Using PowerPoint to Create Annotated Timelines

Date Box Date Box Date Box

Event Box:

Copy and paste this text box, then drag it to your desired location.

Then, write to describe, drag it, and resize it...

You can format this box by using the Draw tools…

Event Box:

Copy and paste this text box, then drag it to your desired location.

Then, write to describe, drag it, and resize it...

You can format this box by using the Draw tools…

Event Box:

Copy and paste this text box, then drag it to your desired location.

Then, write to describe, drag it, and resize it...

You can format this box by using the Draw tools…

1893 1894 1916

Mechanical Marvel Boilerplate was unveiled at the 1893 Columbian Exposition by inventor Professor Archibald Campion to “resolve the conflicts of nations without the deaths of men.”

Boilerplate served admirably in a series of conflicts including the Spanish-American War, the Japanese-Russian War, and World War I.

Boilerplate toiled in the service of men by assisting in Professor Campion’s voyage to the South Pole aboard the Euterpe. The expedition was the first (and last) robot-assisted voyage to the South Pole.

http://www.bigredhair.com/boilerplate/intro.html

Date Box

Event Box:

Copy and paste this text box, then drag it to your desired location.

Then, write to describe, drag it, and resize it...

You can format this box by using the Draw tools…

Copy, paste, drag to line, and fill in with the appropriate date

If you need more than a single page, you can copy and paste THIS LINE into a new slide—Go to InsertNew Slide—the new line will be in the same spot if you do not move it

1964 19661963

Event Box: Copy and paste this text box, then drag it to your desired location.

Then, write to describe, drag it, and resize it...

You can format this box by using the Draw tools…

Write or paste text in new box after you paste.

The amount of writing will change the side of the text box. If you need to resize or make it thicker or more narrow, you can do so by dragging the side buttons on the box…

This example shows the results of doing these simple tasks:

•Copying

•Pasting

•Dragging

•Typing

Finding Your Draw Tools

(if they’re missing…)

Click on View

Click on Toolbars

Click on Drawing

The drawing toolbar

will appear in the lower

left hand corner…

Insert text box button. Then choose size and location. Add text.

Insert image button. You can click, drag, and resize images.

Fill button. You can change the fill color of text boxes—get more colors, too.

Line color button. Changes outline colors. This box is red.

Line thickness button. These fat lines are 2 ¼ point lines and the skinny ones are 1 point.

These green text boxes are formatted by changing the color, choosing a fill effect, and changing the line…

Remember, as you work, choose colors that do not clash. Please! Don’t forget:

If you put dark on dark, folks won’t be able to read it.

By using the format text box option, you can easily customize your content to create a nicer timeline.

Think some about the way things will look when you print your time line—

If you put dark on dark, for instance, folks won’t be able to read it.

Event Box: Copy and paste this text box, then drag it to your desired location.

Then, write to describe, drag it, and resize it...

You can format this box by using the Draw tools…

1943 19451941

World War II

You can also format additional text boxes for different kinds of content—the long green box on the bottom might be used to identify an historic event or era…

Once you have formatted a text box the way you want it—colors, fonts, and so on, copy and paste the pretty box so you don’t have to reformat every single text box. Just type over the font that needs to be changed when you paste a text box.

This old looking computer is an early MacIntosh computer

This first computer was made of wood and powered by steam!

An early model nicknamed “El Pinto” because it sometimes burst into flames

1885 1904 1922 1931 1999 2040

This model was called the Compy 386

This portable computer only weighed 475 pounds and was moved by a team of draft horses

This short-lived model was both a computer and a fashionable hat

This Depression-era computer doubled as a furnace

A late model, “green technology” computer made of recycled dead X-box consoles

The latest computers are made of folded paper and very expensive tape

To add images to your timeline, find suitable images online. Then, right click, choose “Copy Image,” and you can paste the image directly into your timeline slide.

Once the image is in, you need to copy and paste the URL from the image’s Web page into one of two places:

Onto the slide where the image appears OR

Onto a credits slide at the end of your presentation

You can add additional slides to allow enough space to go into convincing detail.

At the top of your screen, choose Insert, then New Slide.

Or, you can simply use the keyboard command Ctrl + M—the new slide should appear in the navigation pane on the left hand side of the screen.

To succeed most fully, work in this order:

Think and Plan—What goes in? What goes where?

Hunt and Gather—Find & think up content to write. Get images to view.

Format and Produce—Where does everything go? Work towards the final product: Good appearance and good ideas!