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A fully updated guide to creating dynamic presentations with PowerPoint 2010 PowerPoint dominates the presentation landscape. With the changes in PowerPoint 2010, including the availability of an online version, PowerPoint users need this comprehensive reference to make the most of the program. PowerPoint 2010 All-in-One For Dummies features in-depth coverage of the elements and the process involved in creating knockout presentations. Seven minibooks cover all the new 2010 features, providing a great education for beginners and showing PowerPoint veterans lots of new tricks. * PowerPoint is the leading presentation software used in business and education; new features in PowerPoint 2010 include an online version and expanded audiovisual capabilities * Seven self-contained minibooks cover getting started; building a presentation; tables, charts, and diagrams; graphics and shapes; adding audio, video, and animation; giving the presentation; and PowerPoint for power users * Explains how to use the interface and tools and shows how to represent data visually for greater impact * Provides important tips on adding the human element when making a presentation * Gives advanced users advice on creating templates, collaboration, automation, and more PowerPoint 2010 All-in-One For Dummies gets novices up to speed and helps experienced users take their skills to the next level.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
What’s in This Book, Anyway?
What Makes This Book Special
Easy-to-look-up information
A task-oriented approach
Meaningful screen shots
Foolish Assumptions
Conventions Used in This Book
Icons Used in This Book
Good Luck, Reader!
Book I: Getting Started in PowerPoint
Book I: Chapter 1: Introducing PowerPoint
PowerPoint Slides
Some PowerPoint Jargon
PowerPoint as a Communication Tool
A Whirlwind Tour of PowerPoint
Creating the slides
Designing your presentation
Inserting tables, charts, diagrams, and shapes
“Animating” your slides
Showing your presentation
Book I: Chapter 2: PowerPoint Nuts and Bolts
Starting PowerPoint
Creating a New Presentation
Deciding between the blank presentation and a template
Creating a blank presentation
Creating a presentation from a template
Starting from another presentation
Saving Your Presentation Files
Saving a presentation
Saving a presentation for the first time
Telling PowerPoint where you like to save presentations
Saving presentations for use in earlier versions of PowerPoint
Saving “AutoRecovery information”
Navigating the Save As and Open Dialog Boxes
Opening and Closing Presentations
Opening a presentation
Closing a presentation
Entering the Document Properties
Shortcut Commands Worth Knowing
Undoing a mistake
Repeating an action — and quicker this time
Entering text quickly with the AutoCorrect command
Book I: Chapter 3: Finding Your Way around the PowerPoint Screen
A Brief Geography Lesson
Knowing Your Way around the PowerPoint Interface
The File tab
The Quick Access toolbar
The Ribbon and its tabs
Context-sensitive tabs
The anatomy of a tab
Live previewing
Mini toolbars
PowerPoint for keyboard lovers
Zooming In, Zooming Out
Getting a Better View of Your Work
Changing views
Normal/Slides view: Moving from slide to slide
Normal/Outline view: Fiddling with the text
Slide Sorter view: Moving and deleting slides
Reading View view: Proofreading slides
Slide Show view: Giving a presentation
Notes Page view: Reading your speaker notes
Black and White and Grayscale views
The Master views
Hiding and Displaying the Slides Pane and Notes Pane
Displaying, Hiding, and Reading the Ruler
Book I: Chapter 4: Planning Ahead for a Solid Presentation
Formulating Your Presentation
Start by writing the text
Make clear what the presentation is about
Start from the conclusion
Personalize the presentation
Tell a story
Assemble the content
Designing Your Presentation
Keep it simple
Be consistent from slide to slide
Choose colors that help communicate your message
When fashioning a design, consider the audience
Beware the bullet point
Observe the one-slide-per-minute rule
Make like a newspaper
Use visuals, not only words, to make your point
Delivering Your Presentation
Rehearse, and rehearse some more
Connect with the audience
Anticipate questions from the audience
Know your equipment
Take control from the start
Play tricks with the PowerPoint screen
Book II: Building Your Presentation
Book II: Chapter 1: Inserting and Handling Slides
Understanding How Slides Are Constructed
Slide layouts
Text frames and content frames
Selecting the right layout
Creating New Slides for Your Presentation
Inserting a new slide
Shortcuts for creating slides
Creating a duplicate slide
Copying and pasting slides
Stealing slides from other presentations
Conjuring slides from Word document headings
Selecting a Different Layout for a Slide
Dividing a Presentation into Sections
Creating, naming, and removing sections
Managing and manipulating sections
Changing the Size and Orientation of Slides
Changing the size of slides
Changing the orientation of slides
Selecting, Moving, and Deleting Slides
Selecting slides
Moving slides
Deleting slides
Hidden Slides for All Contingencies
Hiding a slide
Showing a hidden slide during a presentation
Book II: Chapter 2: Handling Master Slides and Master Styles
Using Master Slides and Master Styles for a Consistent Design
Switching to Slide Master view
Understanding master slides (the Slide Master and layouts)
Understanding how master styles work
Relationships between the Slide Master, layouts, and slides
Ground Rules for Handling Master Slides
Altering a Master Slide
Editing a master style
Changing the layout of master slides
Creating another Slide Master
Restoring a Redesigned Presentation to Its Original State
Reconnecting a presentation slide to its original layout
Re-imposing the original design on an entire presentation
Removing a Background Graphic from a Single Slide
Book II: Chapter 3: Handling Slide Backgrounds
Looking at Themes and Background Styles
A look at themes
A look at background styles
Design Considerations
Setting the tone by your color choices
Carefully selecting the background colors
Making a Theme for Your Presentation
Selecting a theme
Customizing a theme
Creating Slide Backgrounds on Your Own
Using a solid (or transparent) color for the slide background
Creating a gradient color blend for slide backgrounds
Placing a clip-art image in the slide background
Using a graphic or photo for a slide background
Using a texture for a slide background
Creating a pattern for slide backgrounds
Changing the Background of a Single or a Handful of Slides
Selecting a different theme for some of the slides
Creating a different background for some of the slides
Using a different background for slide layouts
Book II: Chapter 4: Entering the Text
Entering Text: The Basics
Normal/Outline View for Reading and Editing Text
Manipulating the Text
Selecting text on a slide
Moving, copying, and pasting text
Deleting text
Changing the Look of Text
Choosing fonts for text
Finding and replacing fonts throughout a presentation
Changing the font size of text
Applying font styles to text
Applying text effects to text
Changing the color of text
Quick Ways to Handle Case, or Capitalization
Entering Symbols, Foreign Characters, Quote Marks, and Dashes
Entering symbols and characters with the Symbol dialog box
Handling dashes and quotation marks
Correcting Typos Automatically with the AutoCorrect Command
Opening the AutoCorrect dialog box
Telling PowerPoint which typos and misspellings to correct
Preventing capitalization errors with AutoCorrect
Finding and Replacing Text
Finding stray words and text
Conducting a Find-and-Replace operation
Correcting Your Spelling Errors
Correcting misspellings one at a time
