Office 2007: The Missing Manual

Chapter 25.  Images and Transitions

PowerPoint would have disappeared long ago if all you could do with it was slap bullet points on a screen. Drawings, photographs, and other pictures add meaning, sophistication, and polish to your slideshow. They also serve as powerful visual cues to help your audience understand a point, or recall something you’ve previously said. They can also tie a slideshow together (when you use similar design elements on each slide), and even help with branding (think logo in the corner of every single slide).

It’s not surprising, then, that PowerPoint lets you add all manner of visual elements to your slides. You can use everything from simple graphics you draw right on a slide, to photographs and images created in another program, to the free clip art that comes with PowerPoint. This chapter shows you how to get drawings and pictures onto your slides.

You’ll also learn how to add transitions from one slide to the next. If you’re a movie buff, you’re familiar with scene transitions such as jump cuts, dissolves, and tasteful fades. PowerPoint gives you lots of transitions to choose from, and this chapter shows you how to apply them to your slideshow.

Note

In addition to graphics, PowerPoint lets you add sound files to your slides-like music, sound effects, or your own voice-over narration. You can even put videos on slides. When you’re ready to take on multimedia slides, consult a book like PowerPoint 2007: The Missing Manual, which also teaches you how to modify ...