PowerPoint & the Internet
First you will build a real slide show in PowerPoint. Then you will travel through the internet: how a computer gets connected, what the World Wide Web is, and how browsers, search engines and email work.
1Meet PowerPoint
Have you ever made a poster to share an idea, like "Save Water"? PowerPoint lets you do the same thing on a computer, page after page. It is a presentation software made by Microsoft. Like MS Word, it is part of the Microsoft Office Suite (your book uses Office 2016).
- Presentation
- A collection of slides arranged in order, with text, pictures, sound and animation.
- Slide
- One single page of a presentation. It shows some information about the topic.
- .pptx
- The file extension of a PowerPoint presentation, for example
Robotics.pptx.
Who uses presentations?
🧑🏫 Teachers
They organise lessons on slides and show them in class.
🎒 Students
They present projects and research in a clear, interesting way.
💼 Business people
They show their products and ideas in meetings and seminars.
Starting PowerPoint (Windows 10)
- Click the Start button (or press Ctrl + Esc).
- Scroll down the list of apps and click PowerPoint.
- Choose Blank Presentation. A new presentation named Presentation1 opens.
A new presentation has one slide to begin with, and it always uses the Title Slide layout.
2Parts of the PowerPoint window
The PowerPoint window looks a lot like MS Word, but it has some special panes for slides. Match each number in the picture with the list below.
| # | Part | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quick Access Toolbar | Frequently used commands (Save, Undo, Redo). It sits at the extreme left of the Title bar. Its drop-down arrow → Show Below the Ribbon moves it under the Ribbon. Right-click any Ribbon command → Add to Quick Access Toolbar to add more. |
| 2 | Title bar | Shows the name of the presentation you are working on. |
| 3 | File tab | Opens the Backstage view: New, Open, Save, Save As, Print, Close. |
| 4 | Ribbon | Just below the Title bar. It has tabs (Home, Insert, Design, Transitions, Animations, Slide Show, Review, View…). Each tab's commands are arranged in groups. Press Alt to see a shortcut letter for every tab. |
| 5 | Slides Navigation pane | On the left. Shows a small picture (thumbnail) of every slide. Here you can add, delete, copy and rearrange slides. Click a thumbnail to see it big. |
| 6 | Slide pane | The big middle area where you work directly on the current slide. |
| 7 | Placeholders | Dotted boxes that hold text, pictures, charts and other objects. |
| 8 | Notes pane | Right below the Slide pane. You type speaker's notes here; the audience does not see them in the slide show. |
| 9 | Status bar | At the bottom: shows things like "Slide 1 of 3". |
| 10 | View buttons | On the Status bar, to the left of the Zoom slider: Normal, Slide Sorter, Reading View, Slide Show. |
| 11 | Zoom slider | Drag to zoom in or out. The number next to it shows the zoom percentage. |
| 12 | Rulers | Two rulers: horizontal (at the top) and vertical (at the left). They help you line up text and objects. Turn them on from View → Ruler. |
Two more parts: the Comments box, where a reviewer can leave a comment on a slide, and the scroll bars — the vertical one moves the view up and down, the horizontal one moves it left and right.
In Normal view, Kavya wants to drag slide 5 so that it comes before slide 2. Which part of the window is easiest to use?
3Building your presentation
Create a new presentation
- Click the File tab. The Backstage view opens.
- Select New from the left panel.
- Choose Blank Presentation. (Shortcut: Ctrl + N.)
Want a ready-made look? On the New screen you can pick a theme or search for a template (for example, type Earth and click Create). The Design tab also has themes.
Add text in placeholders
- Click inside Click to add title. The cursor blinks inside the box.
- Type your title, for example Robotics.
- Click outside the box. Your text now sits on the slide. Fill the next placeholder the same way.
Add a new slide
Go to Home tab → Slides group → New Slide drop-down and click the layout you want. Or press Ctrl + M.
Slide layouts
A slide layout is the general arrangement of the placeholders on a slide — where the title, text and pictures will go.
| Layout | What it has |
|---|---|
| Title Slide | A title and a subtitle. The first slide of every new presentation. |
| Title and Content | One placeholder for the title and one for text or graphics (pictures, charts). The default for every new slide you insert. |
| Comparison | A title plus two placeholders side by side (left and right) — great for comparing two things. |
| Picture with Caption | The right side is only for a picture; the left side holds a title and text about it. |
"The default layout of a new slide is Title Slide" — False! Only the first slide is a Title Slide. Every slide you add with Ctrl + M gets Title and Content.
Insert a picture
- Add a Title and Content slide and type its title.
- Go to Insert tab → Pictures.
- Choose This Device, find your picture, select it and click Open. (Or choose Online Pictures to search the internet.)
- Drag the corner or side handles of the picture to resize it.
Transitions and animations
🔀 Transition
The effect you see between slides, when one slide changes to the next (for example Fade or Push). Transitions tab.
✨ Animation
An effect on text or a picture inside a slide — it can make an object enter, get attention (emphasis) or leave (exit). Animations tab.