Spell checking an entire presentation
Fine-tuning the spell checker
Researching a Topic inside PowerPoint
Using the Research task pane
Choosing your research options
Finding the Right Word with the Thesaurus
Working with Text Written in a Foreign Language
Telling PowerPoint which languages you will use
Marking text as foreign language text
Translating Foreign-Language Text
Book II: Chapter 5: Formatting Text on a Slide
Putting a Text Box on a Slide
Creating a text box
Rotating a text box
Establishing a default text box style
Using a Shape as a Text Box
Turning a shape into a text box
Turning a text box into a shape
Selecting Text Boxes and Text Frames
Changing the Direction of Text
Controlling How Text Fits in Text Frames and Text Boxes
Choosing how PowerPoint “autofits” text in text frames
Choosing how PowerPoint “autofits” text in text boxes
Positioning Text in Frames and Text Boxes
Aligning text in frames and text boxes
Indenting text in text frames and text boxes
Aligning Text with Tab Stops
Changing the tab settings
Creating tab settings with the ruler
Creating tab settings with the Tabs dialog box
Adjusting and removing tab stops
Handling Bulleted and Numbered Lists
Creating a standard bulleted or numbered list
Removing bullets and numbers from lists
Choosing a different bullet character, size, and color
Choosing a different list-numbering style, size, and color
Making sublists, or nested lists
Fine-Tuning the Text Layout
Adjusting the space between lines and paragraphs
Fixing a top-heavy title
Adjusting the space between characters
Changing the internal margins of a text frame or box
Putting Footers (and Headers) on Slides
Some background on footers and headers
Putting a standard footer on all your slides
Creating a “nonstandard” footer
Removing a footer from a single slide
Book III: Communicating with Tables, Charts, and Diagrams
Book III: Chapter 1: Constructing the Perfect Table
Talking Table Jargon
Creating a Table
Entering the Text and Numbers
Selecting Different Parts of a Table
Aligning Text in Columns and Rows
Merging and Splitting Cells
Laying Out Your Table
Changing the size of a table, columns, and rows
Adjusting column and row size
Inserting and deleting columns and rows
Moving columns and rows
Changing the size of cell margins
Formatting Your Table
Designing a table with a table style
Calling attention to different rows and columns
Decorating your table with borders and colors
Neat Table Tricks
Changing the direction of header row text
Using a picture as the table background
Drawing diagonal lines on tables
Drawing on a table
Wrapping slide text around a table
Book III: Chapter 2: Putting a Chart on a Slide
A Mercifully Brief Anatomy Lesson
The Basics: Creating a Chart
Choosing the Right Chart
Ground rules for choosing a chart
Examining the different kinds of charts
Providing the Raw Data for Your Chart
Entering data in an Excel worksheet
Resizing the data range
Updating a chart with new data
Changing a Chart’s Appearance
Changing the chart type
Changing the shape of a chart
Relying on a chart style to change appearances
Changing the layout of a chart
Handling the gridlines
Changing a chart element’s color, font, or other particular
Saving a Chart as a Template So That You Can Use It Again
Saving a chart as a template
Creating a chart from a template
Chart Tricks for the Daring and Heroic
Decorating a chart with a picture
Annotating a chart
Displaying the raw data alongside the chart
Animating a chart
Creating an overlay chart
Converting 97–2003 Charts to PowerPoint 2010 Charts
Troubleshooting a Chart
Book III: Chapter 3: Putting Diagrams on Slides
The Basics: Creating SmartArt Diagrams
Creating the Initial Diagram
Creating a diagram
Swapping one diagram for another
Changing the Size and Position of a Diagram
Laying Out the Diagram Shapes
Selecting a diagram shape
Removing a shape from a diagram
Moving diagram shapes to different positions
Adding shapes to diagrams apart from hierarchy diagrams
Adding shapes to hierarchy diagrams
Adding shapes to Organization Charts
Promoting and demoting shapes in hierarchy diagrams
Handling the Text on Diagram Shapes
Entering text on a diagram shape
Entering bulleted lists on diagram shapes
Changing a Diagram’s Direction
Choosing a Look for Your Diagram
Changing the Appearance of Diagram Shapes
Changing the size of a diagram shape
Exchanging one shape for another
Changing a shape’s color, fill, or outline
Changing fonts and font sizes on shapes
Creating a Diagram from Scratch
Writing Equations with the Equation Editor
Launching the Equation Editor
Templates and slots
Drawing equations
Book IV: Embellishing Your Slides with Graphics and Shapes
Book IV: Chapter 1: Drawing Shapes, Lines, and Other Objects
The Basics: Drawing Lines and Shapes
Drawing Lines and Arrows
Drawing a straight line (or arrow)
Changing a line’s length and position
Changing a line’s appearance
Attaching and handling arrowheads
Drawing and editing arcs and curved lines
Freeform and scribble drawing
Connecting Shapes with Connectors
Making a connection
Attaching a connector to a different shape
Adjusting a connector
Drawing Rectangles, Ovals, Stars, and Other Shapes
Drawing a shape
Changing a shape’s symmetry
Exchanging One Shape for Another
Using a Shape as a Text Box
WordArt for Bending, Spindling, and Mutilating Text
Creating a WordArt image
Editing a WordArt image
Book IV: Chapter 2: Managing and Manipulating Objects
The Basics: Manipulating Lines, Shapes, Art, Text Boxes, and Other Objects
Selecting Objects So That You Can Manipulate Them
Laying Out Objects with the Grid, Drawing Guides, and Rulers
Displaying the grid and drawing guides
Telling PowerPoint how tight to make the grid
Creating and moving drawing guides
Displaying and hiding the rulers
Changing an Object’s Size
“Eye-balling it” with the selection handles
Entering Height and Width measurements
Changing an Object’s Proportions
Positioning Objects on a Slide
Dragging to move objects
Positioning objects by way of the dialog box
Copying Objects
When Objects Overlap: Choosing which Appears above the Other
Controlling overlaps with the Bring and Send commands
Controlling overlaps with the Selection and Visibility pane
Rotating and Flipping Objects
Tricks for Aligning and Distributing Objects
Aligning objects
Distributing objects so that they are equidistant
Changing an Object’s Color, Outline Color, and Transparency
How PowerPoint handles object color
Filling an object with a color, picture, or texture
Making a color transparent
Putting the outline around an object
Using a shape effect
Grouping Objects to Make Working with Them Easier
Grouping objects
Ungrouping and regrouping
Putting a Third Dimension on an Object
Letting PowerPoint do the work
Building the third dimension on your own
Putting a Shadow on an Object
Book IV: Chapter 3: Decorating Slides with Graphics and Photographs
All about Picture File Formats
Bitmap and vector graphics
Resolution
Compression
Color depth
Choosing File Formats for Graphics
The All-Important Copyright Issue
Inserting a Picture on a Slide
Touching Up a Picture
Softening and sharpening pictures
Correcting a picture’s brightness and contrast
Recoloring a picture
Choosing an artistic effect
Selecting a picture style
Cropping off part of a picture
Removing the background
Compressing Pictures to Save Disk Space
Using Graphics as Backgrounds
Using a picture in the background
Using a graphic as background for text
Putting Together a Photo Album
Creating your photo album
Putting on the final touches
Editing your photo album
Using Microsoft Office Picture Manager
Mapping the graphic files on your computer
Displaying the graphic file you want to work with
Editing a picture
Book IV: Chapter 4: Decorating Slides with Clip Art
What Is Clip Art?
