How to Create Slide Transitions for Presentations Using Open Office

This tutorial will take you step by step through the process of creating “slide transitions” for your presentations using Open Office.

Creating slide transitions using the open source (free) presentation software Impress from Open Office is quick and easy, once you know how.

1. Start by opening your presentation. Then make sure that two specific panes are viewable – Sidebar and Slide Pane.
2. If they are not displayed, click View from the main menu, and then select Sidebar and Slide Pane from the list.
3. Select the first slide in your presentation from the Slides pane.
4. In the Sidebar, click the Slide Transition button – it’s the one with a small blue arrow in it.
5. Here’s where you can create transitions. Start by viewing a few of them. Just select the transition name from the Apply to selected slides list. Each time you select one, it will be previewed in the main window. Find one that you’re happy with and leave it selected.
6. Now determine at which speed you’d like the transition to occur. Again, try out the different settings by selecting them from the Speed pull-down menu. If you’d like to add a sound to each transition, try out some of the defaults by selecting them from the Sound pull-down menu. You can also add your own custom sounds by selecting Other Sound… from the same pull-down menu.
7. In the Advanced slide section you can determine how the slides will advance – by mouse click or after a certain period of time. Once you’ve made all of your selections, click Apply to All Slides if you want them all, or the majority of them to use this setting.
8. If you want one or more of your sides to use different transitions, select them and repeat all of the steps above, just don’t click the Apply to All Slides button. That way the majority of your slides will use the “default”, but if some slides call for a pause, you can apply specific settings to just those slides.
9. To test it all out, click Slide Show from the main menu and then Slide Show from the drop-down list.