Microsoft® PowerPoint 2007: Advanced

Welcome to advanced PowerPoint 2007!

Microsoft® PowerPoint 2007 offers a variety of improvements and new features that make building professional presentations easier than ever before. Understanding the more advanced features of PowerPoint 2007 will help you dazzle your audiences and make your points effectively during any presentation.

In this course, you'll learn how to use and apply features like slide masters, transitions, animations, and narration to create striking presentations. In addition, adding sounds and video to PowerPoint presentations takes just a few clicks, as you'll find out. You'll also explore Presenter view, a key new feature that helps you greatly improve live presentations.

This online training course is one in a series of free PowerPoint tutorials. The courses are designed to help you learn PowerPoint 2007 -- from the basics through advanced levels. To do well in this advanced course, you should be familiar with the PowerPoint 2007 interface, menus, commands, and navigation system.

What you'll learn

Here's what you can expect in this course:

  • Lesson 1 explores the use of PowerPoint masters, which let you quickly add or change design elements and formatting within presentations.
  • Lesson 2 shows you how to add animation to a presentation and customize your own animated elements. In addition, you'll find out how various slide transitions provide for a smooth and effective presentation.
  • Lesson 3 teaches you how to set slide timing and add narration to a slide show, among other PowerPoint tips, and use Presenter view to enhance live presentations.
  • Lesson 4 walks you through the process of adapting a presentation for specific audiences. You'll also learn how to use hyperlinks to organize customized content within a general presentation.

This course contains downloadable files. For best results, save these files by right-clicking the hyperlink and selecting Save Target As... (Internet Explorer) or Save Link As... (Firefox).

Beyond the lessons, be sure to complete the assignments and quizzes. They're designed to reinforce important concepts in each lesson and help you get the most out of this course.

Throughout this course, we provide Flash examples. To view these examples, you need the Adobe Flash Player. Keep an eye out for notes with links that say "See how to ____" or something similar. Some of these files are very large (10 MB or so) and may take a while to appear or download if you have a slow connection.

Let's get started with the topics in Lesson 1.

Working with slide masters

This course is designed for users running PowerPoint 2007. Having it open as you take this course will enable you to immediately try features and tools on your own. If you don't have the software yet, just read through each lesson and pay close attention to the demos, which show you how some of the features work.

This course doesn't lend itself well to using a previous version of PowerPoint, such as Microsoft® PowerPoint 2003. Although you can accomplish many of the same tasks, the steps you take while working in one program versus the other can vary greatly. In addition, this course was designed for PowerPoint 2007 running in Microsoft® Windows Vista®.

To open PowerPoint 2007 in Windows Vista, select Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007.

Understanding slide masters

In this lesson, you'll learn about different types of "masters" available in PowerPoint 2007. This term is used to specify primary slides or other items within PowerPoint that control how you view information within the presentation. A slide master is a single, controlling slide behind the scenes that specifies how slides appear all the way through your presentation. When you make changes to a slide master, they're applied universally to the presentation.

A slide master is part of a template -- it stores information by using placeholders. Every slide master is saved as a template file (*.potx) so that it can be easily reused. You can use multiple slide masters within a presentation or just use a single slide master that contains multiple layouts. Using multiple slide masters within a single presentation lets you create different sections of a presentation with special aspects, such as new text styles or background themes.

Here's an example of how a slide master works: If you want to use a specific footer style on all your slides, you can apply that footer style to a slide master instead of changing the footer style on individual slides in your presentation. A second example? Let's say you want to have the date appear on every slide in your presentation. Rather than adding it individually, you can add it once to the slide master. Then, every time a new slide is added to the presentation, the date will automatically appear. You don't need to remember to add it; PowerPoint adds it for you exactly as you specify in the slide master.

Briefly, let's take a look at a slide master so you get the idea of what they look like and where to find them. Follow these steps in the blank presentation you have open:

  1. In a new, blank document, click the View tab.
  2. Click Slide Master in the Presentation Views group.

You should see something similar to the items shown in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1: Slide Master view in a default presentation.

The left pane -- called the thumbnail pane -- shows you all the layouts within the single default slide master provided by PowerPoint 2007. As you click on a slide in that pane, it appears in the right pane so you can work easily within it.

It's very easy to add new slide masters to a presentation -- when you're in Slide Master view, just click Insert Slide Master in the Edit Master group. A new slide master in the default style is added to the thumbnail pane; you can customize it any way you want.

Next, let's explore slide master layouts and how placeholders work within them.

