Microsoft® Office 2008 for Mac® Bible

Chapter 19. PowerPoint Basics

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Exploring the PowerPoint window

• Working with presentation files

• Changing views

• Assigning file properties

PowerPoint is the most widely used presentation software on the planet. In fact, Microsoft brags that 30 million presentations are created using the software every day. I'm not sure how they're counting all those, unless everyone's e-mailing them to Bill Gates saying "Hey, look what I made!" Regardless, there is no doubt that PowerPoint is the number one choice when it comes to creating an informative visual display that communicates a message and looks good in the process.

As a presentation program, PowerPoint helps you present information to a target audience. Using a graphical approach in the form of slide shows, PowerPoint is widely used in business and classroom environments to explain or present an idea, a process, a series of information, or just images. You can narrate your presentations yourself while giving them or record narration to go along with them. You can give a presentation using a computer, on a projector screen, or on the Web, or you can print your slides for distribution. The best part is that your presentations always turn out looking professional and polished!

A PowerPoint presentation typically consists of text, graphics, movies, or other objects positioned in layouts on pages, which are called slides. You can make the elements move in and out of a slide using custom animations, and you can make slides move from one ...