Home

Academic Areas & Related Skills

Software Features

References

Definitions

About this Site

Microsoft Office: PowerPoint

PowerPoint is developed by Microsoft and comes bundled within Office. Many of the features of this software can be quite useful for those struggling with skills needed for writing, organization, reading skills, study skills and note taking. Individual components of the program can be used separately, allowing students to complete other portions of their assignments independently, drawing upon their own strengths. Features that may prove helpful include:

• Auditory features
• Sound can be added to the presentation
• User determines which type of summary to provide
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Auditory processing skills
• Comprehension
• Fluency
• Higher-order cognition
• Phonology
• Vision
• Visual processing skills
• .
• Bullets
• The bullet format of PowerPoint requires students to glean only the most important facts for inclusion in their work
• Can be used for taking notes
• Can be used to develop an outline
• Can be used as a final presentation
• Can be easily modified to fit the needs of the individual student and project
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Fluency
• Graphomotor skills
• Higher-order cognition
• Memory
• Plannning
• Processing speed
• Spatial skills
• .
• Dictionary
• A quick means for students to distinguish between words by their meanings
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Higher-order cognition
• Language
• Memory
• Phonology
• .
• Hyperlinks
• These can be set to connect one document to another or one portion of a document to another portion
• Assists in chunking information and relating newly acquired knowledge with that previously attained
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Higher-order cognition
• Language
• Memory
• Plannning
• Spatial skills
• .
• Mouse and keyboard
• Much of the work can be done through a mouse or touch screen
• Some, but minimal, keyboarding is required
• If used for the entire project, no pencil or pen is necessary
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Graphomotor skills
• Vision
• Visual processing skills
• .
• Slide sorter
• Students can easily view all slides or pages within a presentation on a single screen
• Rearranging the sequence of the project simply requires dragging the slides to a new position on the screen
• Can be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Graphomotor skills
• Higher-order cognition
• Language
• Plannning
• Processing speed
• Spatial skills
• .
• Spell check
• Though a spell check feature is included, students should be taught how to correctly use it so that the correct words, not just ones spelled correctly, are selected
• Spell check options can be customized and turned on or off
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Language
• Memory
• Phonology
• .
• Templates
• Allows a means for the teacher to build a template for student use, demonstrating the type of information to include and in which order
Provides a means for students to develop their own unique templates to fit their needs in note taking
• Can be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Higher-order cognition
• Language
• Plannning
• Processing speed
• Spatial skills
• .
• Toolbars
• Can be customized for the user
• Provides a quick way to access and use tools within the program
• May be turned on or off
• Can be placed on any portion of the screen for easy access
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Graphomotor skills
• Memory
• Plannning
• Spatial skills
• .
• Visual stimuli
• The Office Suite includes an extensive clipart gallery that can be personalized or expanded by the user. Matching pictures to words can be extremely beneficial for some students
• Movies, photos, and other graphics can be easily imported
• Drawing tools are included for developing graphic organizers or helping to link words with concepts
• Themes and colors can be used for emphasis, grouping, and consistency of topic
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Comprehension
• Higher-order cognition
• Language
• Phonology
• Plannning
• Processing speed
• Vision
• Visual processing skills
• .
• Zooming
• Students can easily enlarge the view of the screen
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Vision
• Visual processing skills
• .