Launch PowerPoint by either clicking on the icon on your desktop or by going to Start, Programs, Microsoft Office and PowerPoint 2007.

The Different Views of PowerPoint
The Normal view of PowerPoint allows the user to see the screen in three sections. The slide being worked on displays in the centre of the screen, all of the slides are shown vertically in the left column and there is a notes section at the bottom.

Notes will not show when the presentation is running as a slideshow, but can be printed out separately by selecting Notes Pages under the Print What section of the Print menu.

Click on one of the three icons in the lower bottom right of the screen to show the slides in the Slide Sorter view or as a Slideshow.

Another way to change the view is to go to the View Ribbon.

Saving a presentation
It is always important to save a presentation (like any other document) as soon as you begin working on it. It is equally as important to save regularly through the document’s production to avoid any data loss.

To save a presentation click on the Office button and select Save As, to avoid any incompatibility issues, click on the save type of PowerPoint 97-2003 Presentation. The save as box will appear, choose an appropriate name and press OK.

PowerPoint Ribbons
The first Ribbon is called “Home” and this is where the most frequently used icons such as Font styles, shapes, alignment settings, New Slide, copy, cut and paste are stored. Copies of these most frequently used icons can also be found on other Ribbons to match their category.

Inserting Text and Images
Each item, whether it be an object, picture, table or text will be inserted and placed onto a slide, rather than being embedded like text in Microsoft Word.

To add text as user would need to insert a textbox by clicking the Insert Ribbon and selecting Textbox.

Along with the Textbox icon, the Insert Ribbon displays icons that insert pictures, flowcharts, charts and shapes.

Images (much like textboxes) and objects are placed onto the slide so they can be moved and resized easily.

As with shapes, when highlighted, images will be surrounded by toggle buttons (which include a green rotate button). The toggle buttons will resize the image whilst the green rotate button rotates the image.

There are two ways to insert images and objects into a PowerPoint presentation:

1. Copying and Pasting from another document; or
2. Click on the appropriate button on the Insert ribbon (i.e. Picture, clipart etc) which will then open up others boxes to enable you to browse through your folders for the desired image.

Please note that you can always search for images on Microsoft Online.

Aligning Objects and Images
If you have several objects or images on your slide and wish to align them without using the toggle buttons, select them all by clicking on each one and holding down the Ctrl key until they are all highlighted.

The Drawing Tools ribbon should appear at the top of the window. Click on this and click the Align command on the Arrange group, then select the type of alignment e.g. Align Top.

Rearranging the slides
There are two ways to rearrange slides using the Normal view:

1. Right click on one of the slides shown in the left column, select Copy or Cut. Place the cursor somewhere else in the line of slides, right click and select Paste.
2. Drag and drop the slide(s) from the left column to the desired located.

To run the slides as a slideshow either select one of the first options from the Slide Show Ribbon or press F5 to run the whole presentation.

By Kelly Foxhall