PowerPoint, Professionally
A step-by-step tutorial to maximize this popular program

By Tim Eason

When I set out to determine how many churches use a video projector to display song lyrics during worship using Microsoft® PowerPoint®, the result was not surprising: 95 percent. After all, PowerPoint has become a standard in the business world; it's easy to use and has many features that make it a fairly powerful program for graphic display.

Despite its strengths, however, PowerPoint was not designed for church applications, so it needs some "discipling" to be most effective in a worship setting. With that in mind, I'd like to share a few tips and tricks that maximize the impact of PowerPoint in your next worship service.

All of the following tips are based on the PowerPoint® 2000 program. Although most can also be applied to earlier versions, an upgrade is well worth the investment. New features include the ability to play animated gifs, add graphical bullets and use dual-screen capability, which requires two video cards in your computer. A slide show may now also be started using the F5 key, which is easier than clicking the small icon to start a show.

Get organized!

The key to maximizing PowerPoint in worship is organization. A well-organized filing structure saves time and headaches when assembling presentations. Create a main folder to store your worship files. Inside that folder, create three folders named Service, Songs and Pictures. Inside the Service folder, create three folders named Announcements, Notes and Old. Each of these folders will be covered in greater detail as each tip is presented later. Now, let's get started!

Assembling songs

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When building a song library, each song should be saved as an individual presentation. This allows for greater flexibility when assembling services and it is safer than putting all songs into one big file. Open PowerPoint. Start a blank presentation. Right-click on the slide and choose Slide Layout. Double-click the box with nothing in it. You should now have a completely blank slide.

Select a background color. Right-click on the slide and choose Background. From the drop-down menu, select a medium blue color and click Apply.

Name the slide. To the left of the slide is a "1" with a box next to it. Click to the right of this box and type the title of the song along with the verse number. The text entered here will appear on the slide. Drag that text box off of the slide so that it appears above the slide. This text is for the operator's reference only and does not need to be displayed.

Type the first verse of the song. Select Insert Textbox (or click the icon) and click in the upper left of the slide. Select Format > Font. Choose the Arial font and select a font size between 32 and 44. Set the font color to yellow. Check the box by Default for new objects. In the toolbar, click the icon to center the text. Type the first verse of the song. You may also copy and paste text from other programs. Arrange the text so that it is aesthetically pleasing and that the musical phrases are separated in a logical manner. Resize and reposition the text as needed. A shadow may be added by adjusting the shadow controls. Finally, add any notes about the slide (e.g., "Repeat Once").

Additional slides need to be created to complete the song. Rather than starting from scratch with a new, blank slide, it is faster to duplicate the first slide and modify the contents. Select Insert > Duplicate slide. Highlight and replace the text on the duplicate slide, typing the next segment of the song. Change the title and notes as well.. Repeat this duplication process until the song is complete. You may duplicate choruses and drag them to their proper location in the left-hand list.

Save the song to the Songs folder and name it accordingly. If the song title will be used more than once, indicate an author in the file name. Repeat this song creation process for each song that will be sung during a service. To save time, start with a presentation that you have already created and use Save As to rename it.

Announcing...

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PowerPoint is a great tool for creating eye-catching announcements that may be shown before and after a service. When creating announcements, only display the major points of an event, such as name, place, date and time. Announcements on screen are not always a substitution for printed material. Especially keep away from displaying weekly schedules that no one could possibly memorize. If there is a particular event that you would like to emphasize, copy that slide a few times and place it randomly in between other announcements. Be sure to test presentation colors on the projection system because what is seen on a computer monitor may appear different through a projector. On that same note, do not put in a lot of time and detail that may be lost when displayed on a big screen. Create slides with scripture or thoughts pertaining to worship, your church's vision or the sermon topic. This is a great way to prepare the congregation for worship. With these tips in mind, let's create an announcement from scratch.

Start a new presentation and select a blank slide layout. Right-click on the slide and select Background. There are several background options. Experiment with different fill effects and choose a desired background. Picture backgrounds from the Digital Juice or Kick Starters packages give announcements a professional look even before any information is added.

Add a title to the announcement using the Word Art tool. Select a Word Art style by double-clicking on the desired style. Select a font and type in a title for the announcement. Determine if the heading should take up more than one line and return when necessary. At this point, do not worry about the font size. Click OK and drag the Word Art to the desired location. Resize the title as needed. Experiment with the Word Art controls, particularly the Word Art shape.

Add text boxes as needed for dates and other information. Select fonts and colors that may be read easily. Resize and rearrange as needed.

To add a picture, first insert your PowerPoint 2000 clip art CD. Click the Clip Art button and then click Find. Type in a keyword for the graphic you want (e.g., church, rainbow, etc.) and click Find Now. When a suitable picture is located, click the image and then the Insert Clip button. The picture will be inserted onto the slide. Resize and move the picture to the desired location. If the picture is covering up text, move it behind the text by right-clicking on the image and making a selection from the Order menu. To insert a picture that is not located in the Clip Art gallery, select Insert > Picture > From file and find the image that you would like to use. Experiment with the Picture tools.

Inserting shapes is a useful technique. Use shapes to highlight an area of an announcement by placing them behind the important text. They also can be used to design unique backgrounds. Click the AutoShapes button and select a suitable shape. Resize, reposition and reorder the shape as desired. Recolor the shape by right-clicking on it and selecting Format AutoShape.

Now it's time to bring this announcement to life by animating the objects. This is where the real fun begins! Right-click on any object and choose Custom Animation.

