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PowerPoint 2007 is a fun multimedia tool that's as useful for leisure as it is for professional presentations.
Get to the
PowerPoint
Create photo albums
Go to Insert > Photo Album > New Photo Album > File/Disk button to add images to the album. Select the photos you want and click Insert. Use the Up and Down arrows to change the order of photos. You can also alter the brightness, contrast and orientation of the images. Click the Create button and you're done!
Recording narrations
Recording a voiceover for your slides is handy when not making a live presentation. Go to Slide Show > Record Narration. Choose from various options like microphone volume, quality, etc. Click Current Slide to record a voiceover starting with the current slide or First Slide to start from the very beginning. When the slideshow starts start speaking into the microphone. Click to switch to the next slide and continue speaking as necessary. When all the slides are done, click Save.
Apply transition effects
Go to the Animations tab for a list of transition effect icons. Click on the slide you want to set an effect to and choose a transition effect. You can also set sounds, timings and speed for the effect.
Apply a theme
Slide design offers a range of ready-to-use designs and background images. To create your own custom designs click on View > Master > Slide Master. This master slide is the basis for all others in the presentation. Editing this will change the appearance on all slides.
Use speaker notes
For your reference add speaker notes below the slide in Normal view. Print them out by going to File > Print > Print What > Notes Pages.
Insert a background score
Want your presentation to have a background score from an audio CD? Go to Insert > Sound > Play CD Audio Track. Select Hide Sound > OK. When PowerPoint asks you whether you want the music to start automatically or when clicked, choose “Automatically”.
Add videos
Go to Insert > Movies > Movie from file. Select your video file and then choose the option of having it start automatically or at a mouse click. The opening frame of the video will appear on the slide. Select the video and re-position, enlarge or reduce it.
Create scrolling credits
Movie-style credits look cool at the end of a presentation. Select your credit text and click on Animation > Custom Animation. In the pane on the right, go to Add Effect > Entrance > Fly In. Select “Very Slow” in the Speed field. The effect now appears in the pane as well. Right-click on it and select Effect Options. Under Text Animation select “Group Text: As One” object. Use the Play button at the bottom to preview your animation.
Create Custom Shows
Many slides in a presentation but don't need all of them for a particular audience? Go to Slide Show tab > Custom Slide Show > Custom Shows > New. From the pane on the left, select the slides you want and click Add. Use the up and down arrows to re-arrange the slides. To play the new show, click on the Custom Slide Show drop-down and select the custom show you just created.
Create automatic slideshows
PowerPoint presentations can be saved so that they open as full-screen slideshows rather than as documents to be edited. Go to File > Save As and change file type to PowerPoint show.
Change resolutions
Long presentations with high-resolution images pose a problem on slower PCs. To change them to manageable levels click on Slide Show > Monitors > Resolution and select a suitable resolution.
Save presentation in 97-2003 format
Files are saved in the new .pptx format, so there are bound to be problems opening them in previous versions of PowerPoint. To solve this, go to the Office Button > PowerPoint Options > Save (in the left pane). Click on the drop-down menu for “Save files in this format” and choose “PowerPoint Presentation 97-2003”.