Inserting a Clip-Art Image in a Slide
Tinkering with a Clip-Art Image’s Appearance
Handling Media Files with the Clip Organizer
Knowing your way around the Clip Organizer
Locating the media file you need
Inserting a media file into a PowerPoint slide
Storing your own files in the My Collections folders
Book V: Flash and Dash
Book V: Chapter 1: Taking Advantage of Transitions and Animations
Comparing Transitions and Animations
Showing Transitions between Slides
Assigning transitions to slides
Troubleshooting transitions
A Short but Sweet Animation Primer
Uses for animations
Choosing which slide elements to animate
Choosing an animation and animation effect
Defining the order of animations
Deciding when elements are animated
The Quick Way to Animate a Slide
Advanced Techniques for Animating Slides
Planning ahead
Using the Animations tab and Animation pane
Applying an animation
Changing and scrapping animations
Modifying an animation
Animating text frames and text boxes
Hiding elements and changing their color after animation
Motion paths for moving elements across a slide
Playing choreographer with animations
Starting an animation with a trigger
Playing Sounds along with Animations
Suggestions for Animating Slides
Animating bulleted and numbered lists
Changing elements’ size as they move
Building a slide one element at a time
Animating different parts of a chart
Book V: Chapter 2: Making Video Slides
Looking before You Leap
Understanding how video files strain your computer
Understanding video file formats
Compressing video files
Placing Videos on Slides
Inserting a video on a slide
Inserting a video that isn’t compatible with PowerPoint
Starting and Pausing a Video during a Presentation
Fine-Tuning a Video Presentation
Editing a Video
Adding Spice to Your Video Presentation
Adjusting the size of the video screen
Putting a border and poster frame on a video
Book V: Chapter 3: Making Audio and Music a Part of a Presentation
Ways to Include Sound in a Presentation
A Word about Audio File Formats
Finding Audio Files on the Internet
Marking Slide Transitions with Sound
Assigning a transition sound to a slide
Fine-tuning transition sounds
Inserting Audio Files in Presentations
Inserting an audio file in a slide
Telling PowerPoint when and how to play an audio file
Playing audio after a few seconds have elapsed
Playing an audio file as several slides appear
Getting the audio from a CD
Playing a string of audio files
Starting, Pausing, and Resuming an Audio File
Recording a Voice Narration for PowerPoint
Testing your computer’s microphone
Recording a voice narration in PowerPoint
Book VI: Giving a Presentation
Book VI: Chapter 1: Giving an In-Person Presentation
Rehearsing and Timing Your Presentation
Putting on the Finishing Touches
Showing Your Presentation
Starting and ending a presentation
Going from slide to slide
Switching to another program during a presentation
Drawing on Slides
Wielding a pen or highlighter in a presentation
Hiding and erasing pen and highlighter markings
Pointing with the Arrow
Making Use of Blank Screens
Customizing Shows for Particular Audiences
Assembling slides for a custom show
Editing a custom show
Presenting a custom show
Summarizing PowerPoint Presentation Techniques
Book VI: Chapter 2: Speaker Notes and Handouts
What Are Notes and Handouts?
All about Notes
Entering a note
Editing your notes in Notes Page view
The Notes Master for formatting notes pages
Providing Handouts for Your Audience
Printing an Outline Version of Your Presentation
Printing Slides, Handouts, and Notes Pages
Printing: The basics
Examining the Print options
Getting around in the Preview area
Book VI: Chapter 3: Creating a Self-Running Presentation
Good Uses for Self-Running Presentations
Challenges of a Self-Running Presentation
Deciding How Long to Keep Slides On-Screen
Entering time periods yourself
“Rehearsing” slide times
Telling PowerPoint that Your Presentation Is Self-Running
Starting and Ending a Self-Running Presentation
Book VI: Chapter 4: Creating a User-Run Presentation
What Is a User-Run Presentation?