Arjun wants the words "Thank You!" on his last slide to bounce in, one letter at a time. Which tab should he use?
4Save, open, close & run the slide show
Saving a presentation
Save your work at regular intervals so you never lose it.
- Click the File tab and select Save. (The first time, the Save As screen appears.)
- Select Browse. The Save As dialog box opens.
- Choose a location, e.g. Documents, and type a name in the File name box, e.g. Robotics.
- Click the Save button. Shortcut: Ctrl + S.
Use Save As to save an already saved presentation again with a new name, without deleting the original.
Closing and opening
- Close a presentation: File → Close. The presentation closes, but the PowerPoint window stays open.
- Exit PowerPoint: click the Close (×) button on the Title bar or press Alt + F4. If you have not saved, PowerPoint asks you to save first.
- Open a presentation: File → Open → Browse → select the file → click Open.
The slide show
A slide show displays your slides one by one on the full screen — just like turning the pages of a photo album. On the Slide Show tab, the Start Slide Show group has:
- From Beginning — starts from the first slide (F5).
- From Current Slide — starts from the slide you are on (Shift + F5).
- Custom Slide Show — shows only the slides you choose.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + N | New presentation |
| Ctrl + M | New slide |
| Ctrl + S | Save |
| Ctrl + O | Open |
| Ctrl + P | Print the slides |
| F5 | Start slide show from the first slide |
| Shift + F5 | Start slide show from the current slide |
| Enter / Spacebar / → | Next slide (during the show) |
| Backspace / ← | Previous slide (during the show) |
| Esc | End the slide show |
| Alt + F4 | Exit PowerPoint |
The four views
Normal
The everyday editing view: Slides Navigation pane, Slide pane and Notes pane.
Slide Sorter
All slides shown as thumbnails side by side — easiest for rearranging slides.
Reading View
Plays the slides inside the PowerPoint window, handy for checking on your own computer.
Slide Show
Plays the slides on the full screen for an audience.
The View tab also has Notes Page view, which shows a slide with its speaker's notes below it.
Pressing F5 while you are on slide 7 does not start from slide 7 — it always starts from slide 1. For the current slide you need Shift + F5.
Meera is editing slide 4 and presses F5. What happens?
5What is the internet?
A map shows roads and railways that connect places so people can meet. Computers connect too — through the internet! First, a computer network is a group of computers connected to each other to share information and resources (like a printer).
When many small and large networks are joined together, they form one giant network: the internet. Your book says "internet" stands for international network, and it is also called a global network. It connects millions of computers all over the world.
People use the internet for searching information, chatting, email, video calling, online classes, booking tickets and online shopping.
In 1969, the US Defence Department connected four computers to share data. This first network was called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). In India, internet services for the public started on 15 August 1995 through the government-owned company VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited).
6Getting connected
To connect a computer to the internet you need some hardware, some software, and a company that gives you the connection.
- Modem
- MOdulator-DEModulator. It converts data between digital (computer) and analog forms, and connects your computer or home network to the ISP. Earlier, modems used telephone lines (dial-up and DSL).
- Broadband modem
- For high-speed connections like DSL, cable or fibre optic — fast browsing, downloading and streaming.
- Wireless modem
- Also called a Wi-Fi router or access point. It lets many devices connect without wires, using Wi-Fi. It often combines a modem and a router in one box.
- Network interface
- Your device needs an Ethernet port (for a cable) or Wi-Fi capability (for wireless).
- ISP
- Internet Service Provider — a company that lets you use the internet for a fee. It gives you the connection, and a username and password. Examples in India: BSNL, Airtel, Reliance Jio.
- Transmission medium
- The path the data travels on. Guided (wired): telephone lines, fibre-optic cable, coaxial cable. Unguided (wireless): Wi-Fi, cellular (mobile) networks.
- Web browser
- The software you use to open web pages (more in section 8).
Which one of these is an Internet Service Provider?
7The World Wide Web
The internet is the network — the roads. The World Wide Web (WWW) is the huge collection of linked web pages that travel on those roads: text, pictures, animation and videos that anyone in the world can open. It was created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 at CERN.
The internet and the WWW are not the same thing. The internet is the network of computers; the WWW is a part (a service) of the internet made of web pages. Email also uses the internet, but it is not the WWW.
- Web page
- A single digital page that may contain text, images, videos and audio. You open it in a web browser.
- Website
- A collection of related web pages of one organisation — a school, a university, ISRO…
- Home page
- The first page of a website. It introduces the site and has links to its other pages.
- URL
- Uniform Resource Locator — the unique address of a website, typed in the browser's address bar. Example:
www.isro.gov.in. - Hyperlink
- Highlighted text, a button or a picture that takes you to another web page (on the same site or a different one). When you point at it, the mouse pointer turns into a hand 👆.
- Net surfing
- Searching the WWW by following one link after another, without a planned search strategy. Also called web browsing — like a surfer riding the waves.
