center (Horizontally)
- Format->Align Objects->Align Right
- Format->Align Objects->Align Top
- Format->Align Objects->Align Center (Vertically)
- Format->Align Objects->Align Bottom
- Format->Page Layout...
- Format->Page Background...
Text Menu
- Text->Font...
- Text->Color...
- Text->Settings
- Text->Align->Align Left (Alt+L)
- Text->Align->Align Center (Alt+C)
- Text->Align->Align Right (Alt+R)
- Text->Type->Unsorted List
- Text->Type->Normal Text
- Text->Increase Depth (Ctrl++)
- Text->Decrease Depth (Ctrl+-)
- Text->Extend Contents To Object Height
- Text->Extend Object To Fit The Contents
Screen Presentations Menu
- Screen Presentations->Configure Pages...
- Screen Presentations->Assign Effect...
- Screen Presentations->Start
- Screen Presentations->View Current Page
- Screen Presentations->Go To Start (Home)
- Screen Presentations->Previous Step (Page Up)
- Screen Presentations->Next Step (Page Down)
- Screen Presentations->Go To End (End)
- Screen Presentations->Pen Color...
- Screen Presentations+Pen Width->#
- Screen Presentations->Open Presentation Structure Editor
Tools Menu
- Tools->Mouse (F5)
- Tools->Line (F6)
- Tools->Rectangle (F7)
- Tools->Circle/Ellipse (F8)
- Tools->Pie/Arc/Chord (F9)
- Tools->Text (F10)
- Tools->Autoform (F11)
- Tools->Diagram (F12)
- Tools->Table (Ctrl+F1)
- Tools->Object (Ctrl+F2)
Help Menu
- Help->Contents (F1)
- Help->What's This (Shift+F1)
- Help->Report Bug...
- Help->About KPresenter...
- Help->About KDE...
KPresenter Options
This chapter should describe the options that are available for customizing KPresenter.
Questions and Answers
Some commonly (and maybe not so commonly) asked questions and their answers should be in this chapter.
Credits and License
KPresenter
Program copyright 1998-2000 by Reginald Stadlbauer <reggie@kde.org>
Current maintainer is Werner Trobin <trobin@kde.org>.
Contributors
David Faure <dfaure@kde.org>
Toshitaka Fujioka <fujioka@kde.org>
Lukáš Tinkl <lukas@kde.org>
Documentation copyright 1999-2000 by Krishna Tateneni
This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
This program is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Installation