Uses for User-Run Presentations
Challenges of a User-Run Presentation
Helping viewers understand how to run the presentation
Fitting action buttons on slides
Preventing a presentation from stalling
Making Yours a User-Run Presentation
Action Buttons vs. Hyperlinks
Action Buttons for Going from Slide to Slide
Drawing an action button
Repairing, removing, and reshaping action buttons
Creating your own action button
Placing action buttons on a master slide
Creating Hyperlinks
Creating a hyperlink to a slide
Creating a hyperlink to a Web page
Hyperlinking to a file in another program
Creating an e-mail hyperlink
Repairing and removing hyperlinks
Making Sure That Your Presentation Doesn’t Stall
Book VI: Chapter 5: Alternative Ways to Distribute Presentations
Putting On the Finishing Touches
Locking a File with a Password
Password-protecting a presentation
Removing a password from a presentation
Sending Your Presentation in an E-Mail Message
Packaging Your Presentation on a CD
Packaging a presentation on a CD
Playing a packaged presentation from a CD
Creating a Presentation Video
Book VII: PowerPoint for Power Users
Book VII: Chapter 1: Customizing PowerPoint
Customizing the Ribbon
Displaying and selecting tab, group, and command names
Moving tabs and groups on the Ribbon
Adding, removing, and renaming tabs, groups, and commands
Creating new tabs and groups
Resetting your Ribbon customizations
Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar
Adding buttons to the Quick Access toolbar
Changing the order of buttons on the Quick Access toolbar
Removing buttons from the Quick Access toolbar
Placing the Quick Access toolbar above or below the Ribbon
Customizing the Status Bar
Changing Color Schemes
Book VII: Chapter 2: Creating a Presentation Design for Your Company
Creating a Template for Your Presentation Designs
Making Your Company Colors Part of the Design
Finding out a color’s RGB or HSL setting
Employing a company color in a PowerPoint design
Making Your Company’s Fonts Part of the Design
Designing Your Template
Creating Slide Layouts for Your Template
Creating a new slide layout
Deleting slide layouts
Including Boilerplate Content in the Slide Design
Telling Co-Workers How to Use Your Template
Loading a template on a computer
Creating a presentation from a template
Book VII: Chapter 3: Collaborating with Others on a Presentation
Comments for Critiquing Others’ Work
Writing and editing a comment
Reading and reviewing comments
Cleaning comments from a presentation
Sharing Slides in a Slide Library
Reusing slides from a slide library
Book VII: Chapter 4: Linking and Embedding for Compound Presentations
What Is OLE, Anyway?
Linking and embedding
Uses for object linking
Uses for object embedding
Pitfalls of object linking and embedding
Embedding Data from Other Programs on a PowerPoint Slide
Embedding an object
Editing an embedded object
Linking a PowerPoint Slide to a Source File
Establishing the link
Updating a link
Editing data in the source file
Converting a linked object to an embedded object
Book VII: Chapter 5: Automating Tasks with Macros
What Is a Macro?
Displaying the Developer Tab
Managing the Macro Security Problem
Running a Macro
Running a Macro from a Button on the Quick Access Toolbar
Installing Add-Ins
PowerPoint®2010 All-in-One For Dummies®
by Peter Weverka
PowerPoint® 2010 All-in-One For Dummies®
Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. PowerPoint is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2010925704
ISBN: 978-0-470-50099-6
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Author
Peter Weverka is the bestselling author of several For Dummies books, as well as other computer books about various topics. Peter’s humor-ous articles and stories — none related to computers, thankfully — have appeared in Harper’s, SPY, The Argonaut, and other magazines for grown-ups.
Dedication
For Aiko Sofia and Henry Gabriel.
Author’s Acknowledgments
This book owes a lot to many hard-working people at Wiley Publishing in Indiana. I would like once again to thank Steve Hayes for his good advice, his encouragement, and the opportunity to write another For Dummies book.
It was a pleasure — once again — to work with Susan Christophersen, who knows the editing craft as well as any editor I have ever worked with.
Technical editor Joyce Neilson made sure that all the explanations in this book are indeed accurate, and I would like to thank her for her excellent work and suggestions for improving this book. I would also like to thank Rich Tennant for the witty cartoons you will find on the pages of this book, and Estalita Slivoskey for writing the index.
These people at the Wiley offices in Indianapolis gave their all to this book, and I want to acknowledge them by name: Carl Byers, Melanie Hoffman, and Patrick Redmond.
Finally, I owe my family — Sofia, Henry, and Addie — a debt for tolerating my vampire-like working hours and eerie demeanor at the breakfast table. How will I ever repay you?
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions and Editorial
Project and Copy Editor: Susan Christophersen
Executive Editor: Steve Hayes
Technical Editor: Joyce Nielsen
Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen
Editorial Assistant: Amanda Graham
Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case
Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
Composition Services
Project Coordinator: Patrick Redmond
Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers
Proofreader: Lisa Young Stiers
Indexer: Estalita Slivoskey
Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies
Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher
Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director
Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director
Publishing for Consumer Dummies
Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher
Composition Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
Introduction
Only a few years ago, PowerPoint was a novelty. Then, all of a sudden, speakers started giving PowerPoint presentations at conferences and seminars. Audiences welcomed PowerPoint. The slides made presentations more interesting and lively. You could gaze at the slides while you listened to the speaker. Speakers — especially speakers who weren’t comfortable talking before an audience — liked PowerPoint, too. PowerPoint took away some of the burdens of public speaking. The program made it easier to speak in front of strangers.
PowerPoint became a staple of conferences, seminars, and corporate boardrooms. Then the novelty wore off, and audiences started grumbling. The presentations were too much alike. You saw bulleted list after bulleted list. Presentations followed the same tired formula — introductory slides followed by “key point” slides following by a tidy conclusion. Writing in the New Yorker, Ian Parker declared that PowerPoint is “a social instrument, turning middle managers into bullet-point dandies.” Edward Tufte, professor of information design at Yale University, lamented the program’s “charjunk” and “PowerPointPhluff.” In a Wired essay called “PowerPoint Is Evil,” he wrote, “PowerPoint style routinely disrupts, dominates, and trivializes content.”
Despite these complaints, speakers have not abandoned PowerPoint, and audiences still welcome it. But expectations have risen. Audiences expect the presenter to use PowerPoint skillfully and creatively. The audience knows when a presenter is just going through the motions and when a presenter is using PowerPoint to explore a subject and show it in a new light.
This book was written with the goal of showing you how to use the PowerPoint software, but also how to use it with skill and imagination. I tell you which buttons to click to complete tasks, but I also show you how PowerPoint can be a means of communicating and connecting with your audience. I show you how to build a persuasive presentation, one that brings the audience around to your side. No matter how much experience you have with PowerPoint, this book will make you a better, more proficient, more confident user of the program.
What’s in This Book, Anyway?
This book is jam-packed with how-to’s, advice, shortcuts, and tips for getting the most out of PowerPoint. Here’s a bare outline of the seven parts of this book:
♦ Book I: Getting Started in PowerPoint: Explains the PowerPoint interface and how to get around on-screen, as well as basic tasks such as how to create presentations and view presentations in different ways. You can also find advice for formulating and designing presentations.
♦ Book II: Building Your Presentation: Shows how to create, manipulate, and format slides, as well as how to handle the master slides and master styles that make it possible to format many slides simultaneously. You discover how to design the look of your presentation and enter lists, text, and text boxes.
♦ Book III: Communicating with Tables, Charts, and Diagrams: Explores the many techniques for creating, designing, and formatting tables, charts, and diagrams.