.gov government, .edu education, .org organisation, .com company, .in India.Watch for spelling in web addresses: www.yahoo.com is right, but ww.yahoo.com, www.yahoo.co and www.yahoo.comm are wrong. A URL has no spaces.
What is the difference between a website and a web page?
8Web browsers & search engines
A web browser is a software application that lets you open and view web pages. Examples: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Safari (Apple) and Opera.
To open Google Chrome: click Start → scroll down → click Google Chrome. Or double-click its icon on the desktop.
| # | Part | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Back | Takes you to the page you visited just before. |
| 2 | Forward | Takes you to the page you were on before you pressed Back. |
| 3 | Reload this page | Loads the most recent version of the current page again (refresh). |
| 4 | Address bar | Where you type the URL. The 🔒 padlock and https:// show a secure connection. |
| 5 | Bookmark this tab ☆ | Saves the website so you can visit it again quickly. |
| 6 | New tab + | Opens a new tab. (Right-click a link → Open link in new tab also works.) |
| 7 | Customize and control Google Chrome ⋮ | A menu with Print, History (sites you visited recently), Zoom (+ to zoom in, − to zoom out, and full screen) and More tools. |
| 8 | Hyperlink | The pointer becomes a hand; click to jump to another page. |
To clean your browser and protect privacy in Chrome: ⋮ → Settings → Privacy and security → Delete browsing data. Choose a time range, tick what to delete, then click Delete data. (Do this with a grown-up.)
Search engines
In the library you look in the catalogue to find where a book is. On the internet you use a search engine: software that searches web pages on the WWW for your keywords and shows a list of links to matching pages.
- Connect to the internet and open a browser.
- Open a search engine, e.g.
www.google.com. - Type keywords (or give a voice command), e.g. National Geographic Kids, and press Enter.
- Read the list of results and click the most suitable link.
Google and Bing use AI for voice search, image search and better results. Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Bing is made by Microsoft.
| Web browser | Search engine | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An application installed on your device | A website you open inside a browser |
| Job | Opens and shows web pages | Finds web pages for your keywords |
| Examples | Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, Opera | Google, Bing, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo |
Google Chrome is a web browser; Google (google.com) is a search engine. Likewise Microsoft Edge is a browser, while Bing is a search engine. Same company, different jobs!
Search smartly and responsibly
- Use simple, clear keywords: for lions, try lion facts or information about lions.
- Add describing words for exact results: red fruit instead of just fruit.
- Not every result is correct. Trust official and educational sites — often ending in
.govor.edu(likewww.isro.gov.in). - Avoid harmful content and never click pop-ups promising prizes.
Which of these is a search engine?
9Email basics
Email (electronic mail) is a message sent from one computer or phone to another over the internet. It reaches the other side of the world in seconds. Popular email services include Gmail and Outlook.
An email address
Parts of an email
- To
- The email address of the person you are writing to.
- Cc
- "Carbon copy" — other people who should also get a copy.
- Subject
- A short line that tells what the email is about.
- Body
- The main message.
- Attachment 📎
- A file (photo, document) sent along with the email.
- Compose
- The button to start writing a new email.
- Inbox
- The folder that holds emails you receive. Sent holds emails you have sent.
- Reply / Forward
- Reply answers the sender; Forward sends the email on to someone else.
- Spam
- Unwanted junk emails. Never click links in them.
In 1971, engineer Ray Tomlinson sent the first email between two computers on a network — and chose the @ sign to separate the user name from the computer's name.
Which is written correctly as an email address?
Explore more
- 🎮PowerPoint tutorialsgcfglobal.org · step-by-step lessons with pictures
- 📖InternetSimple English Wikipedia · easy reading
- 📖World Wide WebSimple English Wikipedia · how the web began
- ▶️How the Internet Workskhanacademy.org · Code.org video series
- 🎮ISRO websiteisro.gov.in · try your browsing skills (lab activity)
10Quick recap
- PowerPoint (Microsoft) makes presentations = slides in order. Each page is a slide. Files end in .pptx.
- Placeholders are dotted boxes for text, pictures and charts. A slide layout is how they are arranged.
- First slide = Title Slide; every new slide (Ctrl + M) = Title and Content.
- Slides Navigation pane (left, thumbnails) · Slide pane (middle) · Notes pane (below, speaker's notes) · Ribbon (below Title bar).
- F5 from beginning · Shift + F5 from current slide · Esc ends the show.
- Views: Normal, Slide Sorter (rearrange), Reading View, Slide Show.
- Transition = between slides; animation = on an object inside a slide.
- The internet is a network of networks (global network). ARPANET 1969; India: VSNL, 15 August 1995.
- Needs: device with network interface, modem (digital ⇄ analog), ISP (BSNL, Airtel, Jio), transmission medium, browser.
- WWW = linked web pages, by Tim Berners-Lee (1989). Website = related web pages; first page = home page.
- URL = Uniform Resource Locator, typed in the address bar. A hyperlink turns the pointer into a hand.
- Browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) opens pages; search engine (Google, Bing) finds pages.
- Email address = user name @ domain. Files sent with an email are attachments.