A Beginner's Guide to
Microsoft PowerPoint 2007

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 has several changes to make things easier on you.  In this guide we will help you determine what the new style toolbar will do as well as where to find a few things in PowerPoint to make your presentation successful.  We will talk about the Microsoft Office Button, quick access, and the Ribbon. 

Presentations:

When you first open your PowerPoint programme you are going to see a blank page that will allow you to select different formats for a presentation.  Within the programme you can style your presentation in any way that you wish.

Microsoft Office Button:

A new addition to the PowerPoint program is the MS Office Button which is a symbol in place of the word file.  Under the button you have the same choices, plus a few more.  You can open a new document, existing document, save, save as, print, review, finish, publish, and send.  Under each of these options you have more.  For example, in the print selection you have quick print, print, and print preview.

Quick Access Toolbar:

The quick access toolbar is next to your MS Office Button.  You can select what is offered in the quick access.  This is the menu you used to have in older versions.  There is a drop down menu by selecting the arrow that will allow you to change the menu items.  You choices are save, undo, redo, new document, quick print, print preview, spelling and grammar, etc.  It is your choice what to have there.

Ribbon:

The ribbon is the newest option in the MS PowerPoint.  The ribbon is going to have everything that you had before, but in a preview mode.  Rather than a drop down menu you have a tab that you select.  Under specific tabs you have all options displayed.  You can also elect for more options when you click on the arrows offered.  The ribbon options are as follows:

1. Home- clipboard, slides, font, paragraph, drawing, and editing options
2. Insert- tables, illustrations, links, text, and media options
3. Design- themes, page setup, background
4. Animations: preview, animations, transition to the slide
5. Slide show- allows you to start the show, set up, and monitor
6. Review- proofing needs, comments, and the ability to protect the document
7. View- presentation views, show and hide, zoom, window options, and macros.

Also on the ribbon you have the Mini Toolbar.  This toolbar offers you the font, orientation of the text, and highlight options.
The navigation option is another thing that is very easy to use and important to your overall presentation.  The navigation through slides is very easy because you still have your slide outline to find any slide you need to change.  The navigation is just under the ribbon.

Creating a Presentation:

Now that you know what the tools are in the new toolbar you can go on to create your presentation.  In PowerPoint you have three options for starting a presentation.

1. Auto Content Wizard will allow you to create a new presentation with prompts.  In other words it will help ask you for the content, purpose, style, handouts, and output.  This wizard helps you design a professional presentation and works great if it is your first time with the programme.
2. The design template has an actual list of templates offered by Microsoft.  Microsoft knows that there are some designs that a lot of individuals tend to use and it makes it easier to have options in case you don’t want to start with a blank page.  In the templates you can preview the options to decide what you would like to have.
3. The last option is the blank presentation.  This starts you from scratch.  You will need to design headings, page colour, format and everything.  It does have some default settings, but those can be customized as you work.

Opening an Existing Presentation:

Once you have started on a presentation in PowerPoint you can save it and open it at another time. Like all programmes you have a save as button to designate where the presentation will go.  When you want to see a presentation you are working on you, just need to open PowerPoint and select the Office Button.  It will have an ‘open’ tab in which you choose which presentation you want.

The Views of PowerPoint:

In PowerPoint you not only have a lot of different options for creating the presentation, you have several ways to view it.  For example, if you are working on the presentation you might want to see the outline of the slides to determine what you need to do.  On the other hand, if you are offering the presentation at work you will want a slide show view that allows you to stop the slides before moving on to the next one.  Basically PowerPoint works like a slide projector used to.

1. Normal View: In normal view you will be able to work on one slide at a time or organize the structure of your presentation.
2. Outline View: this offers the outline of all slides where you can select which slide to work on or place a new slide in the line up.  Organization is usually key to being successful in your PowerPoint presentation.
3. Slide View: This is where you will see one slide at a time to work on it.
4. Slide Sorter:  The slide sorter will display mini versions of each slide where you can see the text and graphics in full.  In this area you can reorder slides, add transitions, and animation.  You can also set the timing for the slide shows.  The timing in a slide show is important if you don’t want to continually manually stop the presentation.
5. Slide Show: the slide show will offer full screen presentations with the beginning slide all the way to the end of the slide show.  You can click on slide show at the top of the screen and then view show to get it started.

Slide Manipulation:

We have been talking about inserting new slides or changing the order of the slides, but let’s look more in depth at how this will work.  When you want to insert a new slide you will click on the insert tab on the Ribbon.  Then you select new slide.  You can format this slide to look any way you want.  You can also click on format in the toolbar options to supply the same design to that slide as you have previously used. 
For example, if you wish to have the same background you can allow the format button to keep that same background.  You can also change the background of all slides if you wish.  You will have to set the design or background to change on all the slides by selecting the option in your tools.

Navigation in a Presentation

Above in the view slide section we mentioned a little about timing as well as how to get the slide show started.  We also looked at the manipulation of slides to get the show ready.  Now that we have talked about all of these options, it seems appropriate to talk further about the slide show. 
In the slide show you have forward navigation which allows you to left click on the mouse or hit the enter button on the keyboard when you are ready for the show to start.  The slide show does have to be open and loaded at this point.

You can also reverse navigate by hitting the backspace button.  This allows you to view the previous slide without having to stop the presentation.  You may have to do this if your timing is off or someone needs to see the slide again.

To end the show or stop it you can hit the escape button on the keyboard.
The great thing about PowerPoint presentations is that you don’t have to use the mouse.  You can use the keyboard for all your needs during the show.  Once you have exited the presentation you are ready to move on.

The last thing that is worth mentioning regarding PowerPoint is the ability to have a presentation on another computer.  For example say you worked on your presentation at the home computer, but of course you can’t take your computer with you.  In the MS Office Button you have the option of Pack and Go.  There are instructions to follow with the wizard to ensure that you get the entire presentation on a format to take with you.

Then all you have to do is unpack the presentation by loading the disc or connecting to a network, if that is how you decided to pack and go.

PowerPoint is a great tool whether you are in school needing a great presentation for an A or at a job in which the business requires you to create conferences or talks.  PowerPoint 2007 has several changes to their program to make it easier for you to work through a presentation not only in creating it, but also in hosting one.