Office 2007 For Dummies®

Chapter 10. Creating a PowerPoint Presentation

In This Chapter

• Designing a presentation

• Creating a PowerPoint presentation

• Using different views to create a presentation

• Adding text

PowerPoint works as a visual aid for giving presentations. (If you never give presentations, you probably don't need PowerPoint.) Rather than fumble around creating, organizing, and displaying transparencies with an overhead projector, you can use PowerPoint on your computer to create, organize, and display slides that display information organized as text and graphics.

Besides displaying slides on the screen, PowerPoint also lets you add notes that only you can see to each slide and turn your entire slide show presentation into printed handouts so the audience can review your presentation and take notes next to a printed copy of each slide. The next time you need to convince or inform an audience, use PowerPoint to create and deliver your presentation. (Just make sure you never use PowerPoint to propose marriage.)

Defining the Purpose of Your Presentation

PowerPoint can make creating and delivering a presentation easy, but before you start creating fancy visuals with eye‐popping graphics and colors, step away from your computer, put down your copy of PowerPoint, and place your hands in the open where anyone can see them.

Rushing into PowerPoint to create a presentation is likely to create a dazzling array of colors, fonts, and graphics that may look interesting but won't convey your message effectively. The ...