Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office system. Microsoft PowerPoint runs on Microsoft Windows and the Mac OS computer operating systems.

It is widely used by business people, educators, students, and trainers and is among the most prevalent forms of persuasion technology. Beginning with Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft revised branding to emphasize PowerPoint's identity as a component within the office suite. Microsoft began calling it Microsoft Office PowerPoint instead of merely Microsoft PowerPoint. The current version is Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007. As a part of the Microsoft Office suite, PowerPoint has become the world's most widely used presentation program.

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 Quick Tips

These Quick Tips will summarize the tricks we've learned to use PowerPoint 2007 more effectively.

Developing templates for both 2007 and 2003 users?

The PowerPoint 2007 "Slide Master plus Multiple Layouts" model gives us the ability to add our own custom layouts, which is fantastic.

Unfortunately, our older PPT versions don't automagically inherit the new features. They don't understand layouts, other than the supplied and uneditable AutoLayouts, and never will. (Go ahead, MS ... make a liar of me. I'll be delighted!).

So? So if you're creating templates that'll be used in both 2007 and earlier versions, our best advice is to create them in 2003 then save a separate version and modify that in 2007. PowerPoint 2007 users should use your 2007 templates, 2003 and earlier users should use the earlier versions. Moving presentations and templates back and forth between versions is a recipe for trouble. Avoid it.

Nudge Charts

You can nudge most PowerPoint shapes using the arrow keys, but not charts. If you select a chart and press the arrow keys, it selects different sub-shapes within the chart rather than moving the chart.

Instead, press the Ctrl key, then select the chart. Instead of the usual chart selection frame, you'll see little circles at each corner of the chart, and you'll be able to nudge the chart with the arrow keys or use Ctrl+ArrowKey to nudge in 1 pixel increments.

Nudge Smart Art

To select an entire SmartArt diagram (so you can nudge or otherwise work with it) rather than one of its component shapes, click anywhere in the SmartArt diagram then press ESC.

Guides, where are my Guides???

To display the guides:

• Press Alt+F9.
• Click Home | Arrange | Align | Grid Settings (or similar sequence on the Drawing Tools Format tab).
• Right-click off the slide, choose Grids and Guides from the popup menu, then put a check next to "Display drawing guides on screen.

Add Slide Numbers to PowerPoint Slides