♦ Book IV: Embellishing Your Slides with Graphics and Shapes: Demonstrates how to create lines, shapes, text-box shapes, and WordArt images. You also find out how to adorn a presentation with photographs, graphics, and clip-art images.
♦ Book V: Flash and Dash: Shows how to take advantage of transitions and animations, as well as make video and sound a part of a presentation.
♦ Book VI: Giving a Presentation: Explores all the different ways to deliver a presentation — in person, as a self-running presentation, as a user-run presentation, and as a video. You find out how to write slide notes and print presentations, as well as deliver them over the Internet and on CDs.
♦ Book VII: PowerPoint for Power Users: Looks into customizing PowerPoint, designing templates, collaborating with others, linking and embedding, and understanding macros.
What Makes This Book Special
You are holding in your hands a computer book designed to make learning PowerPoint as easy and comfortable as possible. Besides the fact that this book is easy to read, it’s different from other books about PowerPoint.
Easy-to-look-up information
This book is a reference, and that means that readers have to be able to find out how to do something quickly. To that end, I have taken great pains to make sure that the material in this book is well organized and easy to find. The descriptive headings help you find information quickly. The bulleted and numbered lists make accomplishing a task simpler. The tables make options easier to understand.
I want you to be able to look down the page and see in a heading or list the name of the topic that concerns you. I want you to be able to find what you need quickly. Compare the table of contents in this book to the book next to it on the bookstore shelf. This book is better organized than the others.
A task-oriented approach
Most computer books describe what the software is, but this book shows you how to use the software. I assume that you came to this book because you want to know how to do something — animate a slide, create a chart, design a look for your presentation. You came to the right place. This book shows you how to make PowerPoint work for you.
Meaningful screen shots
The screen shots in this book show only the part of the screen that illustrates what is being explained in the text. When an explanation refers to one part of the screen, only that part of the screen is shown. I took great care to make sure that the screen shots serve to help you understand the PowerPoint features and how they work.
Foolish Assumptions
Please forgive me, but I made some foolish assumptions about you, the reader of this book. I assumed that:
♦ You own a copy of PowerPoint 2010, the latest version of PowerPoint, and you have installed it on your computer.
♦ You use the Windows operating system. Even if yours is an old version of Windows, all the methods in this book apply.
♦ You are kind to foreign tourists and small animals.
Conventions Used in This Book
I want you to understand all the instructions in this book, and in that spirit, I’ve adopted a few conventions.
Where you see boldface letters or numbers in this book, it means to type the letters or numbers. For example, “Enter 25 in the Percentage text box” means to do exactly that: Enter the number 25.
Sometimes two tabs on the ribbon have the same name. To distinguish tabs with the same name from one another, I sometimes include one tab’s “Tools” heading in parentheses if there could be any confusion about which tab I’m referring to. For example, when you see the words “(Table Tools) Design tab,” I’m referring to the Design tab for creating tables, not the Design tab for changing a slide’s appearance. (Book I, Chapter 3 describes the ribbon and the tabs in detail.)
To show you how to step through command sequences, I use the ⇒ symbol. For example, you can click the File tab and choose Share⇒Create a Video to create a video of a presentation. The ⇒ symbol is just a shorthand method of saying “Choose Share and then choose Create a Video.”
To give most commands, you can press combinations of keys. For example, pressing Ctrl+S saves the file you’re working on. In other words, you can hold down the Ctrl key and press the S key to save a file. Where you see Ctrl+, Alt+, or Shift+ and a key name or key names, press the keys simultaneously.
Yet another way to give a command is to click a button. When I tell you to click a button, you see a small illustration of the button in the margin of this book (unless the button is too large to fit in the margin). The button shown here is the Save button, the one you can click to save a presentation.
Icons Used in This Book
To help you get the most out of this book, I’ve placed icons here and there. Here’s what the icons mean:
Next to the Tip icon, you can find shortcuts and tricks of the trade to make your visit to PowerPoint Land more enjoyable.
Where you see the Warning icon, tread softly and carefully. It means that you are about to do something that you may regret later.
When I explain a juicy fact that bears remembering, I mark it with a Remember icon. When you see this icon, prick up your ears. You will discover something that you need to remember throughout your adventures with PowerPoint.
When I am forced to describe high-tech stuff, a Technical Stuff icon appears in the margin. You don’t have to read what’s beside the Technical Stuff icons if you don’t want to, although these technical descriptions often help you understand how a software feature works.
Good Luck, Reader!
If you have a comment about this book, a question, or a shortcut you would like to share with me, send an e-mail message to me at this address: [email protected]. Be advised that I usually can’t answer e-mail right away because I’m too darned busy. I do appreciate comments and questions, however, because they help me pass my dreary days in captivity.
Book I
Getting Started in PowerPoint
Contents at a Glance
Chapter 1: Introducing PowerPoint
PowerPoint Slides
Some PowerPoint Jargon
PowerPoint as a Communication Tool
A Whirlwind Tour of PowerPoint
Chapter 2: PowerPoint Nuts and Bolts
Starting PowerPoint
Creating a New Presentation
Saving Your Presentation Files
Navigating the Save As and Open Dialog Boxes
Opening and Closing Presentations
Entering the Document Properties
Shortcut Commands Worth Knowing
Chapter 3: Finding Your Way around the PowerPoint Screen
A Brief Geography Lesson
Knowing Your Way around the PowerPoint Interface
Zooming In, Zooming Out
Getting a Better View of Your Work
Hiding and Displaying the Slides Pane and Notes Pane
Displaying, Hiding, and Reading the Ruler
Chapter 4: Planning Ahead for a Solid Presentation
Formulating Your Presentation
Designing Your Presentation
Delivering Your Presentation
Chapter 1: Introducing PowerPoint
In This Chapter
Taking a peek at PowerPoint
Understanding PowerPoint jargon
Communicating by way of PowerPoint presentations
Taking a quick tour of the program
In this short chapter, I take you to the end of a pier, briefly explain what swimming is, and push you in the water. As you thrash about, I tell you what a PowerPoint presentation is and explain some PowerPoint jargon. Then I fish you out of the water and take you on a whirlwind tour of PowerPoint. By the time you finish reading this chapter, you will know what creating a PowerPoint presentation entails.
PowerPoint Slides
Figure 1-1 (top) shows the PowerPoint window. That thing in the middle is a slide, PowerPoint’s word for an image that you show your audience. Surrounding the slide are many tools for entering text and decorating slides. When the time comes to show your slides, you dispense with the tools and make the slide fill the screen, as shown in Figure 1-1 (bottom). Throughout this book, you will find instructions for making slides and for constructing a presentation, the PowerPoint word that describes all the slides, from first to last, that you show to your audience.