Click on the tab labeled Order and Timing. Check the box next to each object name to be animated. In the Animation Order window, arrange the objects in the desired order. Set each animation to Automatically in the Start Animation box. A delay time may be set if preferred. Now click the Effects tab. Click on an object in the Check to animate slide objects box and choose an animation for that object. Some animations have various options. Click Preview to see what the animation will look like. Repeat this step for each object to be animated.

When finished, click OK. Press F5 to see the slide in action. Make adjustments to the animations if necessary. Repeat these instructions for additional announcements.

The announcements should cycle at a set time interval. To enable this feature, select Slideshow > Set up show. Check the box next to Loop continuously until Esc. under Advance slides, make sure that it is set to Use timings, if present. Next, set the transition and time interval. Switch to the slide sorter view by clicking the icon located in the lower left of the screen. Right-click on any slide and choose Slide transition. Set the transition to Random Transition. Under Advance, uncheck the On mouse click box and check the Automatically after box. Set a time interval of 10-15 seconds. Click Apply to All and the settings will affect every one of the announcements.

Save the presentation to the Announcements folder and name it "Announcements."

Take note!

Displaying sermon notes is a great way to keep the congregation's attention and help them retain the message. Pastors who want to maximize this method should plan their sermons far enough in advance so that their notes may be assembled into PowerPoint.

Let's create a fill-in-the-blank slide. In this example, a sentence will appear, "God has called us to make ________ of all nations." When the mouse is clicked, the word "disciples" will dissolve in to fill the blank. Start with a new slide and select an appropriate background. Add a text box and type in the first part of the sentence, "God has called us to make." Next, create a second text box and type in the last part of the sentence, "of all nations." Now draw a line using the line tool, located next to Auto Shapes. Be sure to make the line long enough for the fill-in word. Finally, create a third text box with the word "disciples" and position it over the line. Alter the fonts and locations of the boxes as desired.

Using techniques learned for creating announcements, animate each object on the slide. Pay attention to the order of the objects. Make sure that the fill-in word is last on the list and set it to animate On Mouse Click. All other objects should be set to advance automatically. When setting the effect type, choose Zoom for the line and Dissolve for the fill-in word.

Now give it a try! If everything has been set correctly, the sentence should appear with the blank and then the slide should pause. When the left mouse button is clicked or the space bar is pressed, the word should dissolve to fill in the blank.

Create as many notes slides as necessary and save the presentation to the Notes folder. To save time, duplicate slides and change the text.

A warm welcome

For the welcome time of a worship service, create a slide with your church name and logo to be displayed while people greet each other. Use techniques learned for creating announcements. If a digital camera is available, take a picture of your church to use on the slide. Save the slide as its own presentation to the Service folder.

Put it all together

Now that all of the necessary presentations have been created, it's time to assemble a service! Start a new, blank presentation and switch to the Slide sorter view. All of the individual presentations that have been produced need to be compiled into one service file. To do this, select Insert > Slides from files and then click Browse. Navigate to the Songs folder and double-click the first song in the order of worship. Click Insert All and the slides will be put in to the new presentation. Click Browse again and repeat this procedure until the all of the songs, sermon notes and welcome presentations have been added. Do not add the announcements. When finished, click Close.

Rearrange the slides as needed by dragging them to the desired location. Multiple slides may be selected, such as a whole song, and then moved all at once. Slides may also be cut and pasted within the presentation.

To ensure that slides will not automatically advance, select Slideshow > Set up show and choose Advance slides manually. Save the presentation to the Service folder and name it "Service."

Action!

The projector is glowing, the computer is up and running, the congregation is on their way, and it's time to put PowerPoint into action! First, open the Announcements presentation and then the Service file. When using a dual-screen computer, set the presentation to display on Monitor 2 under Set up show. Start the Announcements presentation by pressing F5. Hold down the Alt key and press the Tab key to switch back to PowerPoint's edit screen. Now start the Service presentation. It is now possible to use Alt > Tab to switch between the announcements and the service files without the congregation seeing PowerPoint's editing screen. If this is done quickly enough, no one will even notice the box that pops up for program selection. It can be a little tricky, but practice makes perfect! Dual-screen users should forgo the Alt > Tab technique and use the program buttons available on the Windows toolbar.

When navigating PowerPoint during the worship service, use the forward and backward arrows to move through the presentation. Print out the slides for a reference sheet. Dual screen users may use the control screen as a reference. To jump to a slide out of sequence, type the slide number and press Enter. Press B on the keyboard to black out the screen. Press B again to return to the slide show.

Become a maestro of multimedia! Practice with the choir or praise team so that the slides will flow with the music. Timing and organization are very important when running a slideshow for worship. If there are going to be any major distractions, it will be due to lack of preparation on the part of the computer operator. During the song service, advance to the next slide midway through the last line of the current slide. If there is a musical interlude, stay on the current slide or insert a slide with scripture or imagery pertaining to the song. Be sure to pay close attention during the sermon and display notes slides on cue.

Before long, you will be creating stunning presentations that enhance worship and maximize learning. Develop an eye for graphics and enlist volunteers with a passion for art and media. Take time to experiment with new ideas and seek out ways to take full advantage of PowerPoint. Eventually, you will become a master at using PowerPoint in worship.

Tim Eason is president of ChurchMedia.net (www.churchmedia.net) and travels the country training churches to use media in ministry. He is the author of Using PowerPoint in Worship, an electronic training program.

For a printable version of this article with step-by-step visual aids, visit our Web site at www.churchbusiness.com.

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