PowerPoint 2007 Opening Screen 

When you first open PowerPoint 2007, your screen should resemble the diagram above.

Areas of the PowerPoint 2007 Screen

Section 1. Each page of the working area of the presentation is called a slide. New presentations open with a Title slide in Normal view ready for editing.

Section 2. This area toggles between Slides view and Outline view. Slides view shows a tiny picture of all the slides in your presentation. Outline view shows the hierarchy of the text in your slides.

Section 3. This part of the new user interface (UI) is known as the Ribbon. The different Ribbons take the place of the toolbars and menus of previous versions in PowerPoint. The Ribbons offer access to all the different features in PowerPoint 2007.

Here is a close-up view of the Home Ribbon

When you first open PowerPoint 2007, your screen should resemble the diagram above.

The PowerPoint 2007 Title Slide

The Title Slide

When you open a new presentation in PowerPoint 2007, the program assumes that you will begin your slide show with a Title slide. Adding a title and subtitle to this slide layout is as easy as clicking in the text boxes provided and typing.

Adding a New Slide in PowerPoint 2007

Two Features on the New Slide Button

The New Slide button is located at the left end of the Home Ribbon. It contains two separate feature buttons. The default slide layout for a new slide is the Title and Content type of slide.

1. If the currently selected slide is a Title slide, or if this will be the second slide added to the presentation, the default slide layout Title and Content type will be added.
   
   Subsequent new slides will be added using the current slide type as a model. For example, if the current slide on screen was created using the Picture with Caption slide layout, the new slide will also be of that type.
   
   
2. The lower button will open the contextual menu showing the nine different slide layouts for you to choose from.

Title and Content Slide Layout

Title and Content Slide Layout for Text

The Title and Content slide layout replaces both the bulleted list and content layout slides in earlier versions of PowerPoint. Now this one slide layout can be used for either of these two features.

When using the bulleted text option, you simply click on the large text box and type your information. Each time you press the Enter key on the keyboard, a new bullet appears for the next line of text.

Note - You can choose to enter bulleted text or a different type of content, but not both on this slide type. However, if you wish to use both features, there is a separate slide type for showing two types of content on a slide. This is the Two Content slide type.

Title and Content Slide Layout for Content

To add content other than text to the Title and Content slide layout, you would click on the appropriate colored icon in the set of six different content types. These choices include -

• table
• chart
• SmartArt
• picture
• clip art
• media clip

PowerPoint 2007 Chart Content

Charts Are Commonly Used in PowerPoint Slides

One of the most commonly used features shown on PowerPoint slides are charts. There are many different chart types available to reflect your particular type of content.

Clicking the Chart icon on any content type of slide in PowerPoint opens the Insert Chart dialog box. Here you will select the best type of chart type to reflect your data. Once you have chosen the chart type, Microsoft Excel 2007 will open as well. A split window will show the chart in one window and the Excel window will show sample data for the chart. Making changes to the data in the Excel window, will reflect those changes in your chart.

Change the Slide Layout in PowerPoint 2007

Nine Different Slide Layouts

Click the Layout button on the Home Ribbon. This will show a contextual menu of the nine different slide layout choices in PowerPoint 2007.

The current slide layout will be highlighted. Hover your mouse over the new slide layout of your choice and that slide type will also be highlighted. When you click the mouse the current slide takes on this new slide layout.

What is the Slides / Outline Pane in PowerPoint 2007?

Two Miniature Views

The Slides/Outline pane is located on the left side of the PowerPoint 2007 screen.

• The default setting is for Slides. This shows thumbnail views of the slides in your presentation.
  
  
• Clicking on the Outline tab, will show a text outline of each slide in your presentation.

Note that each time you add a new slide, a miniature version of that slide appears in the the Slides/Outline Pane on the left side of the screen. Clicking on any of these thumbnails, places that slide on the screen in Normal View for further editing.
The Nine Different Slide Content Layouts in PowerPoint 2007

The Layout Button

Any slide layout can be changed at any time, simply by clicking on the Layout button on the Home Ribbon.

The list of slide layouts are as follows -

1. Title Slide - Used at the start of your presentation, or to divide sections of your presentation.
   
   
2. Title and Content - The default slide layout and the most commonly used slide layout.
   
   
3. Section Header - Use this slide type to separate different sections of the same presentation, rather than use an additional Title slide. It can also be used as an alternate to the Title slide layout.
   
   
4. Two Content - Use this slide layout if you wish to show text in addition to a graphic content type.
   
   
5. Comparison - Similar to the Two Content slide layout, but this slide type also includes a heading text box over each type of content. Use this type of slide layout to -
   • compare two types of the same content type (for example - two different charts)
   • show text in addition to a graphic content type
   
    
6. Title Only - Use this slide layout if you want to place only a title on the page, rather than a title and subtitle. You can then insert other types of objects such as clip art, WordArt, pictures or charts if desired.
   
   
7. Blank - A blank slide layout is often used when a picture or other graphic object that needs no further information, will be inserted to cover the whole slide.
   
   
8. Content with Caption - Content (most often a graphic object such as a chart or picture) will be placed on the right side of the slide. The left side allows for a title and text to describe the object.
   
   
9. Picture with Caption - The upper part of the slide is used to place a picture. Under the slide you can add a title and descriptive text if desired.

Move Text Boxes - Changing the Slide Layout

It is important to remember that you are not limited to the layout of a slide as it first appears in PowerPoint 2007. You may add, move or remove text boxes or other objects at any time on any slide.

The short animated clip above shows how to move and resize text boxes on your slide.

If there is no slide layout to suit your specific needs, you can create it yourself by adding text boxes or other objects as your data dictates.