Figure 1-1: The PowerPoint window (top) and a slide as it looks in a presentation (bottom).
Some PowerPoint Jargon
To make PowerPoint do your bidding, you need to know a little jargon:
♦ Presentation: All the slides, from start to finish, that you show your audience. Sometimes presentations are called “slide shows.” Presentations are saved in presentation files (.pptx files).
♦ Slides: The images you create with PowerPoint. During a presentation, slides appear on-screen one after the other. Don’t be put off by the word slide and dreary memories of sitting through your uncle’s vacation slide-show. You don’t need a slide projector to show these slides. You can now plug a laptop or other computer into special monitors that display PowerPoint slides. (Book II, Chapter 1 describes how to create slides.)
♦ Notes: Printed pages that you, the speaker, write and print so that you know what to say during a presentation. Only the speaker sees notes. (Book VI, Chapter 2 explains notes.)
♦ Handout: Printed pages that you may give to the audience after a presentation. A handout shows the slides in the presentation. Handouts are also known by the somewhat derogatory term “leave-behinds.” (Book VI, Chapter 2 explains handouts.)
PowerPoint as a Communication Tool
PowerPoint isn’t just a speaker’s aid, but a means of communicating something to an audience — an idea, a business plan, a marketing strategy. PowerPoint has become so popular in part because it relieves the burden of public speaking. A nervous public speaker (and who isn’t a nervous public speaker?) can avert the attention of the audience to the slides and allow the slides to carry the day. But those slides in and of themselves can be great means of communication. PowerPoint offers numerous ways to communicate with an audience above and beyond what can be said in words:
♦ Colors: Your color choices set the tone and suggest what you want to convey in your presentation. Book II, Chapter 3 explains how to choose colors; Book VII, Chapter 2 describes how to incorporate a company’s colors (and logo) in a presentation.
♦ Photographs and other images: A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. Spare yourself from having to speak thousands of words by including pictures in your presentation. Book IV, Chapters 3 and 4 explain how to grace a slide with pictures and clip-art images.
♦ Tables: Support your proposal with table data. No one will be able to refute you. Book III, Chapter 1 explains how to create tables.
♦ Charts: For comparing and presenting data, nothing beats a chart. Book III, Chapter 2 explains charts.
♦ Diagrams: With diagrams, the audience can literally visualize a rela-tionship, concept, or idea. Book III, Chapter 3 explains how to create diagrams.
♦ Shapes and text-box shapes: You can use lines, shapes, and text box shapes (shapes with words on them) to illustrate your ideas. Book IV, Chapter 1 shows how to draw lines and shapes.
♦ Sound and video: Include sound and video to make your presentation a feast for the ears and eyes. Book V explains sound and video.
A Whirlwind Tour of PowerPoint
To help you understand what you’re getting into, the rest of this chapter provides a whirlwind tour of PowerPoint. It explains what creating a presentation entails, from inserting the first slide to putting on the finishing touches. Better fasten your safety belt.
Creating the slides
After you create a new presentation, your next task is to insert the slides (see Book II, Chapter 1). As shown in Figure 1-2, PowerPoint offers many preformatted slide layouts. These layouts are available on the New Slide drop-down list, the drop-down list you open when you want to insert a slide. Each layout is designed for presenting information a certain way.
Figure 1-2: Adding a new slide in Slide Sorter view.
As you create slides, you can jot down notes in the Notes pane. You can use the notes later on to formulate your presentation and decide what you’ll say to your audience while each slide is on-screen.
To help complete tasks, you can change views. Figure 1-2 shows the PowerPoint window in Slide Sorter view. This view is best for moving, copying, and deleting slides. PowerPoint offers the View tab and View buttons for changing your view of a presentation. The program offers many different views, each designed to help with a different task.
Designing your presentation
The next step is to think about the appearance of your presentation (see Book II, Chapter 3). Figure 1-3 shows the Design tab, where you make most of the decisions that pertain to the presentation’s look. Starting here, you can change the slides’ colors and backgrounds. You can also choose a new “theme” for your presentation — an all-encompassing design that applies to all (or most of) the slides. If you’re the type of person who doesn’t run with the herd, you can overhaul one of these themes and in effect redesign it by switching to Slide Master view and tinkering with the master slides (see Book II, Chapter 2).
Figure 1-3: Go to the Design tab to design the look of your presentation.
Choose a design for your presentation early on. The fonts, graphics, shapes, tables, and charts you put in your presentation have to fit the design. If you change designs after you’ve created the majority of your slides, you may have to choose new font colors and graphics. You may have to redesign your tables, charts, and diagrams as well because they don’t fit into the new design you chose.
Inserting tables, charts, diagrams, and shapes
A PowerPoint presentation should be more than a loose collection of bulleted lists. Starting on the Insert tab, you can place tables (see Book III, Chapter 1), charts (Book III, Chapter 2), and diagrams (Book III, Chapter 3) on slides. You can also adorn your slides with text boxes, WordArt images, and shapes (see Book IV, Chapter 1). And when you include a bulleted or numbered list, you can employ nonstandard bullets and numbering schemes to make your lists a little different from everybody else’s (see Book II, Chapter 5).
Use your imagination. Try to take advantage of all the features that PowerPoint provides for communicating with an audience.
“Animating” your slides
As I mentioned earlier, PowerPoint slides can play video and sound (see Book V). You can also enliven a presentation by “animating” it (see Book V, Chapter 1). Starting on the Transitions tab, you can make slide items — bulleted lists, shapes, and clip art — arrive and leave the screen from different directions. Starting on the Animations tab, you can make the items on a slide move on the screen.
Showing your presentation
During a presentation, you can draw on the slides, as shown in Figure 1-4. You can also blank the screen, show slides out of order, and detour your presentation into a customized slide show (see Book VI, Chapter 1). Most presentations are made to be delivered in person by a speaker, but you can deliver presentations from afar by choosing commands on the Slide Show tab. These kinds of presentations can run in your absence:
♦ Self-running presentation: A presentation that runs on its own and can be exhibited at a trade show or other public place (see Book VI, Chapter 3).
♦ User-run presentation: A presentation that others can run. Special buttons permit individuals to go from slide to slide (see Book VI, Chapter 4).
♦ A handout: A printed copy of a presentation (see Book VI, Chapter 2).
