PowerPoint 2007 gives you the ability to produce professional-quality presentations. It is very easy to get an initial presentation up and running that includes transitions, music, or sounds. The basic options are on the top of the screen, with a host of more advanced options just a few clicks away. The software has new toolbars that are fairly intuitive and straightforward to use. These toolbars take the form of ribbons. [Ribbon Toolbar.jpg]
Depending on what type of object you are designing, you will see different ribbons at the top of the screen. Hover your mouse over a command on any of the toolbars and a brief explanation of that command will appear. [Brief Explanation.jpg]
Different ribbons display depending on the object you are working on. For instance, if you insert a picture and need to crop it, realign it, or change its shape, when you click the picture to modify it, you will see the Picture Ribbon appear at the top of the screen. [Picture Ribbon.jpg]
You can hover over the design options for a particular item-–a different font size or font color, a transition, a theme, and so on--and the effect will be displayed as you move over each option. You do not need to click it, see it, and then go back and change it if you don’t like it. [Font Change.jpg]
One minor annoyance here: when the object you are changing is in a certain place on the screen, the drop-down menu to Selectfrom will sometimes totally cover that object. However, a nice feature to mention is that when text is highlighted, a pop-up menu appears with options to change things such as font size, color, or alignment. This means that you don’t always have to go to the toolbar commands to make routine changes. [Pop up Box.jpg]
SmartArt graphics allow you to add some visually pleasing and fun aspects to your presentation. There are shadowing, reflecting, and 3D effects, to name just a few. SmartArt graphics add impact and enhance the professional look of your slides. These effects are simple to add and because of the instant effect of seeing them as you hover over a selection, it is fun to experiment. [Reflecting.jpg]
PowerPoint 2007 has made it easy to design and produce effective charts and graphs with minimal effort. You select the type of chart you want, and then the screen splits into two--one half being the design and the other half the chart data, along with any default headings (which can be overtyped). This second half is an Excel spreadsheet within PowerPoint. [Chart Design.jpg]
You can choose from a variety of different types of charts. Among them are pie charts, scatter charts, line charts, and bubble charts [Select Chart.jpg]
It’s also easy to change the overall coloring of the chart, or individual elements of the chart. For instance, each piece of a pie chart can be colored as you wish. [Chart Coloring.jpg]
Selecting transitions between slides has also been improved in this release. The transitions are presented not as a list of names, but are shown pictorially, making it much clearer to see what a transition does. [Transition Selection.jpg]
Adding music to your presentation is a simple task. You go to the Insert ribbon, select Sound, and from there you can browse for a music track. [Select Music.jpg]
You can also select different ways to play your music track. There is a rehearsal mode for your presentation so that you can see how it flows, and how long you want to stay on each slide. Once you're satisfied with timings, you can then use those rehearsed timings [Rehearsal Mode.jpg]
There is so much that you can do with PowerPoint 2007 that it can take a long time to learn all it has to offer. The professional effects that you can achieve seem endless. You have to dedicate some time to learn all of the product's intricacies. The more time you are willing to spend, the more you will find it can do--the possibilities seem infinite. It’s easy to imagine always wanting to change just one more thing, whether it’s to alter the angle of an item just slightly, mix in different colors, outline an object with more depth, or even simply change the font and font size. Once you discover how to navigate your way through the ribbons, it gets easier to find all that PowerPoint 2007 has to offer.
