Wednesday, August 19, 2009

PowerPoint (How to make buttons)

I have just completed a tutorial about how to make buttons appear in your PowerPoint presentation. I accessed this through a site called Internet4Classrooms and was completely unaware that this function existed within the program. I decided to create a short multiple choice quiz titled 'Who Am I?' where students are given a brief description of an animal and are required to select the correct answer from four possibilities.

The first problem that I encountered was locating the 'action buttons' as they did not appear under the 'Slide Show' tab where I was advised to look. After searching for some time I finally located them under 'Insert' and then shapes. I found the process of inserting these and then applying action settings quite easy, it was just a matter of selecting which slide you wanted these to link to and clicking 'OK'. I also inserted a URL link to National Geographic Kids on the first slide to provide a point of reference if students required further information regarding certain animals.

I followed the tutorial step-by-step and it was noted that the action buttons would not work while you were still editing the presentation. I closed the program and then reopened it to check my fabulous work and guess what? The links did not work and the action buttons were useless. Fear spread over me and I searched through some of my colleagues blogs to find their links to quizzes in MediaFire. After investigating a couple of them I realised that they obviously had the same problem because their buttons did not work either. I have decided that this is something that is best attempted another time when time permits (I still have six more posts to do!) however it is a tool that I would like to explore in more detail.

For ease of use and time restraints I believe that ClassMarker would be the preferred alternative and one that could be utilised by students as well as teachers. Click here to view my quiz Who Am I?

4 comments:

  1. Hi Nari,

    Don't forget that your action buttons will only work while viewing a slideshow. All of your buttons work fine.

    Your quiz looks excellent and I particuarly like the 'Who am I' theme.

    Kellie

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  2. Hi Nari,

    As Kellie said, your slideshow is working just fine!

    I just wanted to say that i think the National Geographic site you have found is wonderful and would be a useful tool to utilise in any lower primary environment. As crazy as this might seem, it is the little things like that, that sends a tingle of excitement down my spine when i consider the opportunities available to us in just a short time.

    Chat soon,
    Kerri.

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  3. Hi Girls,
    Thanks for your words of encouragement, I really thought that I had done something wrong and my buttons were not working. Glad to hear that you could get them to work and that you enjoyed the National Geographic site.
    Talk soon.
    Regards,
    Nari

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  4. Hi Nari,
    I had the same prolem and my buttons definately don't work. National Geographic Kids is an excellent resource. I use it all the time, not only for kids but for me too!
    Leonie

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