♦ A CD: A packaged CD copy of a presentation that others can show on their computers (and you can take on the road). People who don’t have PowerPoint can view presentations after they are packed for a CD (see Book VI, Chapter 5).
♦ A video presentation: A presentation recorded in a video that others can play in their video players (see Book VI, Chapter 5).
Figure 1-4: Draw on slides to add a little something to a presentation.
I hope you enjoyed this tour of PowerPoint. Before you disembark, please check your surroundings to make sure you haven’t left anything on the bus. Enjoy your stay in PowerPoint Land.
Chapter 2: PowerPoint Nuts and Bolts
In This Chapter
Starting PowerPoint
Creating a PowerPoint presentation from a template
Saving presentations
Saving presentations for earlier versions of PowerPoint
Opening and closing a presentation
Entering the document-property descriptions
Undoing and repeating actions
The purpose of this chapter is to launch you deep into PowerPoint Land. This chapter describes tasks that you do almost every time you run the program. It explains how to start PowerPoint and create, save, open, and close presentations. You also find out what document properties are. Throughout this chapter are tips, tricks, and shortcuts for making basic PowerPoint tasks go more smoothly. Finally, I offer some shortcut commands that you will find extremely useful.
Starting PowerPoint
Unless you start the PowerPoint program, you can’t construct PowerPoint presentations. Many have tried to construct presentations from mud and paper-mâché without starting PowerPoint first, but all have failed. Here are the various and sundry ways to start PowerPoint:
♦ The old-fashioned way: Click the Start button and choose All Programs⇒Microsoft Office⇒Microsoft PowerPoint 2010.
♦ The Start menu: Click Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 on the Start menu, as shown in Figure 2-1. The Start menu is the menu you see when you click the Start button. By placing a program’s name on the Start menu, you can open the program simply by clicking the Start button and then clicking the program’s name. To place PowerPoint 2010 on the Start menu:
Figure 2-1: Three of several ways to start PowerPoint.
1. Click the Start button and choose All Programs⇒Microsoft Office.
2. Move the pointer over Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 on the sublist, but don’t click to select the program’s name.
3. Right-click Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 on the sublist and choose Pin to Start Menu on the pop-up menu that appears when you right-click.
To remove a program’s name from the Start menu, right-click the name and choose Unpin from Start Menu.
♦ Desktop shortcut icon: Double-click the Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 shortcut icon, as shown in Figure 2-1. A shortcut icon is an icon you can click to do something in a hurry. By creating a PowerPoint shortcut icon on the Windows desktop, you can double-click the icon and start PowerPoint in a hurry. To place a PowerPoint shortcut icon on the desktop:
1. Click the Start button and choose All Programs⇒Microsoft Office.
2. Move the pointer over Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 on the sublist, but don’t click the program’s name.
Starting PowerPoint when you start your computer
Yet another way to start PowerPoint is to make the program start automatically whenever you turn on your computer. If you’re the president of the PowerPoint Fan Club and you have to run PowerPoint each time your computer starts, create a PowerPoint shortcut icon and copy it into the Startup folder. Note which Windows operating system you have, and copy the PowerPoint shortcut icon into the Startup folder in one of these locations:
Windows 7 and Windows Vista: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
3. Right-click Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 on the sublist and choose Send To⇒Desktop (Create Shortcut) on the pop-up menu that appears.
To remove a desktop shortcut icon from the Windows desktop, right-click it, choose Delete, and click Yes in the Delete Shortcut dialog box. Don’t worry about deleting a program when you delete its shortcut icon. All you do when you choose Delete is remove the program’s shortcut icon from the desktop and make your desktop a little less crowded.
♦ Pinned to taskbar (Windows 7 only): Open the program you want to pin to the taskbar, right-click the program’s button on the taskbar, and on the Jump List, choose Pin This Program to Taskbar.
♦ Quick Launch toolbar (not available in Windows 7): Click the PowerPoint 2010 shortcut icon on the Quick Launch toolbar, as shown in Figure 2-1. The Quick Launch toolbar appears on the Windows taskbar and is easy to find. Wherever your work takes you, you can see the Quick Launch toolbar and click its shortcut icons to start programs. Create a PowerPoint shortcut icon on the Windows desktop and follow these steps to place a copy of it on the Quick Launch toolbar:
1. Click the shortcut icon on the desktop to select it.
2. Hold down the Ctrl key.
3. Drag the shortcut icon onto the Quick Launch toolbar.
To change an icon’s position on the Quick Launch toolbar, drag it to the left or the right. To remove an icon, right-click it and choose Delete.
Creating a New Presentation
When you start PowerPoint, the program creates a new, blank presentation just for you. You can make this bare-bones presentation the starting point for constructing your presentation, or you can get a more sophisticated, fully realized layout and design by starting with a template.
A template is a starter file for creating a presentation. Each presentation is founded on a template. Each presentation inherits its colors, designs, fonts, and slide layouts from the template on which it was founded (the blank presentation gets its design from a simple, bare-bones template). When you decide between creating a presentation from the blank presentation or a template, you’re really deciding what your presentation will look like.
Figure 2-2 shows a slide created from the blank presentation (left) and a slide created from a template (right). Notice that the blank-presentation slide isn’t really “blank.” As Book II, Chapter 3 explains, you can redesign a blank presentation very easily. You can choose a theme, a background color for the slides, and fonts, and you can fashion your own slide layouts. When you create a presentation with a template, all design decisions are made for you. You get ready-made background colors, fonts, and slide layouts.
Figure 2-2: A slide made from the blank presentation (left) and a template (right).
Deciding between the blank presentation and a template
Templates are a mixed blessing. They’re designed by artists and they look very good. Some templates come with boilerplate text — already written material that you can recycle into your presentation. However, presentations made from templates are harder to modify. Sometimes the design gets in the way. A loud or intricate background may overwhelm the diagram or chart you want to put on a slide. For example, the clip-art image on the blank-presentation slide in Figure 2-2 looks out of place on the template slide because the image and the template background are incompatible.
Starting from the blank presentation means doing the design work on your own, although, as I mentioned earlier, designing presentations isn’t as hard as most people think because you can choose ready-made themes and background styles for a blank presentation. Sometimes simpler is better. By starting from a blank presentation, you aren’t locked into someone else’s design choices, and you have more creative opportunities.
The difference between a template and the blank presentation is similar to the difference between a tract house and a house you build on your own. Buying the tract house is less work. You can move right in. But if you build a custom house, you can build it to your taste and specifications, and it’s unique. No one has a house quite like yours. Your house looks different from the neighbors’ houses.
