PowerPoint 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual

Packaging Presentations for CD

File-wise, creating a PowerPoint presentation can get messy fast. You've got your presentation file itself, of course, but depending on which elements and effects you've added to your slides, your presentation file may depend on additional files containing fonts, audio and clips, images, linked content, and so on. And if you've ever tried to make a quick copy of a presentation (for example, on your way out the door to catch a plane) you know how frustratingly hard this theoretically easy task is to pull off in reality.

Fortunately, PowerPoint can automate the process. When you package your presentation for CD, you tell PowerPoint to gather up all of the files you need to run your slideshow (complete with a copy of the PowerPoint viewer, if you like, to make sure they have everything they need to run the slideshow) and stick them in a single folder, which you can then store on your computer or, if you happen to have a CD burner connected to your computer, copy directly to disk.

Note

You can save more than one presentation to a CD (or to a named file). If you do, PowerPoint lets you specify what order you want your presentations to run in (see step 5 in Section 7.7).

If you've created additional files such as supporting documentation, electronic brochures, or text scripts, you can tell PowerPoint to add them to the package, too. Supporting documentation helps offset the fact that your audience (and not you) will be running the slideshow. For example, if ...