Understanding slide master layouts

Slide master layouts (designs) use placeholders to position information for immediate use every time a slide is used. Placeholders are the boxes with dotted borders that you see on all slide layouts. A text box without text, for instance, is a placeholder. You can also add placeholders for SmartArt graphics, charts, tables, pictures, video clips, and sound files.

Layouts are the actual master slide; placeholders help users identify where specific information should go.

A standard slide master layout is a basically blank slide that holds a few simple placeholders: header, date, footer, and page number. For example, if you wanted to add the date to every slide as mentioned earlier, you would actually add a placeholder with specific date formatting to the slide master. Take a look at Figure 1-2 to see how the date placeholder appears in the default slide master.

Figure 1-2: Date placeholder.

To make designing a presentation easier for you, PowerPoint 2007 provides you with a variety built-in layouts every time you open Slide Master view, but you can also customize your own. All layouts can include any or all of the following elements:

  • Headers and footers
  • Body placeholder, which can be a text box, chart, picture or graph.
  • Placeholder formatting, such as numbered lists or bullets
  • Background objects
  • Background fill (color or picture)
  • Title placeholder
  • Subtitle placeholder

All these options make it simple to create a new slide master based on your specific needs. In the next section, you'll find out how to add layouts and placeholders to a slide master.

Adding layouts and placeholders

It's a good idea to create all the slide masters you need before you start entering content into your presentation, because every slide is based on the master group. To add a new slide master layout to a presentation, just click Insert Layout in the Edit Master group on the Slide Master tab. The slide shown in Figure 1-3 appears on the screen.

Figure 1-3: Standard slide master layout.

To remove an unwanted slide from the master layout, right-click the slide in the thumbnail pane, and then select Delete Layout from the shortcut menu. Repeat this step for each slide you want to remove from the master layout.

Adding a placeholder

To add a placeholder to a slide master layout, follow these steps:

  1. Click the View tab.
  2. Click Slide Master in the Presentation Views group.
  3. Click the Slide Master tab.
  4. Click Insert Placeholder in the Master Layout group.
  5. Select a new placeholder from the menu shown in Figure 1-4.

Figure 1-4: Insert placeholder menu.

  1. Shift-click anywhere on the slide, and then drag your cursor to draw the placeholder.

You can repeat this process multiple times on any given slide.

See how to create a new slide master. (1 MB file)

Saving the slide master

As you add layouts and placeholders, remember that you're now creating a new slide master for your presentation. To make it easy to reuse this new slide master in future presentations, save the slide master by following these steps while still in Slide Master view:

  1. Click the Microsoft Office Button.
  2. Click Save As.
  3. Type a file name that'll help you identify the slide master layout.
  4. Select PowerPoint Template in the Save as type list.

Don't change the default location from Templates.

  1. Click Save.
  2. On the Slide Master tab, click Close Master View in the Close group.

Your new template is saved as a .potx file -- the default PowerPoint 2007 template file format.

Do you want to add a special background to some slides and not others? Click the layout in Slide Master view that needs the special background, and then click Background Styles in the Background group on the Slide Master tab. Select the option you want, or create your own by clicking Format Background.

Using slide masters

To access slide masters -- prebuilt and customized -- click the Home tab and then click New Slide in the Slides group.

Depending on how many slide masters you created, you'll see a gallery similar to what's shown in Figure 1-5. Just select the type of slide you want to use and enter the content.

Figure 1-5: New slide gallery.

Next, you'll explore the use of handout masters.

Using a handout master

Audiences can sometimes more easily follow a presentation when they have printed handouts showing the slides in your presentation. These handouts let audiences make notes about your presentation and easily reference the slides at the same time.

When you print handouts, you can print just the slides or provide space for notes as well. Using a PowerPoint handout master can let you make a variety of changes to these handouts.

Information in a handout master appears in the printed outline for the presentation as well.

Let's open a handout master now so you can see what it looks like. To open it, follow these steps:

  1. Click the View tab in a blank presentation.
  2. Click Handout Master in the Presentation Views group.

You should see a handout master that looks similar to Figure 1-6.

Figure 1-6: Handout master.

You can make only simple changes to a handout master: move, resize, or format headers or footers; set page orientation; and specify the number of slides to print per page.

In Figure 1-6, six slides are shown on the page. To change the number of slides shown, click Slides Per Page in the Page Setup group on the Handout Master tab, and then select the number you prefer.

If you want your audience to be able to take notes easily, select three slides per page.

Modifying handout master placeholders

PowerPoint 2007 includes four placeholders in the handout master by default: header, footer, page number, and date. You can quickly change these if you like. You can also add new placeholders the same way you would add them to a slide master.