Creating a blank presentation
PowerPoint shows you a blank presentation each time you open the program. You can save this presentation and start to work or, if you’re working on another presentation already and you want to create a new, blank presentation, you can follow these steps to create it:
1. Go to the File tab.
2. Choose New.
You see the Available Templates and Themes window, shown in Figure 2-3.
3. Click the Blank Presentation icon.
4. Click the Create button.
A new presentation appears. You can also create a new blank presentation by pressing Ctrl+N. Try visiting the Design tab and choosing a theme or background style to get a taste of all the things you can do to redesign a presentation.
Creating a presentation from a template
The Available Templates and Themes window (refer to Figure 2-3) offers many opportunities for finding a suitable template. To open this window, go to the File tab and choose New.
As you employ the following techniques to find a template, remember that you can click the Back or Forward button in the window to retreat and advance during your search. When you find the template you need, double-click its icon or select its icon and click the Create button.
Figure 2-3: The Available Templates and Themes window is the starting point for creating a new presentation.
Here are all the ways to search for a template in the Available Templates and Themes window:
♦ Use a template on your computer: Click the Sample Templates icon. Templates that you loaded on your computer when you installed PowerPoint appear in the window.
✦ Use a theme: Click the Themes icon. A theme is a fully realized slide design and is an excellent choice for creating a PowerPoint presentation. Moreover, you can exchange one theme for another very easily. (Book II, Chapter 3 explains themes.)
♦ Search online at Microsoft: Make sure your computer is connected to the Internet, enter a search term in the Search box, and click the Start Searching button. For example, enter marketing to search for templates suitable for presentations about marketing products.
♦ Use a template you created (or downloaded earlier from Microsoft): Click the My Templates button. The New Presentation dialog box appears. Select a template and click OK. (Book VII, Chapter 2 explains how to create your own templates.)
Click the Recent Templates icon in the Available Templates and Themes window to see templates you chose for presentations you recently worked on.
Starting from another presentation
If you can use another presentation as the starting point for creating a new presentation, more power to you. By clicking the New from Existing icon in the Available Templates and Themes window, you can nab slides from another presentation and make them the foundation for a new one. Follow these steps to commandeer another presentation:
1. Go to the File tab and choose New.
You see the Available Templates and Themes window (refer to Figure 2-3).
2. Click the New from Existing icon.
The New from Existing Presentation dialog box appears.
3. Locate and select the presentation whose slides and design you covet.
4. Click the Create New button.
I hope you shoplifted that presentation from yourself, not from a convenience store.
Swapping one template for another
Suppose you decide on the blank presentation or a certain template when you create a presentation, but you regret your decision. You want a different template. As long as you already created a presentation with the template you want, you can impose its template design on your presentation. If necessary, create a presentation using the template you want, and then follow these steps to swap another presentation’s template for your presentation’s template:
1. Select the last slide in your presentation.
2. On the Home tab, open the drop-down list on the New Slide button and choose Reuse Slides.
The Reuse Slides task pane appears.
3. Click the Browse button and choose Browse File on the drop-down list.
You see the Browse dialog box.
4. Locate and select the presentation with the template you want; then click the Open button.
Slides from the presentation appear in the Reuse Slides task pane.
5. Click the Keep Source Formatting check box.
You can find this check box at the bottom of the Reuse Slides task pane.
6. Right-click a slide in the task pane and choose Insert All Slides on the shortcut menu.
All slides from the other presentation arrive in your presentation with their formatting intact.
7. Go to the View tab.
8. Click the Slide Master button.
You land in Slide Master view. Book II, Chapter 2 explains what master slides are and how you can use them to format slides.
9. Scroll to the top of the Slides pane, right-click the first slide (the Slide Master), and choose Delete Master on the shortcut menu.
All the slides take on the formatting of the new Slide Master.
10. Click the Close Master View button on the Slide Master tab to leave Slide Master view.
You likely have to delete the slides that arrived along with the new template, but that’s a small price to pay for being able to commandeer an entirely new template.
Saving Your Presentation Files
Soon after you create a new presentation, be sure to save it. And save your presentation from time to time as you work on it, as well. Until you save your work, it rests in the computer’s electronic memory (RAM), a precarious location. If a power outage occurs or your computer stalls, you lose all the work you did since the last time you saved your presentation. Make it a habit to save files every ten minutes or so or when you complete an important task.
Saving a presentation
To save a presentation, do one of the following:
♦ Click the Save button.
♦ Press Ctrl+S.
♦ Go to the File tab and choose Save.
Saving a presentation for the first time
The first time you save a presentation, PowerPoint opens the Save As dialog box and invites you to give the presentation a name and choose the folder in which to store it. Enter a descriptive name in the File Name text box. To locate a folder for storing your presentation, see “Navigating the Save As and Open Dialog Boxes,” later in this chapter.
Telling PowerPoint where you like to save presentations
When you attempt to save a presentation for the first time in the Save As dialog box, PowerPoint shows you the contents of the Document folder (in Windows Vista and Windows 7) or the My Documents folder (in Windows XP) on the assumption that you keep most of your presentations in that folder. The Documents (or My Documents) folder is the center of the universe as far as PowerPoint is concerned, but perhaps you keep the majority of your presentations in a different folder. How would you like to see your favorite folder first in the Save As and Open dialog boxes?
To direct PowerPoint to the folder you like best and make that folder’s name appear first in the Save As and Open dialog boxes, follow these steps:
1. Got to the File tab and choose Options.
You see the PowerPoint Options dialog box.
2. Select the Save category.
Figure 2-4 shows the topmost options in this category.
3. In the Default File Location text box, enter the address to the folder where you prefer to keep your presentations.
For example, if you are fond of keeping presentations in the My Stuff folder on the C drive of your computer, enter C:\My Stuff.
4. Click OK.
Figure 2-4: The Save Presentations options in the PowerPoint Options dialog box.
Saving presentations for use in earlier versions of PowerPoint
Not everyone is a proud owner of Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010. Before you pass along a document to a co-worker who has PowerPoint 2003, 2002, 2000, or 97, save your document so that your co-worker can open it. People with versions of PowerPoint prior to PowerPoint 2010 and 2007 cannot open your PowerPoint presentations unless you save them for earlier versions of PowerPoint.
Saving a presentation for use in PowerPoint 97–2003
Presentations saved in the PowerPoint 97–2003 format have the .ppt, not the .pptx