The header is located in the upper-left corner, whereas the footer is in the lower-left corner. You can change these locations by clicking and dragging the placeholder with the four-arrow handle. If you don't want to use these placeholders, remove the check mark next to Header or Footer in the Placeholders group.

The page number placeholder is in the lower-right portion of the handout master. You can move it to another location in the same way you would move a header or footer. To remove it, remove the check mark next to Page Number in the Placeholders group.

The date placeholder is in the upper-right corner of the handout master. If you don't like that location, just move it to another spot in the same way you would move a header or footer. To remove it, uncheck the check mark next to Date in the Placeholders group.

To use a different format for the date, or include the time along with the date, follow these steps:

  1. Click the date on the handout master.
  2. Click the Insert tab.
  3. Click Date & Time in the Text group.
  4. In the Date and Time dialog box, select the new format you want to use.
  5. Check the Update automatically checkbox to use that feature, as shown in Figure 1-7.

Figure 1-7: Date and Time dialog box.

  1. Click OK.

When you're finished working with the handout master, click Close Master View in the Close group on the Handout Master tab. In the next section, you'll take a look how you can work with notes masters to make your speaker notes easy to reference during a presentation.

Using a notes master

When you give a presentation, it's often helpful to have notes in the Notes pane of a slide. Sometimes, however, it might be necessary to make formatting changes to your Notes pages so you can more easily remember specific information. To do that, you'll need to modify the Notes Naster. This is the master view of the Notes page, which shows you a miniature picture of the slide at the top of the page and all your notes at the bottom.

You can change font style, font colors, fill color, and other items in the Notes Master.

To open the Notes Master, follow these steps:

  1. Click the View tab.
  2. Click Notes Master in the Presentation Views group. In a blank presentation, the Notes Master looks similar to Figure 1-8.

Figure 1-8: Notes Master.

You can't make changes to the slide itself in either the Notes page or Notes Master views. You need to return to the original slide to make any edits to the slide.

You can make changes in the text box on the page, which is located in the lower half of the page. To change aspects of the presentation theme, use the options in the Edit Theme group on the Notes Master tab. To change other aspects, such as bullets, alignments, font size, and so on, use the tools in the Font and Paragraph groups of the Home tab or in the Mini toolbar.

One way to help you easily remember notes is to add logos or other art to your notes master. To do that, follow these steps while in Notes Master view:

  1. Click the Insert tab.
  2. Click Picture or Clip Art.
  3. Locate and select the artwork you want to add.
  4. Position it where you want it in the notes.

Changes made to Notes pages won't appear onscreen in Normal view; you need to print the Notes pages to see them.

To see the changes you've made to the notes master, click the View tab, and then click Notes Page in the Presentation Views group. When you're ready to return to your slide, just click Normal in the Presentation Views group.

Moving on

In this lesson, you learned how to work with master slides in PowerPoint 2007.

Working with masters in Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 assignment

Create a slide master

For this assignment, you'll create a slide master. Follow these steps:

  1. Open Microsoft PowerPoint 2007.
  2. In a blank presentation, click the View tab.
  3. Click Slide Master in the Presentation Views group.
  4. Click between two slide thumbnails in the thumbnail pane.
  5. On the Slide Master tab, click Insert Layout in the Edit Master group.
  6. Click the Insert tab, and then click WordArt in the Text group.
  7. Insert a WordArt style of your choice.
  8. Click "Your Text Here" in the text box, and then type My Slide Master.
  9. Click the Slide Master tab, and then click Background Styles in the Background group.
  10. Select Style 11.
  11. Click Colors in the Edit Theme group, and then select the Solstice theme.
  12. Click the Microsoft Office Button.
  13. Click Save As.
  14. Type the file name My New Slide Master.
  15. Select PowerPoint Template in the Save as type list, and then click Save.

Don't change the default location from Templates.

  1. On the Slide Master tab, click Close Master View in the Close group.
  2. On the Home tab open the New Slide drop-down list in the Slides group.
  3. Select your new slide master.
  4. Click the View tab, and then click Slide Master in the Presentation Views group.
  5. Click Rename in the Edit Master group.
  6. Type the name My Sample Slide Master, and then click Rename.
  7. Click Close Master View in the Close group.
  8. On the Home tab open the New Slide drop-down list in the Slides group.
  9. Verify that your Slide Master has been renamed.
  10. Save and close your presentation, and then close PowerPoint 2007.

Adding animations, sound, and video to your presentation

Welcome back. In Lesson 1, you learned how to create, edit, save, and use master slides in Microsoft PowerPoint 2007. In this lesson, you'll work with